Asbury Park, NJ: We bungled the kids (Part II)

Welcome to TishTrek - THE JOB BLOG!

This is Blog Post Part II entitled, "Asbury Park, NJ: We bungled the kids" inspired by more bad news from the Asbury Park Press Opinion page.

Please read Blog Post Part I below this one which focuses on the travesty of education in Asbury Park, New Jersey but also offers some straight talk - the first stab at an honest assessment that has to continue before changes in education approaches can be considered for 'our' kids caught in systems of failure.

Isn't it time to reach out to successful business people and educators across the country to start an Information Exchange to get their views on how our society can realistically help these 'at risk' kids? Please join in.

Read the astonishing news from Gannett Newspapers in the Asbury Park Press Opinion Section TODAY, Monday - May 2nd, 2011:

Here are some excerpts that must move people to action:

"The New Jersey State auditor report, which covers the period July 2009 to December 2010, is not so much revelatory as it is a confirmation of what everyone already knows.

The Asbury Park School District continues to have the highest per-pupil expenditures among the 31 districts formerly known as the Abbotts.

More money is being spent on fewer students - with dismal educational results." (you would already be aware of this fact if you read the Asbury Park Press on October 27th, 2010!)

In 2009-2010, the cost per pupil was $26,782 per student per year."

PLEASE NOTE: $26,782 X 13 (K-12 years) = $348,166 to educate one student. For a family with 4 children, the city of Asbury Park will spend $1,392,664 to educate one family.

"Asbury Park's student-to-teacher ratio was 8.7 students to 1 teacher - the second lowest ratio among the Abbott districts.

The district is top-heavy with administrators - about double the state average for K-12 districts."

Now let's repeat the devastating and disturbing facts that speaks to what is supposed to be our generation's #1 focus: Excellence in Education for all of New Jersey's children.

Below are the statistics I highlighted in my Blog last week as they were reported by the NJ Department of Education on 10/27/10 in the Asbury Park Press for the 2008-2009school year:

1) 72% of its students failed the High School Proficiency Assessment in language arts

2) 86.1% failed the math portion

3) After three tries, ONLY 34.9% were able to pass the HSPA

4) Average SAT scores are 325 in math and 330 in verbal

5) Total cost spent per pupil - per year in 2008-2009 = $21,177

6) Total cost spent per pupil - per year in 2009-2010 = $26,782 - reported 5/2/11

From 2009 to 2010, $5,605 per student per year was added to the funding formula, but student performance did not improve. No amount of money will improve any statistic if we are not willing to change the system that is failing these kids.

The failure of so many students inspired someone in authority to demand we move from $21,177 in funding for Asbury Park students during the 2008-2009 school year to $26,782 per student in 2009-2010; and leaders all over the State of NJ responsible for these students approved this increase - this losing solution.

When companies fail, they have to go out of business or reinvent themselves to produce operational options that ensure success. Given the level of failure we are staring at in this school district, all the leaders who failed these kids need to step aside.

We absolutely owe it to the children and parents in Asbury Park, NJ to demand leadership changes that can open the flood gates to strategies that track to success, offer new management alternatives, inspire creative changes, support process reengineering efforts, etc. that will put 'our' - New Jersey's high risk students - FIRST.

We need business leaders, vocational trade experts, universities, educators, and volunteers... How about taking the $26,782 per student which is currently funding the education of each student per year in Asbury Park and assigning all or a portion of that money to the #1 teaching university in the country OR the #1 teaching college in New Jersey?

How about letting 'the' experts lead these children out of the darkness? Who is willing to help? Who will end the cycle of failure in Asbury Park, NJ which has lasted more than 40 years?

I know this issue and the issues in Camden, Newark, Trenton, Jersey City, Paterson and beyond are not in many of our backyards, but is another generation of failure funded off tax dollars really acceptable to anyone out there?

In closing, I'm sticking to last week's Blog theme inspired by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis who once said, "If you bungle raising (your)children, nothing else matters very much."

Go to Part I of the Asbury Park School Crisis series in the Blog Post before this one where I start what I call an "Idea and Knowlege Exchange" in an effort to beg others for help!

Respectfully submitted,
TishTrek
Quote of the Day: "God help the students stuck in the adult power-struggles in Asbury Park, New Jersey." Author Unknown