 | ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
|
« Nashville101.com | Main | Legal Tips for Bloggers » June 16, 2005From the EmailFormer Nashvillian Bill R. emails from Massachusetts to comment on Bruce Barry's attempt to downplay the data showing that Metro Nashville's public schools are mediocre despite being the best-funded schools in the state and having a low teacher-student ratio. He writes: It seems to me that what Barry has demonstrated is that Tennessee’s big-city schools are in bad shape. Since this statement can be applied in general about big-city schools all over the United States, we might ask this question instead: why are big-city schools – which are almost uniformly extremely expensive, extremely inefficient, and experience generally dismal performance – in the shape that they are?The American Revolution was a radical idea and it's worked out pretty well. He also writes that he has "thoroughly enjoyed" the barn photographs I have been posting here in recent weeks. As a native of Columbia and former resident of Nashville, I traveled US 31 between Columbia and Green Hills at least once a week for over 20 years, and I recognize some of the barns you have displayed. Now ensconced in an old New England seaport, I miss the smell of late spring in Tennessee. Oh, and we had a killing frost about 4 weeks ago, too: it just got warm here in the past 10 days.Thanks for writing, Mr. Rhodes. It's always gratifying to emails like yours. Posted in Readers' Emails
| Linked By |
Please support HobbsOnline by doing your online shopping at Amazon.com Comments
Statistics 101: statistical data does not "show" anything, because the data can be politically parsed to support many different interpretations of the truth. Your claim is much too strong and Crafton was parsing because he has an agenda and intends to shape the data to support his agenda. Crafton's (the GOP's) numbers are open to question because they do not compare Nashville to other big cities and because they leave out variables like the higher costs for running older, more obsolete facilities in urban districts (let alone the variable mentioned in this week's Nashville Scene: the fact that urban schools have to pay their own ways and for the ways of rural schools in Tennessee). Posted by: S-townMike at June 16, 2005 10:52 AMThere be this comment from a speech by Janice Rogers Brown, the newly appointed extremist federal judge: Actually the reason schools are so expensive is because that is what we are willing to pay. Like any other product, education's price tag has little to do with the cost and everything to do with what you can convince a consumer to spend. Since urban schools are entrenched bureaucratic monopolies with the sympathy of all news media they learn they are better rewarded for poor performance. This is why we pay a quarter million dollars for every classroom/teacher when by any rational measure it should cost only around $100K - $120K. The old facilities excuse is hollow. Office space in Nashville can be had all over town for $15 per square foot per year and if Metro can’t beat that with owned facilities it simply further makes the poor management case. It’s time to draw the line and say "NO!" to another increase. Jimmy Hogan Post a comment
Comments Policy: Your comment is subject to deletion if it is off-topic or includes foul language or personal attack. Readers, please email me if you find comments that include egregious violations of this policy. Comments may not post immediately - do not post twice!
|
|||||||||||
