The Examiner’s Caroline Grannan warns readers about the dangers of letting a ‘titan’ named Leo Linbeck III “build an empire of KIPP schools … Leo is also very involved with KIPP, one of the most successful public charter school programs in the U.S. He has been the ‘Chief Growth Architect’ at KIPP:Houston, leading the development of a plan to grow to 42 KIPP:Houston schools in the next 8 years, ” and involved with trying to match up high school teachers with scholars. That doesn’t sound very menacing until you read on. The problem isn’t Linbeck’s qualification. Grannan acknowledges that he has a good resume and is already an adjunct professor at the Stanford and Rice university business schools. The difficulty, Grannan argues, is Linbeck’s ideology, established by the fact that he posts comments at the Belmont Club, “an online discussion group of Houston conservatives”. Very bad company. Still Grannan admits that “it’s political commentary, it’s free speech and I respect that.”
She cites one Leo’s disturbing comments at this blog, leading with this quote from a 2008 Belmont Club post:
Should Obama win and enter Washington as Napoleon entered Moscow, the question is how our nation will respond. If we leave our nation to the conquering hero, it will most assuredly burn – figuratively, and perhaps literally as well. …
Most of us still believe that America truly is a shining city on a hill, and we work hard to preserve this vision in our hearts, our families, our local communities, and our nation.Admittedly, Obama and his Democrat allies in the Congress can encourage us to abandon our dreams. They can attempt to tax, regulate, and muzzle dissent, hoping to gain more control over us. They can loosen the bindings that tie our fates together, hoping that when left to our own devices we will be too weak to respond to their challenges. They can divide us into castes, and pit one group against another, hoping that our energies will be expended upon each other instead of true reform. Speaking only for myself, I am preparing not for abandonment, but for a siege. It is inevitable that Democrats, once in total control, will overreach and awaken the spirit of our Founders that lives within the hearts of all true conservatives. At that point, the pushback will come.
But this time, rather than pushing for a takeover of Washington to get our share of the spoils, we must use our power to eliminate the spoils.
A quotation is often like a flag on some embattled hilltop with thousands either trying to plant it on the summit or tear it down. Grannan finds Linbeck’s remarks disturbing and doubtless others may find it disturbing that she finds it disturbing. And that’s as it should be because “political commentary” and “free speech”, if it means anything, is really about a conflict of ideas and only secondarily about the right to talk about the breast implants of Carrie Prejean. In fact Grannan’s worries about KIPP suggest that Linbeck might be on the right track. Liberals have always taken their opinions seriously enough to try and peddle them through the educational system. Bill Ayers has made a career of teaching kids what to think. But that’s alright, according to conventional wisdom; so long as we keep Belmont Club commenters away from kids. Nothing in the article suggests that Linbeck is engaging in distributing propaganda; but he has committed the offense of becoming involved with education without proving he’s got the correct set of ideas.
But how about letting the marketplace of ideas decide? The ultimate distinction between an information environment characterized by propaganda and freedom is the presence of choice. Unless there is more than one product on the idea market, then there is no choice and by necessity what remains is a regime of propaganda. The difference between telling a man what to think and challenging him to think is to give him a choice. Political correctness at its core isn’t about correctness but monopoly. The true danger that Linbeck represents is that he might foster choice; that there might be a rival product. And the danger of that can’t be underrated; when there’s a better product on the market, even the behemoths like General Motors and the New York Times can feel the foundations shifting under them. Yet idea products don’t come to market effortlessly and by magic. The hidden takeaway for conservatives who read the Examiner article shouldn’t be that Leo Linbeck is feared solely for conservative ideas , but that he is that most dangerous of things, the conservative with business and possibly marketing acumen.
I’ll think that Grannan should welcome the entry of someone like Leo Linbeck III into the marketplace of ideas, if only as a spur to make the offerings better. As for conservatives, they should draw the lesson that things don’t happen unless real effort is put into them. Opinons may earn contempt from the liberal side of the aisle, but opinions plus acumen earns one fear — including the ultimate opprobrium of being a commenter on an “online discussion group of Houston conservatives”.
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165 Comments
1. Cooldog:Richard & Leo … this is just plain freaky, no?
May 3, 2009 - 4:18 pm 2. elby:Leo, God bless you for your efforts in improving the education of our young people. I wish you great success. Please do not allow attempts to silence or stop you to succeed. For too long now, those of us who believe in a limited government have allowed the other side to shout us down, to impugn our character, imply or outright state we are haters, attack us personally. This has a chilling effect on participation in public forums by people who might otherwise participate and have a great deal to offer.
Seeing what has happened to Sarah Palin and Joe the Plumber is meant not just to shut them up, but to be a lesson to the rest of us to be quiet, keep our heads down, be careful what we say. It is ultimately an attempt to condition us to think, act and vote a certain way. The left’s stranglehold on the flow of information has done enormous damage to our liberty.
Keep fighting the good fight, Leo. Your posts are well thought out, well written, and highly informative. We all appreciate your efforts on behalf of liberty. I am sure any influence you have with alternative schools will be a beneficial one for the students. Thank you!
May 3, 2009 - 4:23 pm 3. Utopia Parkway:Curiously Gannon doesn’t really make a value judgement in her article. She talks a little bit about Linbeck and then lists 9 quotes (I assume all from Belmont club). Obviously she has some kind of issue with Linbeck or his quotes.
This simple fact is that blogs and other online forums that are indexed by Google will be found by anyone looking for them. I wouldn’t go for a job interview without googling the company and the people who would interview me, and I wouldn’t interview someone for a job without googling them. That’s the world we live in. That’s also why I post under a pseudonym here and elsewhere.
There’s nothing wrong with being a (fill in the blank) but I wouldn’t like one to marry my daughter, or work for me, or whatever.
Apparently Mr Linkbeck isn’t afraid of insulting anyone or antagonizing anyone so he posts here under his real name. More power to him. I suspect that this minor attack on him won’t affect Mr Linbeck at all.
May 3, 2009 - 4:28 pm 4. elby:I just read the article. Leo, you eccentric! Holding such strange notions that government intervention prolonged the Great Depression! Tut, tut. And your verse. Well, what can I say. Just leave it up to the professionals like Walt. Your meter isn’t right. Who knew there were people like you out there? My, My, whatever is the world coming to!
May 3, 2009 - 4:31 pm 5. Norfinski:“Houston conservatives”. What are we in the far north. Let the siege begin!
May 3, 2009 - 4:32 pm 6. Skookumchuk:“Houston conservatives”. That may be the best line of all.
May 3, 2009 - 4:34 pm 7. hdgreene:I think we should all meet for pizza!
Leo, next they’ll sick (sic) the White House Press Corps on you. A blog commenter indeed!
You’re doing God’s work, my man.
May 3, 2009 - 4:36 pm 8. Mongoose:Well L3, you really struck a nerve there. You must be doing something right.
It is amazing how clear articulation of simple truths enrage these people.
Keep up the good fight.
Wretchard, Please let us know it into give you a bump in page views.
May 3, 2009 - 4:38 pm 9. PA Cat:Benj is a Houston conservative? Who knew?
May 3, 2009 - 4:40 pm 10. Doug:I always did pick up a funny/strange vibe from Leo.
Good on Grannan for shining the light of day…
“it’s political commentary, it’s free speech and I respect that.”
May 3, 2009 - 4:41 pm 11. Doug:—
Exactly:
Just as long as we’re sure to keep the lists up to date and properly compiled.
Sydney, Houston, Kihei, Abu Dhabi…
May 3, 2009 - 4:48 pm 12. Willie G:Gee…I’m not a Texan…can I still post?
Does this mean the Gov’t is listening to what we say?
What to do? What to do?
Is this our 15 seconds of fame?
May 3, 2009 - 4:53 pm 13. PA Cat:Does the Examiner produce probing journalism like the following?
Obamas take a walk, holding hands in the evening
WASHINGTON — The first couple took full advantage of the cool spring night.
“After a date night out on Saturday evening, President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama decided to take a stroll when their motorcade arrived back at the White House.
So they began walking on the driveway of the White House South Lawn while holding hands. First they passed the West Wing, then their children’s swing set. They kept walking, swinging their hands together.
As the Obamas walked behind shrubbery and out of sight, the unscripted moment left reporters guessing where they were going. To the vegetable garden? The basketball court? No final word, but they eventually came back the same way from where they started, rounding out their 8-minute walk.”
Lordy, I can’t wait to see L3’s versified dissection of this installment of the Court Circular.
May 3, 2009 - 5:05 pm 14. RWE:Crap! We’ve been made!
She even knows we are all in Houston!
She probably has even found out about the secret stash of F-86 jet fighters and M-48 tanks!
Execute Plan Beta 1A!
Get the rolling stock out of the storage areas!
See you all at the rally point!
Doug: You bring the beer.
May 3, 2009 - 5:11 pm 15. orlandoslug:they tried public/private charter at our local school; the PTA with the help of alot of involved parents as well as a progressive principal…
…she was gone within the year – on charges of impropriety because private enterprises donated the computer lab without going through the downtown tower filled w/admin bureacrats…
…the bureacrats in the school system (and the union that has such a stranglehold on the dems) are the worst I’ve come across – I’ve had one of them literally hang up on me, mid sentence, at 5pm because apparently it was quitting time…
good luck L3!
May 3, 2009 - 5:18 pm 16. Mark:In 2008, Leo wrote: “Admittedly, Obama and his Democrat allies in the Congress can encourage us to abandon our dreams. They can attempt to tax, regulate, and muzzle dissent, hoping to gain more control over us.”
Looks to me like The Examiner should hire him as a columnist. That was a good prediction.
Perhaps the thought police will find Leo guilty and expect him to take his hemlock. Like Socrates, Leo should tell his critics that instead they should bestow some civic honors upon him. As Socrates said, we need our gadflys to keep the polis honest.
Otherwise, the affronted Obamists can look forward to Leo writing another virulent villanelle to vilify the One. Below, a reprise of one of Leo’s greatest hits:
“Let’s try a Villanelle”
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
Then pulled the lever for the One
And now my body’s all aglow
With chimpy quashed by my new beau
There’s so much work to be undone
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
He sort of closed Guantanamo
Because rendition’s much more fun
And now my body’s all aglow
He promised earmarks would all go
Then spent our money by the ton
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
He’s reached across the aisle to foe
To say, “My way or none; I won”
And now my body’s all aglow
So now the government will grow
May 3, 2009 - 5:23 pm 17. F:His brave new world has now begun
I drunk the Kool-Aid long ago
And now my body’s all aglow
What can one infer about an individual, group, or institution when it is afraid of someone who has come up with a way to improve schools? Like the recent decision to close charter schools in Washington D.C., this appears to be such a baldfaced admission of cynical thinking that I’m surprised anyone would ever submit it for publication. What am I missing here? Not to mention the quote: “it’s political commentary, it’s free speech and I respect that.” Clearly she does NOT respect that. In a normal world she would be laughed off the stage.
Of course she’s not because she’s sufficiently left-wing (note how she describes L3 as “right-wing” but leaves out of her bio any reference to which wing she inhabits) that political correctness allows her to stab with innuendo: “But it’s interesting to see who’s deeply involved. . .” as a follow-up statement to her lede: “Now, of course I don’t think that being a right-wing eccentric should disqualify someone from participating in civic life. . .” Have you stopped beating your wife, Leo? Is this woman for real? Does anyone take her seriously? Inquiring minds really don’t want to know — they wish she’d just disappear. F
May 3, 2009 - 5:24 pm 18. Doug:RWE:
Dang!
Why’s that always MY Job?
—
May 3, 2009 - 5:26 pm 19. AWH:13. PA Cat:
Sweet.
I found that Enchanting.
Interesting, she doesn’t disclose in the article that she’s long been an opponent of Charter schools. A few links:
http://www.change.org/profile/view/432689
(bashing the effectiveness of charter schools in several comments on there, not to mention defending unions from charges of protecting poor teachers)
One quote from an article on that site:
“Mainstream journalists and commentators might really want to think about that a bit more when they praise charter schools because of their lack of job protection for teachers, and when they bash teachers’ unions over the same issues. When you create a general perception that job security is a frivolous and burdensome employee perk, you may wind up weakening your own job security still more.
I’m pretty convinced that those of my journalistic colleagues who buy into the union-bashing and charter-hyping are generally not callous or hypocritical but rather than they haven’t given this enough thought. It’s time to do that thinking, though. ”
Or this one concerning a “Taco truck” too close to a school:
http://sf.eater.com/archives/2008/08/28/taco_truck_apparently_corrupts_children_deemed_illegal.php
“Caroline Grannan, a member of the Student Nutrition Council, a group of parent and teachers partly responsible for the Wellness Policy, said effort to get the law enforced and the truck removed have been “stonewalled.”
Grannan said having a food vendor so close to a school hurts the cafeteria, which loses money to the vendor and also hurts the students by creating two distinct “classes” of students: those who can afford to buy their lunches off-site and those who cannot.”
Wonder why she didn’t talk about her long standing opposition to charter schools in the article? Wouldn’t that be a “full-disclosure” message? Or, is it just as important to protect lousy journalists as it is to protect lousy teachers? My guess is that she’s against competition for anyone who adopts the “right” ideology.
May 3, 2009 - 5:30 pm 20. Doug:Just to fill in w/color, PA:
“Delivering on his promise of getting a first dog for the first children, he has captivated the hearts of dog lovers, while evoking the hope and optimism that marked Camelot.
What’s not to love? Beautiful, smart wife with incredible arms seen tilling a White House garden in sweater and boots, photogenic children who want to go to their private school when it snows – (who could have – had they been in public school), a president, tall, handsome, cool and collected.
Obama, referred to as “a storybook” by then-Senator Joseph Biden, must realize that Americans like happy endings to their storybooks”
—
The Post End-of-History Arms Race.
May 3, 2009 - 5:31 pm 21. bob:Maybe Caroline is the witch that put the hex on reading comments from The Belmont Club in the nation’s motels. After all, the notice said, “Forbidden/Disturbing to Children”.
May 3, 2009 - 5:32 pm 22. Subotai Bahadur:L3,
Even though I am way beyond the geographical limits of being a “Houston” conservative, let me say that I am pleased and honored to have a small part of the same forum as you.
If you are trying to deal with the educational establishment in Denver, realise fully that they are as functional as a football bat. Any school system that has more than say 10-15% of its employees in non-educational, non-student contact positions is in trouble. I have not lived in Denver for several decades, but when I left it was approaching 50%. I understand they got worse. They don’t give an obese rodent’s nether regions about the educational process; just the political process.
Subotai Bahadur
May 3, 2009 - 5:33 pm 23. JFSanders:Doug, We who hold beer as proof that GOD loves us. Would never, I say NEVER entrust the duty of beer bringer to any regular “Houston Conservative”. This is a solemn and pious work. You are the only one worthy. All Hail! Doug the beer bringer!
Jim
May 3, 2009 - 5:35 pm 24. JFSanders:I will do whatever is in my power to further Leo’s plans for KIPP schools. Leo if you need me just let me know.
Jim
May 3, 2009 - 5:38 pm 25. Leo Linbeck III:My friends: we are all Houstonians now…
BTW – It’s a great city to live in and raise a family. I hope those of you who’ve never been to Houston will visit someday. But you might want to avoid the summer months…
Cheers,
May 3, 2009 - 5:40 pm 26. exhelodrvr:L3
We are all Houstoners now.
May 3, 2009 - 5:41 pm 27. 49erDweet:22. Subotai Bahadur: You don’t understand. The press says we are in Houston, so ipso facto we ARE in Houston. Don’t try to argue or reason your way out of it. Just enjoy the weather – while you can. L3 rules. Who knew before now that he and W had this thing going? That Gannon is one slick investigative reporter. Next stop MSNBC.
May 3, 2009 - 5:45 pm 28. Capitalista Bastardo:I just finished “Work Hard, Be Nice,” the story of the founding of KIPP. I cannot recommend it enough. Keep up the good work, Leo.
May 3, 2009 - 5:48 pm 29. bob:Boycott This Hotel
You won’t be able to read about L3 there.
May 3, 2009 - 6:00 pm 30. Doug:Bastardo:
I much prefered
“Organize, Cultivate the Ruthless”
But to each his own.
May 3, 2009 - 6:00 pm 31. JFSanders:Been to Houston. It is nice but I prefer the swamps of Florida. I will have one of my children going through there on her way to A&M this summer. I wish I was going with her.
Jim
May 3, 2009 - 6:04 pm 32. WillDoMathForFood:Heck, if I had kids, AND if I lived in Houston, AND the price wasn’t unaffordable, I’D send my kids to Leo’s schools in a heartbeat! Heck, if Leo’s looking for contributors (or investors), maybe I’ll stop contributing to my Alma Maters and donate to his schools instead. It wouldn’t be much but I’ll bet he’d put it to better use.
And perhaps Wretchard should rename his blog “The Houston Club”.
May 3, 2009 - 6:09 pm 33. joe buzz:Congrats LL3 on getting inside the teachers union wire! This Grannan is obviously a crack researcher. She surely spent a lot of time here before she traced us all to Houston. Watch your back around these tolerant intellectual progressives.
May 3, 2009 - 6:17 pm 34. Lifeofthemind:Now that our Texan cover is blown, what community should we organize next? buddy, would you mind sticking around for a while to clean up the loose ends and burning what needs burning?
May I now claim to be an Honorary Texan? Do I get a hat?
Seriously L3 I would like to send you a resume
May 3, 2009 - 6:18 pm 35. Jim Nicholas:A lot of us have good ideas–really, truly good ideas.
And then there are those who get down and dig the trenches and lay the foundations upon which can be built a realization of those ideas.
Thank you, Leo
Jim
May 3, 2009 - 6:20 pm 36. Fat Man:Leo:
You are brave man. You are also a Great American. Illegitimati Non Carborundum.
We are with you all the way. We are all Houstonians now!
May 3, 2009 - 6:24 pm 37. Cowboy:It pains me to associate with all you people from Houston because I’m from Dallas where we believe that everybody in Houston doesn’t know squat. With L3 being the exception proving the rule.
May 3, 2009 - 6:24 pm 38. Leo Linbeck III:PA Cat,
Your wish is my command. Cheers.
— —
Come hold my hand dear wife as we walk out
And stroll along as those without look in
Their hope poured out to drown the dour drought
So we could crush some right-wing bidness titan
My love for you is oh so fresh and clean
The White House lawn knows none so fair as you
It’s right that you should be our nation’s queen
We won, we rule, in time we will subdue
I have a gift, as you are quite aware
My mouth can prompt with all the best in town
And yet my lips cannot with thine compare
So soft and red when painted with a frown
Until the dumb inane press us betray
We’ll ne’er be vanquished in our Scottish play.
— —
L3
May 3, 2009 - 6:25 pm 39. PA Cat:Execute Plan Beta 1A!
Get the rolling stock out of the storage areas!
See you all at the rally point!
Is that the rally point in the Dark Lord Cheney’s back yard or the alternate rally point in Area 51? I’d hate to miss out on the beer, especially if Doug the beer bringer is supplying the Teutonic holy water.
May 3, 2009 - 6:33 pm 40. Starling:Ran into a lot of fine Houstonians while waiting to vote last fall at the US Embassy in Doha. Very fine people they were, people who were sure– since I’m African American– that my vote would be for Obama. And still they couldn’t have been more friendly. The conversation was even more enjoyable when they found out I wasn’t voting as they surmised. I am happy, proud actually, to count myself among their number.
May 3, 2009 - 6:34 pm 41. Mike Sylwester:I always have identified myself on the Internet by my true name. Anyone like Caroline Grannan can search through all my comments and try to discredit me.
Someone who should identify herself on the Internet by a pseudonym is Caroline Grannan, since she is making a public fool of herself. How will she ever live this stupid episode down?
Any normal person who read through Leo’s comments would recognize quickly that he is an extraordinarily decent and intelligent person.
Like Caroline Grannan, I too search for Leo’s name on this blog. There have been many occasions when I have decided not to read through a thread but hopefully did a quick FIND search for only his name before I went to another webpage. I am sure that many others here do the same. He’s by far the best commentator here.
If Caroline Grannan insisted on concocting an ad hominem argument based on Leo against the KIPP program, then she should have criticized Leo’s poetry. She might have tried to discredit the KIPP program by posting a batch of Leo’s less successful verse (but the poem above is pretty good). But then what if it turned out that the KIPP program was supported by Walt too?
May 3, 2009 - 6:36 pm 42. Walt:In Houston town there lives a man
May 3, 2009 - 6:41 pm 43. joe buzz:Who fights for kids and learning
Who thinks the system can be ran
A little more discerning
Of children’s wishes, pleasures, needs
Of young lives in their keeping
L3 believes that planting seeds
Will start a young mind leaping
With sheer excitement, joy and praise
To see the world unfolding
Before them as their childhood days
Begin the adult molding
We have among us many who
Have guts and hearts and brio
So hats off to the Belmont crew
And hip hooray for Leo
Dang Starling, and here I though you were a bird!
May 3, 2009 - 6:48 pm 44. Lifeofthemind:This thread would be about comments on a thread from last October that I missed, probably because I was knocking on doors in Pennsylvania for McCain. If I am now politically radioactive can I at least get a date with Miss California as compensation?
May 3, 2009 - 6:52 pm 45. Uncle Jefe:Sydney, Houston, Kihei, Abu Dhabi…
May 3, 2009 - 6:53 pm 46. PA Cat:…Healdsburg and Cloverdale, Ca…
By the pricking of my thumbs,
A Linbeck sonnet this way comes!
(In Shakespearean rhyme scheme, no less!)
Merci, monsieur, c’est bien magnifique!
May 3, 2009 - 6:54 pm 47. twobyfour:~~~ [waving to Leo from a window across the street in the Greater Houston Area -- I had no idea how big it is!]
Leo, you should order t-shirts with:
“I am from Houston”
…Grannan says so.
I’ll buy two. I can make you a website store for them, just ask.
May 3, 2009 - 6:57 pm 48. krontekag:Sure are a lot of Australians here in Houston these days.
May 3, 2009 - 6:57 pm 49. F:This Grannan might be against choice, but not when it comes to her own children (according to Reason On Line):
“Caroline Grannan, a public school advocate and super-involved parent, lobbied hard to wear down the San Francisco school district back in 1996 and get her son William, then an incoming kindergartner, out of his assigned neighborhood school, Miraloma Elementary, and into a “more desirable” alternative school called Lakeshore. In 1996 Miraloma had low test scores and a low-income student body bused in from other neighborhoods; its middle-class neighbors shunned it. Lakeshore had a better reputation and higher student performance.”
http://www.reason.com/news/show/33293.html
F
May 3, 2009 - 7:02 pm 50. Eggplant:L3, Congratulations!
May 3, 2009 - 7:04 pm 51. E. Nigma:Trying to fix public schools in big cities is a harder task than Sisyphus endlessly cleaning out the Augean stables. But there you go; there are smart people on the job.
Mr. Linbeck, you are truly doing God’s work, and I do not say that lightly.
I think we should commission Whiskey to do some in depth research on Caroline Grannan, but I have a feeling I already know how it would come out.
May 3, 2009 - 7:06 pm 52. Wadeusaf:I am Spartacus.
Er, Viva Sam Houston,
Uh, I am a Houston Conservative.
Aw shucks Leo, It just sounds kinda hollow up here by the Rio Columbia to get riled up about statements like this
“But this time, rather than pushing for a takeover of Washington to get our share of the spoils, we must use our power to eliminate the spoils.
We must push for a restructuring of the Federal Government that will reduce its scope, size, and influence. We must end the corruption of our public institutions by reclaiming the power that corrupts them. We must restore the checks and balances that the Framers intended by pushing through a program of subsidiarity.
But until the pushback comes – and it will come – we must prepare. We must not lose faith. We must not lose hope. We must endure, for our children as well as ourselves.
For if we – like Muscovites in 1812 – believe that there is nothing worth saving, then nothing will be saved..”
Gee haw, Mr. Linbeck. Ride em good.
May 3, 2009 - 7:08 pm 53. Kerstin:What? This is an “online discussion group of Houston conservatives”? Little did I know, and I’ve been a regular reader for a long time. And, BTW, I’m from hyper-liberal Bellingham, WA – as in, the pacific northwest.
May 3, 2009 - 7:14 pm 54. PA Cat:#53 Kerstin
Well, the secret is out now thanks to Ms. Grannan– Houston has been stealthily annexing large swaths of territory in the blue state cities on both coasts. It’s why Texas hasn’t seceded yet.
May 3, 2009 - 7:19 pm 55. JWT:Leo Linbeck III is his real name? I always more or less assumed that moniker referred to some scholar in the Middle Ages…
Walt eschews Gestalt
May 3, 2009 - 7:20 pm 56. JFSanders:while Leo delouses Neo
Google him. I did when I first started reading the Club. I also googled Wretchard so don’t go thinking stalker Leo. But he is a very humble guy who has done some wonderful things along with his family. I think his parents are pretty proud of him. Especially today.
Jim
May 3, 2009 - 7:32 pm 57. Paul Milenkovic:About closing the charter schools in DC, the knock on them is that have not been performing better accoding to some metric than the DC school system on average.
Anyone have any info, links, backstory on what the charter school experience in DC has been? Have the charter schools been tried and found to not measure up, or is it more along the line of politics as usual, etc?
May 3, 2009 - 7:32 pm 58. Darren:Congratulations, Mr. Linbeck, for drawing fire. It’s a good flag you’re carrying, there. I’ve always appreciated your comments. Funny that it’s the limericks that are intended to be laugh lines in that piece, I’d love to see an online Linbeck-Grannon smackdown on the issues, something tells me Ms. Grannon would feel a sudden kinship with Ricky Hatton. Deftly avoiding the actual substance of your comments is probably a wise move on her part.
I’m a transplanted midwesterner who’s been in Texas for nearly a quarter-century, first West Texas, then Central Texas, now East Texas. Never had much love for Houston, but if it’s where all the cool people on Belmont Club live then I must reconsider my position. If you need a bug-out location for the next hurricane, mi casa in Longview su casa in Longview, sir.
May 3, 2009 - 7:35 pm 59. Storm_Rider:God bless you L-III – I really mean that.
I sat next to a Houstonian on my way back home from Phoenix last week, and he was a great guy too. We talked about many things, and politics came up as well. We agreed that the firewalls of our Constitution have been breached; and that while the Democratic Party is the architect, the Republican Party has played cowardly water-boy. Not realizing the connection between Belmont Club and the City of Houston, I wasn’t able to recommend this fine site to him.
BTW, a gentleman fainted upright in his seat after some turbulence, so I attended him and reasonably determined he had not suffered a stroke, myocardial infarction, diabetic coma, etc. His blood pressure was low, so I stretched him across three seats allowing his blood pressure to rise; and he then regained consciousness rapidly. I reported this situation to the pilot and we agreed that there was no need to land in El-Paso; so I helped my Houston friend and his wife and three children get home on time. The gentleman who fainted had no further problems, and was also grateful to get home without an unexpected diversion.
Cheers! God bless Houston – and God bless America.
May 3, 2009 - 7:44 pm 60. Aristide:Belmont, Texas
May 3, 2009 - 7:44 pm 61. RWE:The other day on the radio I heard some remarks that emphasized the importance of the kind of thing Leo is doing.
A young black man called into the Hannity radio program, saying that he wanted to be a USN Seal, and at the same time railing against the “top 5% of income earners” who he claimed “sucked up so much of the wealth” and thus impoverished others, saying that Obama was going to fix those greedy people.
If I could have talked to that young man I am afraid that I would have told him that he had already failed the entry tests for getting into the US Military, since it required an Oath to the Constitution and that in turn implied a real understanding of the document.
The fact that someone interested in defending the country could so clearly believe in class warfare is very disturbing. That someone could see the top 5% of income earners not as those who provided capital, leadership, and innovation that produced both wealth and jobs while paying far more than their “fair share” of taxes on income that in many cases they did in fact not even really earn – well, that shows we have a very big problem in education.
May 3, 2009 - 7:45 pm 62. elby:Starling, if Crack Reporter Gannan finds out about you, her head will explode. If she finds a white dude like Leo ‘eccentric’ for holding conservative views, her poor little brain won’t be able to handle a black non-Obama voter.
By the way, guys, DON’T, whatever you do, let her find out about the secret handshake……
May 3, 2009 - 7:46 pm 63. JWT:Repaired did I
May 3, 2009 - 7:46 pm 64. Leo Linbeck III:to October ‘08
There lurked Leo at the gate
But ’twas a vastly
different whirl
No b____k verse
No string of pearl
Paul,
I don’t think the charter schools in DC are closing. You may be thinking about the DC voucher program, which the Obama administration has chosen to abandon.
KIPP has several excellent charter schools in DC. I’ve visited one of them, and they’re going great stuff. Their founder and leader, Susan Schaeffler, is a phenomenally talented woman who has, by force of will and the patience of Job, built some of the best schools in the US from scratch (with lots of support from Don and Doris Fisher of The Gap, and a great board). I don’t do much with KIPP DC, choosing to focus my time on Houston, but I can tell you they’re the real thing.
Anyway, if you’re interested in how PHILO schools (what we’re starting to call high-performing charters like KIPP – Public, High-Impact, Low-Income, Open-Enrollment schools) compare to district schools – notice I don’t call them public, since charters are public too – you might want to check out this research from Harvard and MIT comparing Boston public schools:
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/%7Epfpie/pdf/InformingTheDebate_Final.pdf
It is the first major research project that has published results comparing charter school lottery winners and losers. (Many charter schools are in such high demand that they have to hold lotteries for incoming slots.) The great thing about an lottery analysis is that it is about as close as you can get to a randomized study. However, since lottery studies may contain other forms of bias, the study did more traditional analyses that controlled for a variety of socio-economic factors.
Here’s the money quote:
It is a serious study, and has plenty of caveats. But the results are pretty compelling, IMHO.
PHILO schools like KIPP are a bright ray of hope for our nation. Please support them in your community.
Finally, it’s kinda crazy to suggest that I’m really that important to the results that KIPP has achieved. The real heroes here are the teachers, school leaders, and the senior leadership of KIPP – especially the co-founders, Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, KIPP’s CEO, Richard Barth, and the Fishers, who had the wisdom to recognized where their resources could really make a difference for low-income kids in our nation, and the courage to act when PK-12 education seemed an intractable problem.
Cheers,
May 3, 2009 - 7:58 pm 65. Ashcat:L3
Any development that results in wider dissemination of Mr Linbeck’s sensible views is a positive one–from the snippets Ms. Grannan chose, I suspect that, contrary to her likely intentions, there will be more resonance with his views among her readers (even in the SF Examiner) than she suspects. The comments following her article don’t entirely refute this notion.
As has been stated above, I, as a Houstonian in spirit, wholeheartedly agree that the deepest respect is owed to those who don’t merely talk the talk, but who walk the walk in trying to make a difference. In trying to understand the ultimate and proximate causes of the threat our country faces, the decades-old abandonment of true education, in favor of indoctrination, strikes me as most ultimate.
Mr Linbeck, you couldn’t have chosen a more important arena in which to exercise your vision and energy.
May 3, 2009 - 8:16 pm 66. Nomenklatura:This isn’t exactly new. Socrates was condemned to death for ‘corrupting the youth’ by operating an unofficial school in which he taught an unusual set of ideas, prompting objections not least from the ’sophists’ who were paid to run the more conventional schools at the time.
Nor is this a local phenomenon. Anyone who has run private schools in any country around the world today knows that any growth in enrollments which threatens the jobs of state-paid teachers will rapidly produce a range of vicious and hysterical charges, often descending to a very personal level.
I admire the courage of the very few people willing to expose themselves to these attacks.
May 3, 2009 - 8:18 pm 67. Mad Fiddler:Houston gets my vote for a Great City!
The location of the Belmont Club is probably going to be published now, and we’ll have to stand in line and compete for space on the dance floor just like those other discos back in the 1970’s.
Will there be special VIP passes based on how long someone has been posting?
May 3, 2009 - 8:24 pm 68. Herb:L3 – Stand tall.
Several have expressed concern that we can be targets because of the concerns for our country that we express in this special place. I am surprised that it has happened so soon. I do however believe that this SF person is a twit of no consequence.
Doug – When you bring the beer, make sure its a local brew, none of that mass-produced swill.
May 3, 2009 - 8:37 pm 69. Charles:Houston, We Have A Problem
May 3, 2009 - 8:41 pm 70. JJRedFan:Home schooling has been under assault in California for a long time. Evidently a few years ago foes of home schooling tried to restrict home schooling by suing to limit home schooling to parents who were certified as state-qualified teachers. But the The Cailifornia Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Three vacated a ruling from earlier that year that would have imposed that absurd restriction.
I have friends who still claim to be okay with public school education, but they qualify that by saying they are very much involved with their kids’ school work. I’m still pleasantly surprised to find that there are really excellent music, theater, and art programs in local public schools, even elementary level, and kids who can still speak in whole sentences and fill in coherent job applications.
Anyone familiar with the California homeschooling situation? What’s the attitude of the Teachers’ Union?
May 3, 2009 - 8:49 pm 71. twobyfour:JJRedFan/70
Anyone familiar with the California homeschooling situation? What’s the attitude of the Teachers’ Union?
Very likely the same as elsewhere: an attitude.
May 3, 2009 - 9:28 pm 72. Doug:Sadly, NONE of the urban schools in major cities have even passable schools. MOST have less than a 50 Percent graduation rate.
May 3, 2009 - 9:45 pm 73. Robohobo:Most of those who do graduate still need remedial courses in College.
California had laws that look intimidating to homeschoolers, but we were lucky to have a neighbor who explained that we just had to register as a school, or some such, and produce modest reports of work completed.
Actual learning far exceeded the norm.
Hawaii also has laws that are in fact quite kind to homeschoolers.
The upshot was our kids education was entirely devoid of classroom instruction, public, or private, except for half a year of pre-school.
As a consequence, he’s been employed since turning 15-1/2, and received his top secret certification with access to secure compartmentalized info on turning 21.
Just so you know, this examiner.com is not the SF newspaper. That may or may not be a good thing. I have run into some really crackpot ideas on the examiner.com web site.
L3 – Keep up the good work. The schools all over the country need help. My kid went to the supposedly best public HS in Albuquerque and left there unable to write, with decent math skills and with no ideas of US or world history. The only reason she did well in math is that I have a BS in Mathematics and Physics. Heh, one time the math teacher told her she was doing the problems wrong (trig proofs) because it was not the teachers method but mine. We were getting the answers right but it was wrong because it was not the teachers methods. What idiocy.
BTW – From the Grannan article you sound like a decent guy to work for.
May 3, 2009 - 9:46 pm 74. Doug:Herb,
May 3, 2009 - 10:13 pm 75. twobyfour:I turned a modest fortune into a small one producing local beer.
Robohobo/73
it was wrong because it was not the teachers methods.
Reminds me of my high school years back in Czechoslovakia. Had too many out-of-school interests to my detriment so always tried to find some creative solutions at exams. Got a C on a trig test and asked the teacher why the hell… I’ve got it all right.
She said that is not the correct method to solve the problem. Oh well… Two years later I was flipping pages of Mathematical Reviews (Matematicke Rozhledy) magazine and what do I see!? She published my solution under her frickin name! Biatch!
This has not much to do with failing school system. I think this happens even under the best circumstances. “This loser can’t be smarter than me” kind of conundrum young immature (less than 5 years on job) teachers experience. I had a 2-year teaching stint about 8 years later and I was just the opposite–encouraged students to try find out-of-the-bounding-box solutions.
May 3, 2009 - 10:16 pm 76. buddy larsen:Re Houston, the city opened its doors wide (and instantly) to Katrina victims (as well as those from the two other ‘canes since that’ve created refugees) –municipal and county authorities were fast and efficient, unlike the patronage machine cities hit by the storms. Good neighbor to have, Houston is. And YOU, L3, you get my best sweeping hat to the floor mexican palace bow! and in further praise,
the moment calls for bad verse
to ameliorate L3’s curse
tho the lady named Gannon
i’m sure did not plan on
“F”’s 49 comment disburse.
May 3, 2009 - 10:57 pm 77. buddy larsen:oops, mispelled the critic’s name. BUT (sits up straight with forefinger pointed high) it still rhymes!
May 3, 2009 - 11:19 pm 78. buddy larsen:(i just posted this in comments under Ms Grannan’s piece:)
Belmont Club sailed along for years without the doggerel.
I’m afraid the recent spate may be my fault –sometime back in an effort to quicken the political downbeat, i began posting dumb limericks.
Soon L3 and several others were contributing same. It’s sort of a joke, you see, the limericks are chatter, filler, little scherzos within the thread, and –like puns, they are better if they’re bad.
Presenting them as the article does, as if they are the painstaking efforts of some cloistered tongue-between-teeth ‘eccentric” scrawling them by candlelight below his Hoover altar, is to totally mislead your readers. Look at the threads –they’re topical and rapid fire –just banter.
You folks should find another attack line; one that needs no propagandized implied wrong context.
I’d concentrate on attacking his business success, that’s ALWAYs a crowd-pleaser!
Regards,
Buddy Larsen
Dripping Springs, TX
PS, re the ‘missing foot’, wrongo, one extends on the word ‘known’. Also, re verse, catch, oh, say, ten of “Walt”’s efforts, and tell me you’ve seen, in your entire life, anywhere, better rapid-fire verse-writing.
May 3, 2009 - 11:55 pm 79. Walt:Buddy @ 78
Thanks for the praise. Am currently building a blog called Verse-Afire, and if I ever get it up and running you and L3 and everyone else is invited to contribute. Might even have a limerick contest.
Walt Erickson
May 4, 2009 - 12:26 am 80. buddy larsen:but walt, you will win, on merit, but being your blog, the whole business will smell like a democrat.
May 4, 2009 - 1:01 am 81. Doug:Good lord, Buddy:
May 4, 2009 - 1:46 am 82. buddy larsen:Did you see that weird formation outside the Cowboys structure that collapsed?
Bet it got hit by more than the prevailing 60mph winds.
KIDS DON’T HAVE A UNION. “It’s worth saying again: If the twittish, PC L.A.Times is now going after the teachers’ unions, those unions have lost the PR battle in the mainstream press.”
UPDATE: A suggested political reform, from reader Robert Stermer: “How about giving the voting franchise to children, exercised by their parents. It might give a stronger voice to those concerned about the future.”
Posted at 9:56 am by Glenn Reynolds
May 4, 2009 - 1:48 am 83. Karen Yvonne:Leo, from the tenor of your posts, I always knew you must be involved in doing something of great value in whatever community you resided. Now that you have attracted the attention of such a one as this Ms. Grannan, we have further proof. You are one courageous gentleman and I salute you.
May 4, 2009 - 1:51 am 84. buddy larsen:Microburst, as they call ‘em, Doug –known plane killers on take-off and landing. The temp diffi gets so large in a fast-running front, the hot air starts zooming up, forcing cold air to zoom down, and when it hits the surface it diverts laterally for short time & distance at super high velocity –over 100 prob what lifted the roof in Dallas.
May 4, 2009 - 1:53 am 85. buddy larsen:doug, “How to Make a Small Fortune” –start a microbrewery, with a large fortune.
May 4, 2009 - 1:59 am 86. ADE:L3,
Congratulations. It was inevitable, because when you believe, you take action. Even more, when you’re correct, you survive.
Wretchard. Congratulations on providing an environment (and I don’t mean technological) that supports the free exchange of ideas, and to use that horrible phrase, celebrates diversity, even when it is against you.
Let’s keep going.
ADE
May 4, 2009 - 3:25 am 87. Dave:I see that L3 gave proper recognition to Don and Doris Fisher, founders of the Gap.
They also inhabit San Francisco, and are representative of the kind of people who
keep the Bay Area liveable in spite of the better-known denizens therein.
Another “Well Done” there L3.
May 4, 2009 - 3:26 am 88. Dave:Doug: Make mine Pearl, if you would.
Along with Lone Star, it is the true representative of Texas. And you can always
recycle it through the horse.
And if you want San Miguel, do NOT buy that wussified export stuff. Fly in the Real McCoy
from Manila.
And there is a place in Fresno that has
May 4, 2009 - 3:36 am 89. Doug:genuine Ba Muoi Ba without the inconvenience
of the Ho Chi Trail or the Pleiku Jail.
Used to get great food in Fresno:
May 4, 2009 - 4:57 am 90. NullificationNow:Mexican, Armenian, Italian, Chinese, but that was long before you could get Vietnamese Beer!
One of my favorites is Sierra Nevada from Chico.
We built a brewery in Nevada City, haven’t checked to see if it’s still in operation. Also in Truckee.
L3 Way to go neighbor, and some mighty fine baseball your playing on south Main, CWS Owls.
May 4, 2009 - 5:06 am 91. Hangtown Bob:Gee,
I’ve never even been to Houston. But then, most of you all have probably never been to Hangtown.
May 4, 2009 - 6:14 am 92. Mark:Darren writes: “I’d love to see an online Linbeck-Grannon smackdown on the issues . . . .”
As Boswell wrote, that would be a battle of wits in which only side was armed.
May 4, 2009 - 7:17 am 93. veracious:Leo and Wretchard,
My hat is off to both of you. <| 8^] Those drawn here, be blessed by insightful intercorse, from the heart and soul of truth and patriotism. Teach truth, discuss it; live the truth.
“Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president or any other public official, save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to
stand by the country. In either event, it is unpatriotic not to tell the truth, whether about the president or anyone else.”
— Theodore Roosevelt
Adonai, pour out your kingdom.
May 4, 2009 - 7:27 am 94. buckets:Damn, I don’t read BC for a weekend, and all of a sudden we have another celebrity in our midst! Cheers to L3, and to the thought police for identifying our dangerous cabal.
And in case any reporters are interested in tracking me down and writing a story, “Buckets McBucket” is my full name.
I’m not much for the limericks, but here’s a start:
“There once was a man named McBucket”
May 4, 2009 - 8:45 am 95. buddy larsen:(what i just posted @ the Examiner)
Thanks for the reply, Ms Grannan. I’m confused tho by your “Some of these comments are incomprehensible, though, at least to me” –do you mean that such opinions are incomprehensible, or that the fact someone can hold them is so, or that you don’t follow their expressions on the page?
Also, wanted to mention that search terms
[ teach for america ] at least in Google News will produce a variety of lively & current reports & essays from a wide variety of viewpoints –including the WSJ, which leads an April 25th “Review & Outlook” column
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124061253951954349.html
thus:
(open quote)
Here’s a quiz: Which of the following rejected more than 30,000 of the nation’s top college seniors this month and put hundreds more on a waitlist? a) Harvard Law School; b) Goldman Sachs; or c) Teach for America.
If you’ve spent time on university campuses lately, you probably know the answer. Teach for America — the privately funded program that sends college grads into America’s poorest school districts for two years — received 35,000 applications this year, up 42% from 2008. More than 11% of Ivy League seniors applied, including 35% of African-American seniors at Harvard. Teach for America has been gaining applicants since it was founded in 1990, but its popularity has exploded this year amid a tight job market.
So poor urban and rural school districts must be rejoicing, right? Hardly. Union and bureaucratic opposition is so strong that Teach for America is allotted a mere 3,800 teaching slots nationwide, or a little more than one in 10 of this year’s applicants. Districts place a cap on the number of Teach for America teachers they will accept, typically between 10% and 30% of new hires. In the Washington area, that number is about 25% to 30%, but in Chicago, former home of Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, it is an embarrassing 10%.
This is a tragic lost opportunity. Teach for America picks up the $20,000 tab for the recruitment and training of each teacher, which saves public money. More important, the program feeds high-energy, high-IQ talent into a teaching profession that desperately needs it. Unions claim the recent grads lack the proper experience and commitment to a teaching career. But the Urban Institute has studied the program and found that “TFA status more than offsets any experience effects. Disadvantaged secondary students would be better off with TFA teachers, especially in math and science, than with fully licensed in-field teachers with three or more years of experience.”
(close quote)
That’s just the lead-in, please read the whole thing. That’s a lot of eager talent being turned away from the children, whose interests — tho un-unionized –should, one would presume, be ‘top, front, and center’.
As a matter of fact, what appears to be happening re the 90% turn-away, could be seen as frankly tantamount to a form of child abuse.
Well, thanks for the space, Ms Grannan.
best regards,
May 4, 2009 - 9:17 am 96. buddy larsen:Buddy Larsen
PS, just returned to the examiner site to see if my comment had posted. It hadn’t, due to the URL inclusion. So I had to delete the WSJ URL, as Ms. Gannan’s site rejects URLs. But readers here can click on it, just above.
May 4, 2009 - 9:29 am 97. peterike:Has KIPP ever gone to the Gates Foundation for funding? That PC-dummy (and by PC I don’t mean personal computer) Bill Gates funds all kinds of educational nonsense. Perhaps his foundation might see some sense to throw a few sheckles to the real thing.
May 4, 2009 - 9:39 am 98. pendejo grande:I’ve been lurking and occasionally posting here for years. It never crossed my mind that any of you people were fellow Texans. Y’all seem way to smart……
May 4, 2009 - 9:54 am 99. Sylvia:L3, accolades!
Our daughter attends an excellent public high school, but we had to move, change jobs, etc., to get her in it — her previous school was so awful it was worth it to change our lives completely.
When we lived in Texas (Austin, not Houston, sorry), the Eanes District had a truly wonderful gifted program. The best, though, is ATDP at UC Berkeley, sadly only a part of summer each year. The kids declared when they were young that they would be happiest if they were *allowed* to cover a year’s worth of a single subject every four to six weeks with a little break (a week?) between. “School the way school should be.”
May 4, 2009 - 9:56 am 100. buddy larsen:Decipher the L3-critical Socialist Worker Party/Houston schoolteacher’s gerund/infinitive intersloppiability!
May 4, 2009 - 10:06 am 101. buddy larsen:yep, good to know that the Bophal Tragedy of 29 years ago is the left’s reason for keeping new blood out of the K12 industry.
May 4, 2009 - 10:11 am 102. buddy larsen:Who needs new blood, anyway?
That 50% dropout rate in the inner cities completely IGNORES the fact that 50% DON’T drop out without high school diplomas!
The Socialist Workers has figured that out by subtracting 50% from 100%, and coming up with that key 50% that too getting there diploma are to anyway so their.
May 4, 2009 - 10:18 am 103. Agoraphobic Plumber:Well, Leo’s busted. Since I’m also a denizen of BC, I wonder what sort of tizzy it would put these people into if they found out I was running a foster home and attempting to “indoctrinate” my charges with radical ideas like pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, getting off the public dole ASAP, being responsible for their own actions, etc.
Probably torches and pitchforks for me.
May 4, 2009 - 10:22 am 104. wrecktafire:JJRedFan/70
Greetings from California!
The California homeschool situation is actually much better than the recent bad publicity would suggest. HSLDA (Home School Legal Defense Association) is an excellent source of state-by-state comparison info, and up-to-date info on who is being persecuted and where. $100 a year gets you a monthly magazine and a certain amount of legal representation.
Joe Bob says check it out.
May 4, 2009 - 12:13 pm 105. Doug:“TFA teachers do great work, but better schools are only part of the solution. Stable families are more able to be ambitious for their children than insecure, overworked and struggling ones. We need national health care, a stronger union movement, long-term unemployment benefits, generous college funding, immigration reform, trade policy, freedom for alternative lifestyles and reductions in military spending. Specifically, we need to enlarge the middle class by any means necessary.”
May 4, 2009 - 12:29 pm 106. Leo Linbeck III:—
Great Find, Buddy!
That was key to homeschooling success for us, also.
Every stable family is different, but our child’s learning blossomed when the significant other and I both married high energy transgendered union organizers.
The explosion of energy and social experimentation was miraculous. We also started dumping household and garden chemicals in the gutter – every stroll down the sidewalk was like a working chem lab for the kids.
Neighbors pets became examples of the variety of euthanasia options available to anyone with the creative drive to openly experiment for the good of the children, and in some cases, to take care of their nagging grandparents.
It was not long before both the homeschoolers and our less inspired neihbor’s kids started finding novel new ways to interact, all on their own!
peterike,
Has KIPP ever gone to the Gates Foundation for funding?
Actually, the Gates Foundation has been very supportive of KIPP, and other PHILO schools. I don’t know what the national numbers are, but they gave $10M to KIPP:Houston’s growth plans, and have been working with us of late on developing some of our very creative financing ideas (don’t worry; they don’t involve either Fannie or Freddie
.
I have found the Gates folks to be smart and hard working, and they really want to fix the educational system for all kids. They, like all of us, are occasionally overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, but they keep working it so I have a lot of respect for their commitment, and believe they are really making an impact.
BTW – if you haven’t seen Bill Gates’ TED speech, it’s worth seeing:
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/bill_gates_unplugged.html
He spends half of his time (the latter half) talking about KIPP. Pretty cool stuff, considering he could have talked about anything he wanted…
Cheers,
May 4, 2009 - 12:32 pm 107. Leo Linbeck III:L3
I want to thank all of the BCers for their kind and supportive comments. But, as I said above, the ones who really deserve kudos are the students, parents, teachers, school leaders, administrators, philanthropists, and especially Mike Feinberg and Dave Levin, KIPP’s co-founders. I encourage you to support them, and spread the word about the great work they’re doing.
See you around the club. Cheers,
L3
May 4, 2009 - 12:37 pm 108. buddy larsen:ROFLMAO, doug –yes you are the very model of the New Socialist Man!
L3, um, Feinberg and Levin? Are you sure you right-wing, eccentric, business titan, right-wing Texas right-wing right-wingers should be working with, ah, those people ?
May 4, 2009 - 12:56 pm 109. buddy larsen:ok, ok, i’ll quit mocking Ms. Grannan –she ain’t so bad. It’s just, well, that taco stand –trying to shut it down because some kids couldn’t afford a taco –that’s really wrong thinking. She doesn’t own the kids, and she doesn’t own the future. What about the taco vendor’s kids? And what about the kids who want a taco but can’t afford it –haven’t nearly all great achievers wanted a taco but couldn’t afford it? And so they started thinking, lessee, what does this world need by way of a better mousetrap, hmmm. As opposed to, none of us can have a taco unless we ALL can, so we better just not think about tacos anymore. and in the meantime, regulate that taco vendor QUICK.
May 4, 2009 - 1:31 pm 110. buddy larsen:after all, what about the cholesterol ???? Let’s ALL have soybeans instead.
Feh.
May 4, 2009 - 1:37 pm 111. Ptasie Mleczko:As a reader of Wretchard for ~4 yrs, I am astonished to learn that this is broadly considered a conservative blog. It generally seems moderately thoughtful and thoughtfully moderate….even some of the commenters. While many dont obviously share Richard’s erudition, clarity of thought, distance, balance, prescience, classical analytics, unreconstructed Judaeo-Christian moral heritage, the construction worker (Linbeck) mostly does, though he could be a bit more down to earth.
So, now I have to go looking for a nice conservative blog to balance out my point of view. Can anyone please suggest one?
In exchange I offer these, lest you think that we readers in Houston are exclusively monastic ascetics.
http://foodinhouston.blogspot.com/
http://blogs.houstonpress.com/eating/
http://www.tasty-bits.com/
oh, and just to counter the view of Houston as the incubator of greed and corruption in business, please look here when you are ready to re-educate yourself regarding Enron
http://blog.kir.com/
May 4, 2009 - 1:47 pm 112. JMH:Just goes to show how bad sprawl has gotten in Texas, since Australia is now a suburb of Houston.
I guess we shouldn’t be too surprised that a defender of the current educational establishement would have poor reading comprehension and geography skills.
May 4, 2009 - 1:55 pm 113. Tony:Way to go Leo!
As you can see, we are proud of you, proud to be a fellow Belmont Clubber with you.
May 4, 2009 - 2:26 pm 114. Doug:Indeed, Leo!
I believe the country’s salvation depends on the future of education:
If the present situation continues without end, I simply can’t see a successful righting of the ship.
as #35 – Jim Nicholas says, a lot of us have ideas, but you are “digging the trenches and laying the foundations upon which can be built a realization of those ideas.”
We thank you, and salute you, Sir!
May 4, 2009 - 3:33 pm 115. JWT:I was at summer Boy Scout Camp in East Texas when we got word one evening that Alaska was admitted to the Union. Boy that was a real downer. Imagine rowdy young native Texans having to carry that sorry, crushing burden to their tents.
May 4, 2009 - 5:04 pm 116. buddy larsen:reconsidering my 109 –if some kids were getting hurt, do something. if ‘hurt’ was a ‘what if?’ then 109 stands.
May 4, 2009 - 5:11 pm 117. Hoagland:Thanks Leo Three
God makes them perfect
Then we take our human turn
Narrow path; kids lost
Leo dreams, “do better”
Parents deserve more choices
Heresy, say some
Dreams grow when we try
But Leo breaks rice bowls
Rowers rock the boat
The model changes
May 4, 2009 - 5:12 pm 118. Doug:Children love to learn again
Some are saved, at last
My Gawd, JWT, that never crossed my mind.
All these years I’ve wondered what might have been the cause of Larsen’s all too apparent overwhelming neuroses.
I’m ashamed to admit Geographic Deficiency Denial Syndrome never crossed my mind.
Foolish, and hard to believe, I admit, but there it is.
May 4, 2009 - 5:41 pm 119. buddy larsen:The task @ hand is now apparent:
Enabling Buddy to Heal.
well eck shoe a lee, we solved that problem within minutes, observing that drinks are not measured with the ice in them, the ice is added later. so it was all just an error of ‘when’ measured.
May 4, 2009 - 5:47 pm 120. buddy larsen:Where are you from?
“Hawaii.”
Fine, thank you. Where are you from?
May 4, 2009 - 5:50 pm 121. Doug:Part of the “Price of Paradise”
May 4, 2009 - 6:08 pm 122. buddy larsen:that we willingly pay.
So that’s how you spell it –i had thought that saying was the ‘price of parrot eyes’
May 4, 2009 - 8:18 pm 123. JesseAlred:You know, it’s funny how affluent folks have gotten away with pretend populism in the years since Reagan, the most privileged people around. How long you thank this will work?
May 4, 2009 - 8:40 pm 124. Doug:Price of Parrot’s in Cheeseburgers, I do believe.
—
– ALTERED BOY –
…Good God, he’s talking with parrots
Painting his dreams in the sand
Piling up beaucoup demerits
Doing it just ’cause he can
By Jove he’s having a cocoa
Evading those judgemental eyes
Calmly walking his tight rope
High above all the outcries
But Peter Pan would understand
His schemes and dreams and ploys
Best keep an eye on his slight hand
He such an altered boy
The story goes
he stumbled at the alter
Now it seems he just blasphemes
And dwells with dangers daughter
Someone call the talking doctor
May 4, 2009 - 10:17 pm 125. twiceshy:Somebody get a SWAT team
There he sits getting away with
murder
How dare him live out his dreams…
Jesse James Alred, Jr. (or is it All Red??? given your affinity for posting in socialist sites).
May 4, 2009 - 10:33 pm 126. Doug:Welcome to our little lovefest.
I doubt you will want to linger. Not many of your kind here. After a few cursory glances, you won’t find us very amusing. The references are too inside for you to grasp.
As we say here in Houston, while herding our cattle or our cats ’round town…move along little doggie.
Gotta admire the Red in Chief’s Talents tho:
May 4, 2009 - 11:02 pm 127. buddy larsen:Getting the Hoi Polloi a good head of steam and hate toward Bankers and Wall Streeters, while his boy Timmy pays off old pals with billions.
Pickin and Choosin in the Chocolate Store which Confections he’ll take to run as his own.
Good question, Jesse. Seeing as how history is proving that the more the socialism, the lower the birth rate & longevity and the higher the alcoholism and suicide, perhaps someone should ask you “how long you thank it’ll last”.
May 5, 2009 - 12:39 am 128. buddy larsen:You know, it’s funny how affluent folks have gotten away with pretend populism in the years since Reagan, the most privileged people around.
So, Reagan is a “people”? I had thought he was a person. May I ask you, sir, what subject it is that you teach the high-schoolers of Houston?
As Groucho might say, “Hope it ain’t English!”
Let me answer my previous post’s question for you, so that we may move on to your accusation of “pretend populism”. Your truthful answer can only be based on history, and can thus only be “It depends on how well the secret police execute their duties”. You may have other answers, but the one I’ve supplied is “of the first water”.
Now, who is guilty of “pretend populism”?
One the one hand we have “freedom” (‘capitalism’ is a Marxist term, its nearest unloaded match would be ‘freedom’, as both refer to what people do when not coerced), which, by creating ‘capital’ (which acts to invest value-added into the future), and according to history, tends to lift individuals and societies and nations up and out of poverty.
On the other hand, we have “socialism”, which forces a breakdown of the conditions of “freedom” and thus, according to history, tends to stall individuals, societies and nations in the state of poverty.
So, assuming that words have meanings (an assumption to the benefit of mankind and the glory of God), and that ‘populist’ is one of those, which of the two concepts, that is, freedom vs socialism, is real, and which is “pretend”?
Tell the truth, now, Mr Alred. Remember your answer will be here in writing, and so riposted.
May 5, 2009 - 1:44 am 129. JesseAlred:I am a social democrat, not a socialist, though you might not acknowledge the difference. I will post anywhere from far left to far right. Though your prescriptions for the economy and foreign policy are radically diferent, the socialist worker and many on the Belmont Club share a common attitude towards our nation’s government. I am no economist either, but it seems libertarians or free-market utopians, whatever the label, forget our country lost its original self we stopped being a nation of small farrmers (independent businessmen) and became a unequal society of corporations, small businesses and wage or salaried workers. And you forget markets in the private sector are rarely free. Today’s start up is tommorrow’s monopoly. The notion of absolute power corrupting absolutely applies to billionaires as well as politians.
May 5, 2009 - 5:14 am 130. buddy larsen:thank you, mr Alred, for your very revealing post @ 129. I really don’t quite know what to say to it. Where to start. it’s pretty early but i think i’ll just have a shot of bourbon and go sit in a tree.
May 5, 2009 - 5:42 am 131. JesseAlred:This is the real question for you rich folks. How do you stand on China? This nation, led by the Communist Party obviously lacks the freedoms our founding fathers, diverse as they were, desired. But, oh, China allows the freedom to make money through enterprise, so I guess you can forgive them for everything else. Forget Tiennemen Square, killing their own college kids, not a few like at Kent STate, but hundreds. In my opinion, we should cut them off as much as we can, stop feeding the beast. But that runs against the neo-liberal/neo-conservative, Clinton/Bush consenus-religion of unfettered trade.
Richard “Dick” Nixon (I honestly can’t say I like Dick, but Richard was an interesting man), as crazy and deadly as he was–was at least a consistent nationalist–economic and foreign policy-wise. Anyone here support a GUARANTEED FAMILY INCOME? And his strategic engagement with China would NOT have involved trading our factory jobs for receiving our promissory notes. NIXON would not have sent our young kids to kill, die and torture and then turn around and complain about paying tithes to our nation (though the psycho would have sent them to kill, die and torture, to be sure.)
By the way, the school improvement movement has no better friend in this whole country than Jesse James Alred. I’ve always been your best friend in the trenches, you can be assured of that. I am your ally on those issues, that’s for sure, it’s just that I want all kids to be included, no picking the best prepared, and then proclaiming, look what a miracle we have performed. Nope. Nope.
I attended only one football game this year for my high school. The players on the other team must have averaged six inches and twenty pounds over our players. On the football field, they were the cream, our’s were the crop. (I knew football. I grew up in Mississippi. At 8 years old I had watched Archie Manning play his final Ole Miss game, a Sugar Bowl national championship, with a broken arm in cast–and lose.) I knew I was not going to see much of a game this day. It ended up fifty-something to nothing. The opposing team scored at will, and then showed a little charity, thank goodness. (Our cheeleaders were…better than their’s.)
I wonder if the coaches of the opposing team, like the founders of KIPP and their billionaire funders, think they had done a brilliant job coaching when their students outperformed our kids; or were they realists and honest people who acknowledged they had creamed better players long before the game began.
May 5, 2009 - 7:37 pm 132. buddy larsen:Great post, Jesse –naw, i can’t get too excited about arguing with you –but i sure do enjoy reading your views on stuff. Please stick around and write often –as often as you can. This is where you need to be –where you can convert others. Not at that socialist workers site where you alred-y got ‘em in your i guess otherwise empty pocket.
May 6, 2009 - 10:47 am 133. Steve Miller:Trust me guys, you’re not doing with these kids what you think you’re doing!!!
May 6, 2009 - 3:35 pm 134. buddy larsen:I am a two year teacher coming from Corporate America. A banker turned teacher. I used to think just like the corporate guys thought about education until I became an educator. The kids that Kipp and Yes think they are turning into superstars are already superstars at the inner city schools and would be stars in the burbs. They’re going to succeed no matter where they are. In effect, Kipp and Yes have taken our AP kids and put them on a different campus. Now, if Kipp and Yes could take my Joels, and Christians, and Jose’s and Ernesto’s and turn them into stars I would say they have done something. Hell, I’ll give you all my money. Until then, they are no better than average schools. Inner city schools are not broken and the teachers are doing a wonderful job. It’s the community and parents that are broken and until that is fixed inner city schools will remain mediocre. I have two bachelors and a masters in Finance and I teach on an extremely high level everyday. Without parental support and buy in there is nothing that I can do to make a student study or want to study or do his homework. For crying out loud Kipp and Yes have an application process. I take all comers. Let Kipp take all comers and call me next year. (713)557-6520 I’m listening!!!!!!!!
Well and good, Steve. But is it fair to top students to hold them in an environment less conducive to their academic results, in order to improve that environment? What about those bright, motivated kids –are they to have lesser rights as a sort of societal reprimand or ‘leveling’ –in order that you and your like-minded may worship the fairness idol? All due respect, but really, sir.
May 6, 2009 - 5:28 pm 135. bogie wheel:Well and good, Steve. But is it fair to top students to hold them in an environment less conducive to their academic results, in order to improve that environment? What about those bright, motivated kids –are they to have lesser rights as a sort of societal reprimand or ‘leveling’ –in order that you and your like-minded may worship the fairness idol? All due respect, but really, sir.
Buddy, it’s the taco truck approach to education. If everybody can’t have it, then nobody can.
There is no fixing the mindset of indifferent parents and students via withholding options from the motivated parents and students.
I don’t absolutely disagree with Steve’s assertion that the motivated kids will succeed regardless of environment. But I don’t think that one can make an absolute, universal assertion of “every one of these kids will succeed no matter what” either. To claim that these kids are 100% impervious would be naive. Expose enough of them to crappy institutional schooling and, as too often happens, the violence and vulgarity of a bad or mediocre school, and it WILL impact some of them negatively. They may not turn into unemployed drop-out junkies … but they will not reach their full potential, either.
Anyone who has taught a large classroom full of kids with widely divergent motivation levels and aptitudes knows where the teacher’s limited reserves of attention and energy go — to the loud kids, esp. the disciplinary problems and the strugglers. The bright, quiet & hard-working kids get shorted.
Even if *all* KIPP and charter schools did was to allow the bright & motivated kids a safe, non-disruptive place to learn and learn exceedingly well, that alone would be an important and valuable thing.
May 6, 2009 - 6:20 pm 136. JesseAlred:Yes, KIPP, through complete segregation, does provide bright students a better environment than one where they are mixed with kids with issues, and so do magnet classes, and so do application-based public schools like East-End Early College, where well above ninety-percent of students pass the TAKS tests, with far less time in class than KIPP students. Contrary to propaganda, most of us who are teachers are strong advocates for education, high standards and better behavior, because we have to deal with reluctant students and the disrupters not in theory but in painful practice on a daily basis.
But why do KIPP leaders claim they do not cream? They are insistent on this point. Is it ego? Every guy wants to be a miracle worker? or is it to get fundind. Whatever their real political convictions–Mr. Feinberg and Mr. Levin interned for Democratic politiicans before starting KIPP–they know if they attack the tax-collecting public schools, rich folks will pour money into their coffers.
Does KIPP provide a quality public education? YES. Do they cream? Yes.
You people who have the big money, yo tengo el poder, make them compete on a level playing field. Have these Ivy League genuises take one neighborhood, every kid in it, the ESL kids, and the Special Education kids as well, and see what they can do.
May 6, 2009 - 6:53 pm 137. buddy larsen:Bogie, i hear ya.
Let’s examine that ‘fairness issue’ from yet another angle: Is it fair, for example (not making any accusations here) that an adult teacher hold the best and brightest back, in order to boost that adult’s career metrics?
And, in re your point, we’ve all seen far too many bright kids lose motivation and idle through what actually is half the only dedicated-to-learning part of their lives they’ll ever have (or ALL of it if they don’t go to an undergrad degree).
Have we seen the converse?
Any rowdy or unmotivated students ‘rescued’ by proximity to the motivateds? One can probably say, yes, maybe, but that wouldn’t be the way to bet, would it?.
And the size and certainty of the sacrifice on the one hand is way, way out of proportion to any hit-or-miss marginal possible effect on the other.
May 6, 2009 - 6:56 pm 138. Leo Linbeck III:Jesse and Steve are simply wrong on the facts:
1. Incoming KIPP and YES kids score the same as their district counterparts on standardized test. They don’t “skim” the most talented kids.
2. There is no “application” process in the sense that they are chosen based upon their likelihood of success. Kids “apply” to get into a lottery. There is then a random selection process to determine who gets in and who doesn’t. (That is why the kids perform at the same level as other, district-bound kids.) In fact, PHILO schools are more open than the high-performing district schools, almost all of which are magnet schools (that have admission requirements) or schools in higher-income areas (more than 90% of KIPP kids are in the free or reduced-price lunch program, which means they’re from poor families – this is higher than the district).
3. The two schools have a waiting list that is 6X as big as the number of entry slots. That means that 5X as many “motivated” kids end up in district schools as are taken by KIPP and YES. The “lottery losing” kids perform demonstrably worse than the “lottery winning” kids who get into KIPP and YES. Harvard just performed a randomized research analysis on results, and showed that “lottery winners” significantly outperformed “lottery losers.”
4. The differences grow the further along they are in school – the high-school gap is much bigger than the middle-school gap.
The objections that Jesse and Steve raise have been raised and rebutted time and again. The fact is that the approach taken by KIPP and YES works better. Districts could adopt PHILO methods (they’re not a secret, and they’re very open about sharing them), but they don’t, for a whole variety of reasons.
Look, there are lots of great teachers in the district schools. They work incredibly hard and do great, heroic work. But there are great people in the auto industry, too. That doesn’t make the system any less broken.
Rather than spread misinformation about PHILO schools, supporters of district education should learn the facts and press for changes that will make the districts better. After all, it’s the future of kids that we’re talking about here. We have to stop the destruction of our most valuable resource, human capital.
In that respect, we’re talking about our future as well, and that of our nation.
L3
May 6, 2009 - 7:00 pm 139. buddy larsen:jesse, what’s with you and the ‘big money’ shtick? What on earth makes you think you’re talking to ‘big money’? And what of it anyway? If you had ‘big money’ would you go around dissing and insulting yourself? Not very likely, right?
May 6, 2009 - 7:01 pm 140. Leo Linbeck III:One more thing: KIPP takes ESL and SpecEd kids, just like the district, and in roughly the same proportion. KIPP’s LEP (Limited English Proficiency) numbers are the same as the district in areas where they serve Hispanic kids (some of their schools are predominantly African American). The big difference is that after one year at KIPP, the LEP numbers plummet because the kids learn to speak, read, and write English. Imagine that.
Again, KIPP does not skim. It’s easy to write “KIPP skims,” but this claim is not supported by the facts and the data.
Facts:
>90% free-and-reduced lunch population
Statistically identical entry scores
Comparable LEP and SpecEd percentages
There is no skimming here. I encourage everyone to look at the annual Report Card that KIPP publishes each year. Here’s the 2008 RC for KIPP Academy Middle School (the original KIPP school in Houston):
http://www.kipp.org/reportcard/2008/schools/KIPP_ReportCard2008_34.pdf
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion; but not everyone is entitled to their own facts.
L3
May 6, 2009 - 7:17 pm 141. buddy larsen:PS, save the lecture on the collective class being more important than the individuals in it. I accept the argument already, and extend thje collective to society at large, which benefits tremendously from exceptional individuals making breakthroughs in every field of endeavor.
And as such, the largest collective is the most important, because breakthroughs raise the collective standard of living.
And given that, any systemitized, bureaucratic restraint placed across the paths of potentially exceptional kids is, well, a crime against the State.
Anyone who does this deliberately is um, dialectically, ah, an Enemy of the People. So much for who is and who isn’t a “pretend populist” (re your phrase upthread).
May 6, 2009 - 7:23 pm 142. JesseAlred:Mr. Linbeck:
I do not mean families run a gauntlet to get into KIPP or YES, and I would say, yes, they provide a better education than your neighborhood school, but, one, families who select a school where their kids spend more time in school every day, every other Saturdayt, an extra month each year, and commit to two hours of homework each night is far more aware and committed to education than the average family from their neighborhoods.
These schools, contrary to your own words, r. Linbeck, are not surrogate parents, because they have GREAT parents already, parents able to rise above depressing situations that might weaken others. My realtor, a Yes parent, says, yes, it is a sacrifice, but one worth making. My teacher colleague, a Yes sibling, says Yes is a good school but its filled with students different from our’s.
Look at East End Early College, which is fairly new, but its initial TAKS scores are exemplary. Families chose to go there, not through a gauntlet run, but via a simple application process, and they produce results without Ivy League New Yorkers running the show, home grown human capital, home grown teachers who went to U of H, Texas A and M and UT, and these unheralded teachers have significantly less time in class than KIPP kids have.
I would like to know the sources for your argument that KIPP students score the same as other kids in their neighborhoods, because the sources on both sides of this argument tend to be propagandistic.
I grew up poor, albeit white, and one thing I know, is all poor kids are not the same, and logic tells me all Black kids are not the same, and 14 years of teaching experience tells me all Hispanic kids are not the same.
May 6, 2009 - 7:30 pm 143. JesseAlred:Mr. Linbeck demands that KIPP have the absolute purity of the ideal. Turning water into wine. The slummy reality of qualified success is not enough for him. I appreciate my plumber because he makes my toilet flush. I don’t need to worship him. We all get our hands dirty in this world.
May 6, 2009 - 7:50 pm 144. buddy larsen:check it out, fellas –and GR didn’t even blurb that the large majority of the pols who don’t want others to do it, are sending their own kids to private schools. Did i miss it, did this country mandate hypocrisy in the public space?
May 6, 2009 - 8:09 pm 145. JesseAlred:Oró, sé do bheatha abhaile,
Oró, sé do bheatha abhaile,
Oró, sé do bheatha abhaile
Anois ar theacht an tsamhraidh.
‘Sé do bheatha, a bhean ba léanmhar,
do ba é ár gcreach tú bheith i ngéibheann,
do dhúiche bhreá i seilbh méirleach,
is tú díolta leis na Gallaibh.
[Chorus]
Tá Gráinne Mhaol ag teacht thar sáile,
óglaigh armtha léi mar gharda,
Gaeil iad féin is ní Gaill ná Spáinnigh,
is cuirfidh siad ruaig ar Ghallaibh.
[Chorus]
A bhuí le Rí na bhFeart go bhfeiceann,
May 6, 2009 - 8:31 pm 146. Sylvia:mura mbim beo ina dhiaidh ach seachtain,
Gráinne Mhaol agus míle gaiscíoch,
ag fógairt féin ar Ghallaibh.
Leo, still following this thread. Bogie and Buddy keep posting things similar to what I would say. One question for you. How are you handling supporting the students in learning to avoid gang recruitment? Is there open coaching of the kids in this? I watched the gangs start recruiting kids in kindergarten in my daughter’s school when we lived in Chicago (Helen Peirce, north side), and the pressure was extreme.
May 6, 2009 - 9:04 pm 147. Leo Linbeck III:Jesse,
First, of all, please refer to me either as Leo or (preferably) L3. Mr. Linbeck is my father (he deserves the respect more than me).
Second, I don’t deny that KIPP parents are motivated for their kids to have a great education. I only dispute that other parents in the underserved neighborhoods feel differently. With few exceptions, ALL parents want their kids to get a great education. That is why the lottery list at KIPP has 4,500 entrants for about 700 entry slots. The district, therefore, gets many more GREAT parents by this measure – 3,800 go to the district, 700 to KIPP.
Third, a lot what what you’ve written here and elsewhere about KIPP (and, I might add, me) is based upon hearsay, second-hand reports, and conjecture. You appear to know very little about KIPP. It would strengthen your arguments if you based them upon data. You can look up KIPP on the TEA website and examine the statistics. You can then compare to other neighborhood schools, and make up your own mind. Or look at KIPP’s website and look at the results. Or read one of the many studies that have done on them. I did all these things, and it was the data I found compelling enough to get actively involved.
Fourth, you state
Mr. Linbeck demands that KIPP have the absolute purity of the ideal.
I demand no such thing. KIPP is not perfect; it has many flaws, as there are in all organizations (including my own) that rely upon such imperfect instruments as human beings for their work. But my observation is that KIPP has built a culture in which failure is acknowledged and dealt with, not obscured with “spin” and political posturing. It is also relentlessly focused on what will produce the best results for the kids. It combines these two attributes into a powerful system for helping poor children achieve their life’s destiny. Sounds lofty, but it is achieved through hard work and “getting your hands dirty.”
Finally, I can tell that you are passionate about education and helping kids. We share that passion. I may have grown up wealthy and privileged (although not so much as you appear to think; my father is not a billionaire
), but if we can’t find common ground to work on this nation’s problems together, then we have little hope of solving them.
Instead, I would ask you to join with me and many others who are trying to transform the system by increasing access to great schools by poor kids. Why should the ability to choose a school be limited only to my rich friends and middle-class employees? Why should the poor be trapped with no options in schools that are clearly substandard? Why should we tolerate a system that handicaps racial minorities, who are disproportionately disadvantaged by the current system? Why should we put the needs of adults who work for the system ahead of the needs of the children entrusted to our care? Why should we waste our most precious resource – our human capital?
The world is indeed an imperfect place: messy, dirty, complex, and irrational. But that is not an excuse for protecting an ineffective status quo. Rather, it is a reason to work on reform together, along with the people of all races, incomes, genders, religions, and political persuasions, and start providing educational choices to those among us who need it most.
Cheers,
May 6, 2009 - 9:08 pm 148. Leo Linbeck III:L3
Jesse,
One more thing: a large amount of what you’ve said about me personally is factually incorrect. I’ve not bothered to correct those errors because, frankly, this issue is not about me. But if you’re interested in knowing the truth, lemme know. You have my email address and I’ll be happy to provide you with a detailed list of your errata.
Cheers,
May 6, 2009 - 9:12 pm 149. Leo Linbeck III:L3
Sylvia,
Good question. I don’t know the details about how KIPP addresses the gang issue. However, there are two things that strongly mitigate the potential for gang recruitment:
1. More time. KIPPsters go to school from 7:30a-5:00pm, and have 2-3 hours of homework each night. There’s not much time for them to be hanging around the hood. They also go to school every-other Saturday. More time in school equals less time on the street.
2. Strong culture of discipline and support. KIPPsters have to follow the rules. It is a very highly-structured environment. That structure makes it harder for gangs to get a foothold in a school. Plus, students can call teachers 24/7 (teachers give out their cell numbers). The culture is, therefore, an inhospitable environment for gangs.
In one of the Houston schools – an 95% African-American all-boys middle school – some of the kids who lived nearby walked to school. But when gangs started harassing the kids on the way to school, KIPP started sending buses to pick them up and drive them to school – in some cases kids were riding the bus for just a few blocks, but they were protected from gangs.
It seems sort of obvious. But doing that sort of thing in a district school would be nearly impossible. KIPP just did it.
Hope that helps. If you want more info, I could reach out to one of the KIPP school leaders. Lemme know.
Cheers,
May 6, 2009 - 9:21 pm 150. Sylvia:L3
Leo, thanks for the quick reply. The buses are an excellent thing. Truly.
At Peirce, a group of parents and a policeman provided escort for the kids walking to and from school. Unfortunately, the area served by the school included a gang boundary. The kids who lived closest to the school were safe, but those who lived north of Ridge had to be escorted to the south side of the street. There would be gang members carrying pikestaves waiting for them on the north side of the street. This was ten years ago. Phys. Ed. included things like jumping rope and running, but no contact sports whatsoever…
May 6, 2009 - 10:04 pm 151. JesseAlred:Leo:
The way to fight poverty is to end poverty in the world’s richest country. Which is also the most unequal country among affluent countries. This is why I really don’t trust you. I agree that every family in the abstract would like to give their kids the best education, just like Mel Gibson in the abstract would like to love Jews, but the world gets in the way. In the abstract, I would like to be Bruce Springstein’s best friend, but I don’t live in New Jersey and I bought a house in a different neighborhood.
May 6, 2009 - 10:34 pm 152. JesseAlred:Mr. Linbeck:
Please let me know here what I have said about you was un-true. I don’t remember saying much about you that your own words didn’t say. I am troubled about this because maybe I did and I screwed up. I’ve definitely done so before, and I am capable of it, but I can’t remember anything other than saying you were a cofounder of the Free Enterprise Institute and you were not–you were just were a member of the executive committee.
The main issue here is whether KIPP takes the exact same sort of kids–and keeps them–as public schools.
If I really damaged your reputation you could sue me, but you wouldn’t get much: a dangerous toaster, one of those washers on the bottom and dryers at the top contraptions and a four-year old sony tv (it has great sound though, which brings me to why Japanese business executives make so much less than our’s.)
Nonetheless, all joking aside, what did I say that was untrue?
May 6, 2009 - 10:55 pm 153. JesseAlred:I am barely awake, but I got to say, I am a great fan of Yes and KIPP. But as Springsten sings: “your ain’t gonna find no miracles here.”
May 6, 2009 - 10:59 pm 154. Leo Linbeck III:Jesse,
A few examples:
One issue that kept bugging me during this research was why Mr. Linbeck, a Catholic … did not spend his energies on saving the Catholic schools.
Incorrect. I have spent considerable time working on saving Catholic schools, and continue to work on this important issue.
Mr. Linbeck is a frequent contributor to the Republican Party.
Incorrect. I have made a grand total of one contribution to the Republican Party, and that was to a dinner hosted by a Republican who has been a strong supporter of charter schools. I have supported both Republicans and Democrats, but I am an infrequent contributor to political candidates (maybe 4-5 times in my life). As a conservative, I have voted more Republican than Democrat, but I am not a member of either party, and never have been.
Why is he not organizing multi-million dollar projects for public schools, or even Catholic schools?
I have worked on several significant initiatives that support district and Catholic schools. And, for the record, charters are public schools. You may not like this fact, but look in the Texas Education Code and you will see that charters are legally public schools.
His own words imply that he wants to use charter schools to pose a “mortal threat’ to public schools
Not sure where you get this “implication.” A link would be appreciated. If I implied that at any time, it was not my intention. I support charter schools because I want low-income kids to have access to a great education. And, again, charter schools are public schools.
—
Jesse, I’m not upset with your errata; anyone who decides to engage in public debate (which is what a blog like BC is) has to expect to take some arrows. So you don’t need to worry about getting served with papers – your toaster is safe
. However, it does seem kinda weird that you went to a bunch of different websites and posted some of my limericks out of context, but, hey, it’s a free country.
What I would suggest, however, is that you avoid jumping to conclusions about people simply on the basis of the circumstances into which they were born. You and I may disagree on a great many things, but it seems like we should be able to have those disagreements and debate the substance without being disagreeable.
Cheers,
May 7, 2009 - 12:25 am 155. Leo Linbeck III:L3
Jesse,
I am a great fan of Yes and KIPP
OK, now I’m confused. But maybe it’s because I need to go to bed. Goodnight.
Cheers,
May 7, 2009 - 12:33 am 156. RattlerGator:L3
Well done, Leo.
May 7, 2009 - 2:41 am 157. buddy larsen:Without naming names, might i observe that teachers who grant themselves permission to work out their own (sometimes clearly considerable) issues on other people’s kids should probably not be teaching at all –and are probably one of the major incentives for parents to seek alternatives to schools where open political indoctrination is carried on regardless of what parents might think of it.
May 7, 2009 - 6:58 am 158. buddy larsen:Re Jesse Alred’s
USA is “…the most unequal country among affluent countries.”
Mississippi is our poorest state, with a per-capita income of 32K. The nation as a whole has a Per Capita Income of 37.5K.
This is “the most unequal country among affluent countries” ?
May 7, 2009 - 7:45 am 159. JesseAlred:1. On the Catholic school issue. I got your current position on the future of Catholic schools from this post. I had no intention of taking it out of context.
“Catholic schools have played an important role in our culture, providing educational
choice to the poor and some kind of check on the monopoly school district.
One big difference, however, is what comes after their demise. In the case
of Catholic schools, we know the answer: public schools, particularly charter
schools. But in the case of newspapers, who knows?” You stated Catholic schools would were dying because they had a bad business plan.
2. That charter schools are designated “public” is legal trickery. They are about as public as Haliburton. They are run by non-govermental organizations and their employees are not public employees with the rights of public employees. The myth of charter as public school won’t outlast the Era of Big Business.
3. “Never, in the history of mankind, has a monopoly reformed itself from within. When reform has happened, it has always been because an external threat, a mortal competitor, spurred the necessary change.” This is describing why the Annenburg Challenge was destined to fail.
4. I may have overstated your contributions to the Republican Party. I was aware your father was a contributor, but thought he would be identified as Jr. and as Chairman of the Linbeck Corporation. I don’t have time to research it thoroughly now, beause there are committees, and state and local offices to be considered. Clearly you and your wife have given to Republicans, Bush in 2004 for instance. As for giving to Democrats, probably one-third of them are very conservative on economic issues anyway. I was only trying to make it clear you were a conservative, which I think you would agree with. I am not much of an agreable gentleman, but I highly value honesty.
5. As for taking your posts being taken out of context–that is just wrong. The posts show you are a free-market conservative. I would say free-market utopian, admittedly that is my interpretation. There is a pattern. If I found a liberal-oriented post, and tried to paint you as a liberal, that would be out of context. Your posts reveal a conservative, my only point.
6. Mr. Larsen’s comment. “Without naming names, might i observe that teachers who grant themselves permission to work out their own (sometimes clearly considerable) issues on other people’s kids should probably not be teaching at all –and are probably one of the major incentives for parents to seek alternatives to schools where open political indoctrination is carried on regardless of what parents might think of it.” I guess this was aimed at me, since only two teachers were posting yesterday. You might be right on my having “considerable personal issues,” which considering our two recent Presidents should qualify me for high office, but I do not indoctrinate students, and I’ve never seen a liberal teacher who does. I have seen Christians and conservatives who do. And I would never place my students on stage at a national party convention.
I like YES and the service KIPP provides. I have written in many places, I would send my own kids there, and I want that choice preserved for the dedicated kids who would choose it, but do not exploit these schools in order to attack our public schools.
Mr. Linbeck, I have no way of gauging your own personal genuiness about providing better education for working-class kids, but when I see a collection of conservative Republicans and neoliberals–who oppose our families on nine out of ten issues–just down-right passionate about education for poor kids that makes me suspicious, as it will others. The struggle continues…
May 7, 2009 - 4:00 pm 160. buddy larsen:here, Jesse, i limericked your howler “I do not indoctrinate students, and I’ve never seen a liberal teacher who does. I have seen Christians and conservatives who do” for ya:
Indoctrinating a stu
is something that I never do
tho a Christian will
spill conservative swill
us lefties are ALL pure and true!
May 7, 2009 - 4:42 pm 161. JesseAlred:I like that limerick thing you do. I have to practice some, but I know my weaknesses, I’ll never get it right.
May 7, 2009 - 5:36 pm 162. Sylvia:Y’all need to send a message from me to Mr. Donald Fisher, chairman of the KIPP Foundation, that Jesse is coming by for a visit soon, and Jesse is burning up with a fiery rage.
You see, he recently bought a shirt from the GAP. It was a brown shirt. Mr. Fisher, or his son, sold Jesse a brown shirt.
Jesse washed it all of twice, and the buttons disappeared. That shirt set Jesse back twenty dollars. He is none too happy. If Nixon can have a list, Jesse can too.
Re 159.6: I am sorely tempted to list dozens of situations my daughter and/or I have experienced in the California public schools that make me think that either 159 believes that all teachers are more conservative/less liberal than he, or he is blind. I am very glad 159 is not teaching in my daughter’s school district!
School should be a place of positive reinforcement, of growth and learning and a safe setting for the spark of curiosity to lead to the development of knowledge, perception, logic, and self-confidence. It is sad that many kids today are having to learn how to censor the statement of their core beliefs to maintain their GPA’s. The whole PC thing should be, if it exists at all, an exercise conducted by and with adults, not inflicted on our kids. In my daughter’s previous school district, if she even said something as mildly conservative as “I think we should buy American,” quite a few of her teachers would have told her that was politically incorrect speech and she would have seen a negative effect in the next grade sheet.
My somewhat educated guess is that the KIPP schools are more like my daughter’s current school, where a statement like that might engender an interesting conversation about economics, trade policies, the power of the individual in a capitalistic society, etc., but she would not be persecuted for her statement.
Oh, and 159 might want to attend an Episcopal church that has a gay or lesbian priest and serves supper one Sunday a month to the local homeless population and has a very liberal parish. Not all Christians are conservatives.
May 7, 2009 - 5:39 pm 163. JesseAlred:Ms. Sylvia:
Please let me place my comments in context. I grew up in Mississippi, a place I love because it is my home, but to the extent there was any indoctrination there, it was from the conservatives, and the predominant Christianity was Southern Baptists, a denomination formed, started, founded, birthed in defense of slavery. The message of Christ and the message of the churches are not always synonymous, but I am aware of the many great churches, especially the Quakers, my personal favorite. I apologize if I implied all Christian teachers, or a significant number of them, were indoctrinators, But in my experience from the South, conservatives and right-wing religionists push their views more than liberals. This could be a regional difference. We would likely disagree on the issue of the role of individuals in a capitalist society–because I would ask–do you mean free-enterprise like when our country started–a nation of free and fairly equal individuals, or a nation where corporations dominate one political party and own fifty percent of the other one? Buy American, definitely, you are preaching to the choir, but don’t run over people in other countries either. I don’t know if you are speaking honestly or ideologically, but I am just glad when students express an independent opinion about any serious issue, I jump for joy when they take their heads away from the damn cell phones and express.
May 7, 2009 - 5:55 pm 164. buddy larsen:Jesse/161; “Y’all need to send a message from me to Mr. Donald Fisher” –ok, Jesse, i’ll do dat for ya:
Mr Fisher, his door will be knocked
by a Brownshirt, his principles hocked
to enemies of Gandhi
who feed Jesse candy
doped with drugs known as Kristallnacht.
May 7, 2009 - 5:57 pm 165. JesseAlred:buddy larsen is some sort of minor genius. But my brown shirt was one of those cool Mexican-style shirts, perfect for a middle-aged guy with a slight potrusion of the belly, cause you don’t have to tuck it.
It is a real shirt, not a metaphor. And I did buy it from Gap, and its buttons did come off after the second wash. How can they sell such crap, and they are not even a monopoly. They need to find better slaves to produce this stuff.
But I was going to visit Mr. Fisher anyway. Even though I kind of like the Gap.
May 7, 2009 - 7:57 pm