However, Michael Casserly from Washington, D.C. is the executive director of the Council of the Great City Schools and he found the meeting important enough to attend. Part of his remarks include, “But the progress that the school district has made over the last several years has been remarkable. As we look at the statistics . . . the truth of the matter is that [Richmond's progress] is almost twice as fast as the average school district anyplace else in Virginia, and is, in fact, one of the fastest-improving urban school districts in the country.” (from the RTD: http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/search.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-09-16-0127.html)

I send my kids to RPS and I believe that there are a lot of positives in our school system.

Before we can “fix” the schools, we have to properly identify the “problem”. There are a lot of reasons kids don’t graduate that have more to do with their environment the the quality of the school system.

These same folks couldn’t come out and explain their schools proposal last night — and the notion that voting rights should be taken away from parents — but Tom Farrell and company DID have time to sew up their expensive, taxpayer-funded CenterStage deal — a plan that will be shielded from taxpayer oversight and FOIA laws.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/content/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-09-12-0154.html

I think this shows their real priorities. And what they really think of fiscal responsibility and public accountability.