Is your school getting the money it needs?

I live in a large city, and about fifteen years ago the public schools were taken over by a federal Judge because they were failing to teach.

The judge concluded that the inner city schools were academically inferior to the suburban schools because of funding.

He said that the inner-city schools were old, the books
dilapidated and the teachers underpaid and perhaps unqualified.

So the judge set out to make things right, he doubled the property taxes and raised
a few billion dollars to finance a new public school system for the city. Many of the old schools were torn down, some were remodeled and expanded, but most were built new.

The judge spared no expense, and built fantastic schools for the disadvantaged.
He ordered the school board to hire the best teachers money could buy, and
recruited not locally but nationally and internationally for the best
talent.

Each school along with its regular curriculum had a special theme,
whether it was computer science, foreign languages, band, mathematics,
and the arts.

All subject matter was covered by one of the schools and taught
by instructors who were masters at their profession.

Ten years and billions of dollars later the city is stuck with a glamorous
school system that consistently puts out uneducated students year after
year, until last year the state was forced to take away the
schools accreditation.

All the money in the world and the best-paid teacher's has proven [not] to be the solution.

The lack of parent involvement is probably a factor, but you can�t raise taxes for that.


[Edited on 31-8-2004 by sleeper]