Matt Yglesias

31 Responses to “Forgot About Pre-K”

1. Christopher Colaninno Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 10:07 am

   I imagine improving early education is type of thing that wouldn’t really have a short term impact and what impact it did have wouldn’t be credited to Rhee. That situation is worse then not having union intransigence to blame your failures on.

2. spot check billy Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 10:11 am

   “Hard to forgive”? Really? What an interesting way of expressing that thought – did some version of “I don’t agree” lack the required amount of moral superiority? Is preschool even within the scope of DCPS? As an observer from the suburbs, it looks like fixing the K-12 pieve that’s already within the responsibility of that system is pretty much a full slate.

3. Stephen Myles St. George Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 10:53 am

   Well Matt, you are right, except frankly, it is a lot easier to implement Pre-K programs than to deal with teachers’ unions and drag them kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and doing the easiest things first is, frankly, not what we need after about a hundred years of DC public school that is just awful across the board.

4. Matt Weiner Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:02 am

   doing the easiest things first is, frankly, not what we need

   Why not? If you do the easiest things first, they get done, and they’re having their positive effects while you’re struggling to get the hard stuff done.

5. Stephen Myles St. George Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:24 am

   Why not? If you do the easiest things first, they get done, and they’re having their positive effects while you’re struggling to get the hard stuff done.

   I have one word for you: Detroit.

   P.S.: I don’t know if you can actually appreciate how bad the DC school system is. There is not one single person from DC that I know at my college, not a single one, who went to public school there. And I am talking about a lot of very caring, bleeding-heart liberals here. That is how awful the DC school system is. Focusing on Pre-K right now is like swapping deck chairs on the Titanic.

6. Brad Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:25 am

   It’s amazing the high regard liberals have for getting kids into shitty schools even earlier.

7. James F. Elliott Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:30 am

   It’s amazing the high regard liberals have for getting kids into shitty schools even earlier.

   It’s amazing that conservatives don’t think an average return on investment of $2.62 for every $1.00 spent on preschool isn’t a good deal. No wonder you guys suck at running an economy.

8. James F. Elliott Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:35 am

   Ack! Too many double negatives! DAMN YOU, YGLESIAS, YOU’RE RUBBING OFF ON YOUR READERS!!!

9. too many steves Says:
   December 30th, 2008 at 11:36 am

   Seriously, this is unforgiveable? The woman’s trying to fix an entire terrible K-12 system and its hard to forgive her for not trying to establish a good public preschool system at the same time? Jesus.

10. Noah Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 12:40 pm

    Or maybe Sara Mead is in the tank for the teachers’ unions, and thus looks for any opportunity to beat up on Michelle Rhee?

11. ArmyMatt Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:12 pm

    I’ve been waiting to have this fight with you for a while. Teachers unions are as bad as the right makes them out to be. To improve an organization, you have to be able to provide incentives for employees to do their jobs well. Since teacher’s unions block merit pay and support tenure, this makes it impossible to manage and improve schools. It’s that simple. Rhee has offered a plan that would raise the pay of nearly every teacher in the district, and the unions oppose it because it undermines their ability to defend incompetence. Sure, pre-K is great, but what is the use of creating another layer of failed school system atop an already abysmal failure?

    To add an anecdote to illustrate how bad DC’s schools are, I will tell you the story of how I enlisted in the army. I went to high school in Vermont, but now live in DC. Even though I’m a college graduate, I wanted the typical army experience, so I went in as an enlisted man through a local recruiter in a rough area of a town. I took the ASVAB after a particularly hard night of partying. I threw up in the bathroom at Fort Mead, took the ASVAB and got 97 out of 99. It was one of the easiest standardized tests I’ve ever taken. My recruiter told me after that recruits often get less than a thirty, and a few times he’s even seen a 4. Which is to say, the products of DCPS often under perform sheer chance, as the it’s a multiple choice, 4-option test. YGZ likes to argue that ending child poverty and a creating a better standard of living is the real solution, and bad schools are just a symptom. But really, I don’t care if you were raised by wolves, if you graduate high school you should be able to pass the ASVAB. DCPS is an abysmal failure.

    PS: If you aren’t reading Whitney Tilson’s blog, or getting her emails, you should be.

12. ArmyMatt Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    A certain type of person isn’t interested in any education improvements that don’t involve picking fights with teacher’s unions

    Also, just because Mickey Kaus is a giant dbag does not mean Michelle Rhee is wrong. I’m calling a fallacy of logic!

13. Mac G Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:16 pm

    My girlfriend is a second year Pre-K teacher at DCPS in NW. She finished runner up for new teacher of the year.

    Her kids and Pre-K program are superb. They just became the first certified Pre K program in DC and there are plans to provide their gained knowledge to other DC Pre-K teachers.

    Her school’s parents are supportive and heavily involved, which I personally feel is one of the biggest key for student’s success. DCPS does need major improvements but so do most inner city school systems.

    Obviously, my view is tainted because of my personal connection but I have witnessed tuns of hard working DC teachers out there busting their asses off in difficult situations. How many people would volunteer to teach deep in SE or NE DC? I sure would not. Most people on these boards would not even drive in these areas, let alone work there.

    I support Rhee and Mayor Fenty’s desire for change but this press adulation for Rhee is alarming considering the lack of time to evaluate her new policies. I know Rhee it her short tenure has rubbed DC teachers the wrong way but more so with her personality and lack of communication in her decisions.

    I am unaware of any lack of Pre-K focus on the DC teacher level but it is always disheartening to always read commenters in the online world bash away on the DC public school system as if there are not people on the ground dedicating their professional lives to improving things in sometimes very hopeless situations.

14. Stephen Myles St. George Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:22 pm

    Which is to say, the products of DCPS often under perform sheer chance, as the it’s a multiple choice, 4-option test.

    This is gold. You can’t possibly blame people doing worse than random chance on child poverty. You can blame bad school performance on poverty, but not this bad. Even schoolchildren in poor parts of Africa could do better than this.

15. dugsdale Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 1:52 pm

    I’m pretty much reflexively pro-union, but I’m also pro-child, and am entirely in favor of teachers’ unions relaxing work rules and doing some paradigm-shifting around labor negotiations, provided it means the kids get a better shot. I have every hope in the world for Michelle Rhee AND the teacher’s union in DC to work together and find a way to do that.

    Just incidentally, I thought it was common knowledge that pre-K programs can give kids substantial boosts in learning and achievement, but when they’re promoted into a substandard primary school environment, the gains disappear. If true, then there’s clearly not much point in revving up pre-K until the primary schools can be substantially improved. Be nice to do both, of course.

16. MQ Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 2:07 pm

    I know Rhee it her short tenure has rubbed DC teachers the wrong way but more so with her personality and lack of communication in her decisions.

    this is extremely true (about pissing off the teachers who work under her). She talks a great game to outsiders and is pushing every possible testing-based education fad all at once around the district, but I wish the elite press would wait to see results before falling in love with her. Good leaders can get the respect and committment from their line employees, there is no substitute for that if you’re going to have to actually work with those employees.

17. Radarman Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 3:03 pm

    Those early learning gains disappear in good school systems as well as bad. There is no way that institutional Pre-K can match the intense attention that middle class families give their children in the first five years of life – vocabulary, life lessons, etc. – or make up for the deficit of attention in poor households. Can’t be done. Not without removing the poor children from their bookless lives of television.

    Rhee should hold her course. She’s doing the right thing, and she doesn’t need this distraction

18. Reid Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 5:56 pm

    The problem with the national attention Rhee has brought to DCPS is that everyone with a theory, whether it be pro or anti-union or whatever, has decided to weigh in. Unfortunately most people don’t understand that this is just a small part of a fight over the DC government and the future of DC. If you aren’t familiar with the history of DCPS going all the way back to the first school board in the 1960s and the segregated system before that, then you are simply not likely to have an informed opinion. The decades of damage that was done to the DC government, and the DCPS particularly, under the Barry years is still with us. Trying to see this through the prism of a think tank or an ideology rather than the very specific prism of DC history is a waste of time.

19. onceler Says:
    December 30th, 2008 at 11:21 pm

    hasn’t she actually been in conflict with the DC teachers’ union numerous times already? it may just not be doable within the next year or two.

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