It turns out that throwing money at problems may not solve them, particularly when we're discussing schools.
For the second year in a row, tens of thousands of New York City public school students who qualify for free tutoring under federal law will not get the extra help, companies that provide the tutoring said yesterday.Enrollment is apparently running behind last year's rate, when 30,000 out of 240,000 -- 12% -- of eligible students bothered to sign up.
Of course, the liberal party line -- which the New York Times portrays as the truth -- is that it's really the fault of the city. The application process is too confusing, or the city doesn't publicize it enough, or the deadlines are too short. That's after the government made a more extensive effort to inform parents and extended the deadlines.
No acknowledgement that perhaps, just perhaps, if people are unwilling to make even minimal effort to help themselves or their children, there's nothing the government can do about it. (Of course, if the parents cared enough to take an interest, the students probably wouldn't need tutoring in the first place.)