closing schools in Kansas

Kansas City closes 17 schools.  The system of graded, tested, and sorted factory curricula will run in 17 fewer schools in Kansas City, leaving communities a great opportunity for using these 17 former school buildings for community learning centers providing more educational resources and even gardening space.  All the people around these schools still need services and there are strong economic reasons to provide them. But the system design limits what schools in the services they provide.

The lack of connection to local communities is evident in a decision like this.  I am thinking the schools will be closed and perhaps set aside for other uses.  If the citizens were able to have substantial input, many groups would find usable spaces for community learning.  But the centralized structure has its own agenda, unrelated to local needs, and moves independently with its own momentum. 

The structural design of our educational system is the problem and the reason so-called school reform cannot be much of a change.  It can't overcome the many changes in our social structures since the public schools inception without democratizing and broadening its inputs.  As a community service, schools should be surveying and meeting extensively with local residents every year to meet the needs of the community.

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