Talk about yesterday's news. They did have severe problems 25 years ago with half days, classroom instruction cuts, and extra curricular programs dropped.  I sometimes hear that the Waterford Schools are coming back. Guess what, they have been back for quite some time. Here are some facts. The MEAP explanation sounds unbelievable that things can be skewed so badly, but it is true. (Please don't blame my typos, spelling and grammar errors on Waterford Schools, I graduated from Troy High School, ha ha.)

The schools have won awards in addition to the normal academic achievements by the students.

Several national blue ribbon award winning schools.

Top 100 district in the nation, three years in a row, for music.

New state of the art performance centers at each high school.

New state of the art pools and exercise facilities at each high school, which are open year around to the general public who can buy annual memberships.

High number of top award winners in fine art competitions.

Full sports programs - Football, basketball, baseball, softball, track, golf, bowling and hockey. I am sure I am leaving out some, sorry.

Don't be fooled by the negative slant by one of the local papers. The last statistic I saw compare "random" high school MEAP scores for Oakland County. Waterford's selected schools included one standard high school, one of the alternative high schools and Children's Village.

The alternative high school is for students who had problems in the regular high school, as I understand it. Some find this environment is exactly what they needed and excel in school, some do not. This is a great program that give students a second chance instead of having them drop out of school. Why would someone use it as a hammer by comparing these test scores

Children's Village is the school that is exclusively populated by the Oakland County sheriff and court sytem. Yes, juveniles accused of crimes.

Both of my sons went to and graduated from Waterford schools, and both graduated from college in fields they might never have been in if it wasn't for the variety of quality programs offered by Waterford. One is a designer in New York, the other is a producer for an ABC affiliate television station.