Dear Editor:
Type 1 critics of the Re-2 Board have a sincere, but delusional, belief that Choice through Charters like Merit Academy will ruin public education, and they carry a poisonous perception that their constant objections to every Board action is in the best interest of the students.
Type 2 Board critics (fanatic Union militants) actually know that Choice and Charters will benefit students and parents, but also know that Choice is catastrophically detrimental to Union power and agenda. The disingenuous Type 2 activists seduce the misinformed Type 1 cynics to join them in a perpetual hate fest towards any Board that might advocate School Choice – anywhere nationwide.
So, while enrollments decline at Manitou (-6.8%) and Cripple Creek (-18.2%) and Re-2 (only down 4.9%) in the last three years, enrollment at Merit is expected to be 520 next fall – up 57% in three years.
Type 2s hate the success of Charters because Charters hire and fire and pay according to performance rather than tenure. They hate that while Charter enrollments grow, enrollments at failing Union-controlled schools crater – nationwide.
Thus, obedient Unionists uniformly despise the Superintendent, the Board and everything they do for students: armed security, non-partisan back-to basics curriculum, and recently — reuniting middle-schoolers with their elder peers at the high school.
Type 2s hate that the consolidation of grades 7-12 not only creates efficiencies in staffing, logistics and resources, but also offers profound benefits to students. The larger student body at the high school allows for greater class choices and deeper pools of participants for clubs, sports and many other extracurriculars.
The 7-12 grade integration offers advantages in academic and social continuity as students advance through grade levels, and also cultures mutually-beneficial interaction between the grades through mentorship, student counseling and tutoring.
Type 2s hate Choice — and the fact that parents and students prefer it.
Joe Morin
Woodland Park
