On 4/6/2015 10:05 AM, Paul Braun wrote:
On Sun, Apr 5, 2015 at 12:54 PM, Chris Crawford <
chris@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I graduated from elmhurst in 1994. My parents both went to Elmhurst in the
late 1960s. The school was closed in 2010 as a cost-cutting measure by the
local school district.
There are too many schools being shuttered for cost-cutting. It's a sad
commentary on modern-day politics. My HS is still open, but it's the only
one in a small town.
How many school age children going to public schools were there when you were a student? How many are there now? Without
at least a rough knowledge of the number of students being served, your statement is meaningless.
When I was a kid, Berkeley's population was over 120,000. Now, with more housing units, it's under 100,000. The
difference is essentially all attributable to fewer school age children. Household sizes, i.e. number of children,
plummeted in the last half of last century.
Keeping schools open just to keep them open, or for the nostalgia of alumni, not because they are actually needed to
serve the current number of students, would indeed be a waste of taxpayer $. Consolidation of underutilized facilities
is almost always less expensive than keeping all open, both in operating costs and in capital freed up.
Yes, it's complicated in detail, class sizes, arts programs, quality, and so on. But without a measure of the student
population to be served, then and now, it's not commentary, sad or not, it's just noise.
Moose D'Opinion
--
What if the Hokey Pokey *IS* what it's all about?
--
_________________________________________________________________
Options: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/listinfo/olympus
Archives: http://lists.thomasclausen.net/mailman/private/olympus/
Themed Olympus Photo Exhibition: http://www.tope.nl/
|