California schools in action

Savage, at The Blogmocracy, posts a letter from a teacher in a California school:

Most of the schools you are hearing about, South Gate High, Bell Gardens , Huntington Park , etc., where these students are protesting, are also Title 1 schools.

Title 1 schools are on the free breakfast and free lunch program. When I say free breakfast, I'm not talking a glass of milk and a roll — but a full breakfast and cereal bar with fruits and juices that would make a Marriott proud. The waste of this food is monumental, with trays and trays of it being dumped in the trash uneaten.

I estimate that well over 50% of these students are obese or at least moderately overweight. About 75% or more DO have cell phones. The school also provides day care centers for the unwed teenage pregnant girls (some as young as 13) so they can attend class without the inconvenience of having to arrange for babysitters or having family watch their kids.

I was ordered to spend $700,000 on my department or risk losing funding for the upcoming year even though there was little need for anything; my budget was already substantial. I ended up buying new computers for the computer learning center, half of which, one month later, have been carved with graffiti by the appreciative students who obviously feel humbled and grateful to have a free education in America …

I have had to intervene several times for young and substitute teachers whose classes consist of many illegal immigrant students, here in the country less than 3 months, who raised so much hell with the female teachers, calling them "Putas" (whores) and throwing things, that the teachers were in tears.

Free medical, free education, free food, free day care etc., etc, etc. Is it any wonder they feel entitled to not only be in this country but to demand rights, privileges and entitlements?

 

He goes on to talk about the hidden costs of "cheap labor".
The problem with the schools could be addressed by making school attendance no longer mandatory, and making it easier for principals to expel students for misbehavior.  Let those kids who don't want to be in school and who don't want to learn make their way in the world while they're still young enough to know everything.
When, years later, they have been beaten down by life and their lack of marketable skills, let them return to the educational system and take advantage of whatever grades they haven't taken yet.  If someone drops out in the fifth grade, he gets to rejoin in the fifth grade and work his way through high school graduation. 
By then, maybe he'll appreciate it.
And maybe his example will motivate the twelve-year-olds he's studying next to.