Sound Off : It's time we get back to neighborhood schools | The News-Press | news-press.com:
Sound Off : It's time we get back to neighborhood schools
I grew up in Maryland where school attendance was based on where you lived, not by choice. I feel Lee County’s “school choice” program is not the right approach to student placement.
As of 1999, the Lee County School district no longer was under court order, yet, “school choice” has remained in effect for 14 years. Why?
Lee’s “school choice” assignment plan is creating more segregation; it’s making some schools more desirable than others. The only choice parents should have is whether to put their children in the public school system, a private school, or a virtual school. And the public school choice should be the school closest to their home. Our tax money for education needs to go towards the students and teachers.
Have any of you driven around town on a weekday around 2:30 p.m.? Don’t! Because it’s a nightmare between the amount of parents picking up and the half empty buses arriving from everywhere. Why is this? That’s because parents don’t pick a school of their choice, but are “assigned” their first, second, third, fourth, or maybe fifth “choice,” which most likely isn’t close to home, and students ride buses for over 30 minutes each way.
I have several reasons a neighborhood school would better serve students:
• A neighborhood school creates a sense of community amongst students and the families. Neighbors all go to the same school.
• There is less time spendt on buses. Today, multiple bus routes for various schools swing by the same houses. I live off McGregor and have the option of at least 10 elementary schools, five middle schools, and five high schools passing by my house. That’s a total of 20 bus routes. That seems absurd.
• There is better understanding of head counts per school in neighborhood schools. You will be able to tell which areas of the