Shag..I think that's the whole point.
How will these children ever get help if we continue to pour money down the rat hole of a seriously flawed system?
How will we ever turn it around?
Prayer is fine but it won't tackle the central problem we have associated with the poor, unacceptable performance of today's big city (and some entire states) public school system.
A good man like George Bush has tried to turn the system around, poured countless amounts of resources and money into it and yet....
What we have is a flawed system working within a flawed society. Schools instituted a weak curriculum (Everyday Math, Look-Say Reading). That does seem to be turning around.
However, in society, we have also seen larger numbers of broken homes, more single parents, more permissive parenting, and an upswing in lawsuits.
All of these things combined have given us the results we see today. If you are of the opinion that public schools have NEVER been a good solution, that's fine. I don't agree. Schools used to teach the basics better. Society used to do a better job too.
But to take the problems we see today and insist that the whole problem is the flawed school system is ridiculous. Education will not be fixed by abolishing public schools because that will only put more pressure on the societal problems we have.
Kids who live in chaos, kids whose parents can't get things together enough to get them to a free breakfast on time aren't going to suddenly function well enough to seek out good educational opportunities. Heck, they won't even remove their kids from failing schools when given the opportunity to do so!
I don't feel hopeful for the future of our inner city schools and students. I wish I had a solution to their many problems. I don't.