The first sign of the demise was when I witnessed the first of two groups of adults seeking the night school. Sadly they were told they were no longer being offered at this location. They were directed to where they are supposed to be handling it. Realistically the program would be quickly overwhelmed if it had just the old FORD STUDENTS let alone the rest of the city.
All the arguments about he negative aspects of immigration ring pretty hollow when you deny access to the tools needed for improvement. Some may argue that WE THE PEOPLE can not afford to be caretaker for the masses. They would be right and that is what we will become if we continue to deny opportunities foe education. Some would say that it is not our responsibility to teach adults whether they be parents or other family members. Here again, hose people would be right. However when you examine the impact that family life has on the success of the student, victory seems a little more sour than sweet.
The deterioration was much worse than that. In a time of expanding payrolls and shrinking learning opportunities, valuable partnership[s are being cast aside in an almost religious indoctrination. Time-on learning is being justified instead of the view that there is a time to learn. Funny that time-on learning doctrine resulted I believe in lower MCAS scores at HARRINGTON than FORD. When you didn't get the results you want, no problem just keep changing measurements until you find one that says what you want.
Harrington's improvement is not a surprise to me. Due to the schools failing level 4 status, millions of dollars in additional resources and services were provided to the school. Additional resources and services that some 24 other schools did not receive. It is extremely unfortunate that in Massachusetts, schools must fail in order to receive the necessary funding, resources and services that are required in order for the students, teachers and staff to succeed. If I am not mistaken, this funding and these same resources and services are suppose to continue at the school, but only time (and money) will tell if this really happens. In the meantime, I will not be surprised by the decline of some of our other schools. The Mayor not only continues to underfund our schools by millions each year, but she also forced the superintendent to cut her already insufficient budget by millions this year. We do not have enough classrooms and the ones we do have are overcrowded, our textbooks are outdated or do not exist at all, our libraries are bare and unstaffed, our classroom and building equipment are failing, and our school buildings are crumbling. All the while, our annual enrollment figures continue to increase by the hundreds. The new Marshall is not expected to be completed until I believe 2016. When those doors open on the very first day, the number of students who walk through them will exceed the building's capacity. The city of Lynn is in real trouble! There is a desperate need for new schools and funding for these schools, as well as for the much needed resources and services district wide. Without these, schools will continue to crumble and there will be a decline in student performance and test scores district wide.
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