Some public schools are closing

[Russell Kanning]

I remember a Stossel report about all the money they were spending on KC schools. I guess they spent it all. They are closing half of their bloated places.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_closing_schools

[KBCraig]

Good news: the schools are closing.
Bad news: the kids are still forced to go to the ones that remain open.

[CJS]

Good news: the schools are closing.
Bad news: the kids are still forced to go to the ones that remain open.

So what will they have now ? 50 kids per class ?

[KBCraig]

Good news: the schools are closing.
Bad news: the kids are still forced to go to the ones that remain open.

So what will they have now ? 50 kids per class ?

No, actually KCMO had classes with too few students, which is one reason they're consolidating everything. Their population has shrunk, and they don't even need the schools they have.

I was pretty surprised to hear the KC superintendent Friday on "To the Point" point out that KC had received a special grant of $2 billion, just for one school district, and after spending the money over the period of a decade, had shown no measurable improvement.

Pretty good discussion of public school funding here:

http://feeds.kcrw.com/~r/kcrw/tp/~3/-bRZMwhxph0/tp100312can_schools_aim_high

[KBCraig]

I'm re-listening to this via the podcast, and the KCMO school superintendent points out that they had 75,000 students approximately 20 years ago, 35,000 students 10 years ago, and less than 18,000 students today. According to the district's Wikipedia page, they have 2,000 teachers, so it's a 9:1 ratio. (They also have 2,000 non-teacher staff, which is crazy.)

[Pat K]

At this point they could just cut each of the kids a check for a million and send them on their way. It will be cheaper in the long run.