The biggest problem in education today? Parents

I write about education a lot here ... for a number of reasons.

No. 1, it's a topic I'm interested in. No. 2, I think our country's economic competitiveness is being severely damaged by a growing underclass of uneducated citizens living in a generational, seemingly unbreakable cycle of poverty.

Think I'm exaggerating? Check out the drop-out rates in cities like Los Angeles, Houston, etc.

And No. 3, I don't think most people care -- or care enough about the right things. Too many people misplace the blame for our vast educational shortcomings on money or buildings or teachers.

Truth is, most schools have enough resources -- including good teachers -- to ensure that students learn. The real key to educational success resides in the home, and it starts with the parents. If the parents make education a priority, the student can be successful.

Of course, who in America today makes education a priority? Well, it's primarily educated people ... those who are well-off financially. The New York Times reported yesterday that of all students nationwide who score more than 1300 on the SAT, two-thirds come from the top socioeconomic quartile -- just 3 percent come from the bottom quartile.

In another recent story, on the New Orleans Recovery School District, the Times reported that by the end of last year, nearly half of all registered students were missing each day. On the first day of school this year, nearly a third failed to show up.

And people talk about "fixing" New Orleans' broken schools? It's not the schools that are broken -- 90 percent of the students live in abject poverty, most in single-parent homes, many raised by someone other than their biological parents.

And today, on the 50th anniversary of the famous desegregation of Little Rock's Central High School (pictured above) by nine brave African-American students, HBO is airing a documentary (8 p.m. eastern) that shows the modern CHS and its re-segregated reality -- white students in honors classes, earning high marks, moving on to college; black students struggling just to get by.

As the filmmaker, Craig Renaud, says:

"One of the repeated issues that we heard from a lot of people in Little Rock is that they feel Central High School is still segregated, and that it is really two schools in one.

"One school having mostly white students in advanced placement classes that sends its graduates to the best colleges in America, and the other school with regular and remedial classes with mostly African American students, which many people claim suffers the same ills as any inner city school in America. And that despite 50 years since school integration, the achievement gap between white and black students doesn't seem to be closing, and for young black males it is actually getting worse."

Of course, not everyone agrees on the reasons why the above is true at Central High School, and so many other schools across this country. Like all socio-economic ills, it's a complex issue that can't be solved by a hour-long documentary or a blog post like this one.

But I know one thing. If there is to be a change -- if we are to sever the linkage between race, class and educational success -- it has to start in the home. It is the parents who make the difference, as painful a truth as that may be.

On a lighter, related note ... someone sent me the following answering machine message designed specifically for today's problem parents:

"Hello! You have reached the automated answering service of your school. In order to assist you in connecting to the right staff member, please listen to all the options before making a selection:

"To lie about why your child is absent - Press 1

"To make excuses for why your child did not do his work- Press 2

"To complain about what we do - Press 3

"To swear at staff members - Press 4

"To ask why you didn't get information that was already enclosed in your newsletter and several flyers mailed to you - Press 5

"If you want us to raise your child - Press 6

"If you want to reach out and touch, slap or hit someone - Press 7

"To request another teacher, for the third time this year - Press 8

"To complain about bus transportation - Press 9

"To complain about school lunches - Press 0

"If you realize this is the real world and your child must be accountable and responsible for his/her own behavior, class work, homework and that it's not the teachers' fault for your child's lack of effort: Hang up and have a nice day!"