Three-year-olds running Wake County Schools
Submitted by James on Mon, 02/08/2010 - 5:53pm
What happens when Republicans run things? Squandered resources. Chaos for parents. Imminent tax increases. All hell breaks loose.
Hat tip to Progressive Pulse.
- 43 elementary schools would be over capacity if all elementary schools went to a traditional calendar; Wilburn would be over 300% of capacity; Wake Forest, Brentwood, Vance and Olive Elementary Schools would be over 200% of capacity. Assuming a year-round calendar remains in place, 33 elementary schools would be over capacity.
- Under a traditional calendar, 10 middle and 6 high schools would be over capacity.
- Overcapacity schools would not only be in downtown or west of the city. Mapping of the schools reveals these schools would appear in suburban locations where neighborhoods are dominated by ‘empty nesters’.
- Growth patterns, and land and construction costs will add problems in the future. The report concludes: “Given the amount of land needed and the spiraling costs for new schools, it may never be possible to assign all families in western Wake County to their closest schools.”
This is what happens when you put three year olds in charge of a school system.
- James's blog
- 1752 reads
They're already back pedaling ...
... from the "neighborhood schools" the three year olds ran for office on last year.
In the white paper, is this:
"While some parents believe "neighborhood schools" means all children will attend their closest school, it's important to understand the new school board majority knows this isn't possible. There simply aren't enough seats where needed. Enrolling all students at their closest school would require, literally, tens of thousands of reassignments.
But in broad terms, the school board is committed to providing more choices to parents, including the option of attending schools as close to home as possible. In that light, a review of what would happen if all children were assigned to their closest school allows people to gauge the possible effects of future assignment proposals."
And, of course, the three year olds have also discounted the recent survey results that showed 94.5% of parents were satisfied with their children's present assignment.
schools are already overcrowded
Don't blame the current board for the crowding that is rampant in Wake County schools. I have three kids in elementary school, and every one of their classes has more than 20 students in it, even though state law says there are only supposed to be 19 students per class in K-3. Class size and school size are among the most important factors for educational success, and the recent versions of the Board approved one mega school after another (Leesville Road high school has something like 2500 students in it and Wakefield High has 2,800 - that's ridiculous) in the mistaken belief that these schools offer the best bang for the buck for taxpayers. Instead, research has shown that smaller schools result in higher graduation rates and that smaller class size, particularly at the elementary school level, also lead to higher graduation rates.
And you might also be interested to know that significant numbers of Democrats and unaffiliated voters voted for the new majority last fall, so the new members may be Republicans, but they were elected by an ovewhelming mandate of citizens from all parties.
Less than 10%...
... voter turn out in most areas of Wake County (<20% in some of the Southeast area) for November election is less than the response rate of parents to the survey. Since Tedesco has already indicated the low response rate of the survey puts questions into the viability of the results, the same could be said about the November elections (even more so).
Bingo
Even more so because not everyone on Wake County could vote for school board this year. Only certain districts were up.
So the portion that voted in Nov 2008 are an even more diluted sample than the response level to the true county-wide survey.
That's a ridiculous argument
Voter turnout is law in every race except for the general elections that coincide with Presidential elections. Voter turnout is particularly low for municipal elections and school board elections because they are typically held in October. I don't hear anybody complaining about a 10 percent voter turnout for Raleigh or Cary elections. Were you complaining when there was a 10 percent turnout for the previous school board? Probably not. Did that somehow invalidate any of their actions?
Ahhh...hypocrisy in action
Make your choice, either the "low" survey response undercuts the value of the survey or the "low" voter turnout undercuts the value of the election.
You don't get to claim moral authority from one, but not the other - and vice versa.
Of course, my point is that only certain school board districts were up for election in Nov 2008. Therefore, the survey is likely more representative of the opinion of parents on school assignment - rather than only a portion of voting districts that even had the chance to vote in Nov 2008.
I'm not following your point
Yes there was low voter turnout for the school board election and all the municipal elections. That doesn't invalidate the people who won. For the school board folks in particular, all of whom won in a landslide.
The response rate on the parent survey wasn't real high, but that doesn't invalidate those responses either.
I don't think I have to choose one or the other. I believe the election results were an accurate gauge of the community at-large, and I think the responses from the survey are probably fairly accurate as well.