This past week, I finally got around to viewing Waiting for Superman, Davis Guggenheim's searing documentary on the shortcomings of urban education in the United States. Like so many stylish, well-intentioned efforts tackling the standardized test performance gap between predominantly white, suburban students and inner city, students of color; Waiting for Superman is long on critical description and short on answers.
Of course, an elephant in the room that Guggenheim never addresses is how our bloated military budget sucks money away from our urban schools. For example, though Guggenheim briefly alludes to the benefits of tutors working with failing students, he never wrestles with how we might provide such tutors to all underperforming students.
Do we really have to spend as much as we are spending on Cruise Missiles? (Anywhere from $600,000 to $1,500,000, depending whose cost quote you believe.) And how about all of those other weapons systems? Surely savings can be found in our defense budget, which grossly outpaces those of all the other nations in the world. Through prudent defense cuts we can finance an army of retirees to serve as excellent tutors for our students who are performing below standards.
