NEIL STEINBERG shows some balls

This was in todays Sun-Times. I wonder if anyone reading it will think he is talking to them? Hmmm.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/steinberg/c...ws-stein08.html

First step in benefitting from school is to actually go

September 8, 2004

BY NEIL STEINBERG SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST

Opening shot

School started Tuesday in Chicago. The suburbs -- as befitting their enormous educational lead over the city -- have already been back for a week or two, gilding the lily, so to speak.

Does this bother you? Get your civic dander up? Tough beans. People put up with a lot of inconveniences living in the suburbs -- long, soul-sucking commutes; inferior Thai restaurants; menacing squirrels; and all that grass to mow -- so our kids can enjoy top-notch education, while Chicago is still in medieval times. Why shouldn't we brag?

Yes, I know there is a magnet school or two in the city where a handful of kids get a half decent education. Big whoop. The stats for the other 600 or so schools range from alarming to unbelievable. Students don't even show up to school in Chicago, never mind excel -- last year, only 89 percent of CPS students came to the first day -- pretty pathetic, but still an all-time high. In 2000, it was 76 percent.

This might seem harsh, but I think public condemnation is exactly what's missing. How can tens of thousands of Chicago parents allow their kids to miss school without someone running up to them and screaming in their face, "You IDIOT! It's hard enough to get ahead in life if you go to school, but if your kids don't even show up they're utterly screwed. Why not just slap a crack pipe or a revolver in their hands and save you both the intermediate steps? Do you like being poor? Are you happy condemning your children and their children to lives of poverty and ignorance? Because the choice is school or The Pit. Screw your head on right and get your kids to school before it's too late.'' But nobody says that