Waynesboro and achievment

What happens in 10 years when globalization has continued? What happens in 20 years as China continues to grow and jobs continue to be outsourced? How do schools continue to push ahead and improve student performance?
Waynesboro has changed significantly some for the better, and some for the worse. Outsourcing has cost the city jobs, and it has affected the socioeconomics accordingly. Waynesboro was an industrial town – you could graduate from high school or get your GED, get a job at the local factory, and get paid enough to be middle class or even middle-upper class. That job would give you a pension and for the most part, guarantee your way of life. As jobs have moved over seas and automation has reduced jobs, the guarantee of a good life has gone by the wayside. The primary source of jobs is now retail. Industry has not returned, partly because it is not cost effective to build new factories in the US.
The dirge of the community at this point is the youth. A select group of students exist who are called “gifted and talented”. These students will generally be successful, go to college, graduate, and leave the area because there aren’t many job opportunities. The other end of the student spectrum are the grade level students. Those who struggle to pass classes, struggle to pass exams, and generally seem apathetic about success and their futures.
What motivates them to succeed? Many of their parents work factory jobs or warehouse jobs, which give them a decent standard of living (although the kids may rarely see their parents). These students have everything they want, and more than they need. They don’t see their parent’s lives as desirable, but they don’t have a realistic vision for anything better. I have asked on many occasions how many video game systems are their homes, and the answer is often 4-5. I ask how many TV’s, and they not only tell me how many, but how many flat screen or HD TV’s they have. Until the students need something or have a desire for something that their circumstances can not provide for them, they will have no reason to achieve at a higher levels.
This problem is social, economic, and systemic. Socially, they seen nothing wrong with their circumstances, and people who speak and act the way they do are often found on the TV shows they watch, specifically on channels like MTV. Economics work on incentives. If there is no incentive to perform, why perform? There is not incentive, so there is no reason to do better than they have done before. Systemically, credit and the welfare system have provided goods for nothing, and all the money you can get, as long as you can pay a minimal monthly payment. We are now seeing the problems of the housing credit problems and this will continue to wreak havoc on the economy. Maybe the new found credit crunch will remove the possibility of high end consumer goods from lower socioeconomic people, and cause students to raise performance to achieve a better life. Who knows….