January 24, 2009
Again, the Lancaster Newspapers are highlighting another educational problem in Our Faire County. It seems that are substantial portion of the students graduating from public school in
Lancaster
County
who need remedial classes before they can attend public colleges in
Pennsylvania
. The article was pretty sobering. The price tag for this sort of remediation is astronomical—particularly when one considers how much money has been invested in the education already. Many schools in
Lancaster
County
spend more than 10k per pupil. Thus, we spend between 130k and 200k over the 13 year academic career of the typical student and we do not have them prepared for the entry level of public universities. Read that last sentence again. Thus, we spend between 130k and 200k over the 13 year academic career of the typical student and we do not have them prepared for the entry level of public universities. Answers were given, but . . . .
they were so flawed that I found them even more troubling. Some pointed out that these numbers do not take the “best students” into account who are going to private colleges or colleges outside of PA. (This seemed like a real slap at public universities and
Pennsylvania
universities, but I will let this slide for now.) No one mentioned, however, that the students who are not going on to college were not taken into account as well. One should easily assume that they are less well educated than those going on to college. I would guess that they are more numerous than those “top students” going to private schools or schools outside of
Pennsylvania
. The story ends with an admission that we are basically lost in a dark woods. Here is the article:
http://articles.lancasteronline.com/local/4/233006
My point in bringing this up is not to slam the public schools. Their problems represent the problems of our culture in general, and some of these problems, no doubt, contribute to these shocking numbers. My point is this: If a school is not preparing most of its students for entry level work in college, something is wrong. If a culture spends this much money and achieves these results questions need to be asked—hard questions. If it is happening here in
Lancaster
County
, what is happening in
Baltimore
,
Philadelphia
or
Harrisburg
? If that does not scare you I am not sure what will. The slow train is coming. Cultures do not exist long spending money like this.