It seems the news from Peoria School District 150 gets bleaker by the week. Surrounding Districts don't want to take Manual High School students because none of them have room. Yeah, right.
I was dismayed by the area school test scores printed in the JPStar last week. Anyone else notice that Richwoods High School, serving north Peoria's more economically privileged, did not meet the state standard for math?! I'm not a huge fan of President Bush or the underfunded "No Child Left Behind" program. However, NCLB allows every state to choose which standardized test to administer, and Peoria kids aren't making progress.
In light of District 150's huge deficit, poor scores, impending school closures, obnoxious book fees, the firing and paying off of Kay Royster, and last year's school shootings, I have been harassing my sister to remove my nieces from their public school. I formerly believed that any diligent parent raising diligent children could get an education at any public school. I don't believe that anymore. I think my nieces learn in between distractions, but for the most part, their school day consists of a non stop exercise in crowd control.
Sis won't home school. "My kids deserve a break from me." I grew up with this woman and she is absolutely correct. Our family isn't Catholic and not comfortable enrolling the kids in Catholic school. We checked out Peoria Christian. Initially we were impressed with Peoria Christian's challenging curriculum and well behaved students. However, when we read the application we were informed they require a written recommendation from your pastor. We were also to answer questions such as, "Who is the spiritual thunder in your home?" A little creepy. I'm all for exposing the girls to Christianity and have them choose it as their faith, but the application left us with the feeling we would be giving continual permission for the school's administration to judge our commitment to God. Er, no thank you, kinda think it's a private matter. This left Montessori, the private Lutheran school on Glen (name escapes me), and Peoria Academy which are all pretty pricey.
So, the girls are still enrolled in public school. After less than a week both girls came home with colds and sore throats and kindly passed them on to yours truly. Say what you will about District 150, I promise they will give your child ample opportunity to develop a strong immune system.
Hey, I'm just trying to be positive! Oh, never mind. Please pass the Kleenex and could someone pour me another shot of Nyquil?
If your mind is too open, your brain will fall out. Warning: Names, identities, descriptions, and pictures have been changed and/or used to protect the innocent as well as the guilty. PollyPeoria should not be used or quoted as a source for your senior college thesis.
Tuesday, August 30
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12 comments:
You know, Polly, if everyone had not taken flight at some point, 150 would still be in reasonably fine shape. What a shame that a bunch of spineless yuppies ran away from the "good fight."
I've long felt the same way about public schools, that a responsible citizen keeps his or her children in the publics (unless spiritual concerns dictate religious schooling, but even then one ought to be involved in the local public district). But with 150 going the way it's going, it's getting harder and harder for the demands of responsible citizenship (staying invested and enrolled in public schools) to overcome the demands of responsible parenting (getting the kids a good education - and heck, just keeping them SAFE!).
Mr. McGee and I do not yet have children, but I read these stories in the PJ Star and it makes me sad that one day we'll either have to send our kids to Catholic school or we'll have to move out of Peoria if I want my children to attend public school. I attended public school in the suburbs of Chicago, and not only was it a great education, but provided me with important exposure to people from many different ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic backgrounds. It's sad that my (hypothetical) children can't have that experience in District 150. I guess all I can do is work hard at being a good citizen and fighting to improve the schools in the hopes that by the time I have kids and they're ready to enroll, 150 will have improved.
But somehow I doubt that's a reasonable goal.
Incidentally, while I'm sure the surrounding districts aren't racing to enroll Manual students for 150, I do think they have legitimate problems with resources that make them reluctant to take NCLB transfers; surrounding Central Illinois districts are typically as woefully underfunded as 150, although usually not as badly mismanaged.
Anonymous,
What you call "Spineless Yuppies" is what I call concerned, worried, and loving parents. As an adult I might be obligated to fight the good fight for Dist. 150, but kids shouldn't have to risk life, limb or sacrifice the opportunity for a good education. I think you are too judgmental on this one.
Polly
Agreed with the judgemental line. It's great to be idealistic, as long as you're not laying your kids on the alter of idealism. They're not a symbol, just your kids.
We had our two oldest in Peoria Christian until we moved to Morton (Note: spineless yuppie reference). It was a WONDERFUL experience. And I have no idea what the Thunder thing was about. They were never pushy. But I guess it probably helps to share their beliefs (minus said "Thunder").
Our kids were taught at an advance level by bright teachers who really care -- enough to make dirt for a living. They get paid less than 150 teachers, if I'm not mistaken.
Unfortunately, tuition was the equivalant of another mortgage payment. So...
As an adult I might be obligated to fight the good fight for Dist. 150, but kids shouldn't have to risk life, limb or sacrifice the opportunity for a good education.
Exactly right. What those parents did is called "voting with their feet" and it's a legitimate expression of dissent. (As well as a pragmatic solution for educating one's children well and safely.)
And I'm speaking as a Manual alumna who's sent all her kid to Metamora High School.
--Carmen
The "pull-out" started with just one... then two, then three, then more and before long ALL of the spineless yuppies went running for their "whitebread pastures." I'm not talking about the parent who is concerned in 2003... I'm talking about the ones who began flying out in the mid 70s all the way to now.
Of course, Dist. 150 shot itself in the foot when it went to the middle school fiasco and virtually made the neighborhood school concept an un-reality. But, I stand by my statement and always will... those whitebread yuppies who go running to the other side of the river have as much spine as your basic amoeba. You can call that "judgmental" all you want to, Polly, but in the end, the proof is in the pudding. Run, run, run...
Anonymous, were you living in the South End in 1970? Attending a District 150 school? I was. My junior year, the school was closed down for a couple of days in the fall and again in the spring because riots were occurring. Armed gangs of young males roamed back and forth on foot between Trewyn and Manual -- past our house -- looking for trouble and making some if they couldn't find any. My parents, a WWII vet and a stay-at-home mom, were about as far from "spineless yuppies" as you can get. They sold the house and we moved.
Like Polly said -- you don't put your children at risk to make a point.
--Carmen
Snazzzy, I'll go you one better, I still LIVE in the south end!!! Went to school at Manual to '75 and yes I know that things were rough then as they were all over the country. You should be proud that your father was willing to take a bullet for his country but it would have been nice if he and your mom, and thousands of others would not have taken flight at the first "scary" resident who moved in!
In the mid 60s it started to change and everyone just took off because of the "scary" element. What if everyone would have stayed to where further "scary" elements would not have been able to move in? How would 150 be doing now? You can point the finger at all sorts of people, but in the end the big finger points at people like your folks and others like them who just took "flight" to "white heavens."
It makes me sick, but I don't quit easily. My neighborhood was still pretty good until about 10-15 years ago. Does that make me stupid? In your eyes, I'm sure it does. But I can look in the mirror every morning and know that I've stood my ground.
No, I don't think you're stupid. I just don't agree with your bashing people who made a different decision. If you think you did the best thing for your children by staying there and giving them a District 150 education, more power to you. My parents decided that as informed consumers, their tax dollars could be better spent for their daughter's education somewhere else. They could look in the mirror every morning and know that they did what they thought was best for their child. Their loyalties lay with their family, not with a piece of real estate. As a parent I can't fault them for that.
If EVERY kid in 150 came out of high school unable to go to college, I'd agree with you, Snazzzy... but, like most other places in life, a lot of times you get out of something what you put into it, 150 included.
I don't think it comes down to your parents or anyone else thinking they were gonna get more bang for the buck outside of 150... I think it came down to they wanted to be around predominantly white faces. If I'm jumping over the edge there, and I'm completely wrong, I apologize.
But, I doubt that I am.
That's a very thought-provoking question. If my parents were alive I'd have that discussion with them -- but I can only look back and make my best guess as to their motivation.
I don't believe it was the race issue, if only because the neighborhood we left was all white and not "changing" at that time. It has to go back to the school situation. They didn't like the way the riots were handled (or not handled), and they deplored the trend away from discipline and order. The school didn't adequately discourage and/or punish disruption, nor did they adequately protect or stand up for those students who were just there to get an education and go home. The administration seemed to be backing away, more and more, from any responsibility to keep order. My parents couldn't afford private school, so they found a school district where things ran more to their liking.
I could be wrong, but I believe this is the motivation behind much of the flight from District 150.
"The school didn't adequately discourage and/or punish disruption, nor did they adequately protect or stand up for those students who were just there to get an education and go home. The administration seemed to be backing away, more and more, from any responsibility to keep order."
Huh. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
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