The Courier-Journal reports on a live WHAS announcement today that Kentucky Senate President David Williams and state Sen. Dan Seum of Louisville will prefile a bill to insure that parents can send their children to the school nearest their home so long as that school does not have special entry requirements.
Clearly, the busing mess in Jefferson County is starting to get attention far outside the city.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Bill would end nonsense busing chaos in Jefferson County Schools
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Let me vent this one out!
I understand that JCPS faces tough situation with the requirement for desegregation and student assignment, HOWEVER a return to community schools, in my opinion, is the answer.
I was in elementary school when busing started in Louisville but I remember what it was like BEFORE and I had older family members in high school. Everyone had a much deeper sense of community pride and school spirit. That sense of pride and belonging kept a lot of kids out of trouble!
I mention this because student assignment STRONGLY effects the ability of students to become involved in sports and activities. It is far easier if you are at your local school, and in the case of JCPS the choice to particpate can have a negative impact on a students academic performance they are overly burdened because of their school being so far from home.
Its like they talk out of both sides of their mouth. They say athletics promotes better academic performance but then they increase the burden for kids who choose to participate by busing them to schools 20 miles away. Its a burden to parents to travel that distance to pick their kids up after practices. By the same token they complain and blame uninvolved parents but make it difficult for parents to be involved at their childs school AT ALL when they attend a school 20 miles away.
I have also seen and experienced how parents WHO ARE involved get treated when they speak up about these and other things. Its almost like JCPS ONLY wants parents involved if they blindly follow along with what the district offices "think is best" for the kids. Nevermind if it weren't for our kids none of them would have a job! Where is your customer service? OUR KIDS ARE your customers and utlimately PARENTS are your employer, we pay the taxes that pay your salaries!
I have said that in school council meetings, to school and district administrators and they all look at me like I am out of my mind! I have come to feel for them its really more about THEIR CAREERS than it is about the KIDS at all!
RE: T. Foley's comments
Thank you for your honest and open appraisal of the unacceptable consequences of busing for diversity in Louisville.
Indeed, communities have been fractured.
Worse, the education of children has suffered mightily.
Exactly how ready to learn can a child be when he or she arrives at school already tired and bored, or sometimes scared, after a one-hour plus bus ride that too often arrives at the schoolhouse after classes have already begun?
Show me how decades of busing have done anything to improve West End schools in Louisville.
Because busing takes low-income West End kids to the East side of town, and brings high income kids West, busing has removed federal Title 1 money from West End schools where the dollars are most needed.
How does that help improve the West End?
T. Foley's comments about parents feeling alienated from their school system echo e-mail that shows up at the Bluegrass Institute all the time.
Parents will need to remember that in November.
Many of the old Louisville City schools were FAILING academically BEFORE Merger! However, even those schools had a STRONG sense of community. Really the only schools who have improved out of the old city schools are Male and Manual and because the gap of academic performance is so great between them and other High Schools, especially Manual's, the ratios the district looks at for assignment are useless.
Let me give you an example. A high schools resides area is broken down by community classifications such as "A", "AA", "B" and "BB". These designations represent different socioeconomic statuses in the area. So lets say a school's RESIDES AREA is 35% AA, 37% A, and the remaing 28% are "B" and "BB" students (minority and/or below poverty line). Those numbers ARE WHAT JCPS assigns students based upon.
Ok so "East End High School" has 72% AA and/or A enrollment HOWEVER 26% of the students who make up that 72% choose to attend Catholic schools, another 30+% Male and Manual. What does that leave the demographics of the ACTUAL ENROLLMENT at "East End High School"??
JCPS wasn't even smart enough to figure out they needed to look at the demographics of ACTUAL ENROLLMENT not the RESIDES AREA!!!! I hope you were able to follow and that makes sense...This exact scenario happened at Fern Creek High, the district thought they assigned students that would leave the school with lets say a 40% BB enrollment but did not take into account the AA students in the resides are that choose to attend there local school.
Now please understand I do not blame that situation for all that is wrong at Fern Creek, not by a long shot there is a lot there that needs fixing, however that scenario is what exposed a lot of it.
oops T. Foley and I am somewhat alienated from my alma mater and my parents alma mater because I don't blame that, I blame a lack of accountability top to bottom in JCPS! They old kids to a standard compliance they certainly don't hold themselves
sorry sticky keyboard I left out some words/letters and don't see an option to edit. I hope you understand what I am getting at if not I will be happy to explain.
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