The sad sorry state of the Huntsville City School System and Alabama public schools in general

If you're thinking of moving to Huntsville, or the State of Alabama, I hope you don't have any k-12 school children. If you are not affluent enough to live in a neighborhood with the best public schools your tax dollars can buy, or afford to send your student to private schools, your children are tough out of luck, thanks to the sad, sorry state of separate and unequal education in Alabama.  Fifty years after Brown v. Board ordered schools to integrate Alabama is still the state of segregation today, segregation tomorrow, and it looks like segregation forever.

I want to assure every child that this State government is not afraid to invest in their future through education, so that they will not be handicapped on every threshold of their lives.

Today I have stood, where once Jefferson Davis stood, and took an oath to my people. It is very appropriate then that from this Cradle of the Confederacy, this very Heart of the Great Anglo-Saxon Southland, that today we sound the drum for freedom as have our generations of forebears before us done, time and time again through history. Let us rise to the call of freedom-loving blood that is in us and send our answer to the tyranny that clanks its chains upon the South. In the name of the greatest people that have ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny . . . and I say . . . segregation today . . . segregation tomorrow . . . segregation forever.

In an Opinion piece in the Sunday's Huntsville Times, Huntsville City School Chief Dr. Ann Roy Moore says (paraquoting) don't blame me for the sad, sorry, state of separate and unequal education, blame the people who elected the people who hired and enabled me to maintain the status quo, because we were all sitting around the table together.

For clarity it must also be understood that copies of the monthly financials (Certification of Expenditures) are always included in the regular board meeting agenda packet. A negative ending fund balance (general fund) was reflected in the past five monthly financial reports approved by the Huntsville City Board of Education. Since 1997, prior to each regular board meeting, the superintendent and CFO always meet with the two board members that serve on the Finance-Audit Committee to discuss the report that will be voted on at the upcoming board meeting.

See what I mean? As long as the budgetary goals include paying clueless consultants while laying off teachers, paying support personnel slave wages, building new schools while other schools suffer, not making sure every child in Huntsville has access to a quality public education regardless of their zip code, board members who operate in back rooms and not in public, and hire temporary workers to get around tenure laws I can't, strike that, I won't support your *ahem* budgetary goals.

You see the problem with Huntsville City Schools is they don't realize there is no right (pun intended) way to do the wrong thing. If they weren't hell bent on maintaining a separate and unequal school system they wouldn't be in this mess. It's expensive to operate a dual educational system.

Herbert Wheeler, Huntsville City Schools' chief financial officer, comments, "I can't say with any degree of accuracy that we won't have a reduction in force" (The Huntsville Times, April 7, 2009). Additionally, Craig Pouncey, assistant state superintendent of finance , emphasized (The Huntsville Times July 14, 2010), "When the Legislature understands things that must be done, like transporting kids to school or fixing leaky roofs...schools have to pay for it through local funds. That's what has driven school systems into the ditch." In August, "Wheeler was predicting that the system would be in the red either this month or next" (The Huntsville Times, Aug. 20, 2009). In September, State Superintendent Joe Morton predicted a second year of proration. Superintendent Moore says (The Huntsville Times 9/30/09), "it's likely the system will have to reduce staff."

If you think the democratic majority Alabama state legislature didn't understand the problems facing public school systems , what do you think the newly elected anti public education, red, republican, legislature is going to do? Here's a hint.

Now that the red state, republicans have control of the Alabama government expect a big push for new ideas like Charter Schools with the fake concern about poor, black children being forced to attend them there failing public schools. meababs urges folks to use caution before jumping on the charter school bandwagon and I agree.

So here we are, reducing staff (laying off teachers) while the number of school age children increase all because the Huntsville City School system, and the state of Alabama in general is hell bent on doing the wrong thing. Taxpayers would be willing to support the school system's budget if they saw it benefiting their children and not to maintain the status quo.

The first major RIF in the Huntsville City School system in recent history was implemented this past spring and was done in preparation for starting a movement toward a positive outcome at the end of this fiscal year. If everyone supports the budgetary goals based on projections, staffing and other budgetary strategies, the system's financial status will improve over time.

It will take the concerted effort and the support of all board members along with the superintendent to make this happen.

Good luck with that.