Update~ Huntsville school board unanimously approves segregation today, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever

J.R. Brooks, attorney for Huntsville City Schools (file) The Gate Keeper

Huntsville City Schools superintendent, and his media enablers claim the historic moment brings city wide equity.  I guess it depends on what their definition of citywide equity IS.

With no discussion following four hours of questions to its counsel, the Huntsville Board of Education unanimously approved the proposed consent order that plans out citywide rezoning.

 Superintendent Casey Wardynski, aided by the school's legal counsel and the U.S. Justice Department. The adopted plan will be presented to U.S. District Court on March 11 for judge approval. If approved, the school district can move forward with plans, including construction of new schools.
"It's an historic moment," Wardynski said excitedly after the board voted.

From the files of they must think U.S. District Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala   has amnesia.

Judge Haikala took particular exception to much of Wardynski's testimony, from finding his comments on federal grants untrue to finding insubstantial his objections to the federal rezoning proposals.

"The Court strongly suspects that the district has chosen not to share many of the reasons for the choices that it made as it shaped its student assignment plan. The Court got a glimpse into the superintendent's thinking when the United States's cross-examined him about his objections to the government's rezoning proposals. When asked whether Hereford (Elementary) students would not benefit from attending Huntsville High, the superintendent, in an unguarded moment, replied '[t]hey [would] be going into schools that are not accustomed to dealing with students who are below grade level.'

She also admonished the Justice Department, but only to say they were being far too lax.

"From the record, it appears that years of relative calm and inactivity have lulled the government into a habit of checking in only when the district proposes actions that require the government's review. The government should be more proactive. Based on the current record, the Court does not know when inequities in educational programs arose in the district; however, standardized test scores from 10 years ago demonstrate disparate results among racially identifiable schools. Had the government been keeping an eye on that sort of information, it could have brought it to the Court's attention more quickly and enabled the Court and the district to address the issue in a timely fashion. "

It's Deja Voodoo all over again

"If there is unfairness, it is because life itself is unfair. The unfairness is not manmade," said Hugh McInnish, at-large member of the county's Republican Executive Committee.

It's like putting Lipstick on a Pit Bull

It seems the District was successful in pleading their case that it was in the best interest of the schools in North Huntsville to remain as they are and continue the same 'feeder' pattern," wrote Showers. "Failing schools feeding into failing schools."

Garbage in garbage out.  

The history in today's quick and quiet vote may not be apparent for years to come.
It's now up to Judge Madeline Hughes Haikala to set Huntsville on this uncharted road to unitary status.

Time will tell the truth.

The actions they are taking are pure segregation. You are merging every minority failing school onto one piece of land with schools with all black names,"

As usual the #hsvboe does what it does best, Covers Their Asses ,  the taxpayers be damned.

Thanks, Board, for doing such an excellent job of listening to and representing the public. No wonder you need your own personal public relations firm working for you at our expense.
Judge Haikala should send the parties back to the drawing board on this one and tell them that the public needs to be represented at the table because clearly our Board of Education is more concerned with explaining why they can’t address public concerns than they are actually, you know, representing the public that elected them.
You cannot unify the community without involving them in the process. Attempting to do so is like destroying the village to save it. Only a Colonel would think it an “historic moment.”

Prehistoric moment is more like it.         

"It's all about money and race"

The public school system in Huntsville, Alabama used to be known as the best kept secret in Alabama.  As a product of the Huntsville City School system after integration,  I remember the good old days when all schools were considered "good schools".  When all teachers/principal and support personnel were highly qualified. When young minds were encouraged to reach their full potential regardless of of their zip code, parents income, race, gender, or religion.

The city of Huntsville had the perception of being a progressive oasis in the reddest of the red states.  Huntsville's image wasn't marred with bombings, Bull Conner, dogs and fire hoses.  Nope, Huntsville was thought to be immune from the ignorance of racism when public schools and facilities integrated without fanfare (except for the swimming pool).

So what happened between then and now?  Two words....white flight from north Huntsville to south Huntsville, and the creation of neighborhood schools.  You see, the government can't tell you where to live, but the government can tell you where to attend a public school.

As in most cases, people chose to live based on where they can afford to live.  Taxpayers who live in affluent areas have access to the best public schools their tax dollars can buy.  Taxpayers who live in non affluent areas have access to the worst public schools their tax dollars can buy.

There is a provision in the HCS Federal Court Desegregation order that allows students to transfer from schools where they are the majority race, to schools where they are the minority race.  This is supposed to be a two way deal, but what parent in their right (no pun) mind is going to transfer their child from the best public school their tax dollars can buy, to the worst school their tax dollars can buy?  I mean, really?

Why are public schools in the less affluent area considered to be the worst schools you ask?  Some say it's because of the unfairness of life, it's not their fault the majority of the students are black/brown/poor.  Some say the U.S. Department of Justice is making unreasonable demands on the school district.

I'm convinced we have a separate and unequal school district due to the lynching of public education, not only in Huntsville, but the state in general.  You see, Sweet Home Alabama cares more about property values than educating it's poor/black/brown students.

What those in positions of power fail to realize is we are all in the boat together.  If one end of the boat is clean and bright and the other end of the boat is dirty and full of holes, guess what...the whole damn boat is going to sink.

It's all about money and race.  Keeping those two things in mind, everything else makes perfect sense

Paging Chris Christie!

N.J. Gov. Chris Christie DismiN.J. Gov. Chris Christie Dismisses Criticism of Beach Trip Photossses Criticism of Beach Trip Photos

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie (no, that's not a typo) is calling for the head (literally) of the New Jersey Teachers Union to resign after he tells poor families life's not fair.

WESTFIELD — Gov. Chris Christie on Wednesday called for a top leader of New Jersey’s teacher’s union to resign or be fired over for saying “life’s not always fair” while discussing poor families’ inability to afford private schools and union opposition to vouchers that could help them do so.
New Jersey Education Association executive director Vincent Giordano made the comment in an interview over the weekend on NJTV during a discussion focusing on school vouchers, which would in some cases let students use public money to attend private school.
When pressed on the dilemma faced by parents who can’t afford to remove their children from failing schools, Giordano, whose annual salary in 2009 was more than $326,000 — not including more than $165,000 in deferred compensation — replied: “Life’s not always fair and I’m sorry about that.”
He went on to say: “We should work more closely with administrators and with this administration and we should provide the best possible education within our public schools. Our public schools are among the best in the nation. There are areas, urban areas in particular, that are challenging and that’s where we should be focusing more of our energy and more of our efforts.”

Psst Chris!  How about coming to Sweet Home Alabama and calling for Madison County republican leaders Hugh McInnish head (pun intended), for telling the DOJ 'unfairness of life is the cause for racial disparities in schools'.

HUNTSVILLE, AL -- A leader in the Madison County Republican Party has written a letter to federal officials stating that disparities between white and black students in Huntsville's school system exist because "life is unfair."
"If there is unfairness, it is because life itself is unfair. The unfairness is not manmade," said Hugh McInnish, at-large member of the county's Republican Executive Committee.
McInnish sent his letter to U.S. Department of Justice attorney Allison R. Brown following a Tuesday morning news conference at his home in the Ledges, a gated community in south Huntsville. The letter was in response to a Feb. 16 letter from Brown to school board attorney J.R. Brooks that detailed racial disparities Justice Department investigators found in Huntsville's schools regarding student and teacher assignment, advanced course offerings and discipline.

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy. Chris Christie isn't concerned about poor families/students any more than Hugh McInnish, but they both use them as pawns in their political games.  

God, please help America.

Today's Must Reads
Entirely Unacceptable: Moral Matters
Say it Ain't So
The right's stupidity spreads, enabled by a too- polite left

RedEye around Alabama the Stoopid

So, the same people who cost Alabama billions with their immigration crackdown are some of  the same people who want to keep public teachers from getting a raise and  reform education,  code for a racist dog whistle. H/Tarchangelsk

  
Take the following:
Charter schools are necessary in areas of chronically failing schools and under served children, [House Speaker Mike] Hubbard said.

Translation:
"White folks are getting tired of paying taxes for public education, and being forced to send their children to private school because they don't want their children fraternizing with brown kids"

White Alabama GOP leader issues white paper on President Obama's birth certificate on the white steps of the cradle of the Confederacy, as two Tea Party candidates  in the reddest of the red states, run on the platform of impeaching President Obama.  Can you say stuck on stoopid?

The reddest electorate in red-state Alabama arguably resides in Baldwin County, home to some of the state’s most conservative voters.
How red? Start with the fact that not a single Democrat qualified to run for any elected office in Baldwin County this year. If that doesn’t speak volumes, consider a recent exchange from a candidate forum in Fairhope.
The tone of the Tea Party gathering, sponsored by the Common Sense Campaign, was set by its opening speaker.
Roy Moore, running to reclaim his position as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, seized the microphone and delivered a fiery defense of individual liberty and states’ rights. 

Today's Must Reads
Voters should challenge campaign insults against Obama 

Fighting the vast right wing with pea shooters, Part One:  Books and Bookmakers

That was no gaffe.  That was a brand- new talking point.

Republicans are anti public schools and public school teachers

Again, if Charter Schools were the educational  solution for poor, black/brown students republicans wouldn't be pushing for  them.  Republicans don't believe access to a public education is a right, they believe it is a privilege of the privileged, for the privileged, by the privileged.    Some  high profile republicans honestly believe poor, black/brown children can't learn, or don't want to learn, due to life's unfairness.

If republicans really cared about solutions they would focus on creating jobs for the unemployed and under employed parents of poor black/brown students.  But noooo,  instead of creating jobs for them, they create a $70,000 per year job for one person .  I thought republicans were against out of control government spending?

Former Alabama Governor Bob Riley (R), pictured above,  is a lobbyist for Charter Schools.

Enough said.

What I'm reading today about "Poor, black kids" and "life's unfairness"

This picture was taken in 1936 and shows poor black children in Mississippi in the midst of the Great Depression. Sometimes I wonder if these people had is worse, or people today living in inner city slums. The children were probably born around 1930, so they well could still be alive today. You really wish you could hear their story, and know how things turned out for them.

Listen up poor black children! A rich white man has some advice for you.

I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.

It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this..."

But, but, You're Not A Poor, Black Kid Gene Marks, and you never will be.
Gene Marks, perhaps you shouldn't assume what you would do if you were this or that. Not even when you think you know the entire situation. Knowing the ins and outs about something doesn't give you permission to opine about what you'd do if you were in someone else's shoes. But plenty of people have already told you about that. So do us all a favor and knock it off.

If I were a rich white dude, I’d use the free technology available to immerse myself in the reality of American society with a huge gap between rich and poor — a gap that in most cases has white dudes and black kids on opposite sides, and getting farther apart every day. I'd spend hours on Inequality.org, a website launched by the progressive Institute for Policy Studies that put a lot of information about this gap thing in one place.

There are way too many other factors working against these poor black children:
Easy access to guns. (Thank the NRA)
Easy access to bad influences. (Thank some of these record companies out here and BET television)
A lack of proper role models and stable home life. (Thank some of these Mick Jagger type daddies running around.)
Poor schools. (Thank phony ass politricksters (black and white) and bureaucrats who line their pockets instead of looking out for the welfare of the children that they are charged to serve.)

The deck is stacked against many of these kids from the jump, but they can overcome these obstacles. It just won't be easy. And an article from a rich white man in a business magazine won't make it any easier.

Rich White folks and the miseducation of poor black folks thanks to Bill and Melinda Gates. In the war being fought over the very survival of public education, the privatizers are forging the future. Is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aiding and abetting them?

Why we need more people of color in education recent report from the Center for American Progress, “Teacher Diversity Matters,” highlights the wide gaps in diversity between students and teachers across the nation. Past research shows that students of color enjoy greater rates of academic success when they are taught by teachers of color, which makes it increasingly important for us to fix the teacher workforce’s low diversity as our demography evolves.

The U.S. Can't Survive With a Stubbornly Low Level of Intelligence Animating the Political Process which is why our political landscape continues to be dominated by people who have been wrong about everything for years."

Go back to sleep, everything is fine with the Huntsville City Schools. Life is unfair if you're black and poor.

Snark

Education for Profit or for Pay?

These are all our children, we will profit by or or pay for whatever they be become."~James Baldwin

Due to republican/corporate control of the public education system not only in Huntsville, Alabama but around the country, the prospects for black/brown/poor children are dim.

 Conservatives don't believe every child, regardless of their race, gender or income should have access to a quality education. Education is a privilege and not a right (pun intended) in their eyes. They believe corporations should run the school system to profit the rich and the rest.....well they are just tough out of luck due to life's unfortunate circumstances.

Instead of hiring instructional leaders who will implement programs with proven results, School boards hire instructional leaders who will rubber stamp the corporate agenda and balance budgets on the backs of the very children they are supposed to serve.

“I’d say we’re successful because we don’t make excuses,” said John Heard, superintendent of Perry County Schools. “Once you make excuses for not getting the job done, you don’t look for solutions. At that point, it’s someone else’s fault and you don’t try to even look for solutions.”

The Hopeless Huntsville City School System redux

The South Huntsville Civic Association hosted a town hall meeting, for new Huntsville City School Superintendent Colonel Casey Wardynski   where he fielded questions from state legislators.  Note these legislators have the power to *cough* improve education *cough*.

Based on the questions and answers posed to and by the state legislators and  gop honchos, there is no HOPE for the Huntsville City Schools, and here's why.

Sen. Clay Scofield fielded questions about Alabama's strict new immigration law, which has been touted as the toughest in the nation. Scofield, R-Arab, said he is proud of the new law.

"The key word in this, ladies and gentlemen, is illegal," Scofield said. "We're not taking away anyone's right to be here."

Scofield said there are still many ways in which immigrants can come to Alabama.

"We want them to do so, and we welcome them to come here," he said. "But we expect it to be done legally."

*Uh, when did Arab, AL become part of the Huntsville City School system?

Not to be left out of the act Representative Mike Ball doesn't believe public school teachers should have job security.

Rep. Mike Ball, R-Madison, was questioned about tenure reform. The Legislature earlier this year passed the Students First Act, which made several changes to how local school districts can fire employees.

"The fact is, for the sake of the teaching profession, it really needed to be addressed," Ball said.

He pointed to "horror stories" across the state in which teachers who were accused of crimes were put on administrative leave with pay until their cases went through the courts. The new tenure law puts time limits on the pay a fired teacher can receive while appealing the termination.

"Contrary to what you may have heard, it was not a horrible, punitive bill that was passed," Ball said. "Due process is still included. It just streamlined the process."

*Note Representative Ball is a republican from Madison, AL.

Representative Howard Sanderford (R) was on hand to attack the Alabama Education Association bragging about their subpoena power and funding for the *ahem* ethics commission. They are going to destroy the AEA by stopping payroll deduction and banning PAC to PAC transfers.

Senator Paul Sanford (R barbecue boy) was questioned about the Constitutionality of recent immigration laws and like a true business owner he voted against the immigration bill even though he agreed with 95% of the bill. Huh?

No South Huntsville Civic Association Meeting would be complete without gop head honcho Hugh Mcginnis spewing his “There is no correlation between money and achievement” spill. If there is no correlation between money and achievement we would still have the segregated schools. Oh wait...

This is exactly why Brown v. Board was enacted, and why when someone yacks about "states rights", it becomes clear some states won't act right. Alabama is one of those states, full of closeted bigots who thinks a "Kardashian" is a country in Africa.

So, is HCS Superintendent Dr. Casey Wardynski going to be the Superintendent for South Huntsville, or is he going to be the Superintendent for ALL of Huntsville?

Time will tell the truth?

Drug Testing, The Bell Curve, Tenure, War and Torture, Oh My!

Let me see if I have this right (pun intended), the great state of Alabama say's it's broke, that we can't afford to participate in the Affordable Health Care Act, have to cut teachers and other services but they want to spend tax dollars drug testing people who receive public money before they can qualify? I think the legislator who came up with this idea should be drug tested because they are obviously on some serious drugs. As a matter of fact I think all elected officials should be drug tested before they qualify to run for office.

GOP Honcho Hugh McIinnish and GOP 5th district Congress Critter Mo Brooks believe whites folks have a higher IQ than black folks because they are...white, or because they've bought into the Bell Curve foolishness. Anyhoo, they might want to rethink their position after reading THIS.

Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza, a Stanford geneticist, said in 1995 that “The Bell Curve” (1994) by Charles Murray and Harvard psychologist Richard J Herrnstein is wrong on the science.

You know how the righty's and some progressives claim Tenure Laws make it impossible to fire so called bad teachers and it's all the Alabama Education Association's fault? Well that's a bald face lie. AEA doesn't grant Tenure....Principals and Administrators do. They also hire the teachers. So if so called bad teachers are hired, blame the Principals and Administrators not AEA.

The gop and the media are always yakking about what the American people want or what the American people did or did not vote for. Well listen up....Two-Thirds of Americans Favor Full Withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan

In the context of reducing the budget deficit, a new Bloomberg poll (PDF) asked Americans if they would support pulling all troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan. The poll found an overwhelming 66 percent would favor this action, while only 30 percent oppose it

And Mr. President, Don't even think about getting involved in Libya. Stay the Hell Out!

Mr. President, there are too many white boys on your staff and in the news media and in the cartoon character gallery (this means you, Newt Gingrich), white boys that have never served a day in their god damned lives in any branch of this country’s military who have a got a tremendous hard-on these days for simply whipping out the artillery and going to town on some Libyan ass.

Contrary to popular belief, blue balls have never killed anybody. But can I guarantee you, Mr. President, that if you start sending our troops to Libya, less of them will come back alive than you sent there. Men with loaded guns in foreign countries, even when they are on humanitarian missions, can turn small battles into huge regional conflicts overnight. And in case the geniuses on your staff forgot, WE DON”T HAVE ENOUGH SOLDIERS LEFT TO FIGHT ANY MORE WARS RIGHT NOW than we are already in.

You've got your own problems over here, like some Peace Prize Torture.

The United States, governed by a Nobel Peace Prize winner, tortures political prisoners. That truth is on display for all the world to see, in the treatment of Wikileaks defendant Private Bradley Manning, who is stripped naked every night in an effort to crush his psyche. “The enemy is anyone, anywhere who dares to consider revealing the truth about how this country actually conducts itself around the world.”

I'm just saying...