More on failing public schools

Yet another front page story on the failures of the Illinois High Schools - specifically Peoria District 150
http://www.pjstar.com/news/x251091028/Central-Illinois-schools-fall-short-of-increasing-No-Child-Left-Behind-standards

"Every high school in central Illinois - with the exception of Dunlap, which is one of only eight high schools in the state to make Adequate Yearly Progress -
has been labeled a "failure," according to standards .."

but here's the answer from the people who run this failing system...
"We are not failing. The system is failing us"
http://www.pjstar.com/topstories/x251091034/We-are-not-failing-The-system-is-failing-us

That seems a little like losing a basketball game by 50 points are then saying "we are not losing - the game is losing" or "the system we're using is losing"..
...although I fully agree that it is not the school personnel's fault entirely -- the lazy parents who do nothing but let their kids watch MTV and eat twinkies & the outside special interest groups who make their endless demands are partly to blame as well.

The print copy of the paper has an exhaustive list of the test scores of every area public school DISTRICT - which encompasses 250 different schools...
and only 16 public school districts out of the 74 listed - ranging from Macomb to Henry to Eureka achieved passing scores.



Lastly -- the social engineers in and outside of government have been tinnkering with the public school systems for decades -- banning anything that remotely resembles faith or religion - even teaching morality and right-and-wrong - encouraging promiscuity, softening anything that actually resembles discipline, and dumbing everyone DOWN & discouraging achievement, so the slowest students don't feel so bad about not passing...
I just wonder if those social engineers whose ideas have caused this failing mess (many of whom run teachers' unions and minority focus groups) will step forward and take responsibility...


Lastly - I have mentioned it before - there are schools - large & small - that are major successes and that get recognition nationally! And yet we mention them only in passing instead of looking closely at them and maybe modeling the rest of the failing districts after the ones that succeed. They mention Dunlap as a success but it isn't the only one locally --
Not surprisingly - most of the people who run or support the failing system claim that the answer is MORE MONEY -- when the facts prove otherwise as those local systems that are succeeding actually run their schools on LESS money per pupil than the failing public schools do....some on as little as HALF the funding as the public schools!