Yesterday's Enquirer featured an opinion piece by a 1970s vintage Walnut Hills High School alumnus noting the schools accomplishments and insisting that CPS not cut funds for its most outstanding school.
While the column read a little too much like a valedictory address at a high school graduation, it made sense.
Except for this: if the student population in CPS is declining, can WHHS maintain its standards with the same number of students it has presently?
We're not convinced that a district that will soon have half the students it once had can fill a selective, college-preparatory high school with the same number of students who are adequately prepared for its rigorous curriculum.
In primary and secondary education, learning is accomplished with the cooperation of teachers, students and parents (in higher ed., it's the same, but the parents start playing a smaller role). It takes all three to make it happen. CPS can only supply the first ingredient in the formula for WHHS. If the second and third are lacking, there's not going to be the same kind of learning.
It's math, something that the writer of the Enquirer opinion piece seems to understand well, but something that he hasn't taken into account in writing his defense of the present size of WHHS.
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