Comments on: Lawyer Does Math and More Charter Bashing http://mid-riffs.com/2009/09/more-charter-bashing/ a view from mid-America Fri, 08 Apr 2011 15:16:29 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1 By: P-Daddy http://mid-riffs.com/2009/09/more-charter-bashing/comment-page-1/#comment-249 P-Daddy Sat, 03 Oct 2009 17:07:24 +0000 http://mid-riffs.com/?p=896#comment-249 I'm with Virgil on this one. And Heller is right, in a certain ironic sense. Charter schools in the Little Rock area ARE hindering the ability of the LRSD to achieve better integrated schools in the sense that they are doing it for them, whereas LRSD has demonstrated repeatedly that it couldn't do it on its own. If you have ever gone fishing with someone who absolutely cannot fish, then you know what I'm talking about. In the end, you stop trying to teach the other person how to fish, catch a bunch of fish yourself, and give them half of the fish just to be charitable. That is what charter schools are doing in and around Little Rock. Based on the data, they are better integrated then the average LRSD school and their presence has increased the integration of the average LRSD school. So, everyone gets to eat fish. Without the charter schools, we'd all starve. I’m with Virgil on this one. And Heller is right, in a certain ironic sense. Charter schools in the Little Rock area ARE hindering the ability of the LRSD to achieve better integrated schools in the sense that they are doing it for them, whereas LRSD has demonstrated repeatedly that it couldn’t do it on its own.

If you have ever gone fishing with someone who absolutely cannot fish, then you know what I’m talking about. In the end, you stop trying to teach the other person how to fish, catch a bunch of fish yourself, and give them half of the fish just to be charitable. That is what charter schools are doing in and around Little Rock. Based on the data, they are better integrated then the average LRSD school and their presence has increased the integration of the average LRSD school. So, everyone gets to eat fish. Without the charter schools, we’d all starve.

]]> By: Virgil Villaridge http://mid-riffs.com/2009/09/more-charter-bashing/comment-page-1/#comment-201 Virgil Villaridge Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:15:56 +0000 http://mid-riffs.com/?p=896#comment-201 Why does the LRSD have such a strong opinion about charter schools? Could it be that charter schools aren't really the issue? Might there actually be 67 million reasons, called dollars. The state has been paying for LRSD desegregation efforts. They are trying to say the the district is unitary, ie doing an adequate job of integrating the schools. If they are deemed unitary then the district stands to lose the $67 million dollars from the state. The school district has a perverse incentive to not integrate. So the district must state that they aren't making adequate progress towards integrating their school, but they can't do this. How would it look one for one of the hallmark locations of the civil rights movement to say they aren't integrating their schools? However, if they don't say this very thing then they lose $67 million; so they blame charter schools for their own lack of integration. Attorney Chris Heller says the U of A should be embarrassed by the OEP report, but the truth is the LRSD should be embarrassed for making excuses for failing to integrate so they can keep taking tax payer dollars away from other districts around the state. Why does the LRSD have such a strong opinion about charter schools? Could it be that charter schools aren’t really the issue? Might there actually be 67 million reasons, called dollars. The state has been paying for LRSD desegregation efforts. They are trying to say the the district is unitary, ie doing an adequate job of integrating the schools. If they are deemed unitary then the district stands to lose the $67 million dollars from the state.

The school district has a perverse incentive to not integrate. So the district must state that they aren’t making adequate progress towards integrating their school, but they can’t do this. How would it look one for one of the hallmark locations of the civil rights movement to say they aren’t integrating their schools? However, if they don’t say this very thing then they lose $67 million; so they blame charter schools for their own lack of integration.

Attorney Chris Heller says the U of A should be embarrassed by the OEP report, but the truth is the LRSD should be embarrassed for making excuses for failing to integrate so they can keep taking tax payer dollars away from other districts around the state.

]]> By: Raz-orgazmo http://mid-riffs.com/2009/09/more-charter-bashing/comment-page-1/#comment-200 Raz-orgazmo Tue, 29 Sep 2009 19:34:40 +0000 http://mid-riffs.com/?p=896#comment-200 School officials in Little Rock saying they know best how to integrate LR schools? It's deja-vu all over again. School officials in Little Rock saying they know best how to integrate LR schools? It’s deja-vu all over again.

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