Finding A Good School Is Hard

Our son will begin Kindergarten in the Fall. But circumstances have conspired to make the transition much more difficult than it ever should be.

Finding a good school, apparently, is hard.

And that's coming from someone with a graduate degree and who works in education. So imagine what it's like for a parent who struggles to read, a parent who lacks transportation, a parent working multiple jobs.

What's so hard?

Well, to start with, while we aren't poor, we are certainly far from rich. And so we live in a small, two-bedroom house in North Memphis. We live in the 'hood. No joke. Pizza Hut won't deliver to our house, and on occasion we hear gunshots. Fortunately, the few blocks around us are safe, because we can't afford to move to a better neighborhood.

However, if you can't afford to live in a better neighborhood, you generally aren't zoned to attend quality school. And so it is with us.

There's hope, though. We qualified for an opportunity to transfer. So that's what we did. And, because of our school status, we were bumped up the list. We felt confident that we would be accepted into our school of choice.

Wrong. The letter came a few days ago saying that we didn't get in (not in our first choice or our second) and would need to enroll at our zoned school, the one that's failing.

That news left us scrambling to figure something out. Private school is not an option -- remember, we can't afford to move out of our neighborhood, so there's no way we can afford private school.

So, what is one to do?

Charter school, here we come!

Memphis is relatively new to the charter school scene, and there are some bad charter schools around town. But there are a lot of really bad traditional public school as well. That's why we're in this situation to begin with.

I just want my son in a good school. As my boss likes to say, I'm "operator-neutral." It doesn't matter to me who is running the school, as long as it's a good school.

Lucky for us, with the district failing us, there happen to be a few quality charter schools nearby. And, lucky for us, I think we're going to have our choice. We applied the other day and visited them today. We know we're in one, and we're number two on the wait list at the other, with the assurance that we'll get in.

It's such a relief to get that behind us.

As a parent, you feel so much more empowered, so much more in control, when you get to choose which school your child attends.

Being forced to send your child to a failing school is the worst. No one wants that, but that's how things are. And things have got to change.

Charter schools are not a magic bullet. But they do allow for a greater degree of parent choice. And, as a parent, I appreciate that. Even though we didn't get in our first or second options, we weren't forced into accepting a bad situation. Instead, I am confident that our son will be served well.

But, again, what if we weren't savvy enough to negotiate this complicated process? Many of our neighbors aren't. That's why things have to change. And they can't change fast enough.