What Did We Get From The $600K Comrade Miller Spent On At Risk Kids

John Oakley: There may be a better way than Afro-centric schools

Posted: January 24, 2008, 11:37 AM by John Turley-Ewart

Desperate times call for desperate measures, or at least some innovative thinking. That’s the argument for an Afro-centric school program here in Toronto, with a stated budget somewhere beyond eight hundred grand.

Meanwhile today in Atlanta, Georgia, two schools are launching the “learn and earn” program that’ll pay kids eight bucks an hour to stay after school for extra tutorials in math and science. The 15 week pilot study is being funded by private philanthropy, so the taxpayer’s off the hook, if that’s the concern. But you still get the predictable howls of derision that this is bribery, pure and simple. So what? What will eight hundred grand buy us here, besides bloated administrative costs and additional unionized teachers’ wages?

An educated guess says any cost/benefit analysis is likely to favour the Atlanta model as opposed to a black-focused curriculum as the one most apt to get the kids’ attention. And if the stated objective is to engage the kids and keep them learning, then the end justifies the means; Unless, of course, there’s another agenda.

John Oakley can be heard from 5:45 a.m.-10 a.m. EST Monday to Friday on AM 640 Toronto Radio