It was announced today that the Gwinnett County Public School system was awarded a $1,000,000 scholarship grant from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.  The $1,000,000 will go out as scholarships to needy students within the district.

Gwinnett took the top honors because of their high standards of performance for students regardless of race.  They beat out Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools in North Carolina, Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and Socorro Independent School District and Ysleta Independent School District in El Paso, Texas, for the award.  The award is for districts that show the most gains in student performance and closing minority achievement gaps.

Something else that should be kept in mind is that the GCPS has done this on a budget that is quite austere compared to some other local districts, such as the City of Atlanta Schools.  GCPS spends under $9,000/student, yet achieves better results than the City of Atlanta, which spends over $12,000/student.

Another feat that GCPS should be proud of is that they have achieved a high school graduation rate of 84 percent and 90 percent of those graduates go on to college or other post-secondary training.

I’m not a huge fan of public education (I’d like to see vouchers), but it is obvious that the Gwinnett County Public School system is doing some things correctly… and that they would be able to compete if there were vouchers in the district.  In fact, I think that many parents in adjoining districts would try to get their children into GCPS if they had the opportunity.

And don’t forget that Lilburn, GA is home to two of the best performing groups of schools in the Gwinnett system, Parkview and Brookwood.  I happen to know of a few homes for sale in the area…  ;^ )

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