Paul Soglin wonders whether we have a problem with the air or water in Milwaukee, apparently because he thinks I misread his post bewailing talk radio hosts like Mark Belling and Charlie Sykes for blaming the parents for dysfunctional inner city schools.
Now, personally, I cringe when I ever hear talk radio hosts and callers utter the phrase "where are the parents?", but the fact remains that the home environments of students in systems like MPS tends to be a really huge problems.
Paul says, but I wasn't talking about MPS, alluding, apparently, to a latter discussion in his post of Madison public schools. But, of course, Belling and Sykes work in Milwaukee and when they talk about dysfunctional homes and the schools, they are generally talking about MPS.
Paul takes issue with my contention that the social dysfunction that contributes to problems in the schools has increased while the general level of racism and economic deprivation has increased, noting that the percentage of students in poverty has increased in Madison and, he supposes (and I agree), Milwaukee.
But my point was not that poverty among public school students has declined. Given the wholesale abandonment of systems like MPS by the middle class that would be unlikely. It is that social dysfunction among what some people call the "underclass" has increased notwithstanding massive social spending and declining racism and a decline in absolute economic deprivation.
Paul argues that it is futile to blame parents without supporting "any recognized programs to break the cycle" as if there was is written somewhere in the annals of natural law a principle that all social problems must have a government solution. I'm all for anything that will restore public safety in the city and reverse the demise of marriage and the rise of a culture that disparages middle class values. What I am not optimistic about is the idea that government can do what your family will not and that prosperity can simply be created by public spending.
5 comments:
"the fact remains that the home environments of students in systems like MPS tends to be a really huge problems."
Wow.
Ricky -- Why don't you take this topic and the topic right above it (wherein you argue that permitting same-sex marriage will destroy the institution of marriage by letting men continue to act like alleycats) and explain how your view on same sex marriage are proven true in MPS, where, although marriage is encouraged by society, we have thousands of poor students who come from single parent homes? It occurs to me that the MPS situation presents an opportunity for you to put your same sex marriage theory to the test. Let's hear your response!
To be accurate, I was restating Wax' argument. Nor would I refer to men as "alleycats." That has implications that I don't think matches what the situation actually is.
where, although marriage is encouraged by society, we have thousands of poor students who come from single parent homes?
But that supports, rather than contradicts, Wax' point. Society does not promote marriage like it used to. Births out of wedlock are acceptable, divorce is more likely to be seen as one choice among many, premarital sex is no big deal.
Noting your post headline...the air is in fact not just fine here, as Dane County will join Milwaukee, Waukesha, Racine, Brown and Columbia Counties on the Bush administration's EPA list of non-attainment areas for small particulates in the air (soot) that are associated with lung cancer, asthma and heart disease.
And as for the water: well, the need, per the state, for tougher mercury emission rules indicates that there is still too much of that killer in the waters of Wisconsin.
So Paul seems to be correct, which would put you on other side literally of that headline, and since it applies to Dane County, too, gives you and Paul something in common.
Don't you mean "are just fine here"?
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