Maybe Jack's off HIS rocker

Best response to Jack B's latest rant* in which he juxtaposes two stories --the first about Portland Public Schools revenue deficit; the second about its decision to lease space for a new school in the Pearl:

"What does $300K per year beginning in 2011 in an area without an elementary school, have to do with a $10mil shortfall in 2009, spurred in part not by Portland but by a recalcitrant governor?"

Good question, joe.  But then Jack is less interested in reasoned discourse than in rousing the rabble.

For the record, I haven't decided whether the lease is a good idea or a bad one. I'm hardly one to defend PPS or the school board, but here's the problem. The one neighborhood school anywhere near the Pearl District is the overcrowded Chapman.  The others are either focus options or a charter school (with a waiting list).   So if there really is a surfeit of kids living in the Pearl, maybe the lease isn't such a bad idea.

Then again, if PPS did the right thing by doing away with its transfer policy and ending its dalliance with school choice, the old Couch school, which now houses Metropolitan Learning Center, would make a fine neighborhood facility for the Pearl kids.

But that's probably not going to happen anytime soon. 

* (Rant is defined here as anything having to do with condos, streetcars, or developers.  Or any elected city official.  It should be pointed out that the school district and the City of Portland are separate entities.)