DC school graduates students who missed more 2 months of school

[Doc Spouse]

It's actually worse than that.  The majority of students missed more than six weeks, some missed up to 3 months, and many can't read and write, yet they all graduated and were accepted into college.

https://wamu.org/story/17/11/28/really-happened-ballou-d-c-high-school-every-senior-got-college/

I found this article interesting for a number of reasons.  We recently had a topic talking about a program which allowed unlimited loans towards graduate degrees.  This allowed people, who had almost no chance of actually graduating, to use student loans as a source of income while attending classes.

Setting aside the ridiculous nature of what Ballou High School is doing, I'd be willing to bet that most of the students who graduated in that class and are now attending college, are doing it with student loans.  The chances of them being able to graduate from a college, without being able to read and write, are slim to none.  Without graduating, the chance of them repaying the loans also plummets dramatically.  I mean, at what point do we call this predatory behavior on the part of the lenders?

I'm not against student loans for those who can't afford professional degrees.  I just want some kind of accountability for the selection criteria.  Much like the age old argument against the death penalty (if one innocent man dies, it's too many), is the wasted money and massive debt under the common criteria worth the few that it does help lift up?  It does affect all of us at some point, if only as an economy riddled with private debt.

I also want that entire school administration fired.  They're not doing the kids any favors, and this kind of thing is rampant.

Thoughts on how this could be fixed?

[ENT Doc]

Fire all administrators remotely attached to this.  That includes the Mayor, who went on record saying that he agreed with the decision to graduate all of them.  That is political posturing, because if he says he's opposed to that then he gets a whole bunch of angry mom's saying "so you're going to prevent my kid from going to college?"  Corruption through and through.  But that's only the start of it.  The real problem lies in the family unit, role models, and environment for these kids.  Fixing that is a multifactorial issue but comes down to the basic question of how to improve poverty.  Not an easy fix.

Regarding the "predatory lending" concept, the predatory lender here is none other than the US Government, driven by the notion that college is a "right".  Get into college, regardless of your competence or ability to pay it off - no problem, we'll (US taxpayer) front you all the money you need.  Brilliantly inefficient.

[wideopenspaces]

How are the lenders supposed to know which kids will succeed in college? Isn't it the job of the school to select kids that qualify? If the only information they are given is from a higg school that fakes grades and probably told students what to put in their application, how are they supposed to know the students are not prepared? That story is a heartbreaking one, but I don't see how the student loan lender is at fault here.

[Zaphod]

wideopenspaces wrote:

How are the lenders supposed to know which kids will succeed in college? Isn’t it the job of the school to select kids that qualify? If the only information they are given is from a higg school that fakes grades and probably told students what to put in their application, how are they supposed to know the students are not prepared? That story is a heartbreaking one, but I don’t see how the student loan lender is at fault here.

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Everyone is kind of at fault here, except the kids. This is a bunch of adults making these problems from a variety of different areas all for themselves, not for the kids.

[Panscan]

Why not make it private market like a any other loan. You are a 4.0 student, good test scores, etc you get low interest rate because it's more likely you'll be able to succeed. You're a 2.0 kid who has two convictions for drug offenses, probably not as likely to pay your loans back.

The federal government being in loan game is why tuition has risen so rapidly. Because the schools know each kid has access to basically as much money as they want from government. If some of them can't get money anymore, I doubt so many snowflakes would choose to go to 40k liberal arts schools for the "experience" of being around 1000 other kids with crappy lectures.

I've never understood liberal arts schools. Worse education and less opportunity for more money. Vs the big state schools who have all the money in the world and have successfully taught tens of thousands if not more

[Molar Mechanic]

This reminds me of a (rather heated) argument with my wife 15 years ago. She was in school for School Psychology, working with Special Ed / Special Needs kids.  A lot of her time was spent fabricating graduation plans for those who would never meet the traditional plans.  Her point was that graduation was an achievement in itself, my point was that I expected a new employee with a high school diploma to have a basic set of skills.  She disagreed.  I chose being married over being right.  The rest is history.

[ENT Doc]

Molar Mechanic wrote:

This reminds me of a (rather heated) argument with my wife 15 years ago. She was in school for School Psychology, working with Special Ed / Special Needs kids.  A lot of her time was spent fabricating graduation plans for those who would never meet the traditional plans.  Her point was that graduation was an achievement in itself, my point was that I expected a new employee with a high school diploma to have a basic set of skills.  She disagreed.  I chose being married over being right.  The rest is history.

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Indeed you were right, take solace in that.  A diploma is supposed to act as a "signal" to the market.  When the worth of that "signal" is brought into question people act on biases to try to fill in the gaps.  This is why MORE discriminatory behavior took place when states like Washington mandated removal of the box to check as to whether or not you were a prior felon.  That box sent a signal, as does a diploma.

[ChristopherMD20]

Here in Maryland they are proposing two different high school degrees. Option #1 I call the participation trophy and Option #2 is for those going to college. I think everyone is losing their mind.