Schools' defenders return fire

What's really wrong with Seattle Public Schools? Apparently, it's people like me.

We private-school parents pull our kids out of the public-school classrooms and then throw stones. Readers threw plenty back my way after my column on how the state of some of Seattle's public schools can negatively influence some homebuyers.

I focused on Valerie Peck, who found an affordable home in South Seattle but backed out because only 31 percent of fourth-graders at the nearby elementary met state standards for reading, writing and math. And the scores had dropped 23 percent since 2004.

The reaction to the column was intense, but that's OK. It reminded me how important schools are to all parents, and how we all struggle to do the right thing for our kids.

Kathleen Bose told me how she wanted to put her daughter in a Catholic school in Magnolia, but it was full.

"I wasn't happy about it," Bose wrote, "but I enrolled her at Catharine Blaine and got involved in the school."

Bose, a graduate of West Seattle High, was in one of the first waves of parents "who came into the school and began to turn it around. It wasn't easy, but we rolled up our sleeves and just did it."

The school is lucky to have her.

Mary Sullivan said the column was a disservice to principals and teachers who make up Seattle's public schools. I had no right to paint them all with the same critical brush.

That wasn't my intention, but OK.

Sullivan said choosing a school based on a real-estate agent's assessment is like "a childhood game of 'telephone,' where the message becomes more contorted and less accurate with every telling."

So if I criticize, I need to be specific, Sullivan scolded, especially in a district where there are top-notch schools. Got it.

Many people wrote to praise their schools. Kristen Barnes, a literacy coach for the district, pointed me to teachers Regina Carter and Zoe McGuire at Rainier View Elementary; Cassandra Baddeley at Thurgood Marshall Elementary; and the success at Maple Elementary. And did I know there was a waiting list at The New School at South Shore in Rainier Beach? (I didn't.)

Others pointed to issues such as teacher pay: "A good teacher in the city has to be really motivated to stay," wrote Rob Flanagan.

And some reminded me of school-funding proposals like state Rep. Jim McIntire's: Cut property taxes in half, institute a 6 to 7 percent income tax, raise school levy lids and create a better formula for funding poor districts.

Despite the major distractions — the School Board, the closings, the superintendent search — principals and teachers head into the schools every morning and do the very best they can. I'm not wholly part of that, for personal reasons.

But that doesn't mean I can't weigh in. Seattle's schools are — and always will be — the issue that pulls us all together, whether we are seething or celebrating. Wouldn't it be great to have more of the latter?

Nicole Brodeur's column appears Wednesday and Sunday.

Reach her at 206-464-2334 or nbrodeur@seattletimes.com.

Keep those cards and letters coming.