ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD DIDN'T HELP – AT 11:25 A.M. ET:   This is what happens when a state adopts liberal orthodoxy and believes that throwing money at a problem is all that's needed.  From The New York Times:

New York State education officials released a new set of graduation statistics on Monday that show less than half of students in the state are leaving high school prepared for college and well-paying careers.

The new statistics, part of a push to realign state standards with college performance, show that only 23 percent of students in New York City graduated ready for college or careers in 2009, not counting special-education students. That is well under half the current graduation rate of 64 percent, a number often promoted by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg as evidence that his education policies are working.

But New York City is still doing better than the state’s other large urban districts. In Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse and Yonkers, less than 17 percent of students met the proposed standards, including just 5 percent in Rochester.

The Board of Regents, which sets the state’s education policies, met on Monday to begin discussing what to do with this data, and will most likely issue a decision in March. One option is to make schools and districts place an asterisk next to the current graduation rate, or have them report both the current graduation rate and the college ready rate, said Merryl H. Tisch, the chancellor of the Board of Regents.

COMMENT:  The New York City school system used to be the envy of cities throughout the nation.  It educated generations of immigrant children.  Well-prepared teachers, many of them Irish (I had Miss Malone and Miss Mayer, among others) taught students of every background.  When you addressed a teacher, you stood up at your desk.  If you damaged a book, you paid for it.  You went to assembly once a week and sang patriotic songs.  We didn't need metal detectors.

New York spends a fortune on education, and gets too little for it.  Of course, part of the problem is political correctness.  Few politicians are brave enough to point out that good schools are built by good families, which in turn are built by good cultures and high standards.  Today we're told we must "respect" other cultures, even those that do immense harm to their own children.  ("Who are we to judge?"  Heard that one?) 

New York's experience is a warning, but one that probably won't be heeded until there is generational change, and the sixties crowd, now in charge of too much, passes from the scene or goes into retirement in a carbon-free forest.

February 9, 2011