PJ Media

I’ve seen inner city schools – underfunded or not – leak like sieves. They get 25 new computers for a computer lab. They’re stolen. Toilet paper? Stolen. And so on. Some schools, like some municipalities, have reached a point of no return. When the ship is sinking, the only way is out.

When we say the problem is crime, low income, low social capital, we’re still not making an argument against vouchers. Those issues are not something that can be magically improved to raise the effectiveness of schools. All of these things – crime, poverty, dysfunction, are in many cases symptoms of a dysfunctional culture.

I’m no expert, But as far as I can tell, getting people out will be the only path out. Many of these communities exist in ‘failing’ areas – areas which do not have great economic value in the current era and thus will not attract at any rate a good deal of middle class (or upper class.) As a result, all money poured into these areas will be wasted, and to make matters worse those living there may develop an entitlement complex.

Baltimore bled white people for a long time, and now its bleeding black people. Why? Because they finally get it. The city existed in its old form because – mainly – of industry. When those industries became further mechanized or disappeared, the social structure changed. People moved out to find work elsewhere, mostly those who could afford to or were willing to risk doing so.

Those with more education and better skills had more options.

This left those who did not, in a gradually depopulating area, which would naturally slump into poverty unless there was some kind of growth industry or commerce that came to the area.

In inner-city Baltimore, it never happened. The structure that the city – a large amount of it – is in, is a ruin of a sort. People still live there, but it is a shell. In my view the faster people move to a better economic situation by getting out of there the better it will be. Hopefully the surrounding area has enough capital to absorb the messed up culture that festers in the ghettos.

And it’s not a black/white thing – poor white folks from the inner city have the same issues. It’s like a ‘left behind’ syndrome.

But this is America, land of second chances.

Some of these schools will only improve after they have been shut down and the area redeveloped.

But this can’t be forced; you can’t make people do these things. So, it may or may not ever happen. Vouchers help those stuck in these areas as much as we can. If they can get the education, they will have better options and may be able to get themselves, their families, and their friends out. Or they could use their skills to create a growth industry or business in their own area.

But pouring funds into the hands, ultimately, of the criminals (both youth and otherwise) who vandalize the schools is in my mind, foolishness.

It’s amazing that those who so defensively claim to be egalitarian seem to miss the poor, whom they trample under their feet in their rush for a ‘better future’. It is a claim made of us, the ‘right wing’, but then, we just have a different idea of how to care for the poor. Our idea is to do it privately, through charities and churches, (which we are more effective at) and to try to help people HELP THEMSELVES. Because the training wheels HAVE to come off – te sooner the better.