From: roberts@gaul.csd.uwo.ca (Eric Roberts)
Subject: Re: Magnet schools
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 04:04:33 GMT

In article <1993Jan8.024823.20241@meteor.wisc.edu> stvjas@meteor.wisc.edu (Stephen Jascourt) writes:
>In article <1993Jan7.200126.13933@wam.umd.edu> kckbxr@next16pg2.wam.umd.edu (Robin Hood) writes:
>>I didn't read the article, but your letter and the examples taken from the  
>>article indicate magnet schools used in a post-high school setting.   
>>There, I agree.  In high schools, in my opinion, it's a different story.   
>>In P.G. County, MD, there are a variety of magnet schools offerred.  I  
>>think that this is discriminatory at this age-level.  I don't see the need  
>>to concentrate on the magnet school programs on the hs-level when there  
>>aren't enough funds to educate the general public properly.  Many high  
>>schools are limited as far as necessities are concerned (terribly old  
>>books, limited amounts of copy paper, resources, teachers, etc.) to the  
>>general public.  I don't see how the Dept. of Education can justify  
>>spending the general public's tax dollars on a few select individuals.  If  
>>these people want advanced education, then they should look for alternate  
>>means to funding it, but not the PUBLIC education budget! 
>>
>>bill
> 
>The PG County magnet schools get no more money than any other non-magnet
>school in PG county (per pupil). At one time, the county had a single
>science & technology center magnet high school, Eleanor Roosevelt HS. Many
>outstanding, talented people from all over the county came to that school,
>even those who weren't interested in studying science and technology, because
>they were motivated to get a better education and be among their intellectual
>peers. Teachers with commutes of an hour each way chose to teach at that school
>rather than at schools in other counties whose schools had better reputations
>than PG public schools. The resulting mix of students and teachers was
>phenomenal, and the school excelled in all areas including band, track & cross
>country, and other things, and of course, in science & tech including in
>math and science competitions, AP courses with students getting 4's and 5's on
>the AP tests, etc., and everyone had a wonderful time working hard, meeting
>challenges. It was a real, living example of what Herman Rubin preaches all the
>time here-- grouping students by ability so the best aren't hindered. Yet,

My first question is, how do you determine who has the ability and who
does not?

>despite this special program, the county funded the school the same per pupil
>as other schools, no special budgetary allotments for any special equipment,
>etc. The school actually had two parts, the science and tech magnet part and a
>regular high school, and because of the presence of the science and tech
>center and it's influence on the rest of the school, people would try to get
>their kids to live in the geographic area bused to the regular part of the
>high school-- they would move or change who had custody of the kids or have
>the kids move in with aunts and uncles, anything to get them into Roosevelt HS.
>So the county always underestimated how many people would actually go there and
>inadvertantly underbudget the school. Thus we had a magnet school with the
>smallest per pupil funding in the county (in which it was the only magnet 
>school).
>
>More recently, the county made a system whereby nearly every school is a
>magnet school for one subject area or another. As far as I can tell, the
>result has not had much effect on education quality -- Eleanor Roosevelt
>worked because it attracted the best of everybody, students and teachers,
>creating a special environment. It still does to some extent, as Roosevelt
>still has a large number of National Merit semifinalists and winners of
>the regional science fair and so on, and many of the big-name universities
>recruit there. And still, the science and tech center receives *no* special
>funding from the county, Bill's post notwithstanding. 
>
>Stephen Jascourt   stvjas@meteor.wisc.edu

Would it not be easier to allow those students to skip high school?
It seems to me that the universities could do much more for them,
and at the same time they would get a piece of paper that means
something, not a useless high school diploma.


 

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