That's a remarkable story. They were probably just empty threats, but idiotic ones nonetheless. I wonder where the kids felt they were supposed to go if they got expelled.
"...we're a public education system and our doors should be open to everyone..."
I have a rather contrarian POV on this one (of course 
).
On the one hand, yeh, standardized tests--and prepping for them instead of, well, actually teaching--can be not only overdone, but done badly from the gitgo with poorly designed tests (designed to make the system look better than it is) being the bssis for a year's instruction rather than sound paedogogical practices 9which have been largely abandoned in public schools, anyway).
On the other hand, IF a curriculum is well-designed and IF the teachers are properly evaluating students' learning/accomplishments AND at the same time some students are proving to be lazy-assed bums (and their parents lazy-assed bums as well), then yeh, throw the bums out! "No child left behind" is really "no child gets ahead" in practice as more and more lazy-assed bums eat up time and resources that should be spent on students who want to and can learn.
We are becoming a nation where Harrison Bergeron is inching ever scloser to reality, and a large part of enabling that coming reality is NOT requiring student (and parental) responsibility... and NOT throwing the bums out (and kicking them off public assistance and... Oh, but I'm not just talking about congresscritters here, ya know... )
My daughter related how she came to be accused of being a "Grinch" recently. Works in a pubschool as a private contractor working with "at risk" children. Was a part of a conversation where several teachers were upset over a (growing more responsible) parent's act. Why! The horror of it all! Her boys had gotten into a fight. One locked the other out of the house and the other broke the door down to get back in. Mom's horrible act? She took the boys' Christmas presents back for a refund to pay for repairs. The teachers were "hunting" for an excuse to report the mom for abuse, when my daughter (the resident expert on the topic of child abuse) commented that what the mother did was the best thing that could have been done for the boys (who are also, not so strangely, charges of hers, as well).
"But it's Christmas! She just can't do that at Christmas! They're only childrens" etc.
Right. Children who need to learn that actions have consequences. Otherwise, they'll grow up to be "adults" like those teachers.
"...we're a public education system and our doors should be open to everyone..." Nope. Frankly, public education is a privilege, not a right. Those who abuse the privilege should be--must be, for the benefit of the other students and society as a whole--shown the door.
I worked in an "in school suspension" _separate_ facility once. Small class, confined to one room all day long except for scheduled rest room breaks. Even their lunches were brought to them. The option was invoked by the students: it was that or
Commenting by HaloScan
