Life in "Progress" City

From the Motor City of Detroit, who hasn't had a conservative in the city schools since the advent of the slide rule.....

Parents of Detroit public school students railed against city educators after the release of abysmal test scores.

The outcry Saturday from the Detroit Parent Network came after test results showed fourth- and eighth-graders had the worst math scores in the nation and teachers prepared to vote on whether to strike.

Sharlonda Buckman, chief executive officer of the network, called for criminal and civil action against those charged with educating the city's children, The Detroit News reported.

"Somebody needs to pay for this," Buckman told about 500 parents. "Somebody needs to go to jail, and it shouldn't be the kids."

Robert Bobb, the school district's emergency financial manager, who would also like to take over academics, said the low scores could not be blamed on incompetent children or uncaring parents. Rather, he said, the school district has failed to fulfill its duty to the kids and their parents.

"This is an abysmal failure," Bobb said. "It is not the fault of our kids individually, and it is not the fault of our kids collectively. It is not the kids' fault. ... It is a failure of leadership."

More here.....

If that weren't bad enough, the school district needs volunteers to teach children to read despite having one of the largest per pupil expenditures in the country.....

As impassioned parents decried the Detroit Public Schools’ dismal test scores Saturday, the emergency financial manager called on volunteers to spend 100,000 hours teaching students to read.

Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb told the Detroit Parent Network that he'll announce the new initiative on Monday in response to dismal test scores released this week.

"Going forward, we have to create a situation where we create a reading revolution in the city of Detroit, so every child that reaches third grade is reading at or above third grade level," Bobb told about 300 parents gathered for the morning breakfast.

Bob talked to the parents about DPS’ test results on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), in which Detroit schoolchildren ranked the lowest in the nation.

"It’s a day that calls upon all of us to express our outrage and frustration," Bobb said to heavy applause and an audience that included U.S. Representative John Conyers. "And it’s a day we must demand something better for our children."

The parents' group executive director, Sharlonda Buckman, said parents should be irate that their tax support of the school district has had little effect on their children's education.

"They can’t read, they can’t count!" she yelled to a standing ovation. "It’s unacceptable! It would not be acceptable in any other community! We need to get on board with changing this!"

More here....

Out here in Redville we have lots of "volunteers" to help kids read. Except we don't call them "volunteers" we call them "parents".

This is the problem with liberalism. See, before the first public school was ever built, people taught their own children to read. If they were illiterate missionaries would volunteer to teach children to read.

Now we're going back to volunteers and missionaries teaching children excpet we're out billions of dollars in the process.

How is that so damn "progressive"?