I live in the foothills west of Denver, Colorado. Not far from where we live is another foothills community, Evergreen. The gross per capita income in Evergreen is $36,654 (remember the gross per capita income in Uganda is $280). The local paper recently had an item describing how a local foundation raised money to buy textbooks and technology for Evergreen High School (EHS) that could not be met by the school's budget. Here's a couple of quotes:
"You tend to think that in a district this big, with all the resources it has, the schools would have the best tools available," says Evergreen resident Greg Romberg. "But the high school needs a lot of things that just aren’t in the budget. The Evergreen High School Foundation was started to pay for the things the district can’t pay for." "Things like $8,500 worth of up-to-date chemistry textbooks to replace the rapidly aging fleet currently in use."
"We saw that many of the things they wanted funds for were worthwhile, but there wasn’t enough money," Romberg says. "We started asking if there should be a foundation to pick up the slack. Like Mike Carter said at the time, ‘You shouldn’t be teaching out of science books that are as old as the freshman class.’ "
If it's like that in Evergreen, what do you suppose it's like in poor school districts in the richest country in the world (not to mention in Uganda)?
Here's a link to the full story: EHS foundation excels in freshman year
-Don
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2 comments:
Well, this is a point I am not shure to support.
‘You shouldn’t be teaching out of science books that are as old as the freshman class.’
I used books that were older than me and besides being worn, science was the same. Most 'breaking news' on the subject were provided by our teachers.
I agree with your comment, Andres. It really does depend on the subject.
I suppose, however, that after 14 years the books are not in very good shape, and there may not be enough of them so that every student can have one to take home at night to do their homework. That is the situation in the Denver Public Schools, which is always short of money. The aspect of this situation that was surprising to me is that Evergreen, by comparison, is a wealthy school district.
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