OpEd: Why Aleysha Ortiz can't read (October, 2024)
markoppenheimer.substack.com

... I was stunned to read this piece in the local nonprofit CT Mirror about a Hartford high school graduate who never learned to read, and is now demanding redress from the public school system:

When 19-year-old Aleysha Ortiz told Hartford City Council members in May that the public school system stole her education, she had to memorize her speech.

Ortiz, who was a senior at Hartford Public High School at the time, wrote the speech using the talk-to-text function on her phone. She listened to it repeatedly to memorize it.

That's because she was never taught to read or write -- despite attending schools in Hartford since she was 6.

She can't even read one-syllable words. It's heartbreaking. Read the whole thing, or listen to the podcast that goes with it. ...

One family I know well in my city tells the story of their daughter, a junior, who is currently in a public high school where she has not had a permanent science teacher yet this year, and the substitute teacher shows them Law & Order episodes. In English class, they are not reading any books (although there are some small writing assignments). (I have generally found that the public schools assign almost no books these days, and the reasons I have gotten include "students won't read for homework" and "they lose the books.") At this high school, there is an AP track for very strong students, who I think are getting more of an education; but for the normie, middle-of-the-pack students, what they get is simply shameful. ...

I know the causes. For the substitute-teacher issue, the problem is principally a teacher shortage, caused in part by lower salaries than the suburbs. Where I live, in New Haven, teachers do okay, at least compared to, say, Mississippi teachers. Here is the salary schedule for last year: [see OpEd for the chart]...

But the suburbs pay better still, and often lure away teachers. And irrespective of salaries, many teachers would rather teach in more bucolic settings, with fewer "problem" children (often traumatized by poverty). Our children's K-8 elementary school lost two principals in five years to the suburbs: one left for Branford, the other for Greenwich. One was white, one black, both with families to provide for.

Then there is the general chaos of a high-poverty city. And the low regard in which society holds public education. ...

Will public vouchers increase or decrease the financial and other education disparities between urban and suburban schools?