School plan doesn't need more busing
By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published November 6, 2007
The failed experiment with school choice has come full circle in Pinellas classrooms. The same teachers' union that seven years ago opposed choice has now endorsed an assignment plan aimed at offering every student a high-quality school close to home.
The resolution, adopted unanimously by the Pinellas Classroom Teachers Association's faculty representative council, is notable for its attention to classroom impacts and its sense of urgency. As a vacillating School Board tries to exempt all current and many future students from the new plan, the teachers argue that the resulting added layers of busing are unnecessary and costly. They also prolong the academically indefensible 7:05 a.m. starting times for high schools.
"History has proven," the teachers wrote, "that students are tremendously resilient and adaptable."
"What the teachers are saying is that we're affected by how you make these decisions," says PCTA executive director Jade Moore. "This totally open-ended approach to grandfathering doesn't make sense. As rapidly as we can, let's get off this busing nightmare and begin getting the resources available to the schools."
Moore is right. Superintendent Clayton Wilcox recommended a reasonable transition plan, allowing middle and high school and most elementary students to finish at their current schools. But board members have reacted to public hearings by making one of the same transportation mistakes they made with choice. They exempted all current students and their siblings at the cost of running concurrent layers of busing.
That extra busing cost, which the union equates to 400 teachers, belongs instead in the classroom. The resolution calls on the board to establish a funding formula that directs extra money to schools that need it most, providing intensive reading programs, lower classroom sizes and differential pay for teachers. Such a commitment belongs in the new assignment plan as a formal promise to the communities that worry their schools could be left behind. It also reflects the existing priorities of Wilcox and the board.
After more than two years of study and debate, the School Board is scheduled to formally introduce the plan on Nov. 13. The union resolution should strengthen the resolve of board members who have been too eager to distance current students from the plan. Those board members should remember that the new plan will reconnect schools to their neighborhoods, which is exactly what most families are seeking.
Seven years ago, Moore and former PCTA president Rob McMahon wrote of the choice plan: "How ironic it would be if the plan to voluntarily end the court order resulted in more expense, longer bus rides, more dissatisfied parents and greater segregation." Those words were prescient, and board members can't credibly promise this time to put more money into schools as they commit to running two different busing systems again. The teachers know better.