Sunday, June 3, 2007

Get in Line, Bud

People just aren't being made like they used to. It seems like many school districts across the state are closing elementary schools. Port Angeles just celebrated the 100-year anniversary of a school (which is closing at the end of the year). Port Townsend is looking to shutter the doors of one of its two elementary schools. Seattle has looked at closing some of its sites. Now, Mercer Island is concerned about dropping enrollment.

Mercer Island is not the only district hoping to attract students from outside its attendance area in order to boost numbers (and therefore financial support from the state). Will it be long before districts are working to poach from others? Will incentives be offered and test scores be touted? There are only so many little ones to go around and educational dollars are always at a premium.
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3 comments:

Ryan said...

I'm really quite startled that there isn't more recruitment going on around the state, and not in a Chief Sealth way, either.

Here in Spokane, for example, District 81, East Valley, Mead, and West Valley are all very large districts connected by city bus lines. Mead could trumpet their successes in the paper in bold print and probably get more kids, since this is an open enrollment state, but I've never seen them do it.

June 3, 2007 at 7:45 PM
The Science Goddess said...

I would think that with Mercer Island's test scores, there would be no shortage of people who'd want their precious offspring to attend there.

However, will this become yet another case of "haves" and "have nots" in terms of which parents can afford the luxury of ferrying their kids to and from another district.

June 3, 2007 at 7:48 PM
Jim Anderson said...

Down in Olympia we're facing a demographic problem, too. All the growth we're experiencing is in higher tax brackets, as younger families move into the megadevelopments on the Lacey side of town.

I don't know if we're anywhere near the RIF situation we endured a few years back, but there's plenty of cause for concern.

We don't have it quite so bad as in Genoa, where they're at Children of Men levels.

June 3, 2007 at 8:01 PM

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