I want to add a brief comment regarding the proposed closing of Teach School. In general, I am against magnet schools. They encourage car pollution, waste of money in busing, obesity, and neighborhood trashing. They select children by various means, including lottery, and create frustration in the ones left behind. Local schools, on the other hand, offer a more democratic system, allow walking to school with parents and friends, and create positive interaction with the surrounding community-—a protection that is much better than guards with guns. Learning what’s good for everyone is as important as learning math.
However, if we are going to have any magnet schools, we have to be fair. We ought to make sure they achieve the purpose for which they have been created. Teach School is doing just that, with the same amount of money as local schools. It does not even have its own campus, so it’s hard to see how money would be saved by closing it.
It seems to me that serving the children well should be the only consideration, and serving the children well means keeping what works and changing what does not.
— Odile Ayral – San Luis Obispo
This article appears in Mar 7-14, 2013.
