Jan
18
Broaden public school choice, don’t shrink it
January 18, 2008 | | Leave a Comment
The Following article appeared in the Tallahassee Democrat.
When Michele and I bought our first house together, one of our top considerations, typical of most parents, was the school zone.
Forest Green, in 1984 a new subdivision off East Mahan, fit our budget and was zoned for W.T. Moore Elementary, a school with a very good reputation on Dempsey Mayo Road.
Blair, our only child at the time, wasn’t even 1 yet, but we were thinking ahead. When she was ready for kindergarten, we wanted to be sure she got a great start.
Just before Blair was to become a kindergartner, the school district proposed rezoning our neighborhood for Hartsfield Elementary, south of Apalachee Parkway in Indian Head Acres. Several Forest Green parents opposed the idea, and Michele even addressed the School Board at a public hearing to try to prevent the plan’s adoption.
Didn’t work. We were rezoned.
Hartsfield was a good school. But we were concerned about a longer, potentially less safe bus ride, and wider learning gaps in Hartsfield’s student population. Blair was already reading, and we worried that her progress would be slowed in a class where some kids didn’t yet know their shapes and colors.
It’s years later now, but I sympathize with the parents who protested the rezonings that the School Board adopted Tuesday. I remember our own angst and anger: How could the School Board do something so disruptive? We know what’s best for our child!
Blair’s year in kindergarten wasn’t without a few challenges, but it largely went well. She had an excellent teacher and, while our original concerns didn’t go away, our daughter made clear progress and was happy.
I asked Blair, who is now 24, what she remembers of that 1989-90 school year. Not a lot, she said.
“But I think it was fairly positive. It was fine,” she said, “but there was one kid in my class who wasn’t very nice that I didn’t really like.”
In other words, she wasn’t traumatized. Our worst fears were never realized and we made the best of a situation that turned out to be not bad at all.
I share our experience for two reasons:
Here in Leon County, the school district can’t fairly be described as rigid with regard to choice. The policy is to provide as many options as possible to fit a student’s needs, and officials over the years have paid extra attention to schools with declining enrollments by creating desirable special programs that students throughout the county may attend — such as Rickards’ IB program and Godby’s new information-technology academy. But choices are limited by school capacities and program offerings, greatly shrinking the menu options.
For example, students out of zone won’t be able to attend three of five public high schools in Leon County in 2008-09 (Chiles, Leon and Lincoln) because they’re already projected to be more than 90 percent over capacity. (SAIL, the sixth public high school, draws from throughout the county already.)
I was delighted this week to learn, however, that officials here are planning to study districts that have figured out how to widen school choice options.
It’s not easy, of course. Transportation is a huge concern, and in several cases already, parents are on their own if their child attends a school out of zone.
The possibility of further damaging a struggling school is another worry. But schools that can’t succeed no matter what innovative strategies are tried shouldn’t be kept on artificial life support anyway. It’s not fair to students, families or taxpayers.
Within practical constraints, the more choices, the better. Parents aren’t limited to patronizing only those restaurants within a certain distance of their home. Why should public schools be any different?
