I suggest you wait an hour after eating to read this one...

Read 4.0's rebuttle at the bottom...

Grand Rapids Public Schools deserve support
Saturday, September 29, 2007By Vickie and Brian Craig
Special To The Press

For over two decades, we have sent our daughters to Grand Rapids Public Schools. They have received fine educations and outstanding preparation for life in our diverse world. Here is our formula for school improvement: join us. Send your children to Grand Rapids Public Schools. Pay attention. Get involved. If you invest your children and your effort, your commitment will be returned by fine schools and great educations. It is no different for any district, urban or otherwise.

We get out what we put in. It is so elegantly clear; you and your child's presence make all the difference. We only receive a return on human capital if we invest it. We would add a fourth, preferred choice to GRPS school board member Lisa Hinkel's list of alternatives for parents who seek to exit the district: live in the city and send your children to Grand Rapids Public Schools. Imagine the contribution that 900 additional families with high expectations could make to our schools!

When we move from the city, either physically or by school choice, what and who do we turn our backs on? Many families without means or role models remain in the urban core, where conditions worsen because a little piece of capital has departed. We contribute to a great divide -- between the communities with the capital, and the "great" schools, and those with less capital, and the "struggling" schools.

The transition from de jure to de facto racial segregation in the United States is now complete, with no legal remedy on the horizon. Instead of facing and addressing inequity through vision and transforming it into policy, we have sought to achieve some sort of educational "choice" through charter schools and voucher proposals. Instead of seeing children stuck in inequitable circumstances, and their urban schools as the symptom of far larger inequities, partisans of these alternatives erode the salvageable features of public schools with seductive marketing and easy fixes.

Some point to test scores as a rationale for school choice. This is disingenuous marketing. Yes, there is a high correlation between poverty and poor test performance. Sadly, there is also a high correlation between poverty and race in our society. And yes, GRPS has a disproportionately high share of students who live in poverty. However, education is about each individual and their limitless potential.

There is no evidence that students of similar demographics do worse in school and life (or even tests) for having attended city schools, rather than suburban, private or charter schools. We believe that our district's children, because they have learned to live and learn with people from all walks of life, are far better prepared as leaders and citizens.

This myth of "average" test scores is like the chestnut about the person who drowned in a stream with an average depth of six inches, because they stepped in a hole 10 feet deep. Only upside down. No child is average. Each is individual, and we know how hard the people of GRPS work to make sure that each can rise up without limits.

The only way to give all of our children a better future is to let them meet each other, every day, at school. Schools truly are the crucible where the future is formed. It is up to us as individuals to consciously choose to place our own children in the diverse future that they will inhabit. Or we can turn away, and make that transition more challenging for them by rationalizing our own hesitations.

The recent controversy over Indian Trails Golf Course can be interpreted from many points of view. It is instructive here, because it is a specific example of people who choose to live in Grand Rapids for its diversity expressing their values and priorities. People clearly spoke out for an inclusive future. Quality of life in the city matters.

We are saddened and dismayed by the consequences of white flight. If "things are getting worse," it is because too many people with economic and social capital have chosen to leave urban schools. They select whatever "better place to live" they can afford, rather than establish themselves in a neighborhood and schools where, by their witness and participation, they could form and enjoy the places where diversity and excellent schools happen by choice.

These consequences are not borne by our school district so much as they are borne by our children and their futures. Nine hundred students are a high school! Imagine what a fine school it could be if your children were there.

-- Brian Craig, an architect, is a former member of the Grand Rapids Public Schools Board of Education. Vickie Craig, an English as a Second Language instructor, serves on the board of the Michigan PTSA.

Note from 4.0: This is the same "grool" the GR system fed us all through our formative years. FYI:You're supposed to have a balanced diet. They say you are what you eat. Well, if you dine on this junk long enough, you might actually start to think the way this couple does. Excuse me, a child getting pushed around at school doesn't serve anyone. A child having to wait to learn, while others decide to pay attention doesn't serve anyone either. Least of all the child who eagerly gets to school on time and pays attention and obeys the rules because that's what he's supposed to do. Okay, there I said it. Thanks for checking in!