Cambridge Homes, based in Libertyville, wants to build a school for about 1,000 pupils in kindergarten through 8th grade in its new subdivision near Pingree Grove in the northern part of the county.
The developer said the public school is part of a quality-of-life package that home buyers want, and future residents said it's an undeniable draw.
If this is for real, I wonder what the outcome will be. Apparently the school board is opposed to the idea saying, oddly enough:
Susie Kopacz, vice president of the school board, believes the charter school would cause the district to take money from other campuses.
"The community should know it's a wonderful proposal and the school district would never turn down a good proposal if it was to benefit everyone," she said. "When it cuts deeper into our financial woes, it's not a wise decision."
This is coming from a school district that is some $140 million in debt, so the financial impacts are real. But wait, if the school is designed to server 1000 new K-8 students, wouldn't the district have to build a school for all those kids? Yes, but in this story, the school district is getting the school for FREE--the developer is footing the bill for the $18 million dollar facility.
So the real problem is the fact that this school will be a charter school, something that does not sit well with educrats and teachers unions.
That could create disparities within school districts where charter schools are built in wealthier subdivisions, said Denise Cardinal, spokeswoman for the National Education Association, a Washington-based union that represents 2.7 million education workers.
"That's one of the things we object to in charter schools, is charter schools that drain taxpayer dollars from [other] publicly funded schools," Cardinal said.
Hmm! Here is the funny thing, this is likely to be a pretty wealthy school district. If the school board built the school, that fact would not change in the least. The chances are that this school will probably be superior to other schools because it is new, whether it is a charter or not. Finally, regardless of whether it is a traditional public school or a charter school, two facts remain.
First, there may be as many as 1000 new kids that will need a school--whether it is charter or not. Second, the parents and adults in this upscale community will no doubt be paying significant taxes to support both the education of their kids and the education of other kids.
In trying to find a downside here, I am at a loss.
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