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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]How do we get rid of 60-80% FRL neighborhood schools?  I think most folks would love to do this if you know how.  [b]Bussing children all over the county is not an option, however.[/quote][/b]

And that's the problem.  Folks are all for solving the problem - without using any solutions to solve the problem.
We ALREADY bus children all over the County for option programs - and probably more inefficiently than busing them for neighborhood schools would be because of the ridiculous bus pick-ups for very small #s of children from some areas opting into programs.

So, you eliminate high FRL schools in various ways:
1) you can do it in one fell swoop by changing to an all-choice system (Cambridge model); or 
2) with various other tools - note the plurality there, toolSSS - including busing children who are being bused to their neighborhood school now to a different assigned neighborhood school; eliminating geographical preferences for options schools was one piece the Board actually implemented; locate option schools in/near areas of concentrated low-income families so that they are more easily accessible and families more likely to apply; stop fighting weirdly-shaped boundaries and drop the idiotic "contiguity" principle; and push the County to stop adding CAF's in areas of schools that already have a high FRL% and push them TO build CAFs in areas with schools with low FRL%s.
[/quote]

The implication here is that you're either for all tools under #2 or you don't REALLY want to solve the problem.  BS.  Reasonable minds can disagree on which of these are acceptable/desirable and/or to what degree to address the issue.  We might also have disagreements about what the goal is (i.e., what distribution of FRL is considered success... every school identical?  Every school within +/- 20% of each other?  80% of schools within +/- 20% of each other with possibly a few outliers in certain geographies due to distributions?).  It's perfectly reasonable to be concerned and legitimately desiring to solve the problem and still not see a massive increase in bussing as an acceptable approach to doing so... there are other toolsssss and options, just disagreeing with one approach doesn't mean you violate purity test of wanting to successfully solve the issue.[/quote]

I don't believe I ever suggested you have to agree with every suggestion.  And I don't believe it would actually be a "massive increase in bussing" - unless, possibly, if you go with the Cambridge model or you are making every school 30% FRL. Our current busing is not particularly efficient.  And if you push the housing tool, over (a long time) you create more balanced economic diversity in various parts of the County which will require less busing for the basis of diversity.[/quote]

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