Do you mean “Democrats?”
Literacy?

They don’t have to. The Democratic Party does it for them. And for the rest of us.

You mean that they will vote for the person that promises them the most handouts.

Mike, you said it. It’s a cultural issue. Sad facts are that for a lot of Detroiters, education is not important. Otherwise, there would not be a 47% illiteracy rate.

When is the last time you met a gang member with an advanced degree?

This is why I think you should have to pass basic high school civics to vote. If you can’t read, you should not participate in the system, because you cannot make an informed decision, and will vote the way someone tells you to vote.

Subsidized failure begets MORE failure. Drastically cut benefits to dropouts and watch America rise from the ashes. NO mo free money.

right. because the republicans who want to cut out education spending from the budget will change that. You morons are what is part of the problem.

mp – looks like we could have cut 47% of education funding years ago, saved a ton of money, and arrived at the same result. Who can possibly support the monopoly of public education given these results?

alot of good that funding did for Detroit huh? Take the blinders off please money will not fix the problem, a proper upbringing might, and no handouts will for sure.

MP – Detroit public school teachers currently earn an average of $71,000 a year. Just how much do YOU think it should take for the teachers to be able to teach basic concepts like reading?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Public_Schools#Finances is my source btw.

My sister is a public school teacher, barely earns half of that, and about 85% of her class has a literacy rate at or above grade level(and all of her students except the mentally disabled are able to at least -read-). The issue is not money, it is cultural. You can’t just throw money at an issue and expect it to be fixed.

Exactly Dee. The liberal Democrats have destroyed Detroit, the residents and are working on the country. Vote conservative Republican, I will.

There is not one Republican within 50 miles of Detroit.

Detroit is a model Democrat town!

Easy fix – hold them responsible for their own lot in life. Slash benefits and make them accountable for their ignorance. It’s amazing that the poorest Africans can come here and be successful – because they have a work ethic. True African immigrants despise the lazy American blacks, and race past them up the socio-economic ladder.

It’s about education and responsibility. The more the Democrats deflect responsibility and protect the unions, the longer and deeper this problem will become.

*ignorant*

*diversity*

Hey Snake, what’s a “computor”

computor…dey?! oy, Maury?! GET A JOB!

I guess that’s because those librarians are part of the 47%..

Closing their libraries? Would that be before or after blowing $2.3mill on designer chairs and garbage cans at over a grand each?

You have to be able to read before a library becomes useful!

The libraries need a section devoted to EBONICS to bring the youth back to the libraries .

Our welfare dollars at work.Why do they have to be able to read or write. They receive welfare checks,”public ” housing,food stamps,free medical all paid for by the literate taxpayer.

We have created a a sub culture that grows from generation to generation.

What will happen when these takers exceed the givers and there are cut backs to these enabling funds? Rioting in the streets and looting.

Please.
These ARE the facts. Detroit is a structureless, failing social cesspool. To throw statistical questions into the mix is an attempt to blur an otherwise sharp picture.
And yes, after college, four years of medical school and six years of postgraduate training and research, I have a ‘basic understanding of statistics’.

The study came from walking down ANY street in Detroit, genius!

You don’t need to see the statistical sources. This can be verified empirically.

They need to keep the population stupid and dependent so they can keep getting reelected.

Look at the states run by conservatives – Alabama, Mississippi, The south in general. For every buck this new yorker pays in taxes, my state gets 75 cents back from the feds. Mississippi and Alabama get 2.00 back, because they are so behind they have to be propped up by liberal welfare. You want fiscal responsibility? Make the south pay their fair share and stop suckling off NY and Cali.

Mississippi is 37 percent black, the highest percentage in the country. Alabama is 26 percent black. Louisiana, Georgia and South Carolina are all approximately 30 percent black. It should be no mystery why these states have the worst statewide educational and health statistics. By contrast, Northern states like Minnesota and Vermont have the best. Wanna guess why?

You summed up the whole problem. Help is available for those who need it and seek it. The black community made great strides and then took a u-turn. Hip-hop & rap ‘music’ often puts out a self-defeating message that ho-chasing, pimpin’, drug-dealing is acceptable behavior. It is an anti-social message and Detroit today shows the result of such stupidity.

You Misspelled Cryptonite.
Its Kryptonite.

Your’re professional cynics. Look at the bright side, 53% are literate. I mean, that’s not to bad is it? IS IT?

Send these kids to the private schools and see how long they last. They don’t want fools who get pregnant in gym class and snort their coke in the cafeteria while others are reading the Playboy pictures in study halls. The privates are much smarter than that! They only take the kids who are serious about education.

It’s hard to motivate people to learn when the government pays them every month to sit on the front porch and smoke… Gotta cut a lot of the welfare before we see motivation to succeed.

“Perhaps we should fire every one of the managers of the public schools,”

*Perhaps*??

If the system is failing them….then why as parents are parents not stepping up and teaching their kids? I taught my kids to read, write, and do basic math. Stop passing the blame.

The one thing most private schools have that many public inner-city schools don’t is parental involvement. Sure, the outcome will be better if the parents is active in the education process, makes sure the kids get to school, does homework, etc. Any teacher or educator can tell you that. Schools can’t make up for poor parenting, nor can tax dollars, nor can money in general. That’s a human thing, not a political thing.

Little bit of a stretch but agree on the Christian church angle in the sense that Libs seem to have very flimsy morales, ethics, and seem to be mostly agnostic.

Excuse me..didn’t you hear about GE (friend of Obama) pay NO taxes? And what about Obama handing over GM to the UAW, cronie-ism is not just a republican affliction.

What does a union have to with people not being able to read???? Seriously.

Teachers Unions, in this case.
Of course, these other have there impacts from a different direction.

Look, they’re Preferred Species. They’re quite capable of doing this to themselves WITHOUT any union help.

“Your comment is awaiting moderation.”

Truth and stats can’t be refuted, so we’ll just go ahead and delete ‘un-PC’ comment.

Doesn’t matter – most people know the truth, but they’re just too afraid to state it.
Apparently you haven’t read some of the other comments below.
So, go ahead, ‘moderate’ away…

While teachers deserve SOME blame. Let’s not let parents off the hook. Educations begins and ends at home. It starts at birth and is SUPPLEMENTED by school from grades K-12 and then continues (whether in college or otherwise) througout our lives.

In Detroit, many people think, “Why are aren’t the schools teaching my kids?” The question should be, what can I do to make sure my child is learning.

No! No! You got it all wrong!

You got it wrong. White people are the problem to everything.

Minorities failing at literacy? White people’s fault!

Crime such as rape, murder, theft? White people’s fault!

Poverty? White peoples fault!

Isn’t life easy? We can blame white people for EVERYTHING.

Let see that we can get this right, some of the highest paid School Districts in the country when it come to Teachers pay. Next some of the highest failure rates for the monies, yet nobody fails. Ok now we get the Government unemployment Service and Training machine involved. More monies for 12 years of failure. Isn’t this beautiful, now you know why this country is broke! I can’t wait for economic collapse and it is closer then all these government parasite want to admit. God will not be able to save Amerika, only suffering and misery will bring this country back to reality. I really don’t give a dam what you’re all think your entitled to. Get a glue Death and Taxes. Countries go broke and fail when there isn’t anything left to steal. Look and study why the Communist nation in Eastern Europe and Asia failed during the 80’s. Nothing left too steal.

Yes….and we all know who the vultures were, that quickly moved in to pick the bones clean.

Or, rather than kill them off, perhaps we could give them vouchers to go to a school of their choice. If given a real choice, who would go to the public schools? By the way, my family lived below the US poverty level and all 7 of us children went to Catholic schools. We paid what we could and the rest was charity.

Hey Bob, nice of you to chime in with the usual nonsensical ranting of the left. It must be great to be a mind reader, nowhere in his post did Andy say the answer was to privatize all education. While not accessible to everyone (What is?) the fact that private schools work better at educating children than public schools is undeniable. Do you honestly think that every child that attends private school is from a wealthy family? Are you that grossly ignorant?

Government schools are largely broken, and it’s not due to lack of funding, if we can’t face that fact we cannot fix them.

So these poor folk have horrible public schools, no access to charter schools, and can’t afford private schools. If they care about their kids education they can home school. I did.

The fact is that bad choices in life cause bad consequences. They always have and always will. No amount of liberal hand wringing, taxation and government spending will help losers.

What you do when you privatize all schools is create a grant system with the billions of dollars the government wastes on a horribly inferior public school system. Those who could not afford it would get vouchers and if a school failed to teach well, the MARKET would close that school down because students would transfer to other schools. Flunk students who deserve to flunk, fire teachers who can’t teach, make people with children pay for their childrens’ schooling, and if you didn’t want to send your children to a private school, you could home school them. If you are prepared to actually BE a parent, it doesn’t take a village. Why should I pay for your kid to be passed through a failing system just to come out illiterate.

Bob, what kind of public schools does Hawaii have that they cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars?” Get off your high horse, I’m a public school product as well so don’t patronize me and my other successful public school graduates.

And by the way, not every conservative is in love with Glenn Beck. Get over yourself, your partisan bs is what is hurting America.

Bob

How did the pioneers achieve success? Did they get subsidized education? Did they work and do everything they could to learn? The idea that a public education system should go beyond basic literacy (remember the 3 ‘R’s readin” fitin’ n rithietic;) .. they were coined to indicate that everyone should be ‘functionally’ literate. The rest come from personal effort, and hard work. Many parents homeschool their kids, and the kids end up getting into Harvard and other excellent universities.. the onus is on the parents, problem is neglect on the part of a generation of entitlement seekers (not unlike yourself) who expect that they should get what they want and need out of a vending machine called ‘government’, or ‘system’ … this starts with the sexual predation which has single men impregnating single girls, then splitting, leaving the girls (who are not mature enough for the job) to raise the kids, so the girls go on welfare, the kids grow up in poverty and the streets, and they become hood rats (sometimes just to survive) and criminals, and they repeat the process, and after a couple of generations, we have what we have now, it’s very sad, but it isn’t the ‘system’ or the ‘government’ who can solve this problem, it’s the individual and the local communities…. back to the churches and the mentoring and parenting that the children need to avoid this cesspool of depravity.

The Angry white liberal strikes again.

Sorry Bob, teaching your child to read has NOTHING to do with money. I was a working poor, single mom; but I read to my children every day and helped them learn to read when I found the public school was failing to teach them. I took the time to give them the educational help they were not getting in the public school, often learning history and math right alongside them. Just because I could not afford a private school, did not mean my children were left behind. Parents need to take responsibility for the training of their children whether they have money for private schools or not. “My kids are dumb because I was poor,” just doesn’t cut it!

Dear Miss SallyR,

What you received was not charity. The funds for your sibling’s and your Catholic education were from intelligent people investing in our country’s future. From your excellent writing ability, I can see that the investment is paying off. The investors would be proud.

Bob, you are violently defending a system that is clearly failing. This one statistic in Detroit is not isolated; it’s repeated in our urban centers throughout the country. Over the past 50 plus years liberal/progressives have made it their full time occupation to destroy all positive institutions in the U.S. They have spent energy, effort and money to ensure children can’t pray in school or that U.S. history is not taught or that standards are systematically lowered. You are reaping what you have sewn. As far as privatizing you would put education contracts out for private bid. The parents would not have to pay because it would come from money already spent on failed government schools. I guarantee a private company can educate a child more efficiently than a union monopolized government system. If we try it what have we got to fear a 50% illiteracy rate?

Sorry, Bob; but it’s most people are not willing to sacrifice their lifestyle enough to send their kids to private school. I am keeping a 15 year old vehicle running, living in a smaller place, and giving up the vacations I used to do to pay for school. Very few truly cannot afford private school, and those often can get assistance from the school.

No one needs to attend any school in order to learn to read. Just ask someone who can read to help you learn. You can find such a person at any library in the country. People like to help.

My sister taught herself to read at age 3 by asking my mother to read to her, following the words with her finger.

Close the public schools, sell the property, give half of the education budget to the parents in the form of debit card vouchers, and refund the balance of the school budget and the proceeds of the sale of school properties to the taxpayer and you will see a revolution in education that would put the industrial revolution to shame.

There are plenty of qualified entrepreneurs who will fill the chasm that is public education with efficient and effective education for less than half what our public institutions are costing us, only to fail us.

Sports can be managed by community centers or private gyms via the same voucher system.

KIPMJf* Are you kidding me? If you gave the money to these parents they would not spend it on their kids. Just look where their welfare money goes; into shiny rims and cars.

Problem with your theory is that the funding is there in both cases. I sent my kids to private school for 1/4 of the cost per student of public schools. Not only did they get an education, but it cost a LOT less money. Unfortunately, I still had to pay for the worthless public schools through my property taxes.

This problem could be fixed by simply running the school system as a private enterprise. We could even subsidize those who “couldn’t afford it” and STILL save billions of dollars. Give parents a choice and see what they will choose.

You became a strong Libertarian after moving to Detroit? Geez, even more proof of the horrible educational system in Detroit. Now people who move there are becoming morons.

I can totally understand where you are coming from. Union people can’t see that they are part of the problem and they never will. I can’t understand how anyone can GRADUATE without being able to read.

@Ray……that excuse is so old it is pathetic. How many years has money been thrown at the public school system and we are even further behind. Obviously you are a progressive that likes to spend everyone’s money on worthless projects. It is a proven fact that private, parochial and charter schools are all way ahead of public schools.

What about the offer of philanthropist Bob Thompson to spend 200 million dollars on the building of charter schools that the fools in Detroit declined?

Ray, you must be kidding. Detroit: awful public schools, welfare dependency, deadbeat parents, rampant drug addiction… sounds like a Democrat stronghold to me. You Americans: so rich that you cannot see how useless it is to throw more money at the problem – it has never worked. A quick review of your 50 states show that a tiny state like Utah(?) spends far less but has much greater scholastic results than NY, CA, IL and the other large states.

My friends and I are amazed at how some of you Americans think so simplistically! As if $ was a solution to this situation! GROW up.

@Esteban……you got it pegged except for one thing – it isn’t ALL Americans, just a certain segment. There are those of us with common sense and we are trying to make an impact and changes. We have been silent too long.

Sure wish there was a “like” button here – so many comments have been made that I like!

That was pre Saddam, then Iraq was a Mecca of thought, prose and intellectual thought. All of that was suppressed by him, the few institutions of higher learning left open merely taught his philosophies and propaganda, open discourse was banned, and few women went on to higher Ed.

Yes, it is the government’s fault. The people who feed off the public have absolutely NO motivation to better themselves. And you don’t like Bush so everything was his fault. The auto unions have just blame as the auto industry as to why there was a collapse there.

Priceless. I havent laughed that hard all year.

+1

LOL. That was an OBVIOUSLY sarcastic statement. It’s NOT what the government says, it’s exactly opposite. The goverment would have stated 40% (down from 47%) instead of 50% (up from 47%)

LC- YOU ARE the PROBLEM

If ignorance is bliss, then Detroit must be Oz.

So wrong! Everyone knows townhouses and condos are the norm. ;-)

Maybe you should look around the country more at crime stats! There are many urban cities pushing Detroit for those titles! Birmingham, Ala, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis or Houston the list goes on and on. Fueled by lack of jobs and failure of their educational systems they are in has big trouble has Detroit is. Don’t think this is an isolated problem that has only happened in the last 2 years!

I live in a poor appalachian town myself. Half the people here are on drugs or selling drugs. Old people are a major source of drugs – they get Medicare funded narcotics and flip them. The murder rate is the highest of any place I’ve lived. There is a lot of illiteracy. People don’t keep gardens any more. Girls are interested in popping pills, getting pregnant, a different guy each year, and getting on state Medicaid and WIC. You can’t hire anyone that will show up and do a days work. But they still all go to church on Sunday.

Um, no. “Dyslexic” does not mean “can’t read.” It is a term to describe someone who has dyslexia, which is defined as “any of various reading disorders associated with impairment of the ability to interpret spatial relationships or to integrate auditory and visual information.” It’s a disorder that makes it more difficult to learn to read, but many, many people with dyslexia can read and achieve great things (e.g. Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Leonardo da VInci, Winston Churchill, Ted Turner, Scott Adams, Fannie Flagg — just to name a few).

Those who cannot recognize sarcasm are doomed to comment upon it.

How about “your” and “you’re”, or immigrate or emigrate?

[I bet they know the difference between “their” and “they’re.”]

Umm…. no. You know the difference. They don’t. They’re illiterate, remember? Or do you not understand the meaning of “illiterate”? I guess it’s possilbe to be able to spell and still be functionally illiterate.

People who mistake “their” and “they’re” can still fill out their own job applications. They just won’t be getting a job as proofreader on an anonymous Internet forum. So I guess you have some job security.

No, you don’t need a job to be in a union. There’s lots of unemployed union people.