Zuckerberg's $100 Million Education Gift Solved Little

An anonymous reader writes "In 2010 the state of public education in Newark, New Jersey was dire. The city's school system was a disaster, replete with violence, run-down buildings, and a high-school graduation rate of only 54%. Newark's mayor at the time, Cory Booker, teamed up with governor Chris Christie to turn the schools around. At the same time, Mark Zuckerberg was looking to get his feet wet in big-time philanthropy. The three hatched a plan, and Zuckerberg committed $100 million to reforming the schools. Four years later, most of the money is gone, and Newark's children are still struggling. Tens of millions were spent on consulting groups, and yet more went to union negotiations. Plans to change how teacher seniority affected staffing decisions — in order to reward results rather than persistence — were dashed by political maneuvering. The New Yorker provides a detailed account in a lengthy piece of investigative journalism, and MSN provides a summary."

Comments

Re:rich people go back to paying taxes?

[geekoid]

So you just repeat what the media tells you? well done.

in 1969, the average spending was $4,221 per student, per year.
the $27,176.91 in today's dollars. We spend about 40% of that.

Spending on kids has gone down.

Why? becasue the tax decrease since then. Look at all the data, the only reason not to go back to 1968 tax rates(adj. for inflation) is pure and simple greed for the top 1%.

Re:Technically

[plopez]

When I went to school we had shop as well as math, art as well as science, and PE as well as literature. Boondoggles such as "No Child Left Behind" changed that.

Re:The dollar isn't worth as much as it used to be

[russotto]

Which if any of the graphs on that ed.gov page are adjusted for inflation?

The ones which say "Constant Dollars".

The Newark School District gets more money per pupil than the suburban school districts surrounding it. And its outcomes are far worse. It's not the money.

Re:Dear Mark

[Nethemas the Great]

Dear Geekoid, Do you really think Mark didn't have that sort of thing in mind? That he didn't pay the consultants to come up with such things? I'm afraid teachers are a large part of the problem. Their unions consistently thwart attempts to address teacher performance or rather the lack thereof. Do a search on the various attempts to deal with bad teachers and you will find attempts that have nearly all failed by the hands of the teacher's unions.

Re:Dear Mark

[MightyYar]

No, I'm not wrong. Total funding has gone up, up, up for US schools. Measure it in constant dollars, % of GDP, any way you like. Compare us to other countries, and there are perhaps two who beat us per-pupil. We spend enough money - the solution lies elsewhere.

And while schools still are highly dependent on local funding, that too has been changing steadily to the point where it is no longer the largest source.