By: Ceresta Smith
There is a phenomenon, what I call "bright flight," that is very damaging to our urban community schools. Students who are high academic achievers who live in our communities are forced to seek academic programs outside of the communities in which they live. The result is the lower achieving students on standardarized tests and their schools are left to fall victim to stigmas that can and often do result in school take overs, shut downs, land grabbing, and corporate exploitation. If Title I money from the feds becomes transportable, as many are advocating, our Black and Brown schools will face nothing but negative impact. We must organize to save our schools. Please learn about how to opt out of standardized testing, as "the tests" are the foundation for this take over. Visit www.unitedoptout.com for more information.
And there is the "bright flight" of potential young teachers who don't see teaching as worth the effort because the pay is poor. In the '90's when my sons were graduating from high school, Nintendo and other gaming and tech companies were paying kids right out of high school double what starting teachers were getting after 4 years of college. For playing games! A number of their friends would have made good teachers, but they were diverted because of the quick buck. Can't say that I blame them. One of them created a program which was bought by Amazon for several million dollars. He has a very nice house overlooking Puget Sound.
ReplyDelete