In These Times

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• • 05 Oct 05
  • 3:05 pm

  Magnet and focus option programs are inherently inequitable. It is in their very nature. They receive special treatment and special funding. Only a special few kids are lucky enough to get into the programs. And, inevitably, these are overwhemingly kids of privilege. Their parents have the wherewithal to research various educational offerings and apply to get into the programs they find most attractive, and the freedom to drive their kids each day to schools outside their neighborhoods. The effect is to make neighborhood schools the schools of last resort. Here in Portland, we increasingly have a two-tiered system of education -- …

  Posted to All for One, None for All

• • 05 Oct 05
  • 5:35 pm

  Jay, I think you miss my essential point. In my view, the District has an obligation to provide an excellent educational opportunity for all. That means good, safe schools in every neighborhood. Portland Public Schools has veered off course. It consciously decided, as a matter of policy, to compete with private schools as a way to attract/maintain enrollment. These boutique schools can get great results, but they are expensive to operate -- they require additional (scarce) resources. Some have been successful, some have not. But all are more expensive to operate and in the end succeed only at the expense of …

  Posted to All for One, None for All

• • 07 Oct 05
  • 12:02 pm

  Tell, I agree absolutely, especially with these powerful words of yours: "Parents have to realise that by choosing to desert their local school, they are de-financing it, disempowering it, making it worse." This is the issue I am most concerned about. As a community of citizens, we have an obligation to provide quality schools in every neighborhood. Mike

  Posted to All for One, None for All