Another subject on public schools: Consolidation

Stickemup · 04-22-2004, 07:26 AM

Has anyone else noticed how large our middle and high schools are getting? There used to be many smaller schools and now the trend is to do away with those smaller schools and consolidate those students into one large school.

My high school had about 400 students. It was a great school and had some of the best standardized test scores in the state. They shut it down about eight years ago along with two other schools and built a "bigger and better" school for the kids from all three schools.

The problem? The other two schools were two of the worst in the state in every conceivable category. Now we have one BIG school that is one of the lousiest in the state in every conceivable category.

The idea was to bolster those other two areas by combining them with a "good" school. What is actually happening is that the kids from the good school are being dragged down by the kids from the other two areas. Whodathunkit??? Who would have ever thought that putting a group of kids who want to learn in a class with twice as many kids who couldn't give a crap about school would hinder the good students' education? Our school board is just mystified by this.

The other thing that really chaps me about this is that in a small school, everyone knows everyone else and what they are up to. It is far easier for students and faculty to know who the trouble makers are so something can be done about it. You can forget that in a large school. Students become a number and personal relationships between student and teacher go out the window.

I am a firm believer that high schools should NOT be the same size as a freakin college campus. These are NOT adults. They are still children and need the personal attention and the relationships with teachers that only a small school atmosphere can provide.

Our schools have been in a steady state of decline in the past twenty years so I say we need to reverse the current trend and go back to the way things used to be.

SMALL AND PERSONAL!!!

Is anyone else noticing this same trend in your area? Your thoughts?

Aught Six · 04-22-2004, 07:54 AM

I've noticed the phenomenon and agree with you. I went from a small elementary school with a less than 250 students to a gigantic middle school with almost 2,000 students! That school directly fed my high school, so that was just as bad. Needless to say, the facilities and teachers were extremely overburdened.

etothepii · 04-22-2004, 08:03 AM

Consolidating districts, but not buildings is an interesting solution. You keep the smaller buildings, but eliminate board members, superintendents, etc. The tax base is pooled, but class sizes remain small. The down side is that it ads an element to the beaurocracy.

stealthycat · 04-22-2004, 09:15 AM

Arkansas just recently passed a consolidation bill - I believe these are some of the key points of it

1. The number of school districts will be reduced from 310 to 116. All but about eight districts (extreme isolation) in the consolidated group will at the least lose their high school.

2. The superintendents of all districts will no longer be picked by the communities, but by the state department of education.

3. School boards will be obsolete. A "parent-business advisory panel" will advise the state chosen superintendents on policy and hiring.

4. Local control of schools will be undone.

Peachy huh ?

soarkrebel · 04-22-2004, 09:28 AM

Ahhhhh yes stealthy so the kid in booger holler can get the same quality education that the kid in benton gets only for a LONG bus ride!

And now just where does my property tax money go that should have been allocated for the school in my district?
I guess the quality of my schools will go down .[:@]

stork · 04-22-2004, 09:32 AM

I will consider myself and my area pretty dang lucky. None of that is happening around here. The teachers are spending less and less time actualy teaching usefull stuff though. As I would think that that is happening everywhere in this country.

buckmine · 04-22-2004, 11:34 AM

What needs to be done is let 10th graders choose to work or develop a trade and get the kids that do not want school to get out of the way of those that do.
Teachers are doing way more work now then they did 60 years ago. I once saw a list of resposibilities of each decade of the 1900's and the list got bigger every decade.

Stickemup · 04-22-2004, 12:25 PM

Quote:

And now just where does my property tax money go that should have been allocated for the school in my district?

Property taxes is another thing that has me just about ready to go postal. 2 years ago, South Carolina enacted a lottery. The official name of the lottery is the "South Carolina Education Lottery". When the issue first came up, I was all for it. I thought, better schools and less property taxes. Nope. Not with the shameless criminals we have in office. They have collected millions from that lottery and my property taxes haven't changed a bit. I'm still paying for that school just like always and it hasn't been improved one iota. The talking heads now have the lottery and our education system is just the same as it was before.

Want to know where that lottery money is going? To college student's. Isn't that terrific??? We've got some of the lowest standardized test scores in the WHOLE FREAKING WORLD IN K THROUGH 12 and they take all that money and give it to a bunch of college age kids who can barely spell their own name!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then they act surprised when all these college kids collect their money, party for a year and drop out.

Whoooeeee. I've got to quit now before I end up having a stroke. If our school board members had brains, they'd take them out and use them for silly putty.

burniegoeasily · 04-22-2004, 02:40 PM

Sad but true. Less teachers, more kids, more requirements, more law suits agianst the schools, all equal less money. We have all created the problem. Now we all need to fix it. How, I have a few suggestions, but it would require parents being responsable parents, which we know many that would not.

Handles · 04-22-2004, 02:46 PM

Stork you really shouldn't be complaining about your teachers. You are living almost smack-dab in the middle of the #1 and/or #2 state in the nation year-in, year-out for Graduation rates, Grade point averages, and ACT scores. Wisconsin high school and college graduates are also top recruits in almost every working environment in the nation. People know that Wisconsinites work hard and work smart.