Your CCSD Neighborhood School Is Good Enough?

Brian Hicks is an expert on advising parents about where to send their kids to school in Charleston County, much like his expertise in so many other matters.

His latest paean to the district points out that CCSD's neighborhood schools are so good that no one should be unhappy about attending them. This idiocy follows the district's push to get more parents to apply to magnet and charter schools and then its agony over how many thousand parents did so. 

You can't make this stuff up.

"An old-fashioned neighborhood school is also a good choice" if only any were old fashioned.  What's old-fashioned about an elementary school expected to enroll more than 900 students where practically no one walks to school? Or goes home for lunch? There are no old-fashioned schools.

As any sane parent knows, it all depends on the neighborhood. The richer the neighborhood, the better educated the parents. The better educated the parents, the better the results at that neighborhood school. So, Hicks, what are parents supposed to do that don't live in Mt. Pleasant? What if they live in the Charleston neck? How about Chicora-Cherokee? 

Oh, that's right. Those parents don't care. They didn't even apply to Buist.

As Hicks boldly says, "Having parents that care about education is a big indicator of academic achievement. And those children can succeed anywhere."

Certainly involved parents do make a difference in a child's achievement; however, it's downright racist to suggest that because the parents in CCSD's most underachieving schools don't care, a school such as Sanders-Clyde produces such low reading achievement.

Well, what if your neighborhood school is Sanders-Clyde? Hicks thinks you don't read his column.

Maybe Sanders-Clyde should offer the same program as Buist.  Maybe all neighborhood schools should follow the path of Meeting Street @ Brentwood and enjoy oversight by an "outside group."

If your neighborhood school is Mt. Pleasant Academy, not attending Buist is hardly a tragedy. But what if your neighborhood school is Dunston Elementary? 

Truly fish-wrapper advice.