Size Matters

There has recently been this push toward smaller schools that really scares me. The pundits have made a plethora of arguments with any number of data points to back up their claims that smaller schools are more successful. Annually News week creates a list of the top 100 schools and  in 2008 there was notice made that there was a trend of smaller schools out ranking larger ones.(Newsweek Excerpt). Naturally in a district, which we will leave nameless, we saw a rise in the number of schools to lower the number of students per school. There were a multitude of reasons given for this; Smaller schools have less students so they are safer, the students feel less like a number, smaller class sizes are better for learning, blah , blah blah. They go on and on. No please don't mistake my irreverence for their points as nonacceptance of the points themselves. In fact I whole heartily agree with the POINTS just not what they are using them to attempt to validate. Yes smaller class sizes... Good; Safety... , Important; Students feeling cherished, loved , and welcome...,PRICELESS. But what does come at a price is RESOURCES!!!! 

So a handful of these new schools gets the support of Bill Gates. What about the rest of them? How is it the natural reaction  to lowering class sizes is to make a whole new school? Why not just get more teachers in the same school? So now you have two sets of everything, where as with one school you could have just gotten teachers in the areas needed. Of course we also now need two principals, two sets of admin staff, two set of cafeteria staff, to electricity bills, to phone bills, and for every sport for boys and girls two sets of every thing.  So, now the budget is divided amongst these mini schools and everyone is surprised that the school has no money for things like calculators, paper, or after school programs.  (My personal favorite sports teams without basic safety equipment) 

Often the response has been get rid of sports, or stop offering programs like say robotics, or theater, or teachers and coaches will have to make up the difference(because they are paid SO highly they can afford to buy supplies for all their classes or teams). It's not fair for the kids, the teachers or the community. Here's a thought, why not take some time and come up with a real solution to the issues. instead of piling on new schools. Combine two or three of these small schools. After-all; Why can't a school of 2000 students have a small school feel? Why cant they have small class sizes? Why cant it be safe? These things could all be true, with good planing and prudent action. Small schools and big schools can and must coexist. However, too much of one will create a system much like that of our nameless district with no money, tons of schools, disgruntled teachers, disappointed families, and students left to suffer.