Dishonest or dumb?

There are a number of Bogalusa-area high schoolers that are commuting to Franklinton these days. It has been suggested to yours truly that Franklinton High School is better than BHS, with better test scores, and that's the reason parents send their kids 20-something miles to school.

Is FHS better?

At the Louisiana Department of Education site, here are the GEE scores for spring 2006 (percentages):

Bogalusa High School:

• Advanced = 1
• Mastery = 13
• Basic = 39
• Approaching Basic = 31
• Unsatisfactory = 16

Franklinton High School:

• Advanced = 0
• Mastery = 7
• Basic = 43
• Approaching Basic = 28
• Unsatisfactory = 22

Bogalusa High School clearly has the lead in Advanced and Mastery: a combined 14% versus Franklinton's 7%. In the Basic and Approaching Basic categories, BHS 70%, FHS 71%.

Unsatisfactory is in Bogalusa's favor by six percentage points.

The GEE scores for Pine, Varnado and Mr. Hermon aren't much different than Franklinton's. The numbers don't seem to bear out Franklinton High School being better than Bogalusa High School - the opposite, in fact.

I suspect this has more to do with White Flight than parents worried about the education of their children. It's the only explanation that makes sense. Why else send your kid on a half-hour bus ride to a school in another town that isn't any better than the one down the street?