I’d be interested to understand why the Anchorage School District chooses to move a small high school graduation program aimed at downtown homeless students to a location that will take about an hour each way to access on city buses. Seems to create a big transportation obstacle for high-schoolers who already have plenty of obstacles and disadvantages in life.
Apparently those students don’t have the politically strident parent advocates that can demand “Fight for Ignite.” It seems that having school buses pick up and drop off elementary students from all over town to attend Ignite isn’t a money pit in this budget.
This is crunch time for AVAIL students, who need more help to become productive high school grads, not more barriers. Ignite parents could enrich their brilliant elementary-aged kids on their own dime. I hope that at least the AVAIL students are getting free bus passes from the municipality. Saving money for the school district shouldn’t mean taking educational opportunity from the most vulnerable and giving it to those who are least in need by virtue of having concerned advocates.
— Jeanne F. Smith
Anchorage
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