"Students in Compton are no less excited about learning than their more-affluent peers in Malibu, nor are they less bright. When given the resources they need to succeed, these students flourish. "

Haha, does anyone actually believe this?

Despite the author's assertion that Teach For America is a program that successfully equalizes the educational "playing-field" for students, the program fails to achieve this goal as it has fundamental flaws.

One of the glaring deficiencies of the program is that many of the graduates who participate in this program have little to no experience teaching children. Furthermore, the participants are not thoroughly trained before the school year begins. How are students, who are in areas where teachers are desperately needed, expected to benefit from those who, despite their excellent academic achievements, have gone through no formal pedagogical training?

Additionally, very few of the participants in the Teach For America program go on to become career teachers. Thus, the program leads to a systematic turnover in teachers that exacerbates the problem instead of addressing it. Students in need are given teachers without proper training that have no intention of staying.

The program is better than nothing, but it is disingenuous to paint it as something more than it actually is: a "weigh-station" for students who ultimately plan on attending graduate and/or professional school in furtherance of their plans for a more lucrative career.

The economically "disadvantaged" students at Ithaca High School have only a 49% graduation rate compared to an 87% rate for those that are not economicall "disadvantaged." Are these students not receiving the same resources from Ithaca High School? Educational success is not about money and resources, money is being dumped into awful schools every year. Nicer textbooks and computers don't do anything to improve a student's home life, they don't change the fact that the student is being raised by a single crack-addicted mother making less than 20,000 dollars a year. A brand new textbook isn't any different than a 50 year old textbook if the student isn't reading it (not that arithmetic and grammar have changed in the past 50 years anyway). Students from poor backgrounds don't succeed because they have no parental encouragement or motivation. They see no evidence that education is important or worthwhile because all the people close to them are not educated (and that's why they're poor), and so they continue the cycle by not taking their educations seriously.

The extra $11,000 per student isn't what makes Manhasset students more succesful than South Bronx students. Students from Manhasset come from families that value education and so value it themselves, students from the South Bronx are exposed to drugs, gang violence, and promiscuity at home and in the streets; so what do you expect to happen in South Bronx public schools?

Alex -- it is a shame that you put words in Nolan's mouth. If you choose to read race into his view, that is YOUR bias shining through. Clearly, he was discussing the metro-NY area, which Manhassett and the Bronx are both part of. In no way did he imply that rural, mostly white towns don't have the same problems that the inner city does. But alas, there are no rural mostly white towns in the NY metro area. His point is probably best revealed in his reponse about Ithaca High School. The resources put into that school are available to ALL students, so one cannot argue that resources put into the school are the only factors (or even the main factors) affecting a student's likelihood of success.

YOU choose to invoke the "racist stereotype that implies 'single [BLACK] crack-addicted mother.'" I think the stereotype of the single white-trash trailer park crack-addicted mother is pretty well known too. But you are choosing to limit it to black people. Well done.

Obviously, school funding is not the only issue here. It is simply one of the issues. However, better social welfare and raising the minimum wage to a living wage would do a lot for students with low-income-earning parents. It seems Nolan is arguing that because putting more resources into poor schools won't solve all of the problems associated with poverty, that it shouldn't be done. This is preposterous. Perhaps Nolan would have opted for less qualified, poorly compensated teachers and old textbooks when he was in high school.

Think about the SAT for a moment, remembering that the 'A' is for aptitude. SAT prep programs dramatically increase scores, but one could hardly say that memorizing the dozen-or-so forms of questions actually increases your aptitude for learning. Such programs are par for the course in well-funded school districts, but often unavailable in schools with less funding. Why wouldn't we want to correct this inequality?

Why wouldn't we want to go a step further still and try to correct other forms of inequality? It's mostly because we benefit from it. It's easier to stereotype the poor and working class as a bunch of lazy, uneducated drug addicts who are prevented from a parasitic middle-class existence only by the demons in their heads than to raise the minimum wage, provide free health care, and improve education. Of course, it's better that no one have any illusions about the larval economists and politicians at Cornell actually wanting to help beyond offering crumbs from the table and way too much moralism.

As a 2006 Teach for America corps member teaching kindergarten in the Bronx, NY, I feel compelled to comment on responses to Laura's column such as this:

"‘Students in Compton are no less excited about learning than their more-affluent peers in Malibu, nor are they less bright. When given the resources they need to succeed, these students flourish.’ Haha, does anyone actually believe this?"

I graduated from Cornell in May and think very highly of the school's undergraduate and graduate population, not to mention professors and staff. That being said, I find it disturbing that someone who is receiving the same caliber of education that I was privileged to receive can make comments such as the aforementioned quote so freely and with such confidence in their accuracy.

I have 16 wonderful, curious, and energetic kindergarteners who come in to school with smiles on their faces, their homework completed and signed by an adult, and questions like, "When are we going to do word study?? When do we get to do math?" and comments along the lines of, "We know that because you taught us!" after answering a question that I asked thinking it was a challenge. After testing my students on their letter and sound knowledge at the beginning of the school year and then again last week, I was literally brought to tears their students' progress. My students – the ones who are, as the commenter above stated with such assurance, “less bright” than their wealthier peers –
are already making "significant gains" and growing proud of their accomplishments. Their parents and other relatives come to me on a daily basis with tears of happiness and relief in their eyes to tell me that their children are learning more quickly than they could ever have imagined, and that they come home bounding with energy and stories about all that they learned in our classroom.

Far be it from me to say that I have never made a close-minded comment. However, I ask that before an 18-22 year old takes it upon themselves to state that my students are, in effect, unconcerned with learning and content to float through their schooling without any sense of investment, you get in touch with me and sit in on my class (or that of any other teachers at my school and area). Watch my students' eyes light up as we engage in reading centers and a student catches on to written/spoken word matching, or realizes what a pattern truly is and takes it to a higher level, or finally writes a sentence that I can read without them telling me what it says and asks if they can share it with the entire class. I challenge you to sit in on those moments, which fellow Teach for America corps members, as well as all NYC public school teachers, experience with students each and every day, and continue to mock their desire to learn. I have a feeling your final comment will change to an emphatic, “Wow, I DO believe this.”