Steve's most excellent new venture --PPS Equity

Visit Steve Rawley's  new site here.  And leave your comment on either the main page, the blog, or the forum. 

Also read Steve's op-ed piece in this morning's Tribune.  Compare it to Matt Wingard's argument for charter schools and more school choice.  I think it's clear that the former, which champions the common good, clearly wins the debate with the libertarian defense of the free market theory of ruining running a public school system.

Speaking of markets, apparently tomorrow's PPS Celebrate! is the last hurrah for this sort of "shopping mall" approach to selling Portland's schools.  That's a good thing.

Unfortunately, it appears that the marketing of individual schools will continue, just not in such a flamboyant and expensive manner.  Here's a better idea.  Maybe the district should start marketing the idea of public schools, period.  Maybe they should market the district, and stop the internecine warfare between individual schools.  The old approach, funded by  a grant from the pro-schoool choice U.S. Department of Education, has led to the two tiered system --one for the well-off, the other for everybody else-- we see today.

Hope to see you tomorrow at the Expo Center for the last Celebrate!  Now there's a reason to truly celebrate.

Comments

[Zarwen]

Well, the O reports that the reason for ditching the Schools Fair is that the $ has dried up, but I have to observe that the timing is pretty convenient. At this point, thanks to the "reconfigurations" of the past two years, the schools that receive the most applications for transfers-in (e.g., Alameda, Hollyrood-Fernwood, Laurelhurst) are stuffed to the gills and won't have room for those extra kids any more. No point in marketing openings you don't have.

[Steve R.]

Thanks for the kind words, Terry.

I should point out that PPS Equity is a continuation of years of work by many people from all over Portland. The message I've been honing is far from original. It is built on the hard work of the Neighborhood Schools Alliance, including you and (in no particular order) Nancy Smith, Nicole Breedlove, Lakeitha Elliot, Lynn Schore, Steve Linder, Anne Trudeau, Ruth Adkins and of course Wacky Mommy, and quite a few people I've never met and whose names I can't recall right off hand.

In a certain sense, my job now a lot easier than all the heavy lifting that came before. I just happen to be good at the tech stuff, so I'm glad to set up a framework to facilitate our common cause.

Let's keep it going!