Arcata school board candidates talk budgets, declining enrollment

You can't convince parents to choose public schools if they believe charter schools are better by showing them advertising. It's called bias. If they believe Coke is better, they won't try Pepsi no matter how many commercials you show them. To survive, turn the two public schools into charter schools. It's not difficult. It's a document.

Or, simply revoke the right for charter schools to operate in Arcata. There are no charter schools in McKinleyville. Where would the charter operators go? Eureka? Are these parents biased enough to drive their kids to Eureka every day? No, not likely. Close the charter schools and you suddenly receive fully funding for each student because almost all of them will be going to public schools again.

Ahh nuts, I flubbed the grammer on that first sentence. Blame my homeschooling.

Now is the time to consolidate school districts. How wasteful is that? A two school district.

Larry McCarty used salesmanship to create the "Schools of Choice" before his way too early departure from this world. He was a salesman extordinaire to create a perception Sunset and Bloomfield had these great specialized programs to attract inter-district transfers.

Now a charter school has taken over the Bloomfield campus and Arcata City Schools have consolidated from three campuses to two campuses. Obviously something is not working where "mainstream" public schools are no longer attractive in
Arcata.

If I were still in the district I would choose Jennifer Berbue, Erin Taylor, and the incumbent Mr. Steinberg.

Good luck ACS. The tough times are not over from either a budget or enrollment standpoint.

focused on integrating global studies and arts themes into its daily curriculum.

Brainwashing by the idiotic liberal socialists. What happened to social studies and physics and science and American history? These studies have been modernised into world feelings. The students today coming out of high school are unable to quote the American Creed, can't tell you where Iowa is, and don't know who is on Mt. Rushmore.

Middle-o-the-stream, here's the answer. George W. Bush happened to social studies, science and American History. His No Child Left Behind law has destroyed the American education system. All that matters now is "teaching to the test."

If you're going to defend George, then at least attack his test. Science used to be taught starting in kindergarten. Now science isn't taught until 5th grade because that's when students begin getting tested on science. And just forget about anything significant in social studies or more advanced science like physics. Oh, and art and music and anything else not on the test is expendable too.

George might as well have had McDonalds begin managing our schools.

Who would want to raise children in Arcata?

its a liberal cess pool

Middle-o-the-strea m wrote:

focused on integrating global studies and arts themes into its daily curriculum.
Brainwashing by the idiotic liberal socialists. What happened to social studies and physics and science and American history? These studies have been modernised into world feelings. The students today coming out of high school are unable to quote the American Creed, can't tell you where Iowa is, and don't know who is on Mt. Rushmore.

Middle,

These are elementary and middle schools. Students don't begin the study of physics and civics until the 9th through 12th grades.

It's insane to have two school districts in Arcata/Mckinleyville.

Consolidate them to have one district, kindergarten through high school.

Jeff E wrote:

It's insane to have two school districts in Arcata/Mckinleyville.
Consolidate them to have one district, kindergarten through high school.

What?!!! And put administrators and clerical staff out of a job an put the money towards the welfare of the students? What a horrible idea!!

If the county school district is good, then why not
combine all of the districts into one? The next
question I have is, why are we competing charter
schools against the unified school districts?
Charter schools have the upper hand and do not
have to follow the same regulations as the
unified schools. The Eureka school district
is shameful and should not be allowed to continue.

Middle-o-the-strea m wrote:

unable to quote the American Creed,.

Heh, the American Creed. Just what exactly is a 'perfect union'? Is that were California only gets 74 cents back out of every federal tax dollar we pay? And then struggles to meet unfunded federal mandates?

I'm guessing slavery was a 'perfect union' from some peoples point of view.

It's almost as bad as the Pledge of Allegiance which had the 'One nation, under God' added to it by McCarthy era fundamentalist Christians to differentiate us from those godless commies.

The world has changed and gotten significantly more complicated than it was when most of us went through elementary school. Yet we still think we can teach all the new stuff in the same (if not less) amount of time and then inundate kids with a plethora of extra-curricular activities in order to make them 'well-rounded'. A little focus would help as would parental involvement and parental limits on the number of things kids get involved in.

I find it amazing that individuals that have not had their children educated in the Arcata School District have posted the comments they have. I am THRILLED with the education my child has received in the district. And I commend the individuals in the article for being willing to put their money where their mouth is. They are willing to put themselves out in a thankless, non paid position to work at improving education in general. It's easy to be critical but when was the last time you spent 6 1/2 hours of your time with your child and 25 of his/her friends?