D

Booker T., Ctd.

The Dallas ISD will have to cut teachers from Booker T. Washington in order to get $105 million in federal money. The feds say every school should spend roughly the same on each student. I said yesterday that Booker T. ought to spend more on each pupil than other non-magnet schools. After the jump, a mother of a student at one of those non-magnets explains why my argument rubbed her the wrong way:

Top tier schools deserve more money per student because they are top tier. Oh, and we’ll limit how many we have and who can attend top tier schools.

Bottom tier schools deserve more money per student because they are bottom tier. And we’ve got lots of those schools.

Students in the middle tier, those who could qualify for magnets but may not due to limited enrollments; students who chose to attend a more comprehensive school offering athletics, art, journalism, as well as stringent academics; students who academically do make it but have few family resources; students who may still struggle to pass TAKS; well those kids should have less.

Is it any wonder that the parents of children who don’t get into the magnets suddenly see private school as an option? We could all probably agree that there are many magnet-qualified students that are excluded from this tier for no other reason than limited facilities. Some we lose to suburbs or private schools, some choose open enrollment, comprehensive schools like Woodrow, Sunset, North Dallas, White and Hillcrest.

Not only do these comprehensive schools struggle with much less per student, their curriculum must cover a wider range of student populations. From failing TAKS to acing APs, from football pep rallies to student fights, they too have their campus diversity. We’d like to have drum’s and tubas for our bands, I mean jeez, it’s a pretty pathetic argument to say Booker T is MORE deserving than any other school when it comes to music. Especially if our schools that are non-magnets are finding success with their programs?

And quite honestly, can we take a look at some of the private funding that the more privileged schools receive that others have no hope of achieving? If we are talking about limited resources for all, and then see others get special treatment on the side, it can’t help but set up a view of perhaps “better” both within and without the school culture, can it?

We are all in the same boat, and rise and fall with the tide of DISD together. What would happen to these magnets should the district be split up? Even more reason why we should try to bring the bottom up without bringing the top down. Perhaps we can instead agree that the problem isn’t the scraps we are all arguing over, the problem is the urban school districts are not receiving the proper amounts to do the job well. And since our state legislators decided to handle this basket of vipers called school funding, I think we can put this squarely at their feet.

I send this to you gentlemen as fellow parents of DISD, as an anonymous FBvian. I’ve had my fingers in too many pies lately, but thought I’d bring up some important points.