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So long as superintendents have jobs this will never happen. Funding aside which in and of itself would be a monumental undertaking to calculate who would pay what and to whom, can you tell me how this is going to happen? Take Syosset for example, an excellent district, do you think that the superintendent there is going to want to take a pay cut of maybe $400K to run a regional school after she is sitting pretty in her job? Not happening in my lifetime.
well the key is to not ASK them to take the pay cut. What % of employees in the work force do you know are asked?
Anyway, do I want to lower my taxes a few K a year or remain in the top 5 schools in all of LI? I'm thinking the latter. I'm sure I'm not alone. If it weren't for schools, I would've looked elsewhere for cheaper. So our decision about this was voluntarily & purposely made long ago. Those paying that much and not taking advantage - I'd urge them to move, as I said I would.
The only way I'd probably support any reform is if this had no bearing on the quality of education, only the level at which administrators are paid. Again, I'm sure many agree. Don't see that happening.
Rather than changing existing high schools, the suggested alternative in the eMail put out by Nancy Rauch Douzinas of the Rauch Foundation of Garden City:
Quote:
Eradicating entrenched segregation is a daunting challenge. But a good first step lies in easy reach: creating regional high schools of excellence.
These schools would draw high-achieving students from across district lines, and could be created in ways that would not replicate the segregation that already exists.
The benefits are both obvious and significant. The schools would offer upward mobility to deserving kids in failing community schools. Nurture the smarts that employers need to grow a high-tech economy. And create high-profile oases of diversity on our too-segregated island.
It's an idea whose time has long since come. It was championed by the first Governor Cuomo, who recognized it as a vital step in building our regional economy. In recent decades, other regions have acted, while Long Island has not.
So what's stopping us?
Most opposition comes from within high-performing local districts, which fear that the new schools will siphon away their top students. Research shows, on the contrary, that when a district has a great program, students don't leave.
Many districts don't have these costly programs, and duplicating them 125 times over doesn't make sense. The smart move is to let the students leave, allowing districts to focus their resources on their other students' needs.
Cross-district high schools are a genuine no-brainer: good for our children, good for our economic future, and good for our sense of who we want to be. If we can't even do this, then shame on us.
If the Government just refunded me my money and allowed me to pick the school I want to send my kids to we would be better off. I would never would have left Huntington for Harborfields. I would have kept my daughter in Catholic school. But when you have HUGE economic discrepancies, these districts won't work. Just take a look at NYC public schools. Does anyone go out of their way to attend NYC Public school with all of their racial diversity? No. Kids battle it out for charter schools and specialized high schools based on certain skill sets like math, science, arts etc and the rest, too bad.
I am not willing to have just moved to a town where my taxes are near $15000 a year to "share" the school with those that will contribute virtually nothing in taxes for a social experiment. Hempstead, Roosevelt, Wyandanch NEVER are ranked as a top school. The state year after year comes into rescue these districts. More and more state aid. I am sure there are high performing students at these schools. I feel bad for those kids. But these policies don't just affect those but all and I have a problem with that.
That is why I would be in favor of telling a parent in one of those districts, here is your tax dollars back. We have failed your child. You want to go to a charter or Catholic or work it out with a neighboring district where you can attend but need to pay to go fine with me. It creates competition not only for the students but the districts. Districts that continue failing will lose more students and eventually close or get privatized. But merging districts to say hey everyone, lets all jump in the salad bowl and everyone will be equal in performance is ridiculous.
Rather than changing existing high schools, the suggested alternative in the eMail put out by Nancy Rauch Douzinas of the Rauch Foundation of Garden City:
Isn't that point of BOCES?? To run the programs that districts can't really run on their own?
Creating a "regional" high school of excellence is an idea that I dont think will fly with the way our districts are set up. And no SD is going to merge or try to merge with a less performing SD because the voters will never let it happen.
There will be no change, no "HS's of excellence", no vouchers, no magnets or charters and certainly no consolidation. Each school district is absolutely "PERFECT" the way it is. The school boards will vouch for it and the voters will wag their tails happily while a few of us grumble on CD.
Same for local, town and county govt across the board. Someone made our beds for us (shortsheeted it and I think there's sand and crumbs and bedbugs in it) and now we lie in it and pull the covers over our heads.
You can't lead a horse to water. The thuggish students in the 'poor performing districts' aren't going to turn into Mensa candidates overnight. The lack of strong parenting and positive role models, absentee parents or parents who don't value education, the government dole mindset, coupled with peers who verbally or physically beat down those who try to succeed are a portion of the problem. If you were to take these students and place them in a better performing district, will it influence them, or will they influence it?
My mom's NYC HS was one of the top in NYC decades ago. The school's demographic at the time was largely Jewish. (Mom was one of the few Hispanics/Catholics.) The area around it started changing; new people moved in who did not value education the way the previous residents did. The HS (which opened in the 1940's) became a 'failing' HS in the 70's and eventually closed in 2006. The school lost any potentially promising students to magnet schools.
Starting a magnet school on LI could possibly lure promising students from districts which perform ok, but aren't considered top of the heap. What happens to that district when those students (whose scores helped bolster the district's NYS report card) are gone? Will that district start looking even worse in the eyes of a potential buyer? Will that impact the value of a home?
Starting a magnet school on LI could possibly lure promising students from districts which perform ok, but aren't considered top of the heap. What happens to that district when those students (whose scores helped bolster the district's NYS report card) are gone? Will that district start looking even worse in the eyes of a potential buyer? Will that impact the value of a home?
It will destroy the average LI school (and the community around it). It will be like NYC schools with LI taxes.
i learned last night that a union free school district is not union free but is one that never merged with another district, as opposed to a central district. anyway, i want to smoke what others are smoking if they think this kind of thing is ever going to happen.
There will be no change, no "HS's of excellence", no vouchers, no magnets or charters and certainly no consolidation. Each school district is absolutely "PERFECT" the way it is. The school boards will vouch for it and the voters will wag their tails happily while a few of us grumble on CD.
Same for local, town and county govt across the board. Someone made our beds for us (shortsheeted it and I think there's sand and crumbs and bedbugs in it) and now we lie in it and pull the covers over our heads.
If you want change (consolidated + magnet schools), why not move to NYC?
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