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Monday, March 17, 2008
What do we owe Clayton County students?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
As expected, the National Accreditation Commission board voted to revoke Clayton County’s accreditation effective Sept. 1. That means no HOPE scholarships for students. No state-funded pre-K.
In order to keep its accreditation, the school district must meet nine mandates set up by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools by Sept. 1. School board members say they can overhaul the district in time. An official with the accreditation commission said that’s unlikely unless the system gets significant intervention.
Some parents aren’t waiting to see what will happen. They’re registering their kids for private school, preparing to move to another school district or getting the materials needed to home-school.
The reality is many of the district’s 52,800 students won’t be able to leave. What’s to happen to them?
When we’ve blogged about Clayton County before there’s been a lot of responses along the lines of Clayton voters created this mess and they should clean it up.
To that I ask: What about the students? They didn’t elect this school board. Why are they being punished for the mistakes of adults? Don’t all of Georgia’s adults owe something to the children of Clayton County?
