Education Reform Needed In Durango

Letter to the Editor

Message: To whom it may concern, Although Durango schools are mentioned in this letter to the editor, our District 59 school districts are in dire need of change. As such, I hope you will consider publishing this letter. I am a grandmother of two beautiful children in the district. Thank you for your consideration.

Education Reforms Needed Durango High School 2022 National Rankings gives Durango High a scorecard of #70 in Colorado, outranked by Ouray, Telluride, and Aspen. Durango Mathematics proficiency is 44%, and Science proficiency is 35%, and college readiness is 50.8/100. Many schools in our district are in a similar situation. Are we okay with average? It can and should change. As an example, Katherine Birbalsingh served as the Tory government’s “Social Mobility Tsar” and currently serves as a chair of a commission focused on changing economic outcomes for poor British kids through education.” While working under a strict, holistic, child centered approach, “The worse a child performed the more they needed to be “nurtured”, but how to install a sense of personal responsibility when the rule is to ask for less, not more?” Asked Birbalsingh, “the progressive state system is failing our children. “It is designed to make middle-class white liberals feel good.” The Mantra quoted daily by the students enrolled in Michaela is Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled “If”. It is an inspirational poem of succeeding against all odds. Michaela, Birbalsingh’s school is ranked fifth in the UK with a 90 percent overall pass rate in key subjects. 82% of its graduates go on to universities like Oxford and Cambridge, and the school is ranked “Outstanding” in all categories by Ousted, the UK’s federal school ranking body. Many kids in our district are not poor, but we're failing them. As parents it is our responsibility to ensure that we vote for new representation, Shelli Shaw, so our children can receive the best possible education.

Rebecca Craddock