Our inner city schools in this country are a disaster. If any other profession, or company performed as poorly the people in charge would either be out of business or in jail and possibly both. The stock market during the crash performed better than our schools, Chrysler and GM both performed dramatically better. Lest it be thought that Federal government takeover will solve the problem, just think back a few years, to before the Cleveland city schools went under Federal tutelage and were well ahead of the national average, now we can’t even meet 5 of 30 state minimums. This is worse than sad. 

What has this to do with crime? Students from our inner city schools, students from first class private schools, and students from our rural and suburban schools tell me that the education they receive is a joke. There are highlights, good teachers, and interesting programs, but what they are being taught is basically irrelevant. Just look at the facts in 2004, a person without a degree earned about 20k a year, with a HS diploma, about 28k a year, with a Bachelors, about 51k, and an advanced degree about 78k. The difference between 19k and 28k is how many food stamps you get a month. 51k, starting out with a bachelors (you must be kidding – possibly with an unusual major, otherwise 51k takes a few years) The average student is well aware of this. In the inner city students in general feel that the returns on education are too small, why beat yourself over the head learning a bunch of crap that you will never use. It is far more profitable to operate on the shady side of the law where and education does not affect your earning potential. 

What can be done? Very simply make education valuable. Teach students how to achieve prosperity. Teach the market, teach meaningful skills. (Something more than shop, and cooking) Skills like network engineering, Pre-med, Business startup and management, Nursing, in generals skills for today’s world. If an inner city student sees that there is a 50 to 100k profession at the end of 12 years than crime will go down, because they have a future. If we want to reduce crime, keep people off welfare and improve the overall standard of living in our cities, and all of America we must rethink the entire educational system. Shakespeare will not put food on the table, or a new Lincoln in the garage. Understanding how money works, and advanced skills tailored to the aptitudes of our youth will. Just remember poor children are just as bright, or brighter than their suburban counterparts. They just realize that the effort they put into education will usually lead nowhere, and what they get in k-12 is only good for a paper trail, and does not represent and real skills.