[dsrich98]

I consider myself to be an open minded individual, and enjoy the diversity and culture that living in Omaha can give me, compared with smaller communities in Nebraska. However, as a parent I am torn. I cannot fathom sending my children into any but a handful of schools in the Omaha Public School System. I always dreamed about buying a big old house in Dundee, or the Benson area. I love the feel of the heritage, the life, and the community of those areas. But when I think of where my kids would go to school if I lived there, that dream quickly becomes a nightmare.

Last month we moved our family out of the Keystone neighborhood which feeds into Omaha Northwest High school into a Millard district which will feed Millard West. All the information that led us to this decision can be found at Omaha.com schools report | The pulse of public education in Douglas, Sarpy and Lancaster CountiesOmaha.com Schools Report. Only 14% of the students at Northwest are proficient in reading! 14%!!! I'm not going to send my kids to a school where 85% of the kids can't read! At Millard West 90.4% read at grade level. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

So, as much as I love Omaha, I can't live in an area that feeds OPS. No thanks! The other problem is Omaha has such a strong Catholic tradition that many who live in OPS area will pay $1000's every year to send their children to private school, rather than subject them to OPS. How can Omaha fix it's schools, and stabilize it's central core, when anybody whose anybody will flee the inner parts of the cities to make sure their children can thrive and get a great education? I don't want to offend any OPS grads or parents of children in OPS. Of course there are great kids in OPS, but by and large there are HUGE problems. what can be done?

[JustMe_T3K]

It is not just OPS. A lot of schools are going downhill. I blame part of it on the influx of greedy superintendents and principals. They come in to just try and show some improvement to pad their resume, sometimes at the cost of our kids education.

Of course there is some wonderful admin and principals out there, but there are less each year.

[Bugaha]

Stop saying that Omaha has diversity!!!

[Omahahonors]

1) Omaha is diverse
2) your title of the thread is horribly misrepresenting our school system. We all know that all large cities have bad areas so don't act as if we are some sort of exception.
3) the city of Omaha is covered by ops, district 66, ralston, millard and elkhorn public schools. There are many private schools on top of this
4) finally, the city has a high graduation rate for both high school and college. We are considered a well educated place.

So yes. Not only is there hope, but there is also hope for your high negativity.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed

[billiefan2000]

OPS might improve

we will be getting a new super-intendent and 4 (possibly 5 new board members on the school board this fall




justme is right btw: some schools have greedy superintendents and principals


and some even have corrupt or out of touch HS alumni associations that cares more about power than what is best for their school and their alumni

[froggin4colorado]

Thanks for the map Omahahonors, good resource.

[Big George]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Stop saying that Omaha has diversity!!!

Doesn't it?

Every time I've been there visiting, I've seen just about any & all kinds of people imaginable.

...or maybe that's not what you mean by diversity?

[Bugaha]

Having a large black and mexican population does not make a city "diverse" any more. It's just standard.

[Big George]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Having a large black and mexican population does not make a city "diverse" any more. It's just standard.

Well, what you claim is standard, most people would see as diversity. Diversity is the opposite of homogeneity.

[harshbarj]

Originally Posted by Bugaha

Having a large black and mexican population does not make a city "diverse" any more. It's just standard.

I work with the public almost daily and can say, Omaha is very diverse. I deal with people from all over the world every day I go to work.

Now what I THINK you mean is that Omaha lacks ethnic 'towns'. Many major cities have small areas that are almost all of one ethnic group, something that Omaha lacks (like a china town, a german town, etc.). In omaha people tend to spread out and mix a bit more, at least after a generation or two.