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Sep. 18th, 2012 02:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
danuvThis is Rhiannon's last year in the comfy cocoon of our local neighborhood charter school. Next year she starts high school and we've been trying to decide what we're going to do about it. I say "we" but really Thomas has pretty much dumped this all on me. We rent so we could move but here's what I'm working with.
The local public high school pretty much finished at the bottom of the list for Georgia schools which probably makes it one of the worst in the country, or at least that's its recent history.
Right now there is ONE decent Atlanta Public School high school. It used to be a magnet school and you could weasel your kid into it. They stopped that a while ago and the past couple of years people have either been moving or paying to send their kids to the next town over's school which is small and well liked. Atlanta (intown) really desperately needs another good public school.
Many of the neighborhood parents who have had kids in the charter school are now working hard to improve the school. Some of the kids who left the middle school last year are there now and the high school is actually operating out of a different school building while their usual campus is completely overhauled/rebuilt. Last year at Isadora's IEP (special ed thigie) meeting, a woman who is in some leadership position for Atlanta's special ed program said she felt like Jackson (the local school in question) was in the position Grady (the one decent public high school right now) was 10 years ago and improving quickly.
Now we could move to the burbs. There are good schools north of town. They're also very white and very Evangelical. I tried talking myself into this option. We could buy a bigger house there when we're ready to buy. Crime is lower. I don't actually take advantage of living in town all that much and Thomas's job is up that way anyway. I tried. I really did. It just really rubs me the wrong way.
I want to stay here. I want my kids to stay in the same neighborhood they've basically grown up in. I like the density and the diversity. Sure there are class and race issues here but at least they are there to encounter, deal with and discuss and not out of sight and ignored.
It's just scary to have what feels like such a major decision resting on my shoulders.
The local public high school pretty much finished at the bottom of the list for Georgia schools which probably makes it one of the worst in the country, or at least that's its recent history.
Right now there is ONE decent Atlanta Public School high school. It used to be a magnet school and you could weasel your kid into it. They stopped that a while ago and the past couple of years people have either been moving or paying to send their kids to the next town over's school which is small and well liked. Atlanta (intown) really desperately needs another good public school.
Many of the neighborhood parents who have had kids in the charter school are now working hard to improve the school. Some of the kids who left the middle school last year are there now and the high school is actually operating out of a different school building while their usual campus is completely overhauled/rebuilt. Last year at Isadora's IEP (special ed thigie) meeting, a woman who is in some leadership position for Atlanta's special ed program said she felt like Jackson (the local school in question) was in the position Grady (the one decent public high school right now) was 10 years ago and improving quickly.
Now we could move to the burbs. There are good schools north of town. They're also very white and very Evangelical. I tried talking myself into this option. We could buy a bigger house there when we're ready to buy. Crime is lower. I don't actually take advantage of living in town all that much and Thomas's job is up that way anyway. I tried. I really did. It just really rubs me the wrong way.
I want to stay here. I want my kids to stay in the same neighborhood they've basically grown up in. I like the density and the diversity. Sure there are class and race issues here but at least they are there to encounter, deal with and discuss and not out of sight and ignored.
It's just scary to have what feels like such a major decision resting on my shoulders.
