[Vision2020] Suitcasing (was "Something of Interest")

[Joan Opyr]

Re: http://moscoweducation.org/

Dear Visionaries,

I don't know about ya'll, but I'm obliged to wonder exactly where Dale learned his methods of statistical analysis.  If it was in the public school system, then perhaps I should pay closer attention to what he has to say about the efficacy of charter schools as his analysis seems, to put it kindly, unsophisticated.  When it comes to logic, someone, somewhere has let Dale down rather badly.   
  
What I suspect, however, is that Dale pulls most of his facts and figures out of what my prison guard brother-in-law genteelly refers to as "nature's suitcase."  (For those of you lacking a graphic imagination, here's a clue -- you're sitting on it.)  BTW, you'd be surprised at the amount of "luggage" that nature's suitcase will hold.  In the course of his searches, my brother-in-law has retrieved everything from small caliber handguns to an entire twelve-ounce bottle of Pantene shampoo.  Now that's an inmate who's really concerned about his split-ends.  But I digress.
  
Does the Moscow School District spend an average of $9000 per pupil?  I have no idea.  I do know that the Renaissance Public Charter School, which recently went tits-up, leaving behind a $42,000 deficit, spent considerably less, but then they offered considerably less in the way of education  They under-performed on standardized tests (as do charter schools nationwide -- go ahead, Google it for yourself), they failed to provide standard vision screening, they paid their teachers very poorly, and they cut corners wherever they could and always to the detriment of their students  What Dale's bullshit-baffles-brains argument fails to address is the idea that perhaps you get what you pay for.  My daughter spent three years attending Moscow's assorted charter schools and, as a consequence, her educational needs were systematically shortchanged -- not by the teachers, who were wonderful, but by the charter schools' administrations.  Two years ago, we'd had enough; we moved her into a district school and never looked back.  She has thriven under the care of our district's professionals, and if that costs $9000, then I consider it money well spent.   

As far as education is concerned, I want a Lexus for my child, not a Volkswagon Bus.
  
Waving to Dale through the exhaust fumes and bong smoke,
Joan Opyr/Auntie Establishment     Get more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20041203/ed4ecbee/attachment.htm