Tonight the Richmond School Board will discuss the Patrick Henry Charter School Initiative. This story seems apt to the moment:

Six Books a Week

Harlem parents are voting for charter schools with their feet

THOSE who had won whooped with joy and punched their fists. The disappointed shed tears. Some 5,000 people attended April 17th’s Harlem Success Academy Charter School lottery, the largest ever held for charter schools in the history of New York state. About 3,600 applied for 600 available places, and 900 applied for the 11 open slots in the second grade.

Could Patrick Henry produce demand of a similar scale?

Only one way to find out, isn’t there?

I support PHSI, Common Sense Mom, even though I do have concerns about “charter schools”. I do it because it is clear that it is a desperate cry by parents who would prefer to stay in the City if they had more more faith in the public education system.

But Common Sense Mom, I would also hope you recognize that this debate over PHSI is not happening in a vacuum. When City Council voted to give millions in taxpayer dollars to the downtown arts center/Center Stage project, I spoke strongly against, saying that the opportunity cost for this corporate welfare is the legal, moral mandate for ADA access and renovated school buildings. I warned a vote for the arts center would eventually lead to conversations like this, where middle class parents were considering their future in the City because once again downtown vanity development came before Richmond neighborhoods and schools.

I do hope you succeed, Common Sense Mom, it will break my heart if my neighbors who are parents eventually all leave.

Bart raises THE point.  And I mean the ONE AND ONLY point that really matters in this discussion: This school deserves a chance to TRY - it’s the only way all of these questions will be answered.

All the philosophers and theorists and statisticians can weigh in all they want but their drivel makes no difference if the school is shot down now.

NO ONE will be proven right or wrong if Patrick Henry Charter School does not open it’s doors. 

If the school board votes NO on Monday then NOTHING will be proven.  NO ONE will win - especially not the children of Richmond. 

Stop assuming the worst and start expecting the best from people.  This is an honest, motivated caring group of people who are making a well-researched, educated effort to bring something good to the children of Richmond.

Give them a chance and let’s see who wins.

As Bob’s sister indicates, charter schools are not a cure-all or a fix, just a limited alternative for people who need an alternative, and one not guaranteed to succeed.

Apparently the mtg did happen and was reported on but buried in the local news section on this website.

Didn’t go so well.  Went sorta racial. (I was not there - I’m suburban, just reading the reports)

The struggles here in Richmond are almost a microcosm of the political struggles you see in larger settings.

The two groups see more to be gained by fighting each other than by accomodation so mistrust gets deepened, ingrained, institutionalized, and dialogue breaks down. Not saying that happened, but it appears to be trending in that direction, and doubtless has already been for many decades.

Not enough mutual trust and respect on either side to get the planning off the ground.  Some folks possibly even openly hostile and antagonistic. 

Some of the sticking point issues are more or less understandable.

1) Lack of minority representation on the planning board.  (politics)
2) Lack of transportation - while one group may see this as too expensive, the other group sees it as excluding impoverished minorities.
3) Who will design the curriculum. (more politics)

The NAACP is weighing in on the issue today, which is kind of like inviting a pack of angry pitbulls to speak at the garden club luncheon.

As long as the two groups are unable to achieve comprimise progress will be delayed to the detriment of the city mostly. The city needs those middle class parents more than the parents need the city (perhaps), but both groups will lose.

It is the nature of politics that solutions come from resolving power issues, not deciding who is on the moral high ground, and from working through and past distrust. If the school board is protecting its turf, then somehow they probably need to be brought onboard.

You can not say why folks mistrust because that is “inflammatory”, so you have to talk through a problem without really mentioning out loud what the problem is.

Too inflammatory.

If they go it alone they might declare a moral victory, but it will be a hollow victory, because the real struggle is to educate children and create a vigorous and dynamic community, not alienate various constituencies and fragment them into splinter groups.  Or call in the junkyard dogs.

Look at Open High. Small neighborhood school with small classes with devoted teachers and some engaged parents. NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED AS BEING ONE OF THE BEST PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOLS IN THE NATION.

And yet we have a mealy mouthed Graziano on City Council shorting the school budget, including ADA (which again, is violating federal law), while saying that “I just think all these small schools are inefficient”.

Where is Richmond’s leadership? If “the business community” is so great around here, then why aren’t they leading the charge for ADA and renovation of RPS buildings?

There are other cities , Milwaukee for instance, where Charter schools were not so succesful. Over the years, I have seen or heard all sorts of theories and innovations that were supposed to “fix “ education. They come and go.
So, when in doubt, I talk to teachers, including my sister. What I have gleaned from them is the following.
Class background is a big factor. Educational level of the parents or desire of the parents for the child to be educated is a great factor.
It is also important that the child actually has some intelligence to start with. Believe it or not ,parents, your child might be a SPED and belong on the short bus. Not all kids are genuises.
I would also add, the ability to overcome failure. There are kids who do not do well in high school for one reason or another, but later in life, get ambitious go to school and get a life.

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