Unless you’ve been out of the loop on the internet, you’ve surely seen the video of Lowery Elementary School Principal April Wright flashing a Cheshire grin while telling parents that they can’t attend their children’s graduation ceremony if they brought another child along. She tells the parents and she creepily tells sobbing children how their parents were irresponsible and now can’t come inside. It’s astonishing just how much joy she seems to take in being a poorly written Disney villain.
But, it’s almost like people just can’t wrap their head around the fact that, while she is certainly a horrible person (at least in this scenario), it’s possible that she’s not directly at fault for the concern. I don’t say this to absolve her of any responsibility for her insulting behaviors. After all, when a doctor is breaking bad news it’s their decision to either be kind or act like a jerk, but the news in question isn’t their fault.
I’m seeing a ton of people flipping their lid about April being a jerk to both parents and children alike, but I’m not finding much information about ‘why’ she was turning people away. I’ve tried to do research on this particular issue and the closest I can find to an answer is that Lowery Elementary School either didn’t have the space in their auditorium to accommodate the amount people expected to show or they didn’t have the resources and staff to accompany the people. Their decision was to limit the occupancy so that they could save on their budget.
Let’s assume this is true, which it very well could be. It may not be April Wright’s fault that they didn’t have the resources. After all, the amount of money a school is given to support themselves for a full year is miniscule compared to what they should require. Education isn’t cheap and our cuts to the education funding have been significant. A ton of schools have had to sacrifice an entire day of school to save on money. Teachers are overworked, underpaid and have far too many kids in their classroom to ensure that each child is given the proper attention. This leads a lot of children to receive a poor education.
What you may not know is that a school is funded by how well their students perform. If your school has a majority of high-scoring students, you will receive better funding than a school with a majority of low-scoring students. They are also funded by how wealthy the neighborhoods are in which the school resides. A wealthy neighborhood school receives a ton more funding than one in the slums. There are several other factors which impact a school’s funding, but none are any less depressing than these.
This funding structure is self-defeating. If students score low in the slums, funding is cut significantly, making it harder for the next set of students to receive a well-funded education. It is damn near impossible for a school to pull itself out of a downward spiral. Which is why we can have such feel-good movie plots as ‘A new principle reforms a low-performing school, spruces up the neighborhood and gives hope to a new generation of kids’. What these movies don’t tell you is that a miracle such as this happens once in a Lifetime Movie Network.
Private schools are mostly funded by tuition fees which can bankrupt a family trying to get a better education for their children. They are also nearly impossible to get into unless you have personal/professional ties to the school, have a savant for a child or are extremely lucky (or unlucky as the financial situation might be). Charter schools pose many of the same problems as private schools.
The issue here is that schools are poorly funded overall. We pay our teachers like garbage so that we have significantly less people who want to become teachers which makes it harder to justify firing a bad teacher. We also make it impossible for people will lower income to receive a worthwhile education With this all in mind, let’s get to our first article in the new Bill of Rights:
Article 1 – (The Right To A Well-Funded, Free And Competitive Education)
Being that education is a necessity for the well-being and prosperity for every individual citizen, regardless of race, location, wealth, or any other conceivable criteria, all publicly available schools shall be funded equally as measured by the amount of students in attendance. No state shall pass a law reducing or increasing the budgets of any schools in their jurisdiction to be separate from the funding of other schools. Private, chartered or limited educational facilities for all except higher learning shall be rendered inactive from here on so-as to provide an equal base education for all citizens. Children receiving education outside of a traditional classroom shall be held to the exact educational curriculum as regulated by their age and scoring levels.
I think that just about covers everything except a teacher’s pay rate, which cannot be singled out in the New Bill of Rights. Perhaps we can cover this in a workforce protection article. What are your thoughts?
Galvanic Ink 