The Times Union wants you to bet the farm on a maybe

Twenty one days ago nobody was talking about open enrollment, now Superintendent Vitti and the editorial staff of the Times Union want us to go full speed ahead and have provided some dubious reasons to do so.

I have serious reservations about this idea as do many including the Jacksonville Public Education fund which says without providing transportation it will most likely only benefit those families that arguably wouldn’t use it or need it. They also say the results of other districts who have tried it are mixed at best

Why not let the city of Jacksonville decide if they like the idea and I remind you that none of the school board members nor Vitti got to where they are at by talking about open enrollment, by voting on a referendum to pay for transportation. Several south Florida cities already have special revenue generating mechanisms in place dedicated solely to public education.

Regardless of how you feel about open enrollment you should realize that we shouldn’t go from not talking about it to fundamentally transforming the district in less than a month. If it is a good idea and like I said I have serious reservations it will be a good idea next year when all the problems and wrinkles of which there are many can be ironed out.

Finally I would like to say our district’s enrollment inched up this past year because more and more families are realizing public schools are the best thing going this fact would seem to mitigate the urgency of doing open enrollment now.