The Fresno school system is the sixth most impoverished district in the nation. If the city increased employment opportunities and more of our children had enough to eat, Fresno's test scores would go up. Critics of public schools don't like to talk about how student performance follows the poverty line. It's much easier to say this school in Clovis is a good school and that school in Fresno is a bad school. The fact that students in an affluent Clovis school come to class with more advantages than students from a poor neighborhood in Fresno never seems to be part of the discussion.
All students can learn.
The challenge is to find a way to overcome the educational disadvantages of children who grow up in poverty. Give them the opportunity to excel and most will blossom. Complicating the problem in Fresno is the school board hasn't seemed up to the task of leading a school system with so many challenges. Most board members use the district's demographics as an excuse instead of a wake-up call to find a better way of educating children. The board's inaction has given Autry the opening to have the mayor appoint two school board members.