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It would be hard for me to exult the footprint or economic impact of a business when that "business" was failing most of its patrons as is Guilford County schools.

Yes, Just think of the economic blueprint if were had a sucessful school system!

Yes, anonymous, because after all, the purpose of schools is to provide more money to the wealthy... Actually, I agree with whistle blower, except that the schools ARE serving some students very well- the priviledged. If you are working class or poor, and then minority on top of that- you don't have a chance!

How many millions will go to Deena Hayes pocket?

I am absolutely incensed by Walter Childs remarks in reference to his and Deenas anti- bond group. Is that guy out of his mind. He is really showing his true colors now that he is leaving.

These are the people who are influencing the education of children in the county!!!!

"If you are working class or poor, and then minority on top of that- you don't have a chance!"

Really?,

Why is that? If they stay in school, go to class, study and learn, and do not become a discipline problem, they would seem to have the same opportunity. Why do you feel that they do not have a chance? Opportunities are what you make of it.

I see some students who have worked very hard in school and learned that have good opportunities and futures. I don't know what you are looking at. Being working class, poor, or minority doesn't stop someone from succeeding in the class room, if they put reasonable effort into it. Your statement just seems to reveal an elitist bias that those people are not capable of learning.

Really?,

"Yes, anonymous, because after all, the purpose of schools is to provide more money to the wealthy."

Please explain this statement. Public schools, which is the subject of discussion, do not exist for the wealthy, because they put their children in private schools. Your statement is flawed. Public schools were established as common schools so that the children of the middle class and the poor had a chance at education, of course, in this county that is problematical because of the incompetents that we have on the school board.

Dr. Zhang has told the board on many occasions that the students NOT being served are the gifted ones.

To get back to the main discussion, the "economic impact" of the school system does not matter since they're not doing their job in educating children. They are no different than Pimps if they think they can say the system is good for the economy. I would applaud the economic footprint if all of the county's children could read and write and leave their weapons at home, but since this is not the case, Guilford county schools is basically prostituting our children.

As has been alluded to in previous posts, it is apparent that our public school leaders, by promoting the economic development impact of the schools instead of its proper mission of education, have sold-out to the economic development interests that politically control Greensboro. This is truly a sad state of affairs, when we celebrate our public schools as a major employer, having an economic impact in the county, we are admitting that our school system is a failure at its basic mission...education of the county's children. It would be preferable that we would be celebrating that our public schools are so successful that the children of the county are being educated and entering the world of commerce to have a positive economic impact. But, this is not the case in any stretch of the imagination.

Consider the probability that most public schools systems would be one of the major employers in any town or city in which it resides, so is this cause for celebration and justification to spend $1/2 Billion on school construction for a handful of new school buildings? I suppose if your consider the economic impact on the community that some would say it is, although it will have little impact on the making real progress on the real mission.

It has a very good impact on the wallet of some of the school board. Notably one that is currentlu anti bond. It seems that her husbands Company wants a bigger share of the pie?

Everybody should read Charles Davenport's column in today's (Sunday's) N&R.

Anon,

It has its biggest impact on that school board member's favorite minority....non-white, non-female contractors.

The economic impact is severely inflated by all of the failed boondoggles that the taxpayers foot the bill for.

I would assume that these figures also take into consideration the growth of private schools throughout the County when the BOE forces many families to leave the public schoo system? That would count as economic growth as well?

To me its a stupid measurement. Its plain pro bond propoganda.

Sure. Fine. But this would be true regardless of what we spent the money on, wouldn't it. I wager that if we spent the money on widgets that it would have the same economic impact. The question should be: Are we getting our money's worth? Or: Are there better ways we can spend this money? There certainly are some programs that are not producing the sort of results that merit continued funding.

I would like to see an efficiency study to see where we can spend money the most effectively and weed out programs that are not performing. That would be a much more productive discussion than simply throwing out economic impact numbers.

Off topic-
Everyone is invited to NGHS tomorrow night for the BOE Candidates Forum, 7 pm. The address is 7101 Spencer Dixon Rd, Greensboro. All at-large and both district 3 have been invited and I know most if not all are coming. Set questions during the formal part and informal gathering afterwards. Hosted by NGHS PTSA

Paul,

Thanks for your post. It would seem to me that one of the first programs to be discussed is the IB program. Did you see the numbers? Smith graduated 0 (yes, that's ZERO) IB diplomas last year. The numbers at all of the IB schools are very, very low and yet, GCS just opened another one at Page.

How much does this program cost? I suspect it's quite expensive. And, what is the cost per IB diploma awarded? I suspect that number is astronomical.

Anon,

I understand the concern for the Smith IB program. It appears to be ineffective. We should be aware, though, that Early College and the IB program are a couple of the very few programs in this school system geared toward high achievers. I would not like to see money cut from these programs, as our top academic performers need some rigor and challenge in their curriculum. Perhaps, the answer is to consolidate them into two locations, Grimsley and HP Central, we do not need to invest resources at Page and Smith.

The IB program will, by definition, always be sparsely populated. This program, along with Early College, is very challenging for students, who have the high academic ability and are willing to invest 10-12 hours a day,at a minimum, in their education. The rewards, though, for those that receive their IB certificate, are tremendous. Many doors are opened to those students, without regard to race, gender, or economic status, in spite of Anon's comments earlier.

The two programs that should be cancelled are Page and Grimsley. Lets keep them and strengthen them at HPC and Smith.

Anon,

Why would you cancel a program that has been working at Grimsley for years and strengthen one that is failing and not likely to ever succeed?

I can see Anon's rationale. The IB program at Smith serves lower economic students. That's where the money should go. Beef it up, and if kids at Grimsley want to go there they can bus across town. Guilford county is all about the "low achiever" right? Then it only makes sense to keep the two programs at the "low economic" parts of town--Central and Smith. The kids at Page and Grimsley will be fine. Their parents have the means to make sure of it. I've learned this philosophy from the good people on the Guilford County school board. You watch long enough you start thinking like them!

"Beef it up"

So, the reason that no students are succeeding in the IB Program is that there are not enough resources there? IB Programs are not "low achievers", they are about challenging high achievers to reach even higher.

People need to personally observe what is required of IB students to not only succeed, but to survive in the program. What is required is something is more than the vast majority of students want to invest of themselves. The IB Program should not be used as a "magnet" to draw students to a school.