chanel
Silver Member
- Thread starter
- #21
To be honest, I don't think anyone working in these programs have any "fantasy" about what it actually is: a warehouse. Judges in NJ commonly "sentence" juvenile offenders to "attend school". They have no place else to put them, and don't want them running the streets. These programs fill that need.
Teachers in my school constantly complain about how the alternative school lets kids watch BET and have pizza parties every Friday. I DON'T CARE! They could provide them with lap dances and it matters not to me. The only thing I do care about is that they are not interfering with the learning of the good kids. Unless they are willing to build more kiddie jails or bring back expulsion, it's all we have.
Closing them down could have a very negative impact on all public schools.
All of what you've said is true.
However, the schools are PUBLIC.
Not, Public-except-for-that-portion-of-the-public-that-is-difficult-to-teach.
The latter is called a PRIVATE school.
Who pays for that PRIVATE school? And you know as well as I we are not talking about "difficult to teach" teenagers and young adults. As blimpo said, these students INTERFERE with the learning of others. 100% of the kids I kick out of class are guilty of that.
I'm not sure how many states have eliminated expulsion. To my knowledge, NJ is the only one. Expensive, unintended consequences legislated from the bench. Unless they reverse that, we need a place to house them.