I'm pretty sure that most people in Madison agree that small neighborhood schools are better than large consolidated schools, at least at the elementary level.
The argument is about money: under the State school finance rules, we don't have enough money for everything we want in our schools, so we have to decide what to give up. If we insist on keeping all the schools open, are we willing to make classes bigger, or drop the strings program in elementary school, or cut back on science classes? It's not an easy decision, even from the standpoint of walkability: if the quality of our schools is damaged, families may move to the suburbs, where they're sure to ride to school. Perhaps bikies and environmentalists have to understand that school finance is, among other things, an environmental issue, and we need to get active at the State level to create a system that doesn't penalize cities. Matt Logan wrote: > I did a little research this weekend to see what I could find out about > the value of small neighborhood schools that are walkable/bikable. I > discovered quite a bit, most of which confirms just how unwise a policy > of consolidating schools is. Smaller schools are so important in fact > that the states of Oregon and California have instituted policies to > promote them. > > http://www.osba.org/hotopics/imprvmnt/neighborhoodschools/cycleback.htm > http://www.nsbn.org/ > http://www.oregon.gov/LCD/TGM/docs/schoolsitinghandbook.pdf > http://www.ccspartnership.org/default.cfm > http://www.communityschools.org/ > http://www.kwfdn.org/ > http://www.dubuque.k12.ia.us/Neighborhood/ > http://www.edfacilities.org/rl/smart_growth.cfm > http://ed.stanford.edu/suse/news-bureau/displayRecord.php?tablename=pres > s&id=7 > > > _______________________________________________ > Bikies mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies > > _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
