Catching up with the School Beat

The School Beat column over on the Beyond Chron site has features a few interesting articles in the past month. Time to catch up.

Lisa Schiff wrote a nice election recap: Election Day Not Bad for Schools

The financial choices voters made were wise ones, strongly supporting the need to repair education facilities. For San Francisco, the combined threats of unsafe, inaccessible school buildings and the possibility of a takeover by a federal facilities master have been averted. Together Proposition A and 1D provide the infusion of funds required to meet our legal obligations as specified under the Lopez settlement, not to mention our ethical obligation to provide adequate buildings for our kids and their educators.

Special Education is a topic that gets a lot of attention here and on the sfschools list. There are many enormous challenges that any district faces in meeting SpEd needs. Often it feels like the district is simply not getting the job done. So it is nice to read about a success story, such as the November 16th article, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy—A Long Way From Ohio

The 2006-2007 school year has been great. Jack adores his teacher and is doing a great job with his schoolwork. He runs out to join the kids on the schoolyard at recess, and his buddies make sure to include him in their games. These are experiences he wouldn't have had if we were still in Ohio. We are so happy to be here. With a supportive environment and the right philosophies, inclusion works. Jack is living, succeeding proof that it does.

Next up comes this glowing appreciation of Creative Arts Charter School from CACS parent John Perry:

Our decision to leave one of the area’s most sought-after private pre-K-to-8th-grade schools made us seem as freakish as the duck-billed platypus to some friends and acquaintances. But we’ve steadily reiterated our reasoning: The school we left was great, but after touring 14 elementary schools in the District, we couldn’t see enough of a delta between private and public. And CACS was our first choice.

We do our share of debunking charter school myths around here. And Caroline will be the first to tell you that all charter schools feed into the same public school abolitionist dream. Yet charters are here. They are offering differentiated programs that in some cases are not found in other district schools. For some families, CACS might be the best option out there.