tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8856792.post-1118700783425915742005-06-13T18:12:00.000-04:002005-06-13T18:20:11.333-04:00Inspiring story of parents in San Diego who took charge of their children's education and created a charter school. From a <a href="http://www.sacbee.com/content/opinion/story/13052817p-13898491c.html">column</a> in the Sacramento Bee: "More than 700 parents representing about 70 percent of children in the Gompers Secondary School attendance area, signed petitions demanding that the San Diego Unified School District relinquish control of the campus and hand it over to a board of parents, teachers, academics and community activists. After initially resisting, the district's trustees approved the request. <p>"This fall, the site will reopen as Gompers Middle Charter School under a partnership with University of California, San Diego. It will have a longer school day, many new teachers and high expectations. The school will combine intense instruction in basic subjects with strong discipline and close attention to the problems many children from this area deal with outside of school.</p> <p> Three other San Diego neighborhood groups took control of their schools the same day Gompers did. And what is happening here increasingly is happening throughout California. Parents, it seems, are less willing to accept a public school system that cannot or will not help their children succeed. This has always been the case in affluent neighborhoods, where families could turn to private schools if they were dissatisfied with what the government offered them. But now parents in poorer communities are finding the tools that allow them to do much the same thing within the public school system."</p>Adam Kernan-Schlossnoreply@blogger.com