School-closure fight: How about a bailout for … education?

This was sent to us by a parent at one of the schools currently caught up in the Seattle Public Schools closure/changes process, AKA “capacity management” (all WSB coverage archived here; we are working on a mammoth recap of “where it stands/what’s next” since today is a rare meetingless day after 2 weeks of nonstop events and discussions related to all this). It’s written by West Seattle-area teacher Jesse Hagopian: “I’m Changing the School’s Name to Chrysler.” Follow that link to read the whole thing; in part, he writes:

… if “letting GM go is a terrible idea”—as General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner recently warned Congress in his plea for a bailout of his failing company—then letting our schools fail in the wake of free-falling state budgets would be catastrophic.

There’s a lot more we could say, but you have said it better, in so many comments on our reports during this school-closure round alone. By the way, we wanted to mention again – many have been saying, can’t we all just work together on a plan for West Seattle schools, rather than sniping at each other – and there is a citizens’ group meeting later this week with exactly that goal in mind: 6:30 Thursday at West Seattle Elementary in High Point – read about it here. ADDED 1:54 PM: The transcription of Superintendent Dr. Maria Goodloe-Johnson‘s Seattle Times online Q/A from this morning is available online now – she answers several questions regarding the West Seattle schools now being discussed in this process (Arbor Heights, Cooper, Pathfinder) but no new revelations – here’s the transcript.

6 Replies to "School-closure fight: How about a bailout for ... education?"

  • John December 8, 2008 (1:07 pm)

    “kids are more valuable than Cadillacs.”
    I could not have said it better!!

  • WSM December 8, 2008 (2:03 pm)

    That is so awesome- i just sent it to every new station i could think of.. not as my own of course!

  • JanS December 8, 2008 (3:41 pm)

    I’ve always thought that the gov’t. could come up with enough money to fund education, healthcare, social services, etc. etc., if they wanted to, yet those are ALWAYS the first cut. If the money is there to find for bailing out Wall Street, banks (don’t even get me started on B of A), and GM…then, dammit all… let’s find the money for the really important stuff. The emporer just lost what little clothing he had…

    the first that I would cut? lobbyists, and anything paid to them by the gov’t….time to get real, folks…the people are angry…

  • add December 8, 2008 (6:07 pm)

    Mr. Hagopian is a great teacher and role model – he was my son’s favorite in 7th grade!

  • JanS December 8, 2008 (6:09 pm)

    his last name sounds familiar…was his mother/sister/wife/cousin on the city council or school board at some point? Someone named Amy Hagopian…? just curious…

  • GenHillOne December 8, 2008 (8:10 pm)

    There is a governor(?) who has been making this request/argument – saw it on nat’l tv…I’ll see if I can find it.

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