Is Jason Fischer trying to scare kids away from public schools?

First Mandarin just what is wrong with you? In 2012 you had two other viable candidates but you chose Fischer, what was it, that before he loved education he loved soil and water? Was it he couldn’t seem to figure out if he was in the navy or just worked for them? 

Why were you so angry Mandarin? You realize you have not just some of the best schools in the city but in the state don’t you? Why vote for somebody who doesn’t want to improve public schools but instead wants to privatize them and force kids into sub-standard options?

Ugh!

Okay, in a Times Union piece about middle school, long a thorn in the side of the district, years ago Hazouri talked about how we need to clean them up, Fischer said: Regardless of structure, Duval’s middle schools have to become more nurturing of sixth-graders, Fischer said.

Those students are leaving the protective environment of elementary school and are thrust into a place where they will be treated like mini-high schoolers. But many are not ready for that.

“Their whole world is changing,” Fischer said. “Societal issues become more noticeable in middle school. They may see more violence and more drugs as … some high school experiences back up into the middle school. And yet they’re still kids.”

Yeah all those violence and drug experiences that our high schoolers experience are now finding there way into middle schools too. Where is the flashing danger sign I wonder?

We do have issues and there are fights and I am sure there are drugs too, but Fischer makes it sound like our schools could double for the HBO series OZ. Now it is true I have joked to my friends that every high schooler should be required to watch it and then told, and that’s the good part of the prison, but the truth is they are not the lawless dens Fischer seems to be implying that they are.