There’s a lively debate going on in the regional blogosphere regarding educational reforms, namely school district mergers. I think C. J. Summers initially floated the idea of a District 150 / 323 merger … and boy did that explode! Lots of people have lots of very strong opinions. Of course the Peoria Pundit had to put his two cents in and stir up trouble. Of course, I did the same thing, throwing some comments in. I don’t live in either school district now, but I grew up in District 150 (I’m a Northmoor / Washington / Richwoods grad) and would like to see it do well.
I’m also throwing myself into the middle of the local District 108 / 303 merger debate. I have a more personal interest in this discussion because I have a daughter in a District 108 school right now and three more children who will be entering the system over the next five years. While I’m sure Dr. Dragon and the folks at the pro-consolidation blog Pekin Dragons Calling think I’m a royal pain in the butt because I keep questioning their merger idea, I’m really not that opposed to the merger. Like I’ve said before, I think it’s weird that the grade schools and high school are in separate districts. HOWEVER … (ain’t there always a however?)
I think this merger talk is avoiding the real issues here. If we want to help the failing kids in both Peoria & Tazewll Counties, we should be looking for extra funding to create additional preschool classes, because early childhood education helps at risk kids catch up. We should be funding early developmental screening programs like Missouri’s Parents as Teachers … also shown by studies to improve school performance later in life and help close the gap between at risk kids and kids from affluent districts. We should look at after school programs and summer programs – re-evaluating those that are already in place and expanding them as necessary.
Another option would be to create schools with a true socioeconomic mix … and that probably would require mergers of multiple school districts – 150 / 323 would work, but in Tazewell it would probably require merging ALL the varied the myriad districts scattered about over here (Pekin, Morton, East Peoria, Washington, Tremont). Then, once the districts were merged, schools would be populated to create a true socioeconomic mixture so that all the poor kids aren’t shoved into a few schools. It would involve bussing poor kids to the suburbs and suburban kids to the city. And … I’m laughing as I write this … THIS WILL NEVER HAPPEN. In the midst of the civil rights movement, District 150 shot down school desegregation measures that included bussing. In these more conservative times, is a grand social experiment such as this going to fly? Yeah … like a lead balloon on Jupiter.
We need to focus on finding the funds to promote early childhood education, developmental screening programs, summer programs, after-school programs, tutoring services and maybe even a longer school day. Those are solutions that would DEFINITELY make a difference. Of course instituting programs like these would cost more money and, unless state or federal funding could be secured from moneys already available, would likely mean an increase in taxes at some level (be it local, state or federal).
Ohhh NO … the evil “T” word. I’ve spoken blasphemy! Not more taxes for the most lightly taxed developed nation! (mock horror) If the money is going for programs like I mentioned, I say let’s get out our checkbooks. Meanwhile we’re wasting a lot of ink (well, cyber-ink in this case) on something that might make things a tiny bit better or might make things worse (the 108 / 303 merger) OR on something that will NEVER HAPPEN (a 150 / 323 merger).
Oh wait … I just thought about a scenario where a 150 / 323 merger might actually happen! It could happen in about 30-40 years when Dunlap is having the same problems Peoria is having now and everybody is moving out to Brimfield! That’s the great thing about the Midwest … you can always kick out some poor bankrupt farmer and run away from your problems instead of dealing with them.
1 response so far ↓
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funkybill
// Apr 3, 2007 at 1:04 pm
Wow! What have I stepped into? I just started a job in Peoria last month and plan to move my family here in the summer. I am looking at school districts and I am reading about the turmoil in District 150. I also saw some posts about what a terrible fate it is to live in Peoria. Well, I’m here because there are no jobs in Indiana, so to me, Peoria looks pretty good. I do wonder how Hoosiers do it though. We have fine schools, excellent teachers but our property taxes are about 1/3 those in the Peoria area. Do we have more homeowners? Do we pay our teachers less? There is probably something that I’m missing. At any rate, I have to make a decision about what’s best for my son’s education. He doesn’t need to deal with the turmoil. I feel a need to give my son the best education I can afford. I see that I have two options. I can buy a nice home at a fair price in central Peoria and take the money I save and send my son to Notre Dame High School. Or, I can move out to Dunlap or Metamora, pay big taxes and have a big commute.
By the way Knight, my father lost the farm because he was inefficient and lacked any education past 6th grade. That’s life and I try to talk about it without any bitterness. The only way I knew how to deal with that was to try to get out of there and get an education.
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