Arkansas Blog

Gee, what a surprise!!!! The LRSD has only one way to go---down. As long as their is an affordable and viable alternative---private schools---the district is going to diminish. Those who foolishly try and paint a picture of no problems in the public schools are just whistling dixie. The dropout rate, diminishing SAT scores, violence, etc. are not going to improve overall.

Gee, what a surprise!!!! The LRSD has only one way to go---down. As long as there is an affordable and viable alternative---private schools---the district is going to diminish. Those who foolishly try and paint a picture of no problems in the public schools are just whistling dixie. The dropout rate, diminishing SAT scores, violence, etc. are not going to improve overall.

I taught in LR schools for a few years. Usually I find myself disagreeing with you strange, but often more than not, it's just a gut sense you're wrong. On this issue, I'll offer what I saw first hand and let you decide whether or not I'm the one whose full of it.

I saw amazingly dedicated teachers working hard to make sure their students did as well as they could on a test at the end of the year that hardly measured the child's academic performance or prowess. They're teaching kids with 21st century expectations using a 19th century model.

Ninth graders in AR are still required to take typing to graduate. Imagine what'd happen if we asked them to be fluent in a foreign language before graduating. Our system is set up to produce workers, not thinkers. Imagine what'd happen if we gave every child who walked into 9th grade a laptop and taught them over the course of four years to maintain it; hardware and software? What if we made textbook companies provide all texts in digital format to work on those laptops we gave them, so their history book wouldn't be inane by the time they got it six years later. I could go on forever, but until superintendents get budgets and discretion like generals in the Army do, I'm wasting my breath.

Stop blaming the district until you ask parents to get involved. I had a parent accuse my of trying to sabotage her son's basketball career because I told her I knew she had been writing all his papers for him. In an environment where the parent is the customer (Thanks Roy) and the customer is always right, well, you know what happens to well-meaning educators who dare step in the way of roundball dreams. This is a community problem.

Every year when the murder number in LR grows a the police start holding press conferences and announcing new measures and stepped-up patrols to combat the problem. Imagine what'd happen if we did that come test score time. What if 70% of the kids at a given school in a rough part of town were below basic in math and literacy. What would happen if the community responded with the same gusto?

If we would, 20 years from now there wouldn't be a need for those crime press conferences.

Schools have their hands tied. They are used as "baby sitting" centers by society.

Schools ought to be for education. Highly motivated, well trained teachers should not have their efforts squandered.
Students who chose not to participate in their education should be offered offered other alternatives, perhaps a McDonald's application or early access to public assistance.

What a pleasure it would be to walk into a room of 20 people (of varying levels) who WANT to learn.

"Ninth graders in AR are still required to take typing to graduate."

I can't think of a more basic, practical requirement: right up there with reading, writing, and arithmetic.

Strange - it's really sad what you post.

I had a discussion with each of my kids in the 8th grade as to where they wanted to go to High School. We could discuss any High School in Little Rock and work toward getting them admitted. In both cases it was Little Rock Central. It was not a "No, but a Hell No", I want to go to Central.

Now, the numbers may be down a bit across the district, but last years 9th grade class at Central was the highest attendance in history. Smart kids will always gravitate to where the other smart kids are. It's the parents at times who are not smart.

Thanks calmwriter for addressing the misconceptions and falsehoods put forth by the ignorant and ill-mannered. It is easy to tell who speaks with insight and who speaks with "incite."

Considering all the furor and the drop was less than 3% and the fact that scores were up last year for many standardized tests, the LRSD is not the decrepid and debauched dinosaur so often proclaimed by the idiot savants doing their worst to belittle the system.

"....it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Shakespeare, MacBeth (Act V, Scene V)

Ohhh... You are good Jake! Thanks.

I graduated from LRCHS and I taught at LRCHS. The school that I graduated from was first class. The school that I taught it was a hollow shell of what it had been. When I graduated from LRCHS, the only private schools in Little Rock were the Catholic High Schools. Now there are considerably more. Why do you think that is so?

Strange, I offered to send each of my kids to Catholic. They wouldn't have a thing to do with that. And I serve on the Board of a Monastery up North and there were still no bites.

Both of my kids were served well by Central. One on the liberal arts track while the other in computers. The common thread was they wanted to be at Central and we've worked very hard with their teachers and counselors to put them where they they need and want to be.

And please don't knock the teachers at Central even though you were one. My 2007 graduate from Central makes 3 times what you were making when you taught there. It's all in getting kids where they need to be and I can tell you weren't one of those teachers.

THE NUMBERS IN THE SCHOOL ENROLLMENT DROP IS OBVIOUS. THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE NOT PROVIDING WHAT IS NEEDED OR WANTED BY THE PARENTS OR THE STUDENTS OF THE LITTLE ROCK AREA. I KNOW OF ONE WHOLE FAMILY, THAT IS MOVING TO CHICAGO, JUST BECAUSE THE LITTLE ROCK, SCHOOLS ARE SO BAD. THEY ARE SERIOUSLY DOING THIS.
THIS IS LITTLE ROCK'S WAKE UP CALL IN NUMBERS.
IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHETHER IT IS A CATHOLIC SCHOOL, OR ANY OTHER PRIVATE SCHOOL, IT IS THE DIFFERENCE IN THE ATTITUDES IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS. THE KIDS HAVE TAKEN OVER, THE TEACHERS ARE INTIMIDATED. THE TEACHERS WHO ARENT JUST HAVENT FIGURED IT OUT YET. NOT ALL KIDS ARE LIKE THIS, BUT THEY ARE FAR OUTNUMBERED BY THE ONES WHO ARE.

ONE THING FOR SURE THE ARKANSAS STUDENTS NEED STARTING IN KINDERGARTEN OR PRE-K
FOR 15 MINUTES A DAY IS A TIME OF BEING CONSIDERATE, POLITE AND TREATING EACH OTHER AS ONE WOULD HAVE SOMEONE TREAT THEM.
THEY HAVE NO RESPECT FOR ANYTHING OR ANYONE. AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ARE THE WORST, BECAUSE WE HAVE THE ACLU POLICING THAT BIT OF SANITY.

IF THEY CANT PRAY AT SCHOOL (DUMB CONCLUSION IMO, BNA)
AT LEAST LET THEM LEARN TO BE KIND AND GOOD TO ONE ANOTHER. IT WOULD HELP SO MUCH. THEN ALL THE TEACHERS WOULDNT HAVE TO BE REFEREES, PARENTS, DISCIPLINARIANS, PAROLE OFFICES, AND GENERAL BABYSITTERS. THEY COULD TEACH AND NOT GET BLAMED FOR WHAT THEY COULDNT DO FOR YOUR ROTTEN SPOILED, BRATTY KIDS WHO CAN DO NO WRONG, JUST ASK YOU,

YOU OUGHT TO GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND PRAY THAT YOU HAVE PEOPLE WILLING TO TAKE THEIR LIVES IN THEIR HANDS FOR NOT A WHOLE LOT OF PAY AND DO WHAT THEY HAVE TO DO AND PUT UP WITH THE BASHING YOU DISH OUT. A TEACHER IS A PRECIOUS COMMODITY, JUST LIKE YOUR KID.

TREAT THEM BOTH AS SUCH.

See comments by later savants on the subject. (ANS 1: White flight is main reason for increase in private schools + overall numbers show public schools doing as well or better than private schools; ANS 2: Private schools have exclusions policies not allowed in Public schools + behavior problem indicates admin problem as well.)

As to first statement on my part:

Considering following replies, I can only say:

Q.E.D.

I'm certain LRCHS improved after a certain former teacher left it. Good riddance.

Heavens, LargeAss, please stop shouting. The caps lock key is on the left; just depress it. That's good. We don't mind if you type in all small letters.

I do worry about our school system here in town. In a few years I'll be sending a child out into that fray, and we have yet to decide what direction we'll aim her in. Will she have to ride a bus? Will the school she attends feature classes that explore her aptitudes? Will she receive the attention she needs and deserves? There's no telling.

But one more thought here. We're not talking about a 10-15% change -- we're talking about a 2% drop in student population within schools inside the Little Rock School District. How has population within the city changed since then? Have residents moved to new homes? Is it possible that a population shift might be partially to blame for the change? Without the accompanying numbers from Little Rock's private and parochial schools, how are we really to determine the cause of the student decrease?

Perhaps it's simply a matter of the number of available children. Think about it -- there are baby booms and baby slacks, and some classes may not be as large as others. Could it be possible that there just aren't as many middle school kids in LRSD schools because there aren't as many kids of that particular age in the city?

I'm not particularly defending the LRSD... I was a PCSSD student myself until the annex back in the late 80s, and then I benefitted from the magnet school system. I'm a proud graduate of Parkview High, and I think the extra class and the emphasis areas offered by the school at that time were fantastic. I received a lot of extra opportunities I might not have received in one of the traditional schools. Should all schools be magnets? No. Should there be better offerings at traditional schools? Yes. Unfortunately, with the trend towards a top-loaded salary structure that favors economic incentives for administrators rather than focusing that money towards students, there just isn't a financial structure to support non-traditional classes on a wide scale at traditional district schools.

I would be curious to know the enrollment numbers, and previous schools, of students enrolled in the other two new Little Rock charter schools, Covenant Keepers and LISA-NLR. Can you check that out, Max? Also, I guess it would also be interesting to know about enrollment/increases at LISA-LR and the Dreamland charter schools.

The "Other" category Max mentioned is primarily Hispanic students. With limited English skills, these students are still required to take all those tests which are counted along with students who have spoken English all their lives.

LRSD is admin top-heavy although there is some debate about tossing out the curriculuum overseers. I agree with Kat that the Magnet-style programs should be implemented district-wide but that will cost more money or necessitate serious budget changes in other non-instructional areas.

One mustn't ever forget that Private Schools are very exclusionary. One will not find an equal proportion of the disadvanaged among their student population. They can and will shut the door on those they deem unfit or ineligible to meet their criterions. This is simply how they run their business. Public schools cannot do this - they are public in every sense of the word.

Yet, despite these differences, all are in the business of education. Unfortunately, some mean-spirited members of the peanut gallery and so-called educantist experts want to play up some imagined conflict between public and private schools, usually demeaning one to tout the other.

Both systems have problems and limitations yet both perform on the whole equally. No conclusive evidence has been given yet to show overall that one system outperforms the other consistently and significantly. The best comment made on the issue was from a fellow named Hersh who stated that when all schools are improved then parents will truly have a choice.

The more time my kids spend in the LRSD the more I think about homeschooling or private schools. I am so frustrated with the district, their cookie cutter approach to education, the inflexibility, the lack of options for students etc. And I don't blame the teachers. With the exception of 1 useless blob, all of my kids teachers have been dedicated, hardworking competent individuals, and I thank them for their work and their service.
I totally blame the administration, all top heavy that views change as threatening.

I don't want my kids to learn how to fill in bubbles. (Thank you GWB!)
I don't want my kids to learn how to parrot back info.
I don't want my 6 year old to have to learn how to stay still in his seat for 4 hours a day with only a 15 minute recess break to play.
I'm tired of those stupid reading logs which manage to turn what should be a pleasurable activity into another homework "chore". (Note: I'm trying my best to encourage a life long love of reading which is being underminded by having to document how many pages he reads every night like some sort of literacy gestapo.)

I want my kids to learn to think. Think about abstract ideas that can't be measures on a bubble test. Think about problem solving. Think about humanity and those around them, both in their neighborhood and around the world. (What ever happened to pen pals btw?)

I happened to be looking at the website for Cabot schools. Parents their can check elementary grades by computer. The elementary kids have so many offerings. 5th graders take a trip to Alabama to go to the space camp. 5th graders! I don't think our 5th graders make it to the Aerospace/Imax center up the street. (Guess its that 1 field trip per year limit. grrrrr......) Their g/t program starts in kindergarten!

And I'll be damned if I ever move to Cabot, but why are they able to do things for their students that we can't do for ours?

And as a parent, I have to think about why should I support public education at the expense of my child's education? Why should my child be the sacrificial lamb to keep "good kids" and "involved parents" in the school system?

And Max -- what's wrong with public charter schools? Why shouldn't my tax money be used to educated kids in a new and different way? What's wrong with trying to get a school un-coupled so to speak from the bloated morass that is the LRSD? Even New Orleans had a PUBLIC Montessori school.

Ugh. The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off that we offer our children such a mediocre system of education as if that's the best we can do. Off to dream about homeschooling.....

ARK. BLOG: ... nothing's wrong with charter schools except that they are approved on little more than the belief that they must be better because they are different. Few have track records or demonstrated skills to bring to the table. I don't think you'll find even the good ones demonstrably different from conventional public schools, though some benefit from being much higher on the economic scale than the average urban public school. I think you'd be surprised, too, at how similar the school experience is just about everywhere. Standardized tests? You've lost that battle. Parroting information? Interestingly, many of the heralded charter schools promise a return to basics, with drilling on math, grammar, etc.

Cabot has fine schools. So, too, does Little Rock. Home schooling can be a fine alternative for those with the wits and time to devote to it.

The essential truth is that nobody has yet found and replicated on a broad scale an education approach that exceeds the average work of conventional public schools. Not charter schools. Not private schools. Not parochial schools.

The other essential truth is that poor kids -- who happen to be disproportionately minority in many places such as Little Rock -- tend to lag behind students from better circumstances. The things that worry me about charters are 1) many will be cream skimmers. It should be no surprise that middle class kids from educated families who already achieved proficiency on test scores continue to be proficient in charter schools. eStem, given its demographics, WILL succeed. 2) others are founded on a wish and a promise and soon implode, leaving a trail of still more failed kids behind; 3) the process tends to concentrate the chldren of the dysfunctional and disinterested in the remnant public schools. Thus, you haven't solved anything. You've only created a haven for some and diminished the educational world of the remainder.

I"ve lost this battle. "Conventional wisdom" and the Waltons billions will create a crazy quilt of education in the U.S. the next few decads. And, inevitably, somebody will look at the hard-to-monitor, unaccountable. Balkanized structure and say, hey, what we need is a localized central education autority with a comprehensive overview of all local children being financed by public money. Something like, here's an idea, a local public school district.

I accept your feelings about LRSD. I can only say that my own experience with two children who went K-12 there was far different. Not perfect, but on balance very good. From grade school up they had opportunities for enrichment and classroom work that was about thinking, not just rote performance. I think my kids would have done well anywhere, but I firmly believe the rich curriculum and good teachers in LR added a great deal of value. I never saw an indication that there was an option in Little Rock that offered a superior education for them. That doesn't mean that you or others might not have valid reasons to feel differently or believe that different schools might have been better fits for your kids.

You asked.

I know that some news agencies want to report the worst things about the Little Rock School District but no one looks at the August numbers for any school district because children are continuing to check in. The informed school members I talked with suggested waiting until October 1 before making a conclusion. Did anyone add school board member Melanie Fox's child to the list of those who've abandoned the district and now attends private school? Several members of the state board of education did everything they could to sabotage the Little Rock District by allowing so many charters. It's frightening to know that any buffoon with a couple of dollars in his pocket can get a charter.
Max, Pulaski County got in trouble with the state when it was in the red after building a new school. The Little Rock District may need to suspend all new construction projects until the numbers come in.

Watch out Solon. Some people here don't take kindly to bad mouthing the LRSD based on personal experience with the LRSD.

We have been over this before. Some people really dislike the LRSD (I'm one of them), some people seem to have irrational hate for the LRSD (strangelove) and some love the LRSD (Max).

My kids are not in the LRSD and unless we go broke they will never attend the LRSD (barring some miraculous turnaround in the district). Too many bad experiences when I was in the LRSD, too many bad experiences when kids of extended family attended the LRSD and too many bad experiences by our friends (of all incomes -- OK, well middle class and lower middle class -- and races) who's kids are in the LRSD.

IMHO, the LRSD is broken and should be completely taken apart and rebuilt.

Of course, that would only solve a part of the problem. Two other problems are 1) how to get parents more involved and 2) how to get white parents to send their kids to the LRSD.

Granny,

If LRSD was doing such a great job, why would parents seek other options? Such intense fear of competition says a lot!

ARK. BLOG: Silly logic. And if LRSD was doing such a bad job, why do so many people stay? Several schools reported increases in enrollment.

The problem with LRSD haters is that it must be a zero sum game. LRSD must suck. Everything else must be better. It's never that simple, here or anywhere. As I've said many times, I'd never question a parent's decision for choosing another school. Comfort level alone is reason enough to choose a school -- public or private. I only wish the angry LRSD haters would extend the same courtesy to people who've made different choices than their own. But they are so desperate to ratify their own thinking that they must cast all others with different views in a single dimension. Not very thoughtful. Or persuasive.

Amen Doc! I know Fox very well and I find her to be the one of the most well prepared and informed board members. I know from the paper that her husband is very successful and I am sure security issues may have played a factor in her decision for her child's schooling. Also the fact that the LRSD is in dire financial straits- I heard from a district employee last week that there is a million dollar shortage. Maybe we should stop paying good money for bad things (i.e. running of a decent Super and settling lawsuits we could have won) and put back instructional coaches instead of adding more administration downtown! Common sense has a different definition to this current board. You have to look at the bottom line before you vote on financial issues.

"Watch out Solon. Some people here don't take kindly to bad mouthing the LRSD based on personal experience with the LRSD." - kretara

That's right, and people who don't have children in the district should have no voice at all. The "public" in "public education" seems to apply only to those who have direct, pleasant experiences. (For example, those parents who have had kids in the de facto segregated Central High programs.)

ARK. BLOG: "De facto segregated." That's simply untrue. Where classes don't reflect the overall school makeup -- and I doubt you'd find many, if any, all-white classes -- at least kids of different races mingle in halls, unlike some of the monoethnic private schools and the similarly "de facto segregated" charter schools.

The most interesting thing about last night's meeting was the decision to hire additional administrative staff. Baker Kurrus pointed out that LRSD already spends ten percent of its budget in administrative costs while nearby districts spend around four percent. A New York Times article about the district in 2007 said that a legislative study found the district's administration to be "terribly bloated." Despite this, the board voted to create another layer of administrative positions, some of which will receive pay exceeding $100,000 annually.

My own experience as a teacher in the LRSD and a parent of children in the LRSD tells me that LRSD is tremendously top-heavy in administration, overrun with needless district administrators who do little more than run ridiculous inservices that reveal their complete ignorance of the subject matter in which they are supposedly expert. Yet, we apparently have need for even more high-paying administrative jobs. Can one of the district apologists please explain why that is?

ARK. BLOG: I am glad you brought this up. The new administration's decision to hire another administrator wasn't a hopeful sign and I thought Kurrus' remark was well taken.

But ..... Please note for the record (and I don't mean by way of excusing current actions)

Baker's stats on the high administrative spending in LRSD were based on 2007 figures. That means the top-heavy administration was the direct work of the administration of Roy Brooks. I wouldn't be inclined to mention this had I not had to endure so much blather about how Brooks had purged deadwood and streamlined the administration. If that's so -- and who knows, maybe it was even worse before he arrived, though I don't believe it had a $100,000-a-year flack before Brooks arrived -- he sure didn't get as far as his supporters say. Interesting, too, that he's now heading a one-building school district 1/30th the size of LRSD in enrollment with a million-dollar administrative superstructure at the top of the heap.

If Linda Watson is making it worse, bad on her.

PS -- I think subject area specialists (one of the things Brooks cut) can be important and useful to classroom teachers. Here, the quality of the hire is the critical issue.

Max, I don't think that I have ever made a negative comment toward parents with children in LRSD, but they are not the only ones who deserve to be in the conversation.

Glad to see that you are in support of school choice.

I think you hit on one of my problems Max -- "Broad scale". That's one of my problems -- Its like issuing every family a four-door sedan, when some families need mini-vans, some may need SUV's, some need a smaller 2 door model.

Its such a one size fits all approach to education, and our children are not "one size fits all". And there are very different educational delivery models that a more progressive school district would/could incorporate in their delivery system. Yes, its hard. Yes, it means taking risks. But our kids deserve better than "easy to manage".

There are 30 public schools based on the Waldorf method. 50 school districts have public Montessori schools -- with proven, successful track records! Some districts are going to all boys schools -- wasn't Jacksonville doing something like that?

I respectfully disagree with the argument about "skimming the cream". If these charter schools are in the LRSD, then how would they skim the cream any more than the magnet schools do? But if the LRSD doesn't offer more choices and charter schools develop outside the District than yes -- "skimming" will occur. So lets bring these innovations within the District! (You know, I don't think LRSD would have had magnet schools if it weren't for the de-seg suit.)

With a nod to Shaw, some see things in the LRSD and say o.k. -- I dream of what the LRSD could be and say "Why not?"

Solon, click on my name for information regarding bringing "charter" innovations into the district . The anti-charter crowd can't imagine that public charter schools might eventually help their favorite traditional public schools.

Max,
Some people financially do not have a choice but to stay. I would struggle to send my kids to private schools so we do the best we can in LRSD. My husband and I both volunteer at every opportunity our jobs allow. We make sure our kids treat others with respect and do all their homework. Sometimes I feel like we are beating our heads on a wall. I hate to volunteer in my kid's middle school office because it scares me a little. It's points out too much that is wrong in the district and society. Don't have kids if you can't raise them responsibly! It's that simple. Principals and teachers are treated like dirt by some of these kids. Manners are a thing of the past. Everyone expects something for nothing. It breaks my heart but if I could I would send mine to private. Unfortunatley it is not in our cards right now so we will keep fighting to make our kids' schools a good place, but it is disheartening. I did look at E-Stem and was impressed but we thought our kids would dislike the longer year and both our kids are doing well in school as far as grades go. We may have made the wrong decision. Only time will tell.

ARK. BLOG: Thanks. You target the huge problems that the schools face and underscore why it is far too simplistic to blame teachers or educational strategy for all ill outcomes. But I hope you aren't suggesting that the only people who stay are those who have no choice.

If I were the ARKBLOG before I would be offering advice on logic I would be getting my own house in order first. If the public schools were so good or even adequate why would so many people who do have choice opt for private schools? The number of private schools in Little Rock has grown considerably and that is not an indicator that the public schools are acceptable. Also, do you really think that such factors of dropout rate, SAT scores and levels of violence are relatively equal between private schools and public ones? Get a life. You are so wedded to your ideology that you have been blinded to the truth.

"You are so wedded to your ideology that you have been blinded to the truth."

The self-proclaimed expert describes himself so well. It's amazing how someone can omit 90% of the story and warp the other 10% so much with his feeble cause & effect analyses.

To make a Nat'l Enquirer type headline for the LRSD haters: System Sucks Says Slick Savant!!
"I see all, know all, & tell all!" warns psychic saboteur.

Same old, same old: no insight, just incite.

I've never seen someone prove over and over how poorly he understands logic but yet he who must not be named continues to exhibit how rationally-challenged his assumptions are with outstanding regularity. There's a serious Charlie Foxtrot in his collection of neurons.

Idiot Savant logic:

This year LRSD enrollment is down, therefore LRSD must be a bad place.

Following such profound incite, oops I mean insight, then this also ought to be true.

Last year LRSD enrollment had a record increase for enrollment, therefore last year LRSD was a great place.

Let's not talk about 100s of other factors that go into the story. It spoils the savant's "logic."

Damnant quodnon intelligunt - They condemn what they do not understand.

tiredofbsS: "I know Fox very well and ... I know from the paper that her husband is very successful and I am sure security issues may have played a factor in her decision for her child's schooling"

That sounds like BS, tiredofbs. Are you actually suggesting that she and her husband kept her child of out Pulaski Heights Middle School, because someone might kidnap their child or retaliate for selling Alltel and losing Central AR jobs? I know where they're sending their child - and its not some secure fortress...

As she represents my area of town, I would be curious to have her address the issue publicly. Has anyone at the Times asked her for comment?

What is the deal with Mitaga? I have heard that his only qualifications are the he was a truck driver that Roy liked. Does anyone know what his credentials might contain? Nova degrees, Phoenix degrees, etc. do not count because they are bogus.

Since the middle schools had the largest drop in numbers, maybe it's because there are less great choices in LRSD middle schools than just a couple of years ago. I know personally of 2 LR middle schools that were awesome until a change in administration, and I'm glad I no longer have kidz that age, and don't have to make that choice.

There is NO school, ANYWHERE without problems.

I have had kidz in Catholic High (his choice), another small private high school (our choice, because we didn't like most of her choices at that age) and I currently have a daughter at Central (both of our choice) after all 3 kidz were in LRSD kindergarten - eighth. Neither of these schools is perfect-whatever that is- but I'm glad I have choices. If I don't make choices based on behavior, ability, etc, aren't I neglecting my Kidz best interest?

Where Melanie Fox chooses to educate her child doesn't make a damn bit of difference. No one can deny that Ms Fox works her a** off for this district-even if she doesn't stand a chance on any vote, because of the majority block of votes by board members-she shows up and is always prepared at board meetings. Obviously, she is doing what she believes is right by her child, for whatever reason. I'm glad to know she looks at the individuality of her child, and is committed to serving her kidz best interest.

I am a supporter of LRSD-grew up for 8 yrs in the district myself-would've stayed 12 but my folks vetoed that! In hind sight, thank god they did, because I likely would've been one of those that slipped through the cracks @ Hall - during the idiocracy known as 'open campus'...or was that "open party"?!?

Anyway, I'd love to see LRSD succeed, but we aren't going quickly in that direction.

Jake,

Do you know the Latin phrase for, "If you don't agree with me, you must be a moron?"

Why do you ask, Doc? Is that how you view he who must not be named and his approach to the issue?

Bad logic, repeated ad hominem attacks, a preponderance of misconceptions, and little or poor evidence do not compel anyone to agree with conclusions based on such faulty reasoning. I will respect a reasoned analysis of LRSD's problems and will likewise encourage the search for solutions to LRSD's needs. My hackles arise when LRSD is the object of vituperative scorn and odious disdain.

As I've mentioned frequently, provide insight; show that you are aware of all the factors that are surrounding and part of the issue. You certainly will be more respected. Mykidzmom is one I respect for her opinion. She notes that her view is anecdotal but gives it without rancor. She explains with clarity her rationale and personal choice. She and I do not completely see eye to eye, but I can tell she has an honest mind and open heart on the issues troubling LRSD.

I do have a message for all concerned (that includes you, the savant, LRSD, Max, and the public) -
"Perfer et obdura; dolor hic tibi proderit olim ."

Charter schools have been brought up. So, some facts regarding the matter. I will post the criticism but welcome those who wish to post data regarding the overall performance of charter schools that differs from mine. Please do not use studies that only incorporate a handful of schools and cite this as significant data.

A study released on August 22, 2006 by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that students in charter schools performed several points worse than students in traditional public schools in both reading and math on the National Assessment of Educational Progress test. This is the largest and most comprehensive study done to date.

In February 2006, the Center for Education Reform released a report on charter school closures. At that time they found that 436 of the 4000 charter schools had closed for reasons ranging from district consolidation to failure to attract students. The report states that the "majority are closed for financial or management deficiencies." Remember that these are individual schools, not entire districts, and are subject to federal accountability laws. Charter schools can theoretically be closed for failing to meet the terms set forth in their charter, but in practice, this can be difficult, divisive, and controversial.

In an article written for the journal Contexts, Linda A. Renzulli, an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Georgia, and Vincent J. Roscigno, coeditor of the American Sociological Review, use Linda's own research as well as research by Amy Stuart Wells, Professor of Sociology and Education and the Coordinator of Policy Studies at Teachers College at Columbia University, to state that Charter Schools actually increase racial segregation.

There are two principles that guide charter schools. First is that they will operate as autonomous public schools, through waivers from many of the procedural requirements of district public schools. The second is that charter schools are accountable for student achievement. To date, 11% of the over 4000 charter schools founded in the United States have closed for reasons including academic, financial, and management problems, and occasionally consolidation or district interference.

The rules and structure of charter schools depend on state authorizing legislation and differ from state to state. A charter school is authorized to function once it has received a charter, a statutorily defined performance contract detailing the school's mission, program, goals, students served, methods of assessment, and ways to measure success. The length of time for which charters are granted varies, but most are granted for 3-5 years.

Charter schools are held accountable to their sponsor-a local school board, state education agency, university, or other entity-to produce positive academic results and adhere to the charter contract. While this accountability is one of the key arguments in favor of charters, evidence gathered by the United States Department of Education suggests that charter schools are not, in practice, held to higher standards of accountability than traditional public schools.

I do have one final Latin lesson and it's especially for those who have Latin classes in our fair city. You should learn and use this phrase, children:

"Canis meus id comedit."

In our vernacular, it is a famous excuse given for not having one's homework: "My dog ate it."