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Do students get to magnet schools with system provided transportation(cost) or are parents going to be responsible? If the system provides transportation won't that minimize the cost savings of changing the current policy?
Well, it depends... some magnets have neighborhood busing, others require that you bring your child to an express bus stop. Also, if your child transferred into the school you are required to provide transportation.
Point well taken about the cost.
My concern is curriculum and sense of community, more than cost. If we can keep the current cost steady while improving the education of the kids and going back to the sense that most families feel that their kids are educated where they should be, that would be worth it, IMHO.
At the most basic, fundamental level I want my children to attend the school closest to our home and be provided with the best education possible.
There's a reason why I sacrifice my time and energy to have a career and generate the level of income that I do. I want my children to be surrounded by others who are also encouraged to learn, explore and expand on their horizons. I don't want them to be part of a social experiment or be forced to try and integrate with children for whom public school is little more than free babysitting.
However I would also counter that many of the "bused" children have greatly enhanced the school experience for my kids and have opened their minds to the fact that despite socio-economic differences ability is ability and poorer people are not dumber people.
I would also offer that despite some of the very real challenges thrust upon them by busing the teachers seem to maintain the level of learning I would expect from a geographically segregated school. Having lived in both types of school districts I can't tell you that one is truly better than the other.
I do wish there was an opt-out clause though for those families who are faced with the daunting prospects of unacceptably long bus rides or distances that would make it difficult for their children to establish a local social network.
We got into a magnet school and left after 1 day. We are in NW Wake and the school was in SE Raleigh. 35-40min drive. If we wanted a bus, it was a drive in morning traffic to Apex High School where they then would've boarded a bus--probably a 50-60 min commute each way. There was just no way I was going to subject them to that. HAd the school actually been better performing and more diverse than our assigned base school, maybe I would've endured it and asked that they do so as well, but it was both underperforming and not at all diverse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TuborgP
Do students get to magnet schools with system provided transportation(cost) or are parents going to be responsible? If the system provides transportation won't that minimize the cost savings of changing the current policy?
However I would also counter that many of the "bused" children have greatly enhanced the school experience for my kids and have opened their minds to the fact that despite socio-economic differences ability is ability and poorer people are not dumber people. ..
The problem is that the bused children are children, and their needs must be met. It is fine that they help the non-bused kids learn to appreciate differences, but to bus them to a school where they are 'tolerated' as 'spice' for majority-white/privileged schools is unacceptable. What is in it for the bused kids? They are not there to serve the needs of the non-bused kids. They are there to learn.
We gladly bus our kids 1 hour to a title 1 school... a magnet. The white/ privileged kids are in the minority there. So what. The kids with special needs & educational deficiencies get what they need, the gifted get an amazing curriculum- we are all happy.
All of the families there are either at a convenient neighborhood school (base kids) or an inconvenient but truly enriching school (magnet schools) and none of us are relegated to the status of window dressing for the other group.
It may be worth noting that school board elections are staggered for the 9 seats. Only four seats were up for election this year and only residents of those four districts could vote.
The four winners, plus the like-minded person already on the board would give them the majority – which would allow them to make the changes they want.
So it would be a stretch to call this a *mandate* by *the overwhelming majority of voters* as I have read here.
The problem is that the bused children are children, and their needs must be met. It is fine that they help the non-bused kids learn to appreciate differences, but to bus them to a school where they are 'tolerated' as 'spice' for majority-white/privileged schools is unacceptable. What is in it for the bused kids? They are not there to serve the needs of the non-bused kids. They are there to learn....
The children I referenced aren't tolerated (at least not in my house) and are certainly not "spice". These children are friends to my children and are considered as equals. It's rhetoric such as this that threatens to undermine the better parts of the concept. Kids pick up on these sentiments and it obscures their ability to form their own opinions and values by which to assess people that they meet.
Not really. The way the whole issue has been labeled makes it more controversial and divisive than it needed to be. School boundary changes and the resulting transportation issues usually bring emotions. At the core of the issue in Wake is the need to establish school attendance zones. Parents will still be ticked that what they consider to be their neighborhood school isn't. The issue of feeder schools will become more pronounced as parents will want their kids to go to middle school with the kids they went to Elementary with etc etc. That will not always be possible and will still be controversial. A rule of thumb is that in districts experiencing rapid growth the only way to be sure your supposed neighborhood school is your assigned school is to be a walker. Districts will rarely turn walkers into bussed students by boundary changes.
The core issue was the constant change is school attendance zones and kids and families bouncing around. There were multiple reasons for it and one that may now be off the table is socio economic. There will still be other reasons. Over crowding and rapid growth were not eliminated at the voting booth yesterday.
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