Competing school board election op-ed pieces

Hey for the Door #1 and Door #2 and if we move away from Door #2, we can only go back to Door #1 crowd - THERE'S DOOR #3. There's a whole big, wide world out there with more than two places in it called Raleigh and Charlotte. There's also this thing called innovation, meaning you chart a new path, clear a new trail. Innovation is why we are blogging over the internet and not sitting around in cave, banging rocks together and grunting at each another.

Some years ago here (I say here because where I'm from has always operated in a community model) the education wheels were rectangle. The city and county systems were separate, resources were segregated. This was not good, the cart could not move forward, so the systems were combined. Then rather than reallocate resources to where needed (other than magnet program) and address underlying challenges, we went to square wheels - moving the students around (including removing low income students near magnet schools from those schools where the resources were put). The lack of improvement in STUDENT achievement, tells us that the cart still is not able to move forward with square wheels.

We need ROUND wheels, what's behind Door #3 - community schools like what John Tedesco has been advocating from day 1. Have you checked them out - www.communityschools.org? They work. Community schools are round wheels. They move the cart forward. They put the resources where needed and use them more efficiently through public-public and public-private (community service orgs)partnerships, in addition to PTA. They make school the center of the community to help build up the community by putting needed resources together, and by addressing underlying challenges in higher poverty areas. In higher income areas, the community school is more like what one typically thinks of as neighborhood schools where the private support comes via PTA/local residents. Where I'm from, additionally people who live in higher income portions support (money & time) lower income portions.

Another reason community schools work is that those involved believe in these kids, families and communities instead of saddling them with low expectations and defeatism like much of what I hear from the status quo side. They can't do it, they can't be healthy, Low income Larry must go to school with Big Bucks Biff in hopes that Biff will somehow rub off on him and to hide Larry's scores behind Biff's (because deep down we think Biff is better than Larry and Larry can't accomplish as much as Biff), mediocre is the best we can do, it can't be done, well yes some others are doing it, but here we'll just go backward blah blah blah.

If you don't believe in them and the possibilities, please just kindly step out of the way of those who do because your way is not working and never will as it's focus and attitude are all wrong. If you haven't seen it yet go to youtube and check out the video "Do YOU believe in me?" These kids, families and communities need people to believe in them, as they need to believe in themselves and their possibilities in order to move their cart forward.

Hello?  Hello?  No 360.

Maybe 55.  or 70.  or 113.  Whatever degree of change needed to ensure opportunity for every child. 

It WCPSS that's stopped building on what they started.  They got to the point that the "right" schools looked good enough to keep the money flowing.  Everything - and everyONE else - be damned.

That's not good enough for me - and it shouldn't be good enough for anyone.