As I always says, when a news story begins “Study finds…” watch out! Case in point: Today’s Boston Herald has a story headlined, “Study finds fed education cuts most likely to affect poor kids.” Dig deeper and you’ll find that’s not quite the case.
What are these federal education cuts? The White House is proposing a re-apportionment of Title I funding to the states based on the latest census figures.
The reason, state education officials said, is because grants are based not on the number of students receiving free or reduced-cost lunch (the figure Massachusetts goes by), but on federal low-income census numbers, which are down, most likely because the high cost of housing has forced many families to leave, said Barbara Solomon, the state’s Title I director.
Hold on a tic. The amount of money to help low-income kids is being reduced because there are fewer low-income kids in the state? Who exactly is really being hurt here, the kids or the liberal educational establishment?
And if they want to save some money to use to help the poor kids, maybe they can use all the money they’re throwing away on new schools. In the 10 years I’ve lived in Salem, they’ve built at least a half-dozen new schools and are spending millions on a major renovation of the high school. And this is in a city were the number of students isn’t growing that much.
“The practical effect is fewer services to poor children - less money for remedial programs, for after-school programs, for tutoring,” said Jack Jennings, the center’s president. “I’m concerned - very concerned - because the extra support those students get can make all the difference,” Solomon said. “Yet the vast majority of districts lost money.”
Or they could be more effective in the classroom in the first place. Perhaps spending so much time on politically correct lessons. Just a thought.
