Saturday, October 15, 2011

Blue or Green: False Choice

How many people actually looked at the other 7 plans that the Student Assignment Task Force came up with?  I'm guessing not very many.  The task force 'developed' 9 plans and then presented the two front runners to the public for comment.  I found it very convenient that the two plans were: 1) pretty much the same thing we have now and 2) a slightly modified version of the Alves plan.  What were the other ideas and could they really find nothing better than these 2?

I looked at the other seven proposals and all I could do was shake my head.  My favorite was the Teal Plan, which was basically a big flip of the bird to neighborhood school supporters.  The Teal Plan called for every student to attend the absolute closest school, no matter how overcrowded or under enrolled some schools ended up.  The most asinine part of this plan was that magnets and year round schools were filled only with proximate students.  Nobody could apply to these schools.  We would still fund magnet programs but nobody would be able to apply to them.  We would still have year round schools, but nobody could apply.  Nor could the students assigned to the year round schools apply to a traditional option.

I still shake my head when I think about this 'plan'.  The recurring question in my mind is "We paid for the task force to come up with THIS?!?"  Truly, this is the best that this task force could come up with?  And then they presented the blue and green plans to us as the two most feasible options?  It sure seems to me that they had the Alves plan in mind all along and needed a way to shove it down our throats under the guise of having done due diligence.

No comments: