When you lose the school lottery
By adamg - 8/14/11 - 10:50 am
The Globe interviews some parents who did not get their first - or second, or third, or fourth - choices in the Boston school lottery.
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lottery lossers
When you loose your child can look forward to the following,
1) being bullied in a new school
2) being robbed of his cell phone and sneakers
3) being late because of bus drivers
4) being truant because his train was delayed to police action
Broken, broken, broken
You don't improve a city by raising kids like this, you only make it worse, and eventually it will collapse.
Oh jeeze, this again?
If the Globe wants to report on the schools, they might put some effort into finding out what's actually going on in the system. There are some very positive stories they could tell about the many good schools and thriving students. Or, they could maybe find out something about the Marshal instead of simply reporting second hand hearsay. I will give them props for this latest retread of the BPS lottery article -- at least the affected families don't all live in JP or West Roxbury. I guess it's an improvement to include Mattapan.
Yeah...
I noticed that too. I appreciated that this time they seemed to include some working-class families of various races and from various neighborhoods. Still, I'd love to hear success stories too. I work with families in all different neighborhoods of Boston, and most are happy with their children's schools, even if they didn't get their first choice.
Why is it that
Why is it that a white kid in a white neighborhood has to suffer (if there parents choose to send them to BPS) cause a black or latino neighborhood with black and latino kids cant read or write PULL THE RACE CARD and cry its not fair?
The 70s called, looking for your comment
I have three white kids doing just fine in their mixed ethnicity schools. Try again.
Right !
thats what you think. You have no clue. all i have to say is METCO can your kids be apart of that? thats why this city is broken. Tell me henry, why Blacks and latinos receive points in the civil service exams JUST for being black or latino and the white man gets nothing. whos really getting bent over?
Try to stay focused billy
This is a discussion of the BPS assignment lottery, which has nothing to do with quotas or civil service exams. I get that you feel grievances, but let's agree to stay on topic, okay. And just to help you out a bit, did you know that the original desegregation order was rescinded? So this really has nothing to do with race, aside from your desire to inject that as an issue.
I'm pretty sure they don't
I'm pretty sure they don't receive points on the MA civil service exam.
In municipalities bound by the consent decree, when there is a tie between multiple persons at the same level (for instance, 4 persons who all scored 100, are residents of the town, and have veteran's preference), then one minority (for MA civil service, black or Hispanic) will be certified, followed by three non-minorities, then the next minority, then three non-minorities, etc. Within that, they are broken down by alphabetical order. The person doing the hiring can pass over people at the same level with a valid reason.
So, I guess you could say that the system favors the minority with the last name Aaaaa, but if another minority on the same list is named, Aaaab, he's getting screwed, because 3 non-minorities are getting certified above him, even if their names start with Z.
The fact of the matter is, when you have 5 resident veterans who all scored perfect, you have to sort them somehow.
Better question
Why are people like you creating and maintaining "white neighborhoods"?
Billings is playing the race card here ...
He's sad that being white isn't enough to entitle you to privileges that you don't earn anymore. That's unfair discrimination! WAAAAAHHHHH!
(maybe I should copy and paste that whinybaby faced, china smashing perp here?)
Engaging directly with BPS
Hello to all you bloggers and readers interested in Boston Public Schools. I wanted to let you know of a new engagement platform that BPS is currently piloting: it's called Community PlanIt. This is an online engagement game made by the Engagement Game Lab at Emerson College for BPS parents, students, teachers, administrators, and community members.
From September 15, 2011 through October 20, 2011, BPS is using Community PlanIt as a way to engage stakeholders in long-range, city-wide planning as it thinks toward the future. The feedback we receive will be considered when making future policy decisions in the Boston Public Schools. You can sign on to participate as often as you like, from any place that has access to the Internet. We hope you will share your thoughts about BPS by completing all the activities, interacting with other users, and spending your in-game tokens on the issues that matter to you most.
There will be an in-person meeting at English High on October 20th at 6pm. Come together with other players to devise a plan for moving forward. Oh, and a brand new Nook e-reader will be raffled off to one of the top fifty point earners.
I think Community PlanIt would be a great way to bring up concerns surrounding the lottery process and other issues at BPS and to engage in meaningful conversations with those at the center of it.
Spread the word!