Runs with scissors discussion

I was reading in the Plain Dealer yesterday (8/26/12) about how a major screw up in the Cleveland schools. Now, the Cleveland Public system is not the most stellar system in the state, but they are trying. Sort of. Over the last several years,schools have been torn down, re-built, options for charter schools have developed and uniforms have been introduced to help streamline learning. The effects of busing, while no longer mandatory, are still being felt in neighborhoods as children as young as 6 are still being shipped across town to go to school instead of going to schools a few blocks away. Here is a link to the article.

http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index...

I cannot believe the seeming excuse for sending 200+ students to a school that was torn down in 2009 and not have a human being there to direct people to the correct place! Too many of these kids have to walk a long way to get to the RTA bus system, which has also changed many routes as well as cancelled them over the last few years. The school buses themselves are seen as late as 7 p.m. taking students home. This as beyond inexcusable in a district that cannot afford to be making colossal mistakes such as this! Too many kids are failing, falling through cracks and more money is thrown after bad trying to fix too many problems at one time. Teachers have been laid off, classes made bigger and all sorts of other problems have plagued the system for years.

Here you have child ready to learn and this happens and the lame excuses do not and cannot make up to this child what lesson he has learned. His desire and drive have been damaged, perhaps not beyond repair, but they certainly have been tainted by this enormous mess created by a clerical error that should never have happened.


If this is the kind of thing the schools are capable of on the administrative level,it's no wonder they are in trouble!

In yesterdays paper, the situation above was continued.

http://www.cleveland.com/morris/index...

This is the letter from the CEO:

http://blog.cleveland.com/letters/201...


I for one am not buying any of this. This seems like a lame response to be the "we got caught with our pants down" situation that has happened here. It is this kind of left hand,right hand that got them in this situation and I don't see it changing anytime soon. New buildings are not going to help Johnny learn if he is in a class that is too big and a teacher who is overwhelmed.

This is just one more symptom of a very deep problem.