[Durham INC] example palming off costs on the public

[Christine Chamberlain]

I'm not sure what this has to do with Pat's original comment but I'll address your suggestion that "solutions are needed".  This is old, old rhetoric.  You're at least 15 years behind the times with the "rich kids only" complaint.  And I'll save you some time with the "white flight" argument, I'm sure someone will bring that one up eventually.  Spend some time researching the facts on charter school enrollment, you'll find 15 years of facts that debunk your complaint.  


I'd like to point out you're insulting low income parents by saying their kids will be stuck in public schools.  What you're saying is that only rich parents care about their child's education.  Are you saying public schools must be the dregs of society if rich kids are leaving in droves to attend charter schools.  Maybe we should shut down all
 the public schools and make all the schools charter schools?
 

Christine Chamberlain


________________________________
From: Will Wilson <willwilsn at gmail.com>
To: Pat Carstensen <pats1717 at hotmail.com>
Cc: inc listserv <inc-list at durhaminc.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2011 2:10 PM
Subject: Re: [Durham INC] example palming off costs on the public

For education, poverty is a major issue. I've plotted two things at my blog at http://www.sciencetime.org/blog/?page_id=239:

(1) the composite scores for students (EOCs, EOGs, and stuff) from the 2500+ NC public school systems against the free lunch fraction of each school (first through third plots), and

(2) the 2005 SAT scores against the 2004 NC county average per capita income (fourth plot).

We have a serious problem in this state and county (and nation?). Look at the data for Wake vs Charlotte-Mecklenburg (red vs green on second plot), and Durham vs Wake (circles vs xs on the third plot). If we believe education provides opportunities, then we're not providing opportunities to low-income students. Wake WAS doing a good job making sure they had no "high poverty" schools, and Durham certainly has its challenges with that problem. I hope charter schools aren't simply pulling the well-off kids away from public schools simply to walk
 away from this poverty problem. We sure need some solutions.

Will
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