The wages of inequality: crappy schools
Half the population of Rochester, N.Y., lives in poverty. It didn't used to be that way. Xerox and Kodak once provided tens of thousands of good middle-class jobs in Rochester. Now half of Xerox's workforce is overseas. Kodak employed 60,000 people in Rochester 30 years ago; today it employs about 9,000.
Rochester's schools are now terrible. Half the schools failed the academic standards set by the federal government. The city's latest school superintendent found a convenient scapegoat: the teachers' unions.
Balloon Juice offers these scathing comments from Rochester:
Rochester's schools are now terrible. Half the schools failed the academic standards set by the federal government. The city's latest school superintendent found a convenient scapegoat: the teachers' unions.
Balloon Juice offers these scathing comments from Rochester:
Last week, we lost the latest in a list of mediocre scam artist superintendents in our urban school district. This one’s name is Jean-Claude Brizard, who ditched his contract to go run Chicago’s schools. Chicago apparently wasn’t fazed about the Rochester teacher’s union 95% vote of no confidence. As the top-notch local reporter Rachel Barnhart documents, Brizard’s
