It's sad to see how far my school has fallen. When I went there it was the pride of HISD (yeah I know that is a low bar) but at the time it had one of the best Magnet programs along with an outstanding IB program. My class alone had students go to Ivy's, a few to the US Military Academies, one to Stanford and myself to CAL (a huge achievement being an Asian from Texas at a time when CAL was limiting the number of Asians). Since then it sounds like it has plummeted in achievement, was part of a standardized cheating scandal, and now riots breaking out.
Anyone can take their child and place them in a private school if they have the money. I have no idea why people like you would choose to abolish public schooling when it serves no purpose other than to further your elitist goals. Seriously. It doesn't affect you. Not to mention there are bad apples with every group. If two kids start a fight in the hallway the entire public schooling system is at fault? LOL.
I didn't go to that high school but back in the day I used to live in Southwest (went to Jane Long Middle School) and I had lots of friends from middle school go to Lamar, the rest went either to Lee or Sharpstown. So, I don't know how it is now but at that time it definitely wasn't just rich kids from River Oaks going there. I finished freshman year at Lee (moved to Katy afterwards) and fights like this were a daily occurrence in my 9th grade.
This isn't the D&D. Take your 'elitist' insults down the road. Not rly. Who would pay to send their kid to a crappy school? You mean they suck relative to other private schools I think. Simply put, Nobody would pay to send their kid to a school that consistently had that kind of violence. Only public schools have this and that's because lots of parents don't have the means to send their kids anywhere else.
Yeah relative to other private schools. Some public schools are actually good and can match up with private schools.
It is a combination of parents not having the means and the kids being lazy if they have to go to a "bad" public high school. There are many options if the kids tried at all. It's not true that ONLY public schools have violence.
If this was an isolated incident people might agree with you. The sad fact is it isn't and not having a zero tolerance policy leads to a declining school culture. These animals are not at school to learn, they are in a self made prison. They hurt the entire school and the school system in general is responsible for not having them isolated in alternative school for losers. For sure, but not in this manner.
I went to public schools and I dont want to send my kid to one. Not because of fights or riots but more for quality of education, future networking, and aspirations in general. You cant say that the average kid at Lamar will have the same aspirations as the average kid at St. John's.
Again, all about finding the right schools. If you have the means to send them to St. John's though, why not?
Bellaire is the cream of the crop as far as HISD i agree but the only problem (when i was growing up) was that to make top quarter you needed at least 4.0 or near. Competitive asians. Had lots of bright friends from Bellaire who got screwed because of this. As far as private schools sucking, there's a reason why they are expensive and even just rubbing elbows with kids whose families could actually afford to go there could be a valuable asset to any kid's future. Nothing is guaranteed but i would take my chances on private. Rather my kid be a successful elitist snob than an average joe who detests elitist snobs.
Beyonce's old high school HSPVA is up there too. Also DeBakey HSHP ranks high among Texas high schools.
So you are sending your kid to private school to be average? Wife and I talked about this. We pay a crap load of taxes for school. We'll save the double expense of private and use the extra money for tutors, educational trips or other enrichment efforts. We feel the aspiration starts at home ...not from school. But that's just us. To each his own.
