BCT Editorial – 6/3/07

This page was last updated on June 9, 2007.

No reason for hope; Editorial; Beaver County Times; June 3, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“The Duquesne City School District is going nowhere, which means that eventually its children should have to go somewhere.

“But if anybody thinks the state Department of Education or, heaven forbid, the Legislature is going to do anything substantive to address the problem, we have but one word - Midland.”

[RWC] Remember the editorials that purported to support local control? Never mind. Apparently the Times definition of local control is local officials spending federal and state taxpayer dollars with no strings attached.

“Duquesne faces a grim future. It has around 900 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The Associated Press reports the high school offers no advanced placement courses, no advanced foreign language classes, no music instruction and no National Honor Society or other student clubs. The only extracurricular activities offered are basketball and football.”

[RWC] Oh boo-hoo! My grade school had no – meaning zero – extracurricular activities and my high school offered “no advanced placement courses.” Below the editorial tells us Duquesne “test scores have been among the worst in the state for years.” Assuming that is correct, exactly what would be the purpose of “advanced placement courses” and “advanced foreign language classes?”

Doesn’t it tell us something about Duquesne’s priorities when it chooses to field baseball and football teams instead of funding scholastic clubs like NHS? For the cost of baseball and football teams, a district could fund a bunch of academically oriented activities.

“It that wasn’t discouraging enough, the district has the second-highest tax rate in Allegheny County and its test scores have been among the worst in the state for years. (While factors outside their control can’t be overlooked, district officials have made plenty of mistakes along the way as well.)

“This combination of factors - and don’t forget race; Duquesne has a largely black enrollment - means that the district’s chances of turning its fortunes around are nil.

“Duquesne’s situation is bleak and has been for years. Yet the best that the state has been able come up with is a proposal to close the district’s high school and tuition its students to neighboring districts.

“Sound familiar? It should. Midland did the same thing in the late 1980s, and its high school students embarked on a two-decade educational diaspora that has taken them to Beaver Area, East Liverpool, Ohio, and, now, several area high schools and charter schools.

“While Midland was going through its travails, DOE officials and state lawmakers did little more than wring their hands and lament the situation. They did not step in to force a merger or mandate a tuition plan.

“Fortunately for Midland, its leaders were creative enough and flexible enough to avoid the meltdown that Duquesne is facing. But what took place in Midland was the exception, not the rule. (In addition to leadership, Midland also was blessed with a relatively stable population and an enormous amount of community pride.)

“Don’t be surprised if state officials and state lawmakers don’t leave Duquesne to fend for itself. After all, doing nothing only hurts a poor, tiny school district with a small number of minority students, while doing something is going to really tick off largely white, more-well-to-do voters in more populous neighboring districts.”

[RWC] Before we cry too many tears for “a poor, tiny school district with a small number of minority students,” consider what the editorial failed to tell us. According to Standard & Poor’s, a source cited by Times editorials, Duquesne spent $12,415/per student ($7,769 for instruction) in 2004 while Center Area, a “largely white, more-well-to-do” district with a better tax base, spent only $8,385 ($5,126 for instruction). Duquesne taxpayers paid only 24% of their bill while Center taxpayers footed 65% of their bill.

By the way, Duquesne isn’t the exception for so-called poor school districts. As I’ve documented in previous critiques, “poor” districts tend to spend more per student and pay much less of their bill than more affluent districts.

“But Duquesne isn’t alone. Aliquippa, Clairton, Cornell, Farrell, Monessen and Wilkinsburg are heading its way. For them, it’s not a matter of if but when.

“Political courage and leadership will be needed at the state level to do what is best for the children in these school districts. If the past (Midland) is prologue to the future, the residents and children of these small, largely minority school districts should not get their hopes up.”

[RWC] Remember this editorial the next time the Times cries crocodile tears about local control.