A bill that addresses several education-related topics, including charter schools and so-called “neighborhood schools” is expected to make its way through the Kentucky General Assembly during the short session that convened this week.
One part of Senate Bill 3 sets forth rules that would enable Kentucky students to attend a “neighborhood school” — defined as one nearest their home.
The concept of “neighborhood schools” sounds good. But is it really in the best interest of students?
The term “neighborhood school” gets used these days as if it is some cure-all for what plagues public education.
And why would anyone oppose “neighborhood schools”?
That would be akin to speaking against apple pie and motherhood, wouldn’t it?
I mean, can’t you see Beaver Cleaver strolling down the sidewalk of his neighborhood on his way home from school. It’s the American way, right?
Well, in my book, the “neighborhood school” concept is about as relevant today as black-and-white TV with June Cleaver wearing a dress, heels and pearls as she fixed dinner.
While I do not think there is anything wrong with going to a school in one’s neighborhood, I think it has nothing to do with assuring children a good education.
But riding a bus for an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon has got to be detrimental to a child’s development, you say?
Well, both of my kids did it through elementary school, and they turned out quite well. In fact, odd as it may sound, their school bus pals provided a good source of socialization.
Back in the day, we chose to have our children attend Lincoln Elementary, located on East Main Street downtown.
Our daughter started there in 1992 — the first year of Project Renaissance, in which parents could choose a school from a “cluster” of about six schools.
She had passed the test to be in the Advance Program, which still was available for first graders then.
Lincoln, as it turned out, was the only school in our cluster that offered the Advance Program for first graders. So we decided to give it a shot.
I admit that, at first, the long bus trip was disconcerting. And I admit that on the first day of school, I followed the bus that picked her up in our neighborhood to the place where she had to get onto another bus and then followed that bus to school.
Lincoln turned out to be a terrific school with dedicated, engaged teachers back then. It was evident that they believed they were on an important mission when it came to educating children.
And the school was only a mile away from my office, which made it convenient to visit the school for lunch and programs.
In that same era, friends of ours had their three children attending their East End “neighborhood school” that was just down the block from their house.
The mother, who picked her kids up at school every day, told me with chagrin that their eldest daughter’s teacher would, without fail, tell her how many days until the next holiday or day off or end of the school year every time she saw the teacher.
That’s just one illustration of how disgusted she was with this burned-out teacher’s lackluster effort.
Since they didn’t want their two younger children to encounter that teacher, our friends pulled their three children out of the public school and enrolled them in what is now Whitefield Academy — located on Fegenbush Lane, a good 30 minutes from their house. So much for that “neighborhood school” experience.
Granted, the school situations I’ve related date to the 1990s. But I think they indicate that just going to the school closest to your home is not a panacea.
So, I hope our legislators will think through the reasons why this part of Senate Bill 3 is essential.
And the legislators, most of whom do not live in a large, urban area, need to understand the implications the law would have on the Jefferson County Public Schools system, which is an enormous, complex organization that has operated under the rulings of federal court orders related to desegregation orders for much of the past 35 years.
I hope that legislators who are proponents of this bill can articulate the reasons why they believe the “neighborhood school” law is a necessity. Because I don’t get
it.Sure, the new student assignment plan introduced by JCPS this year has flaws that need to be addressed.
But mandating the “neighborhood schools” concept is not the answer.
Friday, January 07, 2011
‘Neighborhood schools’ sound good but are not panacea
Senate Passes Charter, “Neighborhood” Schools Bill amid Passionate Debate
At the end of a rare Friday afternoon debate, the Kentucky Senate narrowly voted 21-17 to pass Senate Bill 3, the charter school, “neighborhood” schools legislation championed by President David Williams (R-Burkesville).
An often passionate 80-minute debate between Democrat and Republican senators dwelled little on the issues of creating charter schools, but rather on how districts set school attendance boundaries – the “neighborhood schools” language. As in Thursday’s Senate Education Committee hearing, the focus was on the controversial Jefferson County Schools’ student assignment plan and the bill’s proponents desire to give parents greater say in having their children attend schools closest to their homes.
Both sides in Friday’s exchanges made local decision making by school boards as a primary focus of their support and opposition to both the charter schools and school attendance boundary subjects...
Support for charter schools had been building to some degree as a new advocacy group formed in Lexington. As Jim Warren reported in the Herald-Leader, interest in charter schools in Lexington has grown in recent months with the creation of Asteroids, a group of parents, educators and clergy who have been discussing charter schools since about September. To be sure, there is no groundswell of charter school support yet. And no one has indicated any intention of starting a charter school in Lexington if the General Assembly approves enabling legislation.
"I guarantee you there is lot of frustration among parents with the public school system in Lexington," said Brandi Carey, a mother of four who says a charter school could provide Lexington students with more choices in language immersion programs.
Talk about charter schools previously has been limited mainly to Louisville, where
some parents are calling for charters as alternatives for students in persistently low-achieving public schools.
Rev. Willis Polk, pastor of Lexington's Imani Baptist Church, told H-L that too many students are falling through the cracks and charters could be a valuable addition, if enabling legislation is properly crafted.
"Many of our children graduate from high school, go to college, and arrive there with great deficiencies. Something must be done. Some people are looking at [charters] and hoping and praying that some kind of alternative is made possible for our kids."
Polk's church serves members from the Booker T Washington, Leestown, Bryan Station, and other areas.
SB 3, which is being called “the voluntary charter school bill,” would allow local school boards to create public charter schools free from many existing state and local rules for operating schools to improve educational opportunities for children attending the charters.
Unsuccessful charter applicants could appeal denials or restrictions required by the local school board to the Kentucky Board of Education, which could overturn them. Charter schools would be given three to five years to demonstrate their impact before facing possible loss of their operating authority.
In committee, Senate President David Williams, the bill’s chief sponsor, argued that charter schools are just another tool for “intervention” in low-performing schools, similar to the transformation options schools now use.
Sen. Gerald Neal, D-Louisville, said that while he’s not opposed to charter schools, he is concerned about how they would be structured and their accountability as outlined in the bill.
Senate Bill 3 sailed out of the Senate Education Committee on Thursday, with all five Democrats on the committee voting against it.
But the bill is not only about charter schools. It also contains provisions that under some circumstances, would allow students to attend the school closest to their home - a measure with questionable consequences. Williams argued,
“The only thing this bill does is to give individual parents some authority to negotiate and say ‘I want my child to attend the school closest to our residence within the school attendance boundary,’ rather than have some bureaucrat decide whether that child goes to that school or somewhere else. This bill does not take local control away, it just guarantees parent control.”
So the whole thing turned into an argument over local control - only this time it was Republicans supporting the state imposition of attendance boundary solutions on local school boards.
KSBA reported,
Sen. Gerald Neal (D-Louisville) urged defeat of SB 3, saying it would indeed negatively impact local decision making, as was argued Thurday by three members of the Jefferson County Board of Education.
“These complex issues will not be resolved by actions taken by the state as opposed by those policy makers who are on the ground. An election was just held (in Jefferson County) and all of those (school board members) were re-elected. That’s a public expression of democracy in action. This body, particularly the (Republican) majority has consistently spoken that decision making should take place on the local level. This is a break from that,” Neal said.
Neal unsuccessfully sought to amend the bill’s mandates with a study of the measure’s impact.
“It’s very important that we identify the districts in the state that are likely to be affected. We don’t know that,” he said. “The potential increase in costs of facilities, student transportation and other operations. We don’t know that. Identification of potential impact on diversity and access to special programs. We don’t know that. This study would be central considering what we don’t know, but what we should know when we take a step like this,” said Neal.
The fun-filled 2011 General Assembly resumes on Feb. 1. The issue now goes to the House of Representatives where Speaker Greg Stumbo harbors doubt over its likely success.