Five hours spent at the Escondido Union School District Board meeting and as the crowd dispersed the comment being made by a local "commenter" on several online newspapers and Facebook pages leaving the building says "It has never been about the charter school, it is about the library."
It is sad to hear this comment being made when the education of children is being put in the middle of the wants and desires of a small group of "concerned citizens" who are really still just trying to hang on to their special place. The focus of attacks made by these citizens was that the school moving into the location doesn't meet the demographics of the area. It was brought up that perhaps the school should be given a set number of months to meet certain benchmarks in ethnic enrollment. An interesting idea considering that Charter schools in the state of California work on a lottery system. Perhaps the SuperLotto, MegaMillions, and PowerBall lotteries should also have a mandated ethnic diversity when it comes to their winners.
But this is hardly new when it comes to politics in the United States, it has become an us against them mentality where we as Americans expect a great life to be given to us with little expectations placed on us to give back. Herein lies a solution to the number one issue raised by groups who were against the granting of the two charters for Heritage K-8 School and Heritage Digital Academy.
Escondido's Future led by Mel Takahara, Esconido Chamber of Citizens, and Escondido 2014 blogger Pat Muse stated the importance of reaching out to these underrepresented students. A solution is available. First, realize that the children are more important than a building. As shown in past posts, libraries are changing, brick and mortar buildings are no needed in the quantity they once were. Instead, I would propose that the the two schools and these peoples would meet. The groups mentioned above should for volunteer teams that work with the schools to help those with language barriers navigate the process of getting into the lottery system and help make the changes desired happen.
What is being proposed here is a win-win solution that will benefit Escondido's children, our real Future.
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