Give Each Baltimore Child a $17,329 Voucher

At Issue this week... Baltimore Riots by Terry Jeffrey May 6, 2015 2016 Election Give each Baltimore child a $17,329 voucher Barone (10) Cushman (10) Anti-Trust Law “The education system has failed them.” Public Schools had average NAEP math In total, the Baltimore City Public Schools Sowell (13) That is part of the explanation that Billy and reading scores that were lower than the had about 10,165 teachers and other staff on April 19 Murphy, a lawyer representing the family national public school averages, lower than the payroll in the 2012-2013 school year — Greenberg (20) Baltimore Riots of Freddie Gray — who died after his spine the Maryland averages, and lower than the or about one for every 8.3 students enrolled Jeffrey (1) was severed while in police custody — gave averages for the nation’s large cities. in the schools. Malkin (2) CNN’s Wolf Blitzer for why some young The Baltimore City Public Schools are In the 2010-2011 school year, according to Bipartisanship men in Baltimore rioted on Monday after- not failing for lack of money or personnel. the Department of Education, the Baltimore Barone (4) California Drought noon after Gray’s funeral. In the 2012-2013 school City Public Schools had $1,441,019,000 in Williams (23) “These kids have had bad experiences in revenue — with 62 percent coming from the Carson’s Voting History school,” Murphy said. state government, 19 percent coming from Carson (27) “They are frequently harassed by the Terry the federal government and 19 percent com- Class Warfare Harsanyi (27) police,” he said. “They are unemployed be- Jeffrey ing from local government. cause there’s no summer jobs, and so this is The schools turned around and spent a Limbaugh (14) (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate Clinton, Hillary what you would expect in a tense time like total of $1,452,189,000. Coulter (7) this. That’s not a justification, though, be- Despite this, the kids in the Baltimore Clinton Foundation Charen (18) cause what they’re doing is wrong, and we year, according to the Department of Edu- public schools got a bad deal. They deserve Chavez (8) need to stop them. And those of us who are cation, the city’s schools enrolled 84,747 better. Lambro (16) more mature in Baltimore, black and white students. But they also employed approxi- Give them a choice. Give every parent McCaughey (17) together, we need to have a demonstration mately 5,380 classroom teachers — mean- or guardian of every student eligible to at- Cultural Decline that shows them the right way to do it, rather ing they had a student-to-teacher ratio of tend the Baltimore City Public Schools Murchison (15) Thomas (15) than permitting them to go without leader- 15.75 students per teacher. a voucher worth the same amount those Dear Mark ship, the way that they’re going now.” schools spend per student. Let them redeem Levy (19) He is right. IN ADDITION to the 5,380 classroom it at any school anywhere, public, private or E-Cigarettes teachers, the Baltimore City Public Schools religious. Will (26) Economy AND ONE WAY to start moving things also employed 1,690 “instructional aides,” Lambro (12) back in the right direction is to give ev- 422 “school administrators,” 482 “district IF THAT MEANS churches and other Towery (13) ery parent in Baltimore a voucher worth administrators,” approximately 508 “school private organizations — and groups of par- FBI $17,329 that they can redeem at any school administrative support” personnel, ap- ents — in and around Baltimore begin start- Napolitano (29) Graham, Lindsey — public, private or religious — to which proximately 628 “student support services” ing up their own schools to educate local Will (9) they choose to send their child. personnel, approximately 116 “guidance children according to their own values, then Huckabee, Mike Why $17,329? counselors,” approximately 86 “librarians” that may mean schools that produce better Greenberg (6) Actually, it probably should be a bit more and “media specialists,” 75 “instructional test scores and schools that produce better Immigration Schlafly (6) than that. But, according to the U.S. De- coordinators and supervisors,” and approxi- citizens. Iran Deal partment of Education, $17,329 is the total mately 1,150 workers providing “other sup- Lowry (4) expenditure that the Baltimore City Public port services.” April 29, 2015 Israel Schools made per student in the 2010-2011 Prager (30) school year, the latest year for which the Journalists Farah (22) Department of Education has reported this Leftist Intimidation data. ($17,329 in 2011 dollars, according to Limbaugh (3) the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation cal- Olasky (28) culator, equals about $18,083 in 2015 dol- McCain, John Massie (11) lars.) Media What did parents and taxpayers get in re- Bozell (22, 25) turn for that $17,329 when it was spent by Tyrrell (23) the public schools? Middle East Buchanan (20) Well, judging by National Assessment of Krauthammer (21) Educational Progress tests, most of the stu- Religious Liberty dents did not get a good education. Greenberg (24) In 2013, according to the Department Republicans Buchanan (5) of Education, only 16 percent of the eighth Kudlow (9) graders in the Baltimore City Public Schools Morris (18) scored at or above grade-level proficient in Secret Service the NAEP reading test. That same year, only Charen (28) 13 percent of the eighth graders in the Balti- U.S. Military Greenberg (31) more City Public Schools scored at or above Thomas (30) grade-level proficient in math. Wal-Mart According to the Department of Educa- Erickson (25) tion, eighth graders in the Baltimore City 2 Conservative Chronicle BALTIMORE RIOTS: April 29, 2015 Debunking Obama’s bilious Baltimore babble t’s never enough. American tax- get through Congress includes “school payers have surrendered billions reform,” “job training” and “some in- and billions and billions of dol- vestments in infrastructure” to “attract larsI to the social-justice-spender-in- new businesses.” chief. But it’s never, ever enough. I’ll give POTUS credit: He can lay The latest paroxysm of urban vio- it on thicker than a John Deere manure lence, looting, and recriminations in spreader. Baltimore prompted President Obama Let’s talk “massive investments,” on Tuesday to trot out his frayed Blame shall we? The Callous, Tight-Fisted Republicans In 2009, Obama and the Democrats card. After dispensing with an obliga- rammed the $840 billion fed- tory wrist-slap eral stimulus pack- roughly one million private sector jobs That’s all on top of the $6 billion gov- of toilet paper- age through Capi- were forestalled or destroyed, accord- ernment-funded national service and ed- and Oreo-filch- Michelle tol Hill under the ing to Ohio State University. President ucation initiative known as the SERVE ing “protesters” guise of immediate Obama later admitted “there was no America Act, which was enacted less who are burning Malkin job creation and such thing” as “shovel-ready projects.” than a month after the nearly $1 trillion Charm City to (c) 2015, Creators Syndicate economic recov- But there were plenty of pork-ready stimulus with the help of a majority of the ground (he ery. An estimated recipients, from green energy billion- Big Government Senate Republicans. hurriedly changed it to “criminals and $64 billion went to public school dis- aires to union bosses to Democratic The SERVE America Act included $1.1 thugs” mid-word), the 2009 Nobel tricts; another nearly $50 billion went campaign finance bundlers. About $230 billion to increase the investment in na- Peace Prize winner got down to his for other education spending. This in- billion in porkulus funds was set aside tional service opportunities; $97 million usual business: hectoring his political cluded $13 billion for low-income pub- for infrastructure projects, yet less than for Learn and Serve America Youth En- opponents and grousing that America lic school kids; $4.1 billion for Head a year later, Obama was back asking for gagement Zones; and nearly $400 mil- hasn’t forked over enough money for Start and childcare services; $650 mil- another $50 billion to pour down the in- lion for the Social Innovation Fund and him to make the “massive investments” lion for educational technology; $200 frastructure black hole. Volunteer Generation Fund. needed to “make a difference right million for working college students; The “social innovation” slush fund now.” and $70 million for homeless children. IN 2010, President Obama signed was intended to “create new knowledge How’s that all working out? Last the so-called Edujobs bill into law — a about how to solve social challenges IF WE ARE “serious” about pre- week, economists from the St. Louis $26 billion political wealth redistribu- in the areas of economic opportunity, venting more riots, the president de- Federal Reserve surveyed more than tion scheme paying back Big Labor youth development and school support, clared, then “the rest of us” (translation: 6,700 education stimulus recipients and for funding Democratic congressional and healthy futures, and to improve our all of us stingy conservatives) have to concluded that for every $1 million of campaigns. A year later, several were nation’s problem-solving infrastructure make sure “we are providing early edu- stimulus grants to a district, a measly spending the money to plug budget in low-income communities.” The big- cation” and “making investments” so 1.5 jobs were created. “Moreover, all of shortfalls instead of hiring teachers. gest beneficiaries? Obama’s progressive that inner-city youths are “getting the this increase came in the form of non- Other recipients received billions de- cronies. training they need to find jobs.” teaching staff,” the report found, and spite having full educational payrolls Narcissus on the Potomac wheedled the “jobs effect was also not statisti- and not knowing what to do with the APPARENTLY, THE richly fund- that “there’s a bunch of my agenda that cally different from zero.” big bucks.

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