Everybody's responsibility

How many times have you heard the proverb "It takes a village to raise a child"?

Lots, right?

Well, apparently the message still needs to get through. So Miami-Dade mayor Manny Diaz and superintendent Rudy Crew (shown here) brought it to the U.S. Conference of Mayors this weekend during a panel on improving graduation rates. (See the Miami Herald report here.)

That's right. They were telling civic leaders about the role they can play in helping kids succeed in school. Education - it's not just or schools.

''We can't get at these children - we can't get at their communities, we can't get at the derivative of their pain -- if we don't link our arms and create a much different architecture than we currently have,'' Crew said.

This should come as no surprise (see proverb above). Many community leaders, such as St. Petersburg mayor Rick Baker, do their part to help. But it's not hard to see that grad rates are low, and sometimes the kids need something social rather than academic to help them succeed. That's where the "village" can step in.

A side note: A couple dozen teachers protested outside Crew's speech over his plan to freeze salaries as part of the district's budget balancing effort, the Herald reports.

Comments

[terminator]

get real?
if you believe this crap, you believe you're going to win the lottery Saturday night.
Crew and Diaz haven't done jack in improving graduation rates (what a joke). Most all Miami-Dade schools within the City of Miami have the highest drop-out rates of any schools in the country and all are D/F in the state grading system.
Crew is all about self promotion. while he's spent hundreds of thousands in advertising himself for all kinds of awards, he continues to spend money like a drunken sailor (400 bureaucrats over $100K). His salary alone is over $400K and he's expecting a $70K bonus on top.
Yet under his watch, the number of F schools in Miami-Dade has increased from 5 to 28.
The district is currently trying to shave $284 million from it's budget and Crew figures the best way to do it is by getting rid of teachers and school support personnel.
As for Diaz (Mayor Cement) as he's known by locals, the 22,000 empty condos in downtown Miami, thousands of foreclosed properties and massive property tax increases endured by residents of the City of Miami over the past six years are a testament to the greed and corruption of Manny Diaz and his cronies.
These two jokers are like a couple of snake oil salesmen with a bunch of gullible mayors bobbing their heads up and down.
Rudy will be out of a job in a few months (the board has already started inquiries into firing him for cause).
As far as Diaz, he's the banana republic's problem. Just glad I don't live there or pay taxes to these nitwits!

How many bureaucrats and/or consultants did Marco have making over $100K, termie? Do you consider a school principal to be an educator or a bureaucrat because many of the 400 adminstrators in Dade making over $100K are in fact school principals.

[teach me!]

Hold the parents accountable for "getting at them" and stop asking everyone else to raise children!

[terminator]

I can't speak for what Marco did, but the Dade school system has been known to be a cesspool of corruption, incompetence and mismanagement for years.
The district has wasted billions with little in the way of positive results to show for it.
How bout we'll just call them educrats.
While there are many good principals there are alot of turkeys who are friends of friends and need to be put out to pasture.

[Timmy!]

No more IT TAKES A VILLAGE!!!!

It takes a PARENT!

[terminator]

Timmy,
unfortunately, the state isn't able to legislate being a good parent.
but it's great these wasteful large school districts are getting their budgets whacked.
the only thing they care about is money to hire their friends and cronies to six figure jobs.
between the recession, declining revenue from the state and the class size amendment, big school system bureaucrats are about to be put on the endangered species list.
and next year's budget could be as bad or worse than this years, so hasta la vista boys!

[Timmy!]

I'm with you "termie". My concern is that they always find ways to cut AROUND the fat and into the muscle.

[terminator]

Timmy:
unfortunately for them (bureuacrats), we're making it harder and harder to do so (cut around the fat).
while they've been given a one year reprieve on class size, shrinking budgets make even some of their own targets for elimination. Then it comes down to who is the best connected.
we'll be shedding the dead wood over the next several years.
reality has finally reared it's head and is ready to bite them in the butt.
thank god for recessions!

[Jessica]

Thanks for posting a link to Helium on your blog! We appreciate your support and enjoy reading your blog.
Jessica, Team Helium