I might be voting no for the brand new college bond concern. I imagine it’s being rushed to the voters with out ample element or public enter. My concern is the destiny of our six neighborhood center colleges. The plan to construct a 1,200-student college on the sting of northeast Cedar Rapids reveals the final word purpose of this college board to do away with our present neighborhood ones and funnel all center schoolers to large colleges. This can power youngsters who would have gone to a close-by college to endure lengthy bus rides to the outskirts of city miles away from their houses and neighborhoods.
Colleges are greater than buildings. They’re neighborhood anchors that present a lot of after college packages that enrich youngsters and interact close by households. With their college miles away, many of those youngsters might be unable to take part in after college packages and sports activities. The necessity for a mum or dad to have a automotive, the price of gasoline and the hours-long drives to and from these colleges will forestall many youngsters from collaborating in extra after college packages. There may even be mother and father unlikely to grow to be engaged in a college so distant.
Whereas the college board could wish to showcase large flashy center colleges means far out the place land is plentiful, this can be a poor concept for a lot of younger susceptible youngsters and their mother and father in our metropolis’s core who will be unable to make a connection to a faculty so distant.
Barbara Hannon
Cedar Rapids
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