(01-26-2016 09:14 AM)vandiver49 Wrote:  My mother was a teacher for Atlanta Public Schools for over 30 years. The neighborhood that I grew up in was functionally 'da hood' until gentrification began right around the time of the Olympics. Thus my zoned public schools options were bleak which is why my Mom went out of her way to send by brother and I to schools on the white side of town. That lasted until high school when we switched to a smaller public school district with a single high school of 600 kids. So public schools CAN and in many cases DO work.

So when Mach says health communities have healthy schools he's absolutely correct. Public schools are only failures when they are located in such areas and as my childhood stomping grounds continue to gentrify, the schools in that area are on an upward trend. Mach's POV of a Left Behind perspective is completely true. If parents who give a damn in troubled areas have the option to go somewhere else then functionally that school will become a detention center for malcontents. But that fear is no reason to trap students and parents who care in an untenable situation.

The special needs kids IMO is a red herring as school systems have more than enough funds to take care of such cases, they are simply misallocated via top heavy administration and building maintenance fees.

But far and away, the parents don't care. Why would anybody in their right minds keep their kids there if they can get out?

(01-26-2016 09:23 AM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(01-26-2016 09:14 AM)vandiver49 Wrote:  My mother was a teacher for Atlanta Public Schools for over 30 years. The neighborhood that I grew up in was functionally 'da hood' until gentrification began right around the time of the Olympics. Thus my zoned public schools options were bleak which is why my Mom went out of her way to send by brother and I to schools on the white side of town. That lasted until high school when we switched to a smaller public school district with a single high school of 600 kids. So public schools CAN and in many cases DO work.

So when Mach says health communities have healthy schools he's absolutely correct. Public schools are only failures when they are located in such areas and as my childhood stomping grounds continue to gentrify, the schools in that area are on an upward trend. Mach's POV of a Left Behind perspective is completely true. If parents who give a damn in troubled areas have the option to go somewhere else then functionally that school will become a detention center for malcontents. But that fear is no reason to trap students and parents who care in an untenable situation.

The special needs kids IMO is a red herring as school systems have more than enough funds to take care of such cases, they are simply misallocated via top heavy administration and building maintenance fees.

But far and away, the parents don't care. Why would anybody in their right minds keep their kids there if they can get out?

In all likelihood. But many students and parents do care yet are cowed by the School board and the rigidity of the zoning rules. In some instances such quarantine schools will create 'safe spaces' for kids who value education, but the administrations goals is the ensure the good schools aren't contaminated and problem kids are warehoused until the parents get home.