" You can bet your bottom dollar that NCHS and Steve Harshman with fight this tooth and nail. "

" I find it interesting that the poll findings contradict what people are actually doing. This would suggest that there is confusion at some level or levels.

In January of this year Natrona County School District statistics reported that 58.68% of the students enrolled in elementary schools are attending a school two or more miles away from their home. This was reported in the Casper Star Tribune Casper Next publication on July 20, 2008. The report lists the enrollment by individual school.

Thanks,
Marc
NCPCE "

" 70% like neighborhood schools and 50% like schools of choice - that is 120% That poll doesn't sound very reliable to me. I would like to see the exact questions asked on this poll.

The school district is able to successfully place 99% in their first school choice. Why are they even considering messing up a successful enrollment program? "

" The individual who wrote this headline must believe that the citizens of Natrona County live in Lake Wobegon--"where all the kids are above average." 70% favor neighborhood schools; 50% favor schools of choice. That sounds like a majority of parents want their kids to go to neighborhood schools, if these schools have a curriculum that they approve of--now, they have to be conveniently close, and the principal and teachers must be agreeable, and they should have programs that all parents can buy into--maybe not so close that they cause traffic problems in the neighborhood--and where demands placed upon parents match the time and resources available in the home. And yes, the building must be state of the art, like they were in the old days. Easy match--or a need for citizens to go back to the drawing board. "

" I like school choice. Theres more competition if theres school choice rather than having to relocate an entire residence to go to a preferred school! "

" This school of choice policy makes no sense to me. We have busses running back and forth all over town, polluting the environment, and wasting an obscene amount of gas to take kids across town to some other school when in most cases there is a school within a few blocks of home. There should be strict guidelines forcing all the schools to provide equal curriculums etc. so there would be no need to bus kids all over town and then everyone can attend the school closest to home like we always did before they came up with this idiotic policy. It simply makes no sense. "

" 49.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot. "

" The parents have made their position clear. The only reason so many students in this district were attending schools 2 or more miles away from their home is because they had to! Thanks to open enrollment! Open enrollment forced kids living across the street from their neighborhood school to have to attend another school miles away. Forced many of them to have to ride a bus too.

Schools of choice and open enrollment is really code for:

Private, parochial schools for the community's well to do families' kids paid for with all the taxpayers' dollars, and at the expense of an equivalent quality education for thousands of the less well to do families' kids.

Parents of kids that could not attend a designated "special school" or their neighborhood school, have a powerful case against the school board and the school district. Start talking to your lawyers. You should be furious that for several years now the school of choice and open enrollment crowd got away with this at the expense of your children's education.

It is also very interesting that the bulk of the support for the school of choice and open enrollment plan in this district came from people who have been identified with strong religious instructional leanings.

If these people wanted private, parochial, religious schools then they should have built their own schools, hired their own faculty/staff and paid for this out of their own pockets. Instead they chose a sneaky back door way of making all the taxpayers in the district pay for these "special semi-private schools" which in most cases benefited only their children in this clever arrangement.

Marc, Renee and Georgewashakie are very disappointed in this situation because the game is over. Rich and/or "pro-religious public schools" families will no longer be able to make everyone pay for their little semi-private, parochial schools. The school district will be sweating bullets if an investigation is started into just exactly how enrollment policies have been conducted over the past 12 years in the district. Whose kid got to attend which school and why? They should be sweating. "

" Helen, you were encouraged to run for the school board months ago. People would have benefited from your explanation of what is wrong with the school system and how to fix things at the candidate forum. People are still needing an explanation after your post. Try again. "

" Helen said: “Start talking to your lawyers.”

I ‘m always amused by the “there’s a law suit coming” folks. These warning cries, or threats, are not new they have been the war cry for close to 13 years and not one law suit has been advanced. Why? Because they are baseless assertions as an attempt to control through fear.

Helen,
Please identify the specific legal precedent that would justify your proposed litigation.

Are you aware that the US Supreme court has found in favor of School Choice and Open Enrollment?

Are you aware that School Choice is federally mandated in No Child Left Behind?

Thanks,
Marc
NCPCE "

" Do the previous commenters really believe that one standardized school model is appropriate for each and every child in a diverse, democratic society? "

" Neighborhood schools also promote elitism. The rich side of town has the good schools and the poor side town has the low-end schools. If you can’t afford a mansion, you can’t afford a good education for your children.

Then people will be screaming about the rich doctors, lawyers and CEOs getting their own "special semi-private" schools.

If the school district would replicate the school programs that are in demand, then there wouldn't be the misconception that only a special few can attend a school of choice.

Parents also need to take some responsiblity. If you feel your children are receiving an inferior education, then insist that the district expand their successful programs, so all that want to, may benefit from them. "

" More like....send my kid to the "cool" school. The "uncool" schools have been the dumping grounds for the other kids. School of choice AND the No Child Left Behind Act are bogus! "

" A significant question that can be easily answered: Were the "likely voters" questioned parents of school age children? "

" The school district has had 13 years to replicate the higher quality education programs to all the schools in the district and they have not done this. Why?!? Because their priority was a handful of special schools for a special class of students.

There has not been a substantial effort on the part of the school board or the administration to export the very successful programs to all the schools in the district. This can only be interpreted as willful negligence resulting in unequal educational opportunities for thousands of the students in this school district.

People like Marc Smith are begging parents in this district to sue the administration and board. He is practically daring them to do so. Don't wish too hard Marc, you just may get what you are daring the parents in this district to do. I can't help but believe that your family and your children have been benefiting from this very unfair and very unequal educational circumstance. I also have reason to believe that if you could get away with it, you would turn all the "special", yet public schools into centers of religious indoctrination, with your personal religious preference being the standard.

You are wrong when you infer that the U.S. Supreme Court has given a thumbs up to schools of choice and open enrollment. They have only ruled on the most narrow of circumstances that have been presented to the court. The basic tenets of equal educational opportunities in each individual school district has not been heard by the U.S. Supreme Court since Brown vs. Board of education which considered a very different question altogether.

This lawsuit would ask the Wyoming Court(s) to address a basic educational inequity and the results of this inequity in this school district's enrollment policies as well as the classroom seating modification policies. It would also address the hardship placed upon certain students and their families when busing or privately transporting students all over the district is the result of unfair enrollment policies at neighborhood schools. This lawsuit would also address the hardship placed upon certain students who must now spend upwards of 2 hours or more per day riding a school bus, because their neighborhood school's seating capacity was reduced so as to make this hardship more prevalent for more neighborhood students. This lawsuit would also address the direct and indirect results of the unnecessary and unequal quality of life for these certain students as a result of this open enrollment policy, and the manner in which it is implemented.

181 miles south of Natrona County there is at least one, and probably more, judges that would be willing to look at this problem. You simply cannot justify this very unfair enrollment policy and the hardship it is placing on thousands of students in this district and their families.

There is no reasonable way to advocate for allegedly successful educational programs in some public schools, that are not available to all the students in the school district, particularly when the implementation of these "limited availability programs" results in this inequality in education and hardship for so many students and families. Since the school district administration and the school board have wasted over 13 years and still have not taken concrete steps to timely correct this outrage, they have made a lawsuit necessary. The families and students who are getting the unfair end of the stick these past several years did not do this. They have been patient long enough. Those in the school administration and school board who have done nothing about this until now, when the spotlight has been turned onto this situation, have a lot to answer for.

One final suggestion Marc, go build and fund your own private parochial school for your children, quit asking all the parents and property tax payers in the county to fund it for you. Especially when most of them do not benefit from your special school that they are paying for. "

" Kids want to change schools every time they find a new friend who is going to a different school or use their teachers and school as an excuse for why they are failing due to their own shortcomings rather than learning to overcome their own obstacles. If some schools are better than others then we need to improve the worse schools so they are as good as the better schools rather than bussing kids across town to different schools. All public schools should be treated equally; equal funding, equal curriculum, equal expendatures per student, etc. If all public schools are equal then there would be no need to bus kids all over town to go to the school of choice. I had to go to the school closest to home; it worked out just fine that way. I would be very interested to know how much money we are wasting on busses, fuel, etc. to keep this school of choice garbage going. I'll bet we could do some good things to make the public schools actually function and educate our children better with that money. "