An article in this morning's Lincoln Journal Star notes the problem of facilities inequality when new high schools get built. Lincoln Board of Education member Doug Evans thinks we should address inequalities by spending money to upgrade every school's facilities to match any new school's facilities: "I'm arguing that it’s really expensive but we have to pony up to be equitable". I agree and disagree, depending on how he intends to use the word equitable.
We should not worry about trying to get each school's facilities to be (more or less) identical. For one thing -- and most obviously -- it simply isn't a practical goal, for many different reasons. But neither is it necessary. There is no reason to expect Lincoln's six public high schools to be facsimiles of one another.
Indeed, we should not only be OK with the schools being different, we should encourage them to be different. Each high school should be encouraged and allowed to excel in a few specific areas. Students will filter themselves accordingly, and the overall educational experience will be better as a result. LPS already uses a version of that philosophy with the Zoo School and the Arts and Humanities Program to great success.
Lincolnites should be concerned with fundamental issues of fairness. But fairness doesn't mean that every school should have equal theaters. Instead, it means that if you get the coolest theater in town, maybe I should be allowed to hire the best math faculty in town, and that school over there should be able to start up the engineering and construction sciences program they've been dreaming about.
What is your vision of equality, equity, and fairness in Lincoln's public high schools?
Comments
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I agree it’s tough to make all the schools equal, but it becomes a problem when there are huge differences between what is offered by each high school.
What if I’m a single parent living in north Lincoln, and the best math or science program is at South West, but I can’t afford to drive my kid there due to work restraints/gas prices/time crunch? Sure, juniors and seniors have a driver’s license, but what if the family can’t afford a second car?
What if LPS restricts open attendance policies, and you have to actually move to a different part of town so your child can attend what you feel is the best high school?
I realize that there will be some differences between high schools, but I don’t agree that we should encourage them to have major differences. It’s not that easy in real life for parents to let students “filter themselves accordingly” - I fear a situation of haves and have-nots if we allow our schools to evolve in totally different directions.
The real problem is that the facilities in some schools (like LNE and LSE) are FAR more run-down in ALL areas. Fortunately, both buildings are going through some renovations right now to help narrow the gap.
Back when my husband was in school he said you could tell which schools were the rich ones- they had air conditioning. Is it still the case that some schools have air conditioning and some don’t?
I agree about not having schools that are clones, but there’s possibly some agreement we can reach on basic things a school should have.
I admit, I don’t know a lot about high schools in Lincoln.
Evans theory is an expensive one and it is a moving target.
Is it a good use of limited school district revenue to try to bring schools circa Lincoln High School or Lincoln Northeast High School up to the same facilities as Northstar or Southwest? I would argue that money could be spent more efficiently.
When it comes to theaters and swimming pools, I think the district should look for ways to economize or be smarter with their money. I don’t believe each school needs a swimming pool. Why not economize and build a centrally located swimming facility that each school can use?
Each school should have a theater, but to retrofit fly space is way too expensive.
As the district stretches its dollars, it needs to look at its core mission and do the best it can with the money it has.
Yes, money seems to always be lacking, but we run the risk of having older inner city schools offering a very different (and more limited) set of opportunities for students than the schools in the more affluent edges of the city.
Karin: Yes, some schools have air conditioning, some don’t. The origins of that particular inequality aren’t related to money, though. Age of the buildings is the primary factor. Money is obviously an issue in remedying the situation, but my impression is that LPS has done a good job of spreading the A/C rollout across the city fairly evenly.
(For the record, in my 13 years with LPS, two [fifth and sixth grade] were spent in air conditioned classrooms.)
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