Involved Parents and Failing Schools

I'm going to throw another local story in here because I think it is relevant everywhere.

This week's Seven Days (local alternative weekly) has a story called: "Deconstructing Dovetail: Is a Burlington school program helping, or hurting, socio-economic integration?"

Dovetail is an elementary school program at one of the city's five elementary schools, which integrates K-2, with students following the same teacher each year. There are an equal amount of slots from each school. The placement is done through lottery.

Currently, the Burlington School District is looking at ways to raise the achievement of the kids in the two city schools located in the Old North End (the city's poorest section) by implementing socio-economic integration (SEI) - mixing kids of different income levels in order to increase the educational opportunities for everyone.

Obviously, this is a hot-button issue, so there has been no determination of exactly how to do it.

Proponents of SEI are now arguing that the Dovetail program is hurting the Old North End schools because the involved parents are flocking to Dovetail as a means to get their kids out of Barnes and Wheeler.

Says Stu McGowan, president of the Wheeler PTO at the time Dovetail first launched, regarding the parents who enrolled their children in Dovetail,

“They were the parents who would have done really a lot of good at Wheeler,” he suggests. “The minute they heard about Dovetail, they booked. It was a golden opportunity.”

I hear this same thing said about homeschooling parents. Many of us see the public school system as a failure and we want better for our children's education. Frequently, homeschool critics charge that the involved parents, who care about their children's education and are willing to put the time in to make it happen, are most needed in the schools.

This brings me to the big question: Is is the parents' duty to throw their child under the bus in order to possibly help the school?

I would not want my children attending Barnes or Wheeler. I am deeply sorry if that offends anyone, but my job is doing the best that I can for my own children. I lived in the Barnes district until my oldest son was four. I had to work very hard to find a place that I could afford in the South End, so that my child could attend a better school.

I agree that there needs to be a solution for failing schools. I do not think that solution should be one of forcing the "good" parents to keep their kids in a failing school.

I hate to be the evil conservative that doesn't care about the poor kids, but in reality, it is the poor parents who are limited in their options for their children. Parents who cannot afford private school or homeschool deserve options to get their kids into a better school.