Equal Ratios and Equal Funding

There are two main problems facing our schools today! One is equal class size and the other is equal funding-or-funding in general. Solving these two problems would help the entire island.

The first problem is class size. I don't know about you, but I think there is something wrong when some schools can have 15-18 students in a classroom while the rest of us are told to expect 28-32 students. I believe that it is time to rezone our island! (I say "our" because I am starting my seventh year here and do consider this home.)

One thing I think is that all students need to be taught that racism is wrong, I think that this is one reason that they, the powers that be, do not want to rezone. Some will not admit it, but that is why they do not want rezoning. An example of this is when Hopwood tried bring students from the northern part of the island, the problems exploded exponentially. It would be wrong to put those students back in schools to the north, because doing so would tell the students and their parents that the rules are only for some but not for others. I think that zoning or should I say rezoning should be enforced. Rezoning would help to equal out the class sizes.

Something else to help aleviate problems in our schools, would be to fund schools equally. If you know a school has a more transient population or has consistently lower test scores, that school needs more funding compared to some school that has parental support and high test scores. Data shows that educated parents help their students at home and in turn the students do better on tests. Changing our funding strategy would assist those schools and students in raising their scores, which in turn would help PSS in general with the FEDs.

If the island, the legislature and PSS could address these problems then everyone would be helped, because we are trying to educate ALL the leaders of tomorrow. Not just a few!