Fix The Schools: Reason Saves Cleveland With Drew Carey, Ep. 2

Cleveland's public schools are failing to prepare students for their futures and as a result, all parents who can afford to have been fleeing to the suburbs for decades.
Yet some urban schools, like Think College Now in Oakland, California are finding out that a combination of administrative autonomy and accountability can lead to amazing results.
Within Cleveland's own boundaries, charter schools are booming and delivering quality education at a fraction of the cost of traditional public schools.
Does Cleveland have what it takes to fundamentally reform its K-12 education system and become a leader in 21st-century education?
Reason Saves Cleveland with Drew Carey is written and produced by Paul Feine; camera and editing by Roger Richards and Alex Manning; narrated by Nick Gillespie; music by the Cleveland band Cats on Holiday and Max Bowerman.
This is the second of six episodes that will air March 15-19, 2010. Approximately 10 minutes long.
Coming tomorrow: Privatize It.
Go to reason.tv iPod, HD, and audio versions of this video.
Subscribe to Reason.tv's KZbin channel at / reasontv and receive automatic notification when new videos go live.

[@sugarkang]

no way this can ever become popular. it just makes too much sense.

[@trayg95]

How do they exclude disability students? Have you actual proof of this? And if you mean mentally disabled students, it depends on the school district. In many districts, the mentally disabled have their own school(s). You don't seriously expect a teacher to have to teach a severely autistic child at the same time as a group of AP Calculus students? Different children have different needs.

[@j4ck2234]

@KingSturgill As the productive capacity increased and with that the wealth of the people they could afford better working conditions. This had NOTHING to do with unions. People just wouldn't work in hellholes anymore, they could afford the luxury of better working conditions. This means the workforce moved from unsafe factories with higher pay to safer factories with respectivly lower pay. This has not yet happened in africa. The economy has not evolved to a point where workers can afford it.

[@trayg95]

I can tell you why there are so few charter schools. The number of charter schools allowed is controlled by the state (and local school boards, depending on where you live). In Michigan, the state limits how many charter schools are available to appease the teacher's union (namely DPS). DPS uses the same old excuse that new charter schools would mean cuts in their funding and therefore hurt students.

[@tsummerlee]

Now if we could just turn kids out into the world right after fifth grade...

[@trayg95]

@robertmike57 I am not the illeriterate one here. I NEVER claimed that you said ADA. I pointed out the fact that due to ADA stipulations, charter schools CAN NOT skimp on disabled students. NO public place can. Unless you can provide proof of an actual charter school denying access to disabled students, you are making baseless ignorant charges.

[@trayg95]

Secondly, there are plenty of Charter High Schools both within the city of Detroit and throughout the State. For the record, my nephew attends a charter middle school which was built AFTER the high school. If you are going to state otherwise please provide statistical evidence of your claims to the supposed nonexistence of charter high schools.

[@ColdHighway7]

Public service jobs should never be unionized at all and returning education back to the states would also help a huge lot.

[@Dpaladinx]

My parents are from Taiwan, but all I could say that Taiwan have one of the most effective public schools in the world. The government put the taxpayer money into the education instead of earmarks. However, Taiwan have higher education standards than United States, and school days are longer than in the United States. Needless to say, while I do find the United States education system to be great, it needs improvement. But I doubt Americans would understand Confucius's value in education.

[@CitizensAcademyCleve]

I'm happy to report that the Cleveland school district is now partnering with several high-performing charter schools, providing them with low/no-cost facilities. Most of these buildings are schools that the district is closing due to chronically low performance. Also, parent groups, including in Tremont/Ohio City, are working with high-quality charter schools like Citizens' Academy, E Prep and The Intergenerational School to open schools in their neighborhoods.

[@drexelohio]

Just a couple of problem's with charters in an urban environment (and I will admit there are some good ones, I worked at one): - Any Jackass with some open space in a church basement opened up a charter school and got 6k for every kid they signed up. There has been some real snakes ripping off the system and doing worse than the public schools. - The requirement that the public system provide transportation the 30 some new charters has created an even bigger transportation leviathan.

[@drexelohio]

@ThePenWolf How can one determine what a "they" are going to say when they "they" being referred to are in actuality a collection of singularities (individual unions), with individual elected spokespeople. You're just trying to excuse shoddy "journalism". It just makes the person asking the question look stupid (see my asking your neighbor down the street example cited earlier). Take care.

[@ametora1231]

As a Clevelander, I loved this series. Cleveland and cities like it i.e. Buffalo and Detroit and "progressive" cities that have slowly progessed back into the Stone Age. The governments in these cities have destroyed themselves with taxes, regulations, spending, and public sector unions. More of this will not fix them. Its a shame though. These cities drive away talent and keep those who support the status quo. They will never fix themselves unless they literally have a Renaissance.

[@fatpak419]

@doughtymqan Ideologues founded this country and they were socially incorrect. Misogyny was a social norm during Friedman's literary tenure. If you think that the free market can't strangle itself look at the mess we"re in now. There has to be some sort of compromise from the municipal level, where far too many citizens are government-reliant. I don't care if it's citizenry, local or federal a sweeping change has to come from somewhere, These great schools can't account for masses.

[@j4ck2234]

@KingSturgill You see that's the reason why not every mcdonalds employee has a masseuse, it would eat up is paycheck. Back in the 17th/18th century the productive capacity was so low that the factories looked like hellholes. It was so bad because the workers could not afford luxuries. They needed as much as possible of their productive capacity in order to care for their families. (still obviously a huge improvement from before the industrial revolution where it was misery without pay)

[@j4ck2234]

@KingSturgill Now what happens in that case....well people in general do not like to die. This means that wages for dangerous jobs would have to be higher than in safe jobs, right? (in germany we call that 'gefahrenzulage')...btw who do you think pays for 'good' working conditions? ( air conditioning, kindergarden maybe a masseuse whatever) You do. There is no magical pot of gold behind the capitalist rainbow. Workers have to pay for good working conditions.

[@j4ck2234]

@KingSturgill That explains how wages are determined. (no it's not by stupid unions, just read some decent history books that show how wages doubled at a time in the united states when there was no such thing as unionism) Now safe work conditions. Capitalist do not like it when there machines blow up. Capitalist do not like it when their skilled workers get blown up. It costs them money. Of course there could be a scenario in which it was theoretically cheaper to use unsafe technology.

[@KingSturgill]

@j4ck2234 The free market is a crap shoot. Did you forget the struggles of the coal miners for the past 100 years? A hand full of unions operate like large corporations... but a majority of them ensure safety in the work place and fair wages. I guess you are too young to remember the saying "I owe my soul to the company store" and because of young kids not learning a damn thing from our past were going to have a lot of bloodshed and tears to regain some rights we lost.

[@jpta162]

This description is exactly what my family did when I was 8 years old. I went to charter schools because the public schools were so bad. My neighbors went to them and they told me how bad they were all the time. Now I go to a public school in a suburb that I will not tell.

[@hyretech]

Ohio had adopted a policy of "evidence-based Education reform". I'd love to see some debate and discussion on what will change, suggest to links to education forums and projects. (KZbin limits comments to 500 characters, not enough for debate here, although video responses could be used).

[@drexelohio]

@robertmike57 Charter Schools as a whole in Dayton, Ohio haven't lived up to the public schools, and Dayton has more charters than about anywhere in the country, sans New Orleans.

[@drexelohio]

Hmm..I like how this guy asks everyone not affiliated with the teacher's union, what the teacher's union thinks. Not very reasonable. Perhaps he should have asked the teacher's union.

[@puppetsock]

When you talk "free market" and then give coal mines as the example, you need to check your premises. You have absorbed, uncritically, the communist notions of what the free market is.

[@creativepower213]

Good stuff. Whoever is working your cameras and lighting is really good. Keep up this good quality reporting. Free to Choose. I choose Reason.Tv

[@mamagrapes]

awesome. so how do we accomplish this? there are small things happening in cleveland. we need an overarching vision and steps to accomplish it.

[@drexelohio]

By your logic then, I should know what you think by asking your neighbors down the street.

[@KingSturgill]

@whoo689 unions are people sticking together to ensure fair treatment of workers. so duck ya

[@mike8903]

what a great series

[@1OriginalQueen]

Key words: RESULTS BASED BUDGETING... ...what if that concept was applied to Congress?

[@jjime1175]

The results or failures are not based on color but a caring family with a mother and father that care about their children and their well being

[@22yonkers]

i am at ohio state currently and we would love to have you bud!

[@insightfu]

WOW!! I think i might go to Ohio State ... that's powerful!

[@j4ck2234]

@KingSturgill sry for spamming your inbox lol.

[@MagisterSaxonides]

9:10 That's my boy! :)

[@robertmike57]

They do, it's called the AMA

[@fishsama999]

I-O! Exactly my thoughts bro.

[@truvelocity]

I am so impressed.

[@asphyxiafeeling]

this mini episodes are perfect! Thanks ReasonTV!