In a message dated 4/12/2012 2:52:07 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, aroc...@gmail.com writes:
I testified before City Council's Education Committee on Tuesday with concerns about the Great Schools Compact. One of which is that over 16% of Lea Elementary's students are English Language Learners. By the Great Schools Compact’s own admission, charter schools serve English Language Learners at a rate of 3.3% which is less than half of the school district’s average of 8.1% and less than a fourth of Lea’s rate. Private schools, being private, have no obligation to serve these students at all. The same goes for students with Special Education needs, students with behavior problems, students behind grade level, economically disadvantaged students etc. Although voucher programs are often under the banner of helping the most vulnerable students, what has been proposed is set up to provide an escape hatch to nowhere for them. I'm not trying to be argumentative, but want to understand your reasoning behind opposition to vouchers and apparently charter schools (both of which I, candidly, favor at the moment). Are you saying that, rather than do everything you can to get a good education for your kid, you shouldn't send him or her to a private or charter school but keep going with a public school out of "fairness" to those with learning disabilities, or no English, or no at-home discipline and role-model, etc -- given that factors like these may have a deleterious impact on the quality of the education? This seems like a "lowest common denominator" approach. It also seems like one of the things that drove lots of sophisticated people out of the city and helped create the weak education system with which we find ourselves. Your response also seems begs the question of why you think so many young families have paid so dearly to live in what they thought was a neighborhood that would let them send their kids to the Alexander School. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alan Krigman KRF Management, ICON/Information Concepts Inc 211 S 45th St, Philadelphia PA 19104-2918 215-349-6500, fax 215-349-6502 krf...@aol.com or al.krig...@krf.icodat.com
