From: apembert@VDOE386.VAK12ED.EDU (Anne Pemberton)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.edpolyan
Subject: Re: The reality of the Clinton school choice.
Date: 24 Jan 93 14:21:27 GMT
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              at Jan 24, 93 7:27 am

Whether the choice of schools for Chelsea was due to the
violence in DC schools, some perceived (or real) lack of
"goodness", or any other reason, the choice was hers,
and she made it. It is my understanding that her choice
was based on none of the above, tho, but on the fact that
the curriculum expressed community service as a value.

Clinton DID provide leadership both in supporting his
decision let his caughter follow her own values in the choice
of a school, and in being deciding to pay for the school
that provided these uncommon values. As others have pointed
out, he's not whining that the "government" should finance
choice -- but is ante-ing up the money from his own pocket.
(Unlike the past couple of presidents, paying for this out of
his pocket without complaint is significant -- like the rest of
us, he lives on his income -- he's not an independently wealthy
man.)

Let those who are clamoring for "choice" financed out of the
public pockets follow his lead.

Personally, I think that had Chelsea chosen a DC public school,
that the issue of violence in the chosen school would have
become moot. The students who were/are voilent/disruptive/
dangerous would have been expelled or transferred to anothe
school for the four years of Chelsea's stay, and the physical
and professional levels in the school would have been altered
to suit the needs, even it it meant taking funds earmarked for
necessities at another DC school to pay for it!

The problem in urban schools is not that the problems CANNOT
be solved at any one school or another, but that the solutions
typically require a "rob peter to pay paul" act that just
pushes the problems from one school to another. This is
reflected again in the suburban/urban comparisons. Funding
typically flows freely, not just for necessities, but also for
luxuries in suburban schools while their urban counterparts are
trying to make do with funding that doesn't even provide for
necessities!!

And remember, that even if DC schools were perfectly safe,
attractive, clean, with all professional staff of the highest
calibre, Chelsea may have still chosen to attend Sidwell
Friends. For a pre-adolescent moving half a continent away from
home, leaving the friendly ambiance of a small city in the
southwest for the different culture in DC, the appeal of a
school with the word "Friends" in it's name would surely have
had an irresistible pull.


--
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*                                                                   *
*    Anne L. Pemberton              apembert@ncps.vak12ed.edu       *
*    Nottoway High School           apembert@vdoe386.vak12ed.edu    *
*    Nottoway VA                    notthigh@ruby.vcu.edu           *
*                                                                   *
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*   "One of the most spectacular privileges of intellectuals is     *
*    that they are free to demonstrate scandalous stupidity with-   *
*    out ever jeopardizing their reputations"   ---   Eric Hoffer   *
*                                                                   *
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