Altadena: Our Public Schools

Public Schools are central pillars of democracy in our local communities. They were created to help shore up our democratic republic. Of course, the accountability movement, with its billionaires, would love to say that public schools should be run like businesses. However, public schools are not businesses. They are part of our government. Here is an article from 2014 that is relevant in our pre-election day conversations about Measure I and J here in Pasadena. Founding Fathers agreed: Funding public education is not debate   "Public schools by their nature require tax dollars. Spending money on public schools does not inherently make them bloated, it makes them public." 

The Pasadena Education Facebook page is a great place for information. An article from The Stanford Daily was posted today about a Stanford study and the inequity in our public schools. It is titled "Stanford-coordinated study finds persistent inequities in California public schools." One of our parents wrote this insightful comment: The main thing that stood out for me was the paradox -- that isn't news to anyone here -- of a school district perpetually struggling with funding crises despite the abundance of multi-million-dollar homes and frequent sightings of luxury vehicles on our streets and in our parking garages.  McKinley is a particularly striking example, being located within walking distance of Pasadena's financial center...and several high-end shopping and dining destinations. Yet we keep having to fight for every dollar, to repeatedly justify vital resources, never mind the ongoing dream of installing a shade structure so that our children don...