Education smeducation

The U.S. News “Best High Schools Rankings” gives Durango High School a scorecard of #70 in Colorado, outranked by Ouray, Telluride and Aspen. Durango mathematics proficiency is 44%, science proficiency is 35% and college readiness is 50.8/100. Many schools in our district are in a similar situation. Are we OK with average?

It can and should change. As an example, Katherine Birbalsingh served as the Tory government’s “Social Mobility Tsar” and serves as a chair of a commission focused on changing economic outcomes for poor British kids through education. While working under a strict, holistic, child-centered approach, “The worse a child performed, the more they needed to be ‘nurtured,’ but how to install a sense of personal responsibility when the rule is to ask for less, not more?” asked Birbalsingh. The progressive state system is failing our children. It is designed to make middle-class, white liberals feel good.

The mantra quoted daily by the students enrolled in Michaela, Birbalsingh’s school, is Rudyard Kipling’s poem entitled “If.” It is an inspirational poem of succeeding against all odds.

Michaela is ranked fifth in the U.K. with a 90% overall pass rate in key subjects. 82% of its graduates go on to universities like Oxford and Cambridge, and the school is ranked “Outstanding” in all categories by Ofsted, the U.K.’s federal school ranking body.

Many kids in our district are not poor, but we’re failing them. As parents, it is our responsibility to ensure that we vote for new representation, Shelli Shaw, for Colorado House District 59, so our children can receive the best possible education.

– Rebecca Craddock, Hesperus