In Spanish, "mal" means "bad"

One of the biggest - if not the biggest - proponents of bi-lingual education is the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund: MALDEF.

In case you don't know, the theory behind bi-lingual education is that kids who do not know English will do better if they are taught in their native language and they will eventually pick up English along the way.

The only problem is that it usually takes about seven years for the kid to get proficient in English whereas if you put them in a classroom where nothing but English is spoken, they know the language much sooner - no more than three years -
and usually much less.

But I digress.

MALDEF also has some ideas about why minority kids drop out of high school. Actually, they have one idea: the lack of money. Never mind that in districts such as Detroit where the average spending per pupil exceeds a whopping $11,000 a year, the dropout rate is nearly three out of four students. Yeah, the money goes a long way in Detroit - like into Lake Huron.

So it was in that context that I had the chance recently to ask a MALDEF representative if the real answer for school success is actually having good leadership. I pointed out several instances in which high schools in low-socio-economic areas had excelling ratings.

They got the same amount of state funding as any other school, but their principals had another thing in common: they demand excellence from their students. They expect the kids to dress appropriately, come to class on time, do their home work and class work and be respectful of others. In other words, they expect their kids to act like reasonable members of society.

Even so, MALDEF's answer was: mo money, mo money, mo money.

Money can't buy good leadership. If it did, every multi-million dollar Wall St. CEO would be successful. But they're not.

The real world demands real leadership for real results.

MALDEF should get real or get another line of work.