The Death of Duval County Public Schools

Things have really improved in the district this year. Last year the district lost 2000 students well this year it only lost 1800. The school district, which puts a positive spin on everything, would probably say, losses down a whopping ten percent.

Folks however you slice it we lost another 1800 kids and that’s not good but worse is it’s our third enrolment decline in a row. This has also happened during the same time our city has seen appreciable growth. If you weren’t worried before you should be worried now.

Also nowhere else in the state except Jacksonville during these trying difficult time are private school and home school enrollments going up. Then to make matters even worse businesses report they don’t want to move here because of our public schools. So what do we as citizens of Jacksonville do? Well thus far all we have done is to take a page out of the citizen’s of London during the blitz play book and solider on, well that and form committees, panels and study groups.

Friends our school system may not be dying, though in biology teachers teach if it isn’t growing it is dying, it is certainly sick and it’s effecting the rest of the city, making it sick too. Crime was out of control, unemployment is up and civility is down and all these things can find their roots in education.

There is hope though. We recognized a crime problem in Jacksonville, as we became the murder capital of Florida. We recognized the problem and then took the steps to correct it and where things aren’t great, there has definitely been improvement. The thing is it took a concentrated effort to make it happen. I think a lot of people see a problem in our schools but they don’t realize the depth of the problem and maybe that’s why the powers-that-be continually come up with the same tired old cures; more mentors, early reading initiatives and get our best teachers into our worse schools. Cures we have been trying for about a decade now to know avail; if anything things are worse now.

If we don’t recognize how sick our public school system is it will continue to contract until it does die and if that happens it will take the city down with it. I wrote last year the two biggest reasons I believe we are losing kids is we don’t enforce discipline and we have a one size fits all curriculum. I wrote it when we had just lost 2000 students, I did so in an effort to stop the bleeding. I hope I don’t have to write the same again next year when we lose a few thousand more.

Discipline Problems: Many students who miss a lot of days are not interested in school and are often disciple problems when they do attend. Did you realize if a teacher spends ten percent of time disciplining a child then all the other children in that class are going to miss out on eighteen days of instruction. What is the difference between being there and not being able to learn and not being there? If your student misses five days in a year and is in a class with an unruly student your child has now missed at least 23 days of instruction but probably more. You might not want to hear it but teachers all through the district smile when certain students are absent because it means they can teach and the other students can learn. Them being there is much worse than them not being there. Without a doubt the most under served and neglected group in the district is the average kid who just comes to school. To save this group the many we may have to sacrifice the few, the ones that show no interest in being there, who only come to disrupt and fine mischief. I don’t like it but what we’re doing now ignoring discipline is destroying our schools.

Curriculum: Students that want to drive trucks are forced to take algebra II, is just one example about how the current curriculum serves only a portion of the student body. A good number of children don’t plan to go to college and you know what, that’s okay; people can be good, productive members of society without a college degree, or they can go back to school in the future when they are ready. It’s time we stopped forcing every student down that one path, which is the only one available to kids unless you go to one of the exclusive magnet schools. The district has decimated the industrial arts program and replaced them with advanced placement programs that, not surprisingly, we don’t do very well in. Furthermore each year there is fewer and fewer art, drama and music classes offered and physical education classes have become massive. We wonder why children don’t attend school, while at the same time offering them classes that are above their heads, have nothing to do with what they want to learn or will better prepare them for their future. It’s a wonder more students don’t miss more days.

When I went to school you could miss nine days in nine weeks. You only got your make up work for an excused absence and it didn’t matter what grade you earned if you missed ten days, you failed. We had the option of taking art, music, and several other electives and if you took P.E. there were no more than thirty students in the class. Kids that were interested in the trades left for half the day to go to a skills center so they could learn about those subjects. Teachers could teach instead of being overwhelmed with task after task and if you acted up you were punished. Finally at the end of the school year we took a minimum level skills test that even if we didn’t do too well on, we were allowed to graduate if we had the grades.

Now it doesn’t matter why student’s miss class, teachers are required to give them the work and they can use compass odyssey or other grade recovery programs, which are often not as rigorous or beneficial as being in class to catch back up. If a student acts up they quickly return to the classroom usually without any real consequences. Students have more classes that they dread and fewer to look forward too, teachers now have more tasks than they can possibly do and we are losing kids hand over fist.

Say you have read my stuff before and have thought, oh man you got it wrong Guerrieri, it’s not our leadership and the way we do things that’s to blame, it’s the parents, the culture or this or that we need to change, well fair enough, reasonable people can look at the same thing and disagree. I just don’t understand how reasonable people can look at the cities declining public school enrollment and not see a problem, not see a huge problem.

Friends if it’s not growing it’s dying and if our public school system dies how long will it be before the rest of the city joins it. Agree or disagree with my points but please agree we need to do something and do it quick.