Why do we even need APS in Va-Hi?

This is a serious question: why do we need APS to run Springdale Park Elementary, Inman Middle School and Grady High School? It seems to me the only plausible reason for allowing APS administrators to run these schools is because we're too lazy (by "we," I mean the parents of the current and future students at those schools) to convert these schools to charter schools and do the job ourselves.

Could we do a better job than APS bureaucrats at running our schools? That's a silly question. Have you seen APS in action? But let's assume it's not a rhetorical question; that you really want to know why we should do the job instead of APS. Here's the answer: there is a definite need for something like APS in poor neighborhoods where parents use schools as free daycare. But in neighborhoods in which high-achieving parents who value education have decided to coalesce, APS has never demonstrated an ability or willingness to run a high-ceiling school. I believe that even if they wanted to, they wouldn't have the first clue how to do it.

When it comes to figuring out how to run a school, I'll take a team of motivated parents over a diploma-mill APS bureaucrat any day, and so would you. But it's a lot of work, and it requires admitting to yourself that the school you thought was good enough for your kid really isn't. That last leap is one many of my fellow parents are unwilling to take. They convince themselves that because our schools are pretty good compared to other APS schools and Georgia schools in general, they're good enough.

That's exactly like saying "hey, she's awfully good-looking, for a rural Alabamian."