By Erin Richards of the Journal Sentinel
Aug. 10, 2009 12:40 p.m.
"Can Milwaukee support a public, urban boarding school for at-risk teenagers?
"That's a question the Milwaukee Board of School Directors' Committee on Innovation/School Reform will take up tomorrow night, when it considers a proposal from School Board President Michael Bonds to partner with an organization that can help open such a school in 2010 for students in 9th through 12th grades."
http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/52890612.html
Is this part of the solution? Should we be looking at something like this in Racine to break the cycle of broken lives begetting broken lives? How do we stop another generation from imploding on the city streets? When is it in the best interest of the child to remove him or her from home? Should we make this available for all grades?
I don't know. I'm just asking questions.
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I'm assuming that sometimes "home" for at-risk children is not the healthiest place and they might benefit from a more wholesome environment, even if it is a boarding school.
"Boarding School" is the politically correct term for "Juvinile Detention Center".
The Racine Taylor Home tried it and failed. The cost is too great. Who would pay for it?
The Juvenile Detention Center is short term. Laws would need to be changed to keep kids there for a whole school year. The County could not afford it.
More: http://www.jsonline.com/news/education/52923167.html.
I don't think they're proposing year-round boarding, but I don't know how effective it would be without that. Whatever public monies are paid for the support of these children could be diverted to the boarding school, couldn't they? The parent or guardian shouldn't receive child support while the kid is in boarding school.
I know this would be expensive as hell, but so are LEOs, courts and prisons. I also know that it is the parents' responsibility to raise these children, but they simply are NOT doing it. Perhaps we should take a stab at breaking the cycle rather than perpetually funding the mess we have now. These children are dragging down the entire educational system - everything has to come to a halt to deal with them. And they, in turn, will just produce more of the same, clogging the schools and the courts with their refusal to take responsibility for their own lives.
Orbs,
I agree with what you are saying. I know that Taylor Home had a "on campus school" and a residential program that was costly and rather expensive. I would think that if you could use the per student funds that RUSD receives from the state and the funding that the county would spend on juvenile detention/corrections and residential treatment centers you would have enough to to pay for a boarding school placement.
All that would be needed is a little imagination and the willingness to do something different on the part of the school board and the county board.
I'm really surprised you might be saying you want MORE government intervention.
Have we simply thrown up our hands and said, "these parents are so horrible, we need to do everything for them?"
Unfortunately, these same people will probably then be freer to go about doing whatever they were doing that caused this neglect or poor care of their children. And that may include making more children for us to board.
"Have we simply thrown up our hands and said, 'these parents are so horrible, we need to do everything for them?'"
I can't speak for "we," but I think maybe I have. I mean, no matter how great the educational system, how do you deal with children who go home to hell each night? What can a kid in grade school really fathom about opportunity and working hard toward the future as an adult when poverty engulfs him now?
I'm really just spitballing and trying to think of ways to break the cycle. I know that everything the government touches turns into crap. It's the nature of bureaucracy. But what I hear touted today is mentors for the at-risk children. Where in the world would we find all these mentors and how would we finance that?
Any other ideas?
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