Attorney thinks charter schools violate desegregation agreement

My son went to E-Stem last year and I am so very happy to say that he is not going back this year. It was not a good experience for him. E-Stem has rules of their own....meaning that they do want they want without any regard of how fair it is to your child verses another child. They really should have waited another year or so to open. They sure did talk big before they opened their doors but did not deliver in my opinion! I guess it depends on how smart your child is and if they are liked by the principal! (Middle School) I know of three other families that share my thoughts on this issue.

I am a proud eStem parent and my child has been attending since it opened. We (both) are very pleased with the school because it provides a great curriculum and a positive school environment. I wish the LRSD would use there time to come up with solutions to some of the problems they are having with their school system rather that cause conflict with charter schools. We are one big happy family at eStem and I hope we can expand the high school level to 12th grade so that my daughter will never have to experience what I experience in the Little Rock School District. College Ready, Career Ready, World Ready.....Go eStem!!

I am a proud eStem parent. My child has attended since it opened and we (both) have been pleased with the curriculum and the over-all positive involvement of the teachers and parents. At eStem, we are a one big family who all share one common interest, which is to have a positive learning environment for our children. And, that common interest is amoung wealthy, middle class, poor, black, white, etc. families that are involved with eStem. 'College Ready, Career Ready, World Ready'....Go eStem!!

I have been a teacher at eStem since the school opened last year. I know for a fact that eStem is an open enrollment charter school that takes any student that applies, if there are seats available. The problem is so many parents want their children to come here that there are not enough seats. As was mentioned earlier by another commentator there is a long waiting list to get into eStem. What many people don't know is that eStem's student population was ensured to reflect the makeup of Pulaski County. We have more than a 50% African-American student population and many of our students do come from poor families. Having looked at the test data of the students, I can say that the students we get at eStem are no different than other students in Little Rock. The only difference is how the school is run, the involvement of the parents in their children's education, and the generally positive attitude of everyone that works here. To say that charter schools, like eStem, cause segregation concerns just isn't true. It seems LRSD is just trying to find any excuse they can to curb the flood of students leaving their school system. The money they would waste on a law suit would be better served actually improving their schools. Maybe they should actually look at what makes charter schools so appealing to parents/students and try implementing some of those things into their own schools.

eStem does NOT contribute to segregation in Little Rock with respect to race, income, or geography. It is located a few blocks from the down town bus station, so any student in the city can access it by public transportation. It is free and there is no aptitude test in the application process. There is, however, a long waiting list, which suggests that we need more schools like eStem, not fewer. eStem may segregate families who care about education from families who do not, but as a parent of an eStem student, that is OK with me. It is true that the Charter Schools compete against the public schools, but competition is good and public schools need to innovate and improve, instead of suing and dragging everyone down to their level. I can afford to send my kids to private school, but I want to support the public school system and I want to my kids learning in a diverse environment that is representative of our community. Eliminating Charter Schools will not encourage me to send my kids back to our assigned public school (we already tried that), it will just force us to leave the public school system altogether. These lawyers probably have good intentions, but I believe it is misplaced.

Here we go again with people trying to cause trouble when their is none. White ,black and any color should be able to go to school where they want to. If public schools are losing students then THEY need to take a look at the reasons why! The reasons are very clear to most parents.

This is the most ridiculous thing I've read in a while. So what if kids are leaving to go to charter schools? Last I checked, you applied to those schools. I personally know of several families who are not 'affluent' that send their kids to eStem and the LISA academy. Desegregation is not an issue. I live in Jacksonville. Its a large black community. I live 4 blocks from an elementary school, yet they wanted to send my child to the school across town due to these laws. I had to fight tooth and nail to get him to go to his current, nearby school. All these laws are doing is screwing over our kids.