Bloomfield: "Public Schools are Dropout Factories"

Independent Congressional Candidate Bill Bloomfield described the current state of public school with a very pithy phrase:

"Dropout Factories"

"Dropout Factories"

"Dropout Factories" certainly describes the failing schools throughout Los Angeles, where a disturbing number of freshman enter, but they do not receive a diploma. According to a study published last year by the California Department of Education, about 20% of students drop out (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/18/los-angeles-county-high-school-drop-out_n_930581.html).

Another report indicatest that students are not challenged in the current coursework provide by most public high schools (http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2012/07/state_of_education.html).

The high number of dropouts connects with the substandard nature of school facilities. The lack of respect which a growing number of teachers must endure just to get through the day is driving more professionals out of our schools.

Administrators are either at a loss for words or a loss of will as to what they can do to make public education a viable career for young college graduates. The excessive pressure of standardized tests, matched with vocal parents and diminishing resources, have impoverished the government-monopoly model of education.

Most high schools are witnessing an explosion in student class sizes, with a greater number of enrollees taking advantage of the larger numbers to cheat their way through to graduation. Even for the growing number of graduates who walk out of high schools with a diploma, the relative worth of what they have learned does not measure up to the standards of excellence which students need to command in the rapidly changing work force.

"Dropout Factories" --I do not recall a statement as damning and arresting that identifies the core issues which are frustrating the future of our youth. The statement implies the growing suspicion among many taxpayers -- that public schools were never about educating our youth as much as keeping them off the street for a better part of the day and providing easy jobs with large benefits to a politically dedicated collective of union reps and their members.

Bill Bloomfield has combated the deleterious effects of a bad education -- he knows and believes in the causes of Ms. Michelle Rhee, the former Washington D.C. chancellor who took drastic steps to reform and improve the quality of education in the urban sectors of our nation's capitol. Serving on the Board of Trustees for the Orange County School of the Arts, Mr. Bloomfield also knows and incorporates a wealth of experience applying measures to improve public education.

Our Youth Deserve Better

Someone who cares about education, someone who recognizes the threat of public unions and failing school boards, someone who will not cater to a vocal interest group which has throttled reform in Washington: Mr. Bloomfield on all three counts distinguishes himself admirable compared to Henry Waxman, a Congressman who has marched in step with the public sector union lobby, regardless of the terrible effects of collective power on community education.