New Beginnings Academy

I took this picture outside of New Beginnings Academy, one of the charter schools in Ypsilanti. Two thoughts about it--first, the sign is about the history of interurban transportation in Washtenaw County. Let me just say--the work and school landscape in the county would be VERY different if the interurbans still existed, and their dismantling is largely due to aggressive efforts by auto companies to get people to buy automobiles. All of which feels a little ironic these days. If the interurbans were around, maybe we wouldn't need school buses. Seriously, in NYC, school children take public transportation to get to school. Why couldn't it be so in our county?

Second (and you can't see this from the picture), although some of the charter schools in the county are seriously doing a great job, it's not so clear to me what New Beginnings Academy has going for it. It gets a Great Schools rating of 2/10, a Michigan Yes! ranking of a C; and the playground is not-so-hotsy-totsy. Oh, but wait--there is that one minor thing--you get to choose to go there.