Back in the day (whichever day that was, it was a long time ago), I served my time in grade and high school at Catholic institutions. This was on the leading edge of the baby boom and a tsunami of school-age kids in both public and private schools. The costs of parochial school education were not insignificant for working-class families, especially since they continued to pay taxes to support the public school across the street, but it was a cost my parents and others were willing to pay to give their kids the education they wanted them to have.
Our cover story this week, "Madison Prep" by Nathan J. Comp, investigates the current negotiations between a private school initiative and the public school board over myriad details of the public funding of a specialized institution. It's like mixing oil and water, with the predictable result. Confrontation.
There have been a lot of changes in education since my early days of matriculation. Charter schools, distance learning, home schooling - all solutions to the perceived problems of inadequacy in the public school system. The school in question, Madison Preparatory Academy, seeks to remedy such a problem, the amply demonstrated achievement gap between minority and white students.
Is segregated education the answer? There are varying opinions on that matter, as Comp documents. Whatever the merits of the proposed initiative, it is obvious that it does not solve the overall problem of minority achievement. We're still waiting for a system-wide solution that, as the overused phrase has it, leaves NO child behind.
Public Service Announcement: The online portion of Band to Band Combat has been completed and four finalists chosen. The live finale occurs on Thursday, Dec. 15, at the Frequency. The four are: TL;DR, the Big Payback, Sky Road Fly and El Valiente. The music starts at 9 p.m.
