Member-only story
Public schools
Public Schools Throughout The U.S. Are Endangered Now More Than Ever
Does anyone care about public education
My former boss, close friend, and principal of the school where I was school counselor for seven years texted me last week. She wanted me to know my former school district was closing up to twenty schools. She and I, and our mutual friend, another former school counselor, are sad and disheartened by the news.
We aren’t the only ones. Parents have flooded school board meetings. They presented petitions and asked pointed questions at a public meeting where the potential closures were explained.
Twenty schools is a lot of schools, even in a city the size of Fort Worth. Why so many?
Tracy Richter, a consultant at HPM reported at the recent public meeting that enrollment has declined by 13,000 students in the last five years.
Contrastingly, North Hi Mount, one of the threatened schools, reports an over-enrollment by 160%. Rather than build an annex for the overflow, the plan recommends closing the school and consolidating enrollment into two other school. Why this school? Because the school only has 400 students.
I’m not privy to all the planning and logic that goes into closing schools, but…
