Racine's Report Card

An unbiased perspective of the issues surrounding education in Racine, WI. I advocate for both excellent schools AND the responsible use of taxpayer dollars. I believe educational issues should always be non-partisan and never about politics, but I am also not naive to think that some will make it all about politics. Most of the discussions will revolve around education; however,from time to time, I will chime in on current events that are a particular interest to me.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006

Unified goes portable

So, the latest solution to solve the RUSD building crisis is to lease a couple of portable trailers. The need for the trailers was facilitated by the expansion of all day regular kindergarten and 4 year kindergarten. I think that leasing these “trailers” is a great short-term solution. With that said, I do question why now?

We have been told for years that our high schools are dangerously overcrowded and that the district should consider returning to the junior high configuration (K-6, 7-9 and 10-12), but that it could not be done because of space constraints. Why is it okay to lease portable classrooms to expand preschool, but not to alleviate the overcrowding where the district is losing the most students?

I have a funny feeling the decision has nothing with student engagement, but everything to do with the extra educational tax dollars these 4 and 5 year olds will bring to the coffers of RUSD.