FAQ Reveals Inconsistent Treatment in Project RightSize

RISD FAQ, edited

The Richardson ISD is working on a plan to reduce expenses by closing four schools. The district website has a page with FAQs. There is one question whose answer I find difficult to accept. The question is about teachers, but my difficulty with it can be seen by replacing "staff member" with "student." When RISD says, "RISD will not remove a staff member at one campus to replace them with another," they are demonstrating the "people-first" approach they are taking, at least as regards staff members. Good for them. But why not demonstrate the same "people-first" approach for students? Why not say, "RISD will not remove a student at one campus to replace them with another"? The argument for this is even stronger for students, as RISD exists for the children, even more than for the staff.

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P.S. I'm not expecting RISD to change its mind. And I'm not sure I would, either, if I were in their shoes. Public sentiment is clearly not on my side on this. I recommended an alternative plan to reduce the number of students who are being replaced by other students from a consolidated school. My alternative achieves that, but it relies on choice and rationing, with a grandfather clause. I understand why my alternative is not a winner in public opinion.

Parents don't want to be given the option to send their children to either Dartmouth or Yale. They want to send their children to Dartmouth, period. Also, parents don't want to risk losing a lottery and having their child be reassigned to Yale. For the 450 or so students who are being assigned to Dartmouth under the RISD plan, their parents want to keep it that way. For the 113 students who are being reassigned from Dartmouth to Yale, their parents don't want a lottery to perhaps change that outcome. They just want their children to be left at Dartmouth. So, there's really no constituency for my revised proposal. And tweaking it to address valid points raised by readers doesn't enlarge the constituency which was never there to begin with. So be it. It's time to rest...

The Day is Done

And the night shall be filled with music,
  And the cares, that infest the day,
Shall fold their tents, like the Arabs,
  And as silently steal away.
 
— Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Source: Henry Wadswroth Longfellow.