Recently, Superintendent Amato received approval to reorganize that KC School District . . . The move is being noted as "the largest reorganization of district schools in 20 years." It's the first step toward turning around a district that's been in decline and losing students for more than a generation. Here are a few more changes that could soon be taking place:
•Establish universal, full-day prekindergarten programs for all district children 3 to 5 years old.What's most interesting (to me) in this endeavor is that it signifies a move BACK TO NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS which was abandoned and dismissed as "inherently racist" during the go-go 80's and early 90's when the KCMO School District was drunk with money (BILLIONS) from a desegregation decision that has now turned out to be ONE OF THE BIGGEST FAILURES IN THE HISTORY OF PUBLIC EDUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES pioneered by U.S. District Judge Russell G. Clark who more than any misguided Democrat is personally responsible for destroying public education in Kansas City.
•Remove the magnet status from several elementary schools.
•Require students who are assigned to new neighborhood schools to begin attending those schools for the 2008-2009 school year if the student is below the fifth grade. New residents and incoming kindergartners would be assigned according to the new boundaries starting next fall.
Really, year after year Clark guided the KC School District down a path that guaranteed disaster which stupidly and naively concentrated on making schools integrated rather than just making them halfway decent. From Russian fencing coaches to Olympic sized swimming pools . . . The white students never came and stink of an overwhelming failure and BILLIONS wasted over the years seems as if it will forever haunt any attempt to resurrect public schools in KC.
So now public schools in KC have come full circle . . . In a way . . . It should be noted that the end result of decades of mismanagement has left KC behind so many other districts that don't have to struggle with the perception of hopelessness or the legacy of a place that has been largely abandoned by the KC area's white population and then used as a guinea pig for every misguided social experiment that local liberals mistakenly believed would replace community/neighborhood/parental involvement in the education of their youth.
Tony,
ReplyDeleteGreat post. I said something similar at a forum and was chastised for it afterwards because I used the word "desegregation." So much for honest and open discussion.
The neighborhood schools will only work if they get the enrollment they need. I would be curious to hear our school board representatives' plans for increasing enrollment. Especially at the K-5 level.
everybody knows the dirty secret that Clark's deseg never worked and all they did was throw money down a hole.
ReplyDeletePity. For the money they spent on swimming pools and grand pianos they could have hired masters-level teachers for the district.
As for the plan, neighborhood schools sound like a really good idea. People rich or poor like to send their kids to neighborhood schools.
That being said, full day pre-K from 3-5 year olds sounds more like subsidized day care than education.
60% of the high schoolers in their non-magnets are failing the standardized tests. I would focus first on upping standardized test scores and basic high school skills before I'd do freebee pre-K.