For the last four years I’ve been teaching in what the Post-Dispatch recently called one of Missouri’s “worst-performing schools.” Mike Petrilli from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute was quoted as saying that “if you have schools that are broken forever or are dysfunctional, or are part of a dysfunctional school system, I’m just skeptical that sending a little money is going to bring the kind of change states need.”
I disagree. Anyone can see that public allocations combined with private contributions enable opportunities in certain communities and schools. So let’s set aside the gross inequities in school funding at scale. As a classroom teacher in Normandy, I affirm that money does in fact transform public education in places that Mr. Petrilli calls broken and dysfunctional.
[For more of this story, written by Inda Schaenen, go to http://www.stltoday.com/opinio...f2-3196b0c6b868.html]
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