I Heard a Rumor

"I didn't know you at all!"
(with apologies to Bananarama)

There's a rumor being forwarded by a particular district councilor that the schools are being mismanaged. Heaven help us, this councilor implies, there are classes in some parts of the city with 18 and 19 students in them!

Umm, yes...just as there are classes in this city with 30.

Worcester runs on a system of neighborhood schools, with the addition of parental choice and magnet schools (which originally were implemented to eliminate segregated schools). That, plus the high mobility rate in Worcester, is always going to mean a variety of classes sizes. A variety not only from school to school, but also within one school, from year to year. They are, through some hard work at the central administration building, kept within particular levels.

If this councilor would like, singlehandedly, to tackle the even distribution of students throughout the system, while adhering to Worcester's fine tradition of neighborhood schools, meeting federal, state, and local requirements regarding distribution of students, while keeping parental choice intact...well, of course this councilor wouldn't.

But the very forwarding of this rumor shows just how out of touch some (not all!) of our city councilors are when it comes to the schools system. To point to a single school and say, "Yes, but they have..." shows that they really haven't been paying attention all that well for all that long.

That's pretty sad.

It also, of course, is an attempt to turn the conversation from the real issue:

Worcester is not sufficiently funding its schools.

Worcester itself needs to spend more money on its schools.

We are 301 out of 318 in the state in local funding. That's just sad.

So, should you hear this rumor, you might point out how out of touch the purveyors of such a line are. And tell them that you don't want your city to be 301 out of 318 in school funding.