The Change We Don't Need: You Can't Fire Poverty

I was shocked when I read that the entire staff at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island had been fired. The school was not performing well, but I do not know of another case where the entire school staff was fired for having a low graduation rate. Even more shocking was that this decision was supported by President Obama. Rarely do presidents get involved in the affairs of local districts, but in this case the local policy parallels the national policy so well. It was an opportunity to highlight the new national policy on education.

What is new is that President Obama and the U.S. secretary of education, Arne Duncan, have advocated radical strategies (like firing school staffs, closing schools) to improve failing schools in order to "turn them around." The U.S. Department of Education will provide "Turnaround Grants" to school districts that "take action" against failing schools. However, this policy continues the tradition that George Bush's policy on education started by punishing poor districts for having poor school performance while the problems of poverty are completely ignored.

Will it really help a high school like Central Falls to fire its school staff? Central Falls is a poor community. It's a district where half the population is Latino and immigrant, and where the median household income is $26, 918, about half of the US average. As Richard Rothstein has pointed out, poor communities are hard hit by low quality health care and health problems (like asthma and poor vision), and families are less likely to have stable housing, all of which adversely affect school attendance and performance. Central Falls residents also face an environment hostile to immigrants. It has recently seen a series of anti-immigrant incidents fueled by punitive state policies. A local private prison, not known for its humane practices, warehouses immigrants awaiting hearings on their cases.

Maybe one of these turnaround grants will help.  An analysis of the funding of Rhode Island districts show that per pupil spending does not adequately meet the deep needs of the challenged student population. But even with the money, it is unlikely that those funds would adequately address the massive poverty the community faces. From that point of view, firing the school staff misses the mark. As one teacher-blogger brilliantly stated, you can't fire poverty. The mass firing will not resolve the real problem in poorly-performing schools like Central Falls. If we are serious about making change in poor school districts, we need to address poverty.

Photo credit: WI GUARD pics