By Jim Spencer
SpencerSpeaks.com
The kids from
Their buildings will close and they will be transferred.
Here comes the revolution.
There were “huge risks” to closing eight schools and re-inventing the curricula at five others at one time, school board member Lucia Guzman admitted.
Huge risks and no other viable options.
“This is not the closure of children,” Guzman said. “This is not slamming the door in the face of parents. It is for them. For too many years the children of this district have not received the quality of education they deserve.”
In what superintendent Michael Bennet believes is the third-largest center city school shake-up in
If you’re born in
“It will take the energy of an entire city to do what we want,” the superintendent warned.
Even then, it might not be enough. And yet, as board member Bruce Hoyt pointed out, “To embark on school closures is a terrible thing,” but a thing that sometimes becomes “absolutely necessary.”
Nothing was going to happen to public education in
“There are still 100 schools that need to turn themselves around,” school board member Kevin Patterson warned, shortly before he and his colleagues closed the eight schools, re-invented five others and embarked on a non-traditional “new school development program” for high schools. “We have to do something better for kids with a sense of urgency. We have to do what we can as quickly as we can.”
The revolution in Denver Public Schools has hardly gone at the speed of light. The restructuring began in earnest with Bennet’s hiring 2 ½ years ago. Since then, Manual High was closed for a year to re-invent itself as something besides an abject failure. North High was re-organized and the staff shaken up to keep it from closing. Now, in a single act, the Board of Education has shuttered eight schools and ordered five more to change in ways that make them unrecognizable in every way except bricks and mortar.
As the disappointed students and parents of Smedley gave interviews to reporters in the lobby, the superintendent hoped for an end to the pain.
“I think we have put ourselves in a position so this doesn’t happen again,” Bennet said. “So far, this has all been traumatic. Now, we are at a point to push forward.”
Copyright 2007 by Jim Spencer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
3 users commented in " Huge Changes Aim to Resurrect Denver School System "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackClosing 8 schools IS nibbling.
DPS has 25000 empty seats. That is 50-100 schools by my calcualtions.
Hurray for Bennet. The shake up of the Denver public school system may seem to be uncompassionate, not student-friendly. Many will complain about the upset in their neighborhoods and lives but that is the selfish view. The children in these schools are languishing in the complacence of their parents and those who can afford to send their children elsewhere.
Children of these districts are faced with a severe crisis in learning. My response may seem to paint a broad picture because it is a broad picture we have to deal with. There are some concerned parents but the vast majority of parents and students involved are blind to the value of their education and its importance in life.
The Denver school system has fostered a culture that tolerates ignorance. In the schools where the majority of children are from homes where English is not the first language or homes where parents have not completed a high school education, the children are encouraged through benign neglect to continue in life with blinders to the benefits of a good education. In these schools, it is incorrect or not appropriate to educate children in the proper use of the English language. If your parents speak incorrect English you will use that language outside the home. The schools are not encouraging their students to speak correctly out of respect for the parents and their culture or because it’s just easier to move the children through the doors. No one is standing up for how education will liberate the children in their choices in life. No one is saying English is the language of learning in this country. (Don’t start of the English debate, I believe everyone in this country should be bilingual.) To avoid a Babel we need to learn English as a uniform way to assimilate and transmit information in this country among its citizenry.
It’s time to break these children out of the dark even though it may be difficult for them to see the advantages. The main problem will be integration of these children into a new schools. This will be the new challenge. The DPS must be vigilant in helping the children move fluidly through this transition and not abandon them once they enter the new school.
It’s not the schools that fail the students, it’s the district and people like OneNationForAll, who believe everyone has to “earn” their way through life, like good Republicans. I wonder if OneNationForAll goes to a businessman for his/her health care, legal advice, security,etc.? No? Then why do we let businessmen run our educational systems? This is what your reap when you let good business practices take precident over quality education.
True, the problem with many student struggling to learn begins at home and with the parents. How do we teach them the importance of education? By closing their schools because of a lack of attendance or poor testing results. “That’ll learn ‘em!” The libertarian response is to do away with gov’t supported schools, and let them “buy” their education from the free market. Gee, won’t that be swell!
Logistics does require good business practices, especially when our society puts education on a such a low priority, that the costs of running a school comes out of the small instruction pot, so hard decisions have to made and neighborhood schools must close. But blaming the “school” for student’s poor standards testing, like it’s some organized failure, is like blaming your local city police dept policy when crime goes up, and threatening to close it and start up a new one with fresh cops. A school doesn’t “fail” the students, it requires much more and more individuals. It starts with parents, then come society who fails to fund public education because either they don’t have kids of school age or they attend private school, or they’re just cheap. But these same people are the biggest whiners and complainers of welfare, crime rates, and other negatives of a society when they aren’t educated. You don’t have to read the studies to know an educated person is less likely to commit crimes or be on welfare, but hey that would require an increase in the dreaded “T-word.”
DPS has a lot of issues they need to fix and get their own house in order before they start closing schools due to lack of funds, but education universally for all has to be the first priority. This isn’t a free market business - it’s the future of this country. If you disagree, and you’re employed, live well, have health care, safe, - thank a teacher!
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