Officials of the state education monopoly have kicked choice in the pants again with their refusal to allow expansion of Kestrel Heights charter school to add an elementary school campus. The refusal had the full support of the Durham Public schools. It didn’t seem to matter to either entity that hundreds of people are begging to be able to send their kids to Kestrel Heights:
“We had already 400 families signed up,” said Tim Dugan, the school’s director. “We hadn’t even laid a brick. Hadn’t even advertised. This is a very good option for families in Durham.”
Education officials claim that Kestrel Heights’ test scores have dropped in the past few years, as if that’s an uncommon occurrence in Durham’s non-charter public schools. But Kestel Heights officials point out that many parents send their children to the charter school because they are already doing badly in public schools, which initially pulls aggregate scores down.
Hundreds of parents, according to The Herald-Sun, want to take a chance on Kestrel Heights, but what do they know? They’re not professional educators.
