Proposed new charter school

[klauspood.livejournal.com]

There is a proposal for a new charter school in Somerville. The state (DESE) will be reviewing the application for the next few weeks and will possibly grant the charter on February 28th. If granted this charter school will undermine the existing Somerville Public Schools by reducing school funding by nearly $5 million a year, which is almost 10% of the current school budget. This cut in funding will lead to devastating cuts in public school programs, loss of 60 -75 teachers, and potentially closure of an entire school. This would represent a huge set back for public education in Somerville, setting back much of the progress that has been made in our schools in the last 25 years.

There will be a public hearing by the DESE on this on December 14 2011 at Somerville High School. More info can be found at:

https://sites.google.com/site/progresstogetherforsomerville

http://www.thesomervillenews.com/archives/21168

http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.aspx?id=6532

Comments

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, let's hope for some more good empty public school buildings that used to afford kids the opportunity to walk to a school in their neighborhood and learn -- especially the ones who don't *have* other ways of getting to school, who aren't well served by a bus route, whose parents can't afford the bus far or the time to get them halfway across town to school, etc. Then we can rent them out to interesting educational groups, not that the kids who are now having even more trouble getting to the math+reading part of their education are going to make it to afterschool classes run by sprout or parts and crafts. Or, heck, we could just turn them into condos!

Expanding the shools to allow for MORE diversity is good, in my opinion.

[turil.livejournal.com]

I hope full more FULL schools, filled with MORE than just conservative, authoritarian type programs (which I know some folks, apparently like you, want, so go ahead and keep some space for them for those who want it), that include programs run by anyone and everyone who has experience teaching. Why force all kids into a limited program, when they could have a choice of what kinds of programs meet their needs best? Why not let kids go to an authoritarian math class for an hour with their favorite mainstream teacher, and then next hour they go play with Aurduinos that collect data on garden health with Sprout, and then next hour they create a kinetic walking sculpture to exhibit as science-art in a public park with Parts and Crafts, and then next hour they make a documentary about politics with SCAT, and then next hour they collaborate on a literary journal with Pagan Kennedy, and so on!

Re: Expanding the shools to allow for MORE diversity is good, in my opinion.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

> Why force all kids into a limited program, when they could have a choice
> of what kinds of programs meet their needs best?

Because that choice is only available to a few of them, and honestly, that choice is already available to a few of them. I want more diversity, but not at the expense of any viable options for educating the kids whose parents *don't* have time to argue endless about this on internet forums, and who have heard of Sprout, Arudinos, kinetic sculptures, and parts and crafts. Bring Parts and Crafts to the open elementary school (wait, wait, I believe that's already been done, yay Parts and Crafts!) Don't shut one down so that you can rent it to them so that only families that look like mine can go learn there in all sorts of ways, in their own languagues, and with evolving programs that bring Arduinos (ok, maybe just Lego Mindstorms) to their classrooms.

I'm fortunate enough that I can do all of that with my kid, but part of why I choose to participate in the public schools is to share what I can with the entire community, not take away from them .

Seriously, you were not talking about expanding the schools, you were talking about shutting *down* schools because Somerville needs more empty buildings to turn into fabulous pony-and-flower-filled fantasy world of learning and hacking that wouldn't be open to everyone or even necessarily provide more than an hour of stuff to do a day. That's reducing options, and extremely important ones in my book.

Unless you have a fantasy proposal for how all kids are going to get afforded the chance to do any of this cool stuff, instead of just yours or mine?

Re: Expanding the shools to allow for MORE diversity is good, in my opinion.

[turil.livejournal.com]

Why are you ignoring what I say? Is there a reason you want to believe I've ever said anything about shutting down a school? Because clearly (if you read what I've said, it's obvious that I'm saying the opposite).

My goal is for every kid to have all these choices. Period. MORE diversity, as I said. You seem to want less. You don't want people to have the option to have another school, run differently, by people who really want to create a school. Clearly having another option, just as open and availble to everyone as the current schools, is good for Somerville. But you don't seem to want more diversity. You want people to be forced into using only what's currently available. That's pretty mean, if you ask me.

If you really want all kids to have all of these options, then encourage your own school to allow outside programs to use the building, for free, using any empty space that happens to be there. Alas, without the unions going away, it won't happen. So for now, creating a new school, free of those restrictive unions, is the best option.

Re: Expanding the shools to allow for MORE diversity is good, in my opinion.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

I'm not ignoring what you say. You said it, right up there, in the same thread that my comment is nested under, even: http://davis-square.livejournal.com/2793736.html?thread=31531784#t31531784

(turil wrote: And yes, the mainstream schools will lose funding, but they will also have fewer kids to serve, thus evening things out fairly well. And empty school spaces can be turned into more open ended community spaces that serve the city even more. Creating maker spaces, continuing ed classrooms (there's a huge shortage of public spaces for teaching in Somerville!), and even funky things like Sprout, Parts and Crafts, and perhaps non-profit incubators.)

I don't want THESE people to run THIS school with the money that should SERVE EVERYONE. I want more options, but I want them to not be one of those for-profit evil charter schools companies AND not to be something else that strikes me as equally damaging to our community.

Re: Expanding the shools to allow for MORE diversity is good, in my opinion.

[pekmez.livejournal.com]

And no, actually, I don't want my child in a conservative, authoritarian program. I just also don't want her in a class-segregated one.