will the last kid left turn out the light?

Facing potential bankruptcy, the board that governs the once flush-with-cash Kansas City school district ... narrowly approved the plan to close 29 out of 61 schools Wednesday night at a meeting packed with angry parents.


...one woman asked the crowd, "Is anyone else ready to homeschool their children?"

Under the approved plan, buildings will be shuttered before the next school year. Teachers at six other low-performing schools will be required to reapply for their jobs, and the district will try to sell its downtown central office. It also is expected to cut about 700 of the district's 3,000 jobs, including about 285 teachers.

Superintendent John Covington has stressed that the district's buildings are only half-full as its population has plummeted amid political squabbling and chronically abysmal test scores. The district's enrollment of fewer than 18,000 students is about half of what the schools had a decade ago and just a quarter of its peak in the late 1960s. AP

My question is why would any parents fight so hard for their child to go to a failing school in a district filled with bickering bureaucrats? If this is the deciding factor for a parent to investigate homeschooling then I say, "Goody, goody gumdrops," because I doubt any parent could do worse teaching them at home than leaving them in the Kansas City school system.