You know of Presbyterianism's long standing support for public education. Recently we invited the Lee County Superintendent of Schools, Dr. James Browder to the monthly men's breakfast to share a 'state of the schools.' Dr. Browder's assessment was sobering.
Our school system is
Large: 18,000 students in 1972, v. 70,000 today (we are one of the 50 largest school districts in the US).
Pluralistic: 22% minority in l972 vs. 50% today (159 languages are spoken in our system).
Mobile: 40% of the children move to a different school during the school year (some move as many as 3 times).
Poor: 62% receive reduced or free lunches (Dr. Browder believes the true number is 75%); this is dramatically increased from only a few years ago when 50% were subsidized. In 12 schools, 95% of the students receive free or reduced lunches, and some of these children do not eat from the time they leave school on Friday until they return on Monday, as there is no food in their homes.
The Lee County School District's budget is $1.5 billion. Florida spends, on average, $7,700 per student compared to a national average of $9,138. In assessing the schools, Dr. Browder argued that of all the factors involved in quality education, teachers are the primary component.
What does it mean? For the men's breakfast, a group of middle and upper-middle class white men, I believe these numbers were surprising. Did we know how many financially disadvantaged children there are in our school system? And, if public education does not serve these students...who will?
Who will?
