{"id":10457,"date":"2016-10-31T11:59:10","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/?p=10457"},"modified":"2016-10-31T11:59:10","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T15:59:10","slug":"john-oliver-explains-why-racism-and-school-segregation-is-very-much-alive-in-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2016\/10\/john-oliver-explains-why-racism-and-school-segregation-is-very-much-alive-in-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"John Oliver explains why racism and school segregation is very much alive in 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n
Not sure I agreed with Mr Oliver on all of his points. For one thing, if the problem is underfunding of schools where students are mostly low income minorities, why is the strategy to solve the problem not to fund ALL schools equally?
\nBussing kids across town to a better school is a shitty answer. Kids should be able to attend schools in their own neighborhoods. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not advocating “Separate But Equal” schools as they have been implemented in the past, because we know that didn’t work well at all. But all schools in the same city should be funded equally. For one municipality to fund one school at one level and another at a lower level is discriminatory. Just because one neighborhood pays higher property taxes shouldn’t give them priority standing. People in “rich” neighborhoods pay higher taxes because they are rich. They were able to purchase more expensive property, and these folks can afford to pay higher taxes. They can also afford to send their kids to private schools if they don’t feel public school education is good enough (and most of them do exactly that anyway). The rich have a choice. The taxes they pay shouldn’t entitle their children to a better education than someone who cannot afford to pay that amount of tax. The wealthy can afford to BUY their kids a better education than public schools provide if they so wish.
\nBut the poor (regardless of skin color) have no choice. They depend on public schools as the ONLY choice for their children, and to limit them to schools that SUCK is fundamentally unfair to those children and our entire society. ALL our children should be entitled to THE BEST education that our country can give them.
\nAsk yourself this: How many “Einsteins” have ended up in jail (or worse) instead of discovering the next breakthrough in quantum physics, simply because of the neighborhood where they grew up? How many times over might we have already cured cancer if we were pulling from the ENTIRE population of children for the next generation of medical researchers instead of just the wealthy segment? Great schools in the most economically challenged neighborhoods would fundamentally change our Nation for the better. Some of our greatest minds are rotting away, wasted, simply because the schools in their neighborhoods suck, and the teachers don’t have the resources to prepare them for a productive future.
\nIf we want to focus on desegregation, focus on desegregating NEIGHBORHOODS. Great schools would encourage more diversity in those neighborhoods, and therefore in the schools. Great schools would help increase property values (and eventually property taxes) in those areas as well. Simply carting kids across town is the WORST answer for everyone. The shitty schools stay shitty, and the students who go there get a shitty education regardless of race. Bussing white kids into poor schools from rich areas won’t work…because the rich kids will end up in private schools if they can afford it…and they can. So only the poor white kids will get bussed to the poorly funded schools, and discrimination persists. Sure…we shift from race-based to income-based discrimination. But it’s still discriminatory and everyone (except the wealthy) ends up unhappy…as usual.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/bit.ly\/2fwYXaY<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Not sure I agreed with Mr Oliver on all of his points. For one thing, if the problem is underfunding of schools where students are mostly low income minorities, why is the strategy to solve the problem not to fund ALL schools equally? Bussing kids across town to a better school is a shitty answer. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[14,480,456,132,429],"tags":[523,159,33,530,552],"class_list":["post-10457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-facebook","category-jamie-gray","category-news","category-shared-link","tag-blog","tag-facebook","tag-jamie-gray","tag-news","tag-shared"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10587,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2016\/11\/bill-murray-relishes-cubs-title-demands-schools-closed\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":0},"title":"Bill Murray relishes Cubs title, demands schools closed","date":"November 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The Cubs FINALLY Won...kids should get a day off from school to celebrate!http:\/\/apne.ws\/2fiMWUi","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12365,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/02\/bronx-schools-found-to-have-water-lead-levels-16-times-higher-than-flint\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":1},"title":"Bronx Schools Found To Have Water Lead Levels 16 Times Higher Than Flint","date":"February 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Wow, it took this long for schools to test and release this information?! How long has it been since Flint became news? Any school district or municipality that hasn't already tested and reported before now is just plain negligent. How long have those kids been poisoned unnecessarily? #WTF #bronx #flint\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15279,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2018\/01\/is-it-necessary-for-kids-in-america-to-spend-long-hours-at-schools\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":2},"title":"Is It Necessary for Kids in America to Spend Long Hours at Schools?","date":"January 3, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Is It Necessary for Kids in America to Spend Long Hours at Schools? Perhaps not, but parents appreciate the 6-8 hours of a kid free house, and as a parent, I think we need to keep things just as they are :) It's also good conditioning for the future in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15923,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2018\/03\/thank-you-john-oliver-for-this-terrifying-explainer-of-nra-tv\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":3},"title":"Thank you, John Oliver, for this terrifying explainer of NRA TV","date":"March 5, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I support the second amendment. I also support common sense and doing the right thing. There's nothing \"well regulated\" in allowing an untrained, heavily armed \"militia\" to shoot up schools and music concerts. Well regulated means gun owners should be a)trained b)licensed c)mentally fit NRA TV is a clusterfuck of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14868,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/11\/why-do-people-still-think-the-earth-is-flat\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":4},"title":"Why do people still think the Earth is flat?","date":"November 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Because there are fucking idiots on our planet, that's why. Thank a teacher. Or a school district. Or a flawed public education system, that fails to prepare our children for life as productive members of society. Doesn't anyone understand how important it is to have the BEST schools in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12297,"url":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/2017\/02\/betsy-devos-likely-to-get-education-post-despite-all-night-democratic-protest\/","url_meta":{"origin":10457,"position":5},"title":"Betsy DeVos likely to get education post despite all-night Democratic protest","date":"February 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Many sads for our children if we lose this one. Only a group of elitist fucks, whose children attend private schools because public schools are so inferior, could be in favor of putting a moron in charge of 'fixing' the Dept. of Education. Our kids deserve SO MUCH BETTER. #ThanksTrumphttp:\/\/bit.ly\/2kOBcwR","rel":"","context":"In "blog"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10457\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jamiegraymusic.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}