Venita Peyton to apply for board vacancy

http://blogs.abcnews.com/johnstossel/2009/06/accountability.html
This is foolish top-down government-think. National Alliance bureaucrats weeding out bad schools will fail as government bureaucrats failed. Real accountability comes from customers. If we attached the money to the kids (government spend big: $10,000 per student is the American average--$200,000 per classroom), and let them take it to ANY school, we’d have a real market. That would bring us better schools just as its brought us better cars, computers, movies, phones, etc.

Sure, some charter schools are lousy. But failure is part of innovation. Parents will quickly figure out if their kids’ school is lousy, and if they are allowed other choices, they’ll pull their kids out. The weak schools will die from lack of customers. The best schools will grow, and help more kids.

By contrast, weak PUBLIC schools NEVER die. They wreck children’s’ lives decade after decade.

http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/story/1587467.html But in a conference call with reporters this month, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said, "States that do not have public charter laws or put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools will jeopardize their applications under the Race to the Top Fund." North Carolina is one of 40 states that allow charters, and one of 26 that cap the number. The current cap is 100, though at least two bills in the General Assembly would raise it. One measure that passed the House would put it at 106; the bill is still in a Senate committee

Last week, a Washington-based group questioned the effectiveness of North Carolina charters. The Center for Education Reform sought to identify "the winners in the Race to the Top for charter school growth." It ranked states on criteria that included the fiscal equity and operational independence of their charters. North Carolina earned a "D" as the 15th weakest in state charter laws.

Center president Jeanne Allen said North Carolina charters suffer from "death by a thousand regulations" and the lack of strong partners such as universities. She called "Race to the Top" a chance for states to take another look at their charter schools

substitute "moving" for "reassignment" and wonder if it is ANY different to kids??

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31551946/ns/health-kids_and_parenting/

Thanks Angela. :-)

user1234--YOU could start a chapter in your neighborhood! Seriously. The neighborhood chapters have been formed by parents like you who are concerned about the way things are and decide to join us. Some people have been skeptical but after attending a meeting and talking with us they've come on board. Besides our public meetings, we are always willing to meet for coffee or lunch with interested parents/citizens who want to discuss issues in further detail.

Our meetings are typically too large to engage in a roundtable discussion. We've been trying to get the info about who we are and what we believe in at these meetings. Trying to have discussion at the meetings is hard because of time constraints and the number of people in attendance.

user1234--Have you ever attended a WSCA meeting? We ARE addressing the rim concerns, as well as the concerns of ALL parts of the county. This is not a Western Wake organization. We've reached out to people in all parts of the county to discover what their issues are. One size cannot and does not fit all in this county, yet WCPSS only has one solution for everybody. Just because you don't read about all of our efforts in the newspaper doesn't mean that we aren't making them.

There is no need for a rim school group to form their own organization or PAC. We are an umbrella organization that encompasses all of the concerns you mentioned. We have some members who are rim parents, some are affected by MYR, some by frequent reassignment, and people like myself who are concerned with magnets. There are many other concerns we address as well.

Anybody can join our group and we encourage those with differing viewpoints to share those with us. We also want to hear about any issues that we have overlooked. There are no easy answers in all of this and we don't claim to have one. What we do know is that WCPSS has ONE solution and it isn't working for everybody. In fact, its downright destructive for many communities and children. We need to have academic opportunities for EVERY kid in Wake County, not just 'certain' kids. We need to find solutions that help all areas of the county, not just certain ones.

User1234--Strings programs are not being provided at ANY new high schools per the BOE. Its not the principal's decision. It was either Panther Creek or Green Hope that was the last one to get strings. I remember reading a news story about some kids who were involved in the strings program getting reassigned from Apex HS to the new HS that didn't have strings. They had their appeal hearings where they asked to please be able to stay at Apex so they could be in orchestra. They had played since at least middle school. I think that some of the kids even offered to go to any high school with strings. They were denied.