A parent who lives by Palms Middle School chose to send her child to Paul Revere Middle School about seven miles away. This is a heavy traffic drive and the street leading to Revere is a one lane road in each direction.
Why? Because she wants the best education for her child.
Parents go so far as to use someone else’s address. This is a common practice as parents in areas where their home school is not to their expectations find other ways to get their children into a preferred school.
Many years ago, a number of students attending an elementary school were found using the same residential address where none of them lived. People have turned the guardianship of their child over to a relative living in the residential area of a desired school.
There are also students using permits with transfer and taking extremely long school bus rides to attend better schools. There are also students who utilize public transportation to reach a school that their family prefers.
All schools are not created equal.
There are schools where children walk to school in peace, and there are schools where children walk to school in fear.
There are schools where parental organizations raise hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there are schools where there is no extra money for anything.
There are schools where well entrenched, experienced teachers meet parental explanations, and there are schools where teachers face the most severe family, neighborhood, and home issues—many of these are the newest teachers—and they do not last five years.
There are schools where substitutes are happy to visit, and there are schools that substitutes don’t want to visit.
There are schools where the principal is on top of everything, and there are schools where principals have to look the other way because of the conditions.
There are schools where teachers fill out shopping lists for the parents, and there are schools where teachers may give the students the only attention and smiles that they receive all day.
There are schools where education comes first, and there are schools where survival, health, and happiness supersedes education.
There are schools, and there are schools. What have you done to help your child find the right school or to make your neighborhood schools better?