Barack Obama Public School Failure

Emblematic of the state of this nation’s government-provided education, a public elementary school in New Jersey renamed for President Obama just last year, is now closing due to low academic achievement and declining enrollment.

In choosing to concentrate on form—renaming the school for the current President—over function—directing efforts into actually improving the education the school provided—the activist behind last year’s renaming explained:

The new name will send a subliminal message to the students. Every time they walk through the school doors, there’s going to be a certain amount of pride in where they go to school.

Similarly clichéd was the emphasis of the School Board discussions surrounding the closure—focusing not on the affected children, but on the union jobs:

It’s unfortunate the Board of Education couldn’t come together where jobs could be saved.

The failed Obama School’s 35% decline in enrollment over the past 10 years is being echoed across the nation, especially in urban areas, as, for example, in this report, “Top Students Fleeing Oakland Public Schools:”

One of every four Oakland students – including 40 percent of its highest achievers – fled the district’s public schools after finishing fifth grade in the spring, shunning the city’s middle schools in favor of private, suburban or charter schools.

The article goes on to say “Oakland officials are now looking at why families leave and how to stem the flight.” They might want to start with the California Department of Education’s statistics for their middle schools: with truancy rates averaging more than 90%, and an average of 46% of their enrollment suspended or expelled for Violence/Drugs, it’s no great mystery that those families who can “flee,” do.

Just as the President and his wife chose for their own daughters.