Public Schools' Educational Apartheid

Once again, it is not a brain drain for the state of Indiana, but as Oprah’s show reports it is the failure of elected official to insure quality education for all of its children. I probably missed the first airing of this show. On July 31, 2006, Oprah’s Special Report: Schools in Crisis aired at 4:00 p.m. Oprah’s Show also teams up with TIME magazine’s article called the Dropout Nation about the dropout rate of students in the United States. The show reported that only 34% of the United States students have the skills necessary for doing well in college. The dropout rate in some cities is 1 out of 3.

The show highlighted a school in Shelby, Indiana as having such a drop out rate.
The surprise is that the Shelby school is located in a middle-class community well equipped to educate its students, but still young people are dropping out.

Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda worries that the problem of failing to educating young people will affect the United States’ ability to compete with the rest of the world. The Gates have started a foundation called STAND UP. Indiana solution to the drop out rate is to restrict driving privilege for those who drop out before the age of eighteen.

Savage Inequality’s author Jonathan Kozol has written another book, The Shame of the Nation. Kozol, highlights the low expectation of children in the public school, calling the inequalities a product of an apartheid educational system.