By John Ubaldi, “Ubaldi Reports”

With teacher’s union’s across the country fighting to keep schools closed, students have become the real victims and feeling the true cost with failing grades, dropping out of virtual classes, increased drug use, and in many cases a rising suicide rates.

The teacher’s union has responded, such as the President of the Los Angeles Teacher’s Union, rebuking those calling for the reopening of schools as examples of white privilege despite science which has repeatedly stated it is safe for students to return to school.

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The closure of the school’s has had a devastating impact on minority students, as the pandemic has led to the closure of already failing public school systems, but the story out of Baltimore should shock anyone who cares about children.

A report has shown that a high school student almost graduated in the top half of his class, this after failing nearly every class but three, in a four year time frame. His GPA was 0.13, from which his exasperated mother went public in desperation after the failures of the public school system in her city of Baltimore.

Tiffany France, a mother of three, who works three jobs in support of her family, but was never told her son was failing or had failed 22 classes nor was she told of his habitual absences to the tune of 272 days in a three year period. Despite this, he was listed in the top half of his class despite a 0.13 GPA.

During this period she was called for only one teacher-student meeting, which never happened at the Augusta Fells Savage Institute of Visual Arts. Finally, France pulled her son out of the school and enrolled him in an accelerated program, which allows him to graduate in 2023.

Little was debated about how to improve public education in the presidential election with President Trump firmly behind school choice for parents, and Joe Biden now President Biden supporting mass expansion for federal support for public education.

With the debate centering on re-opening of many of the nation’s public schools, Biden has wavered on confronting as not to upset the powerful teachers unions, one of his prime political financial benefactors.

With this debate ragging the nation’s children have been held hostage to the union’s demands that school’s be closed until their ever changing demands are met; which means billions in additional funding.

For decades the United States total expenditures on public education averages almost $800 billion a year, with much of the focus at the state and local levels, but what does America have to show for it?

We have been told for years by educational advocates that all we need is more funding, and school performance will improve. This is precisely what teachers unions have been advocating is what is needed to improve the quality of education in America. But is more money really the answer?

For decades leaders in cities and school districts have failed to address the chronic failures of the dismal educational standard in these school districts despite the massive sums of money that went to districts like the one in question in Baltimore.

America has lost a generation of children who don’t have the requite skills or education to functionally succeed in society, yet no know accountability have ever held the political or educational leaders in these cities to account for this adjunct failure of the nation’s schools.

Right now political leaders and their educational masters are systematically dismantling and purging high achieving schools and top performing students from their systems in Boston and New York and other cities across America where advanced educational programs are being eliminated or suspended.

New York Mayor Bill deBlasio has stated that public schools are a means to redistribute wealth, no matter that New York City students continue to fail at precipitous level.

Education officials across the country have come out denouncing “meritocracy” as racist, which even included a recent congressional representative attacking standardized testing as racist, but has any of them been asked about the despicable achievement gap of minority students in their cities.  Maybe they should do more to help these children do better on these tests?

Has anyone asked why the top spending school districts in the country have the worst performing school districts?

New York topped per capita spending at $24, 040 per student.  Washington D.C. closely behind at $22, 759, Baltimore where this story begins ranks in the top three in per capita spending, with annual budget for its schools at $1.2 billion, its schools are a disaster.

African-American academic Walter Williams a Professor of Economics at George Mason University commented in a recent article that “Many of these cities, blacks are mayors, often they dominate city councils, and they are chiefs of police and superintendents of schools.”

Williams then went on to state, “In 2016, in 13 of Baltimore’s 39 high schools, not a single student scored proficient on the state’s math exam. In six other high schools, only 1% tested proficient in math. Only 15% of Baltimore students passed the state’s English test. That same year in Philadelphia only 19% of eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 16% were proficient in reading. In Detroit, only 4% of its eighth-graders scored proficient in math, and 7% were proficient in reading. It’s the same story of academic disaster in other cities run by Democrats.”

Baltimore City Schools CEO Sonja Santelises who oversees 82,000 students and a $1.3 billion budget, is the highest paid employee in the district making a salary of $317,000, why wasn’t she asked about Baltimore’s failing school system? Then one only has to look at the egregious salaries of many in the district who make six figures while student can’t do math or English to grade level.

Now in a 2019 study, half of all New York City public school children are deficient in basic math and English.  Test have shown that Asian kids are 74.4 percent proficiency in math with a 66.6 proficiency for whites, a 33.2 percent proficiency for Hispanics, and a 28.2 percent proficiency for African Americans.  For all the talk of racial justice over   two thirds of Black children in New York City cannot handle math or English to grade level, but the mayor contuse to talk about “wealth redistribution,” nothing about fixing the chronic failing New York City school system and helping those most in need.

In the nation’s capital of Washington D.C. the situation is despicable on how children of the city our educated. Washington D.C. which hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1910, and solidly controlled by Democrats with the D.C. Attorney General Karl Racine being a Democrat, this includes the chairman of the city council, Phil Mendelson, and chairman pro tempore Kenyan McDuffie.

If you look closer nine of 11 council members are Democrats and the other two are left-leaning Independents.  The schools that serve black children are in a deplorable state with 70% of black children unable to read or do math to grade level.

Mayor Murial Bowser of Washington D.C. made a name for herself clashing with then President Trump, who has been all over the major news outlets but has never once been asked about the dismal educational achievement gap of black students.  Why has the media never her any questions about, considering she is one of the highest paid chief executive of any major city or state in the country?

One only has to look at the state of Wisconsin, as the 2019 test scores for students in grades 3 to 8 and 11th grade, only 39.3% of students tested proficient or better in English/language and only 40.1% demonstrated a proficient or better understanding of math.  The sad and most disturbing part of this is that only 12.1% of black students were proficient or advanced in English.

The economic shutdown caused by the pandemic has led to delays, reductions, or cancellations of standardized testing, but when schools are allowed to re-open and testing resumes the achievement gap will be even greater then it is now.

With teachers unions across the country, using children as pawns to gain leverage in obtaining additional money or power. Why has no one asked basic questions of the deplorable education students are receiving?

Where is the main stream media? Why hasn’t the main stream media asked any of these political leaders, school officials, school board member, educational leaders and finally, union leaders why are all these schools failing students.

Why is California Governor Gavin Newsom allowed to send his children to an in-person private school at the same time over 6 million Californian public school children forced to learn at home via zoom learning?

The nation is spending close to $800 billion a year on public school education and getting nothing in return, but enriching the educational industrial complex.

Our kids deserve better!

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