"School Choice and the Fear of 'Those People" #EducationPolitics

Rigid, compliant behavior is the main focus of many charter schools in poor neighborhoods. Photo Credit: johngirton.me via Compfight cc

 

Please read this provocative and informative essay written by Brett Dickerson about charter schools in light of the bill passed by our red, republican controlled, state legislature.

“School Choice” is more about the deep fear of “those people” than proponents will admit. 
“Those people?” They are The They – the ones who you fear will corrupt your children if they sit in the same class with them.
“Those people” are the ones who just can’t wear the same uniform or school colors as your son or daughter, because, well, if they do, they and your kid may start thinking that they are peers.
Can’t have that.

Para quoting an old saying, know who is driving the wagon before you hitch your horse up to it.

RedEye

Huntsville Sitty Schools Black/Brown/Poor Children are still "Waiting for Superman"

Huntsville City Schools March 11, 1963 -March 11, 2015  (Huntsville Times file)

Black/Brown/Poor students enrolled in Huntsville City Schools were dealt another blow yesterday when a group calling themselves the North Huntsville Collective (aka North Huntsville United for Action) jumped on the Segregation Today, Segregation Tomorrow, Segregation Forever bandwagon and threw them under the bus too.

Despite all the HOPE and PROMISES, the taxpayer funded Political Strategist, and the taxpayer funded lawyers  ,are the big winners, at the expense of north Huntsville Parents and students.  It seems the district was successful in making it's case that Huntsville be allowed to continue to operate a dual school system.  After all, we can't have middle class White's voting with their feet moving to Madison, or enrolling their children in private schools rather than have forced busing (code for integration).  After all, black/brown/poor students don't want, or deserve to have access to a quality public education because they are well.....black/brown/poor.  If the criminals (code for black/brown/ poor) from north Huntsville are allowed to sit next to white students in the classroom some of their blackness might rub off on them.  But I digress.

So, the North Huntsville Collective says the plan is OK and they plan to monitor it persistently, after they said the plan failed north Huntsville Schools.  Really?  And how do they plan to monitor a plan that can't be monitored?  And what makes them believe this administration and this school board are going to listen to them about anything? Heck, they won't even allow black elected officials and community leaders to hold a press conference on the steps of the Merts Center.  They won't allow citizens to comment at public meetings without writing down their questions and having them read by a Mime.  They no longer televise citizens comments because citizens might actually be informed instead of misinformed.  They have teachers and parents afraid to speak out.  So good luck with that persistent monitoring thingy. 

Wardynski was right, this whole rezoning thing was much ado about nothing, and in my humble opinion, and mine alone,  the North Huntsville Collective got played big time, again,  and now they are trying to play the students and taxpayers of north Huntsville.  Did they bother to ask taxpayers what they thought of the plan and if it was OK with them?  Nope.  Did they ask they ask the students how they feel about the plan?  Nope.  They issued a statement without citizens, church members, or membership input/approval.  They are no different that the District 1 School Board mis-representative and the media, telling us what they want us to know, instead of what we need to know to make informed decisions.  Nope, there will be no profiles in courage award presented to the North Huntsville Collective, or whatever they are calling themselves today..

And who wins in the end?  Not the children and taxpayers who reside in north Huntsville that's for sure.

So after months and possibly years of litigation over the rezoning plan, what have we won? 

The district will still be under the control of the DoJ except now the plan that the DoJ believed would best bring us unification has been rejected. 

The DoJ still controls our destiny. Does fighting their plan (even assuming we’ve seen their plan) bring us closer to unification?
Nope. It doesn’t.
The Wardynski Plan is a fool’s errand. We did not have to file it. And the public has had zero input into the plan.
So, after potentially years of litigation and expense, we will have accomplished absolutely nothing, even if we win.
Nothing except the following:

1. Wardynski has shored up support for himself in this town because he’s willing to fight the “evil” federal government.
2. Wardynski has improved his name recognition on a national level.
3. Wardynski has spent a ton of the district’s money that he should be spending on improving education at all of our schools. And of course,
4. We’re still a segregated system.

I know for a fact north Huntsville citizens were HOPEFUL CHANGE we could believe in was on the way.  We put our hopes and dreams in the hands of the desegregation judge only to have the hammer dropped on us.  I sure do miss the good old days when public education was the HOPE of our republic,  and we had instructional leaders who believe  every child can learn with the right approach.  In the meantime, black/brown/poor  parents and students will continue to wait for Superman to leap tall buildings with a single bound and save the day, because they certainly can't depend on their elected officials, pastors and community organizations to do anything but go along to get ahead, I mean, along.

RedEye

#SpyGate Shhh! I listened to WVNN AM NewsTalk so you won't have too

What is the first thing you do if you are HCS Superintendent Casey Wardynski, and HCS Board President David Blair,  and you are facing a PR nightmare over Operation #SpyGate, and you can't hold a staged protest on the steps of the Annie Merts Center?

Run as fast as your short, little, legs will carry you over to  The Attack Machine to save the day!  (Cue in Mighty Mouse theme song)

That's right (pun intended),  the best way to make your case is to take it to Radio Boy, aka Dale Jackson.  I mean, who better to make your case for spying on some students social media accounts than the person who used the official state seal on a memo telling Democrats to vote the day after the election, and called State Representative Laura Hall a racist coward? 

Anyhoo, here is what I learned on WVNN News Talk today and other places around the web regarding  #hsvboe Operation #SpyGate:

1.  Racial Profiling is OK.

2.  No amount of money is too much if it results in putting black/brown students out of school.

3.  The students should have called their social media post a parody and called it a day.

4.  Real Gang members don't post on Facebook.

5.  The NSA is in Maryland.....not Washington D.C.

Welcome Back Merts Center Monitor!

 If you are here, I expect you already know about the latest crock of lies, evasions, deceits, illegalities, and violations of civil rights on the part of Wardynski and his henchmen: the May 2012 NSA tip-off (which the NSA denies) about a so-called immediate threat of danger (aka juvenile last day of school humor) with a foreign connection: one of the 100s of people following then junior Auseel Yousefi’s Twitter feed was a Yemeni (and thus, it seems, presumed to be a Muslim Jihadist terrorist) and how this tip-off led to the never-spent-a-day-on-the-battlefield retired colonel forming a surveillance project that the Board of Education maybe did or maybe didn’t know about (damn! who was responsible for delivering the scripts last week?) two months before the Yemeni non-event occurred.

You were missed.

Stay tuned.

I guess it depends on what your definition of "playing the race card" IS #WarOnWhites

@xTheDevilUKnowx @MRBistruth @kharyp @BNwls @abutler04 pic.twitter.com/NTjdLAwH0y
— Bernard Cannariato (@DocTexian) August 11, 2014

Man, was Mo Brooks wrong! Democrats never play the race card, says Mo's favorite defender, Dale "Jackson",  who then asked the media to show where Mo was wrong. about his war on whites assertion.   Psst Radio Boy! Your pal Mo didn't accuse democrats of playing the race card, he accused "democrats" of waging a war on whites.  Remember?

It seems he, and other old, white racists like him, feel that Democrats are racist by having the nerve to expose the racist actions of RWNJs.

Everybody knows playing the race card is what white people say when they want to belittle, marginalize, and minimize, legitimate complaint/concerns, such as the ones outlined in an article published yesterday by the New Republic, which looks at the actions of the Legislature since the Republican takeover of 2010 and examines them in terms of race and party affiliation.

 Alabama's Republican-controlled legislature is systematically undoing the gains achieved during the civil rights movement, a new article contends, pointing to things such as voter ID laws, cutting public assistance and refusing to expand Medicaid as proof of what the writer calls "the new racism."

We tried to tell some of y'all the republicans were up to no good, but did y'all listen? Nooooo. We were just race baiting, racist, dinosaurs.

Remember when Mo looked for help from African American voters before he was against  help from African American voters?

Two white guys discuss Hsv City Schools and black leaders, no, this is not an April Fools Joke

Listen to Dale Jackson and David Blair use the public airways for Blair's political gain, lecture black people, spread misinformation and half truths, and throw red meat to their base. 

I am not a regular listener of Dale Jackson's radio show, I read his blog,which I am proud to say I am banned from posting comments, to see who/what the right wing spin of the day IS.

You know how it is when you see a train wreck and you just can't help but look at the wreckage?  That's how I felt when I saw this headline:

03-31-14 – Dale Jackson and HSV School Board Member David Blair discuss HSV City Schools and black leaders

It is a joke that is so not funny.

Psst Dale and David! It's not about a name, but it is about a name, if Wardynski hadn't been hell bent on changing J.O.Johnson's name we wouldn't be in this mess.  He made a gargantuan mistake. 

Again~ It's not about Commissioner Bob Harrison. It's about keeping J.O.Johnson's name, desegregating the public schools, and making sure the location of the new north high school is safe for students, teachers, and support personnel to occupy.

Liar Liar Pants on Fire Dale Jackson!

 

 A crowd of approximately 300 participated in the JOJ March Saturday, Oct. 12, 2013, from Huntsville City Hall to the Annie C. Mertz Center to oppose changing the school's name. (Bob Gathany/bgathany@al.com)

Here he goes again....... Attacking ...African American.... leaders, and elected officials because it looks like the Save Johnson High School Movement is going somewhere, and Mr. Dale Jackson has to find some way to make it about him. Sigh

First Radio Boy attempted to "alert" the "media"  Madison County Commissioner Robert "Bob" Harrison used county Vans to "bus protesters in".  The media ignored him (and rightfully so)  because that was L-I-E. Vans were not used to bus protesters to the march, vans were used to transport elderly and handicapped taxpayers who wanted to participate in the Save J.O. Johnson march from City Hall to the Annie Mertz Center.

This is the latest L-I-E: North Huntsville Leaders are pretending this deal to close J.O. Johnson was a backroom deal, not so fast.

The narrative from the press is the poor folks in North Huntsville were shocked by decisions to close and rebuild schools, including removing the illustrious name at J.O. Johnson High School…

Not so fast Dale!  It's not a "narrative from the press", that's how they treat "poor folks in North Huntsville", and BTW, aren't Y-O-U  The  Press?

A tale of two Charter school town hall meetings

David Dieter/Huntsville Times
State Rep. Laura Hall listens to residents during tonight's town hall meeting.

Compare WHNT News 19 coverage of Madison County Community Discusses Charter Schools With Legislators to al.com's coverage of Alabama State Representative Laura Hall's town meeting

Lead paragraph at WHNT TV

HUNTSVILLE, AL— State lawmakers plan to talk about charter schools during the next legislative session. Madison County parents learned Monday night what that could mean for their children. They were part of a town hall meeting to talk about the specialty schools.

Organizers wanted those at the meeting to know charter schools provide flexibility and accountability. They believe both are needed to help get Alabama's education system out of 49th place nationwide.

Lead paragraph at al.com

HUNTSVILLE, Al. - Some people at state Rep. Laura Hall's town hall meeting tonight implied that charter schools harken back to the day of segregated schools, while some others said people should keep an open mind to anything that could help children get a better education.
The issue of charter schools was the main topic for more than 40 people who attended the 90-minute meeting hosted by Hall, a Huntsville Democrat, at the Richard Showers Recreation Center.

Quote at WHNT TV

Rep. Williams is sponsoring a bill to bring the independently-operated public schools into the state of Alabama. He believes parents and students will benefit.

"It gives them options they do not currently have. Charter schools can come into a neighborhood and focus on specialty education. You still have your core, but you might do science and engineering, art and dance, or debate and political science," said Williams.

Quote at al.com

Hall covered several topics in front of the Legislature during her opening remarks. She said a bill to allow charter schools in the state never got out of committee, but similar bills have been introduced again.
She said her constituents have sent the message that they don't want charter schools but do want excellence in public schools.
Huntsville Councilman Richard Showers, a retired city school teacher, said during the question and answer period that he supports public schools. He said charter schools take precious education tax dollars from public schools and create segregated schools.
"We don't need any schools just for black children and we don't need any schools just for white children," Showers said.

al.com got a quote from the HCS board President

Laurie McCaulley, a city school board member, said the school board is OK with charter schools if they are under the local school board's control and if public schools had the same "wide parameters" as charter schools in establishing rules and standards.

Huh? The school board is OK with charter schools if they are under the local school board's control? What "wide parameter" is she talking about?
This?
Politicians who would just love to have their family and friends hired in those Charter Schools, regardless of their qualifications, and if their family and friends aren;t hired by those Charter Schools, those Politicians can cut their Funding from the Alabama Treasury?
This?
Republican Candidate for Governor, Bradley Byrne, claims he sent some people to prison for their CORRUPTION in the Educational System of Alabama. How much worse would it be with the Politicians given a vehicle to have those Charter Schools Employ their family and friends?
This?
The larger question is who is willing to pay the Big Bucks to get Charter Schools in Alabama, but those Corporations who would benefit from being able to have their Corporate Agenda taught in those Charter Schools?
Or this?
definition of the term " charter school":
privately run, publicly financed school: a publicly financed school run by parents, educators, and companies.

Remember this mantra, "Charter Schools are backdoor privatization of education".
9.13, 4.82, Just left of Gandhi.
by: archangelsk

THE WHNT TV report was slanted in support of Charter Schools IMHO.

I report.
You decide.

Remember this mantra, "Charter Schools are backdoor privatization of education".

 

NAACP: The United States Values Prisons More Than Schools  Excessive spending on incarceration undermines educational opportunities and destabilizes Black communities nationwide, according to NAACP President and CEO Benjamin T. Jealous.
State spending on prisons grew at six times the rate of state spending on higher education over the last two decades.

Representatives Laura Hall (D) and Phil Williams ( r.) sponsored a community discussion on charter schools because state lawmakers plan to talk about charter schools during the next legislative session.

Organizers

wanted those at the meeting to know charter schools provide flexibility and accountability. They believe both are needed to help get Alabama's education system out of 49th place nationwide.a community discussion

Charter Schools won't get Alabama's education system out of 49th place, nor are they flexible and accountable.

Charter schools have been in the news a lot lately due to a lawsuit filed by the United Federation of Teacher’s Union and the NAACP against the New York City Department of Education. The lawsuit was filed to help prevent the city from closing public schools and replacing them with charter schools.

While these charter schools have great potential, they can also be harmful. Most charter schools use a lottery system; so thinking that charter schools can stop the education crisis is like solving the economic crisis with scratch tickets. While a few lucky students may benefit from the lottery system, most children will not benefit at all.

One of the reasons the right wing is so supportive of charter schools is that they do not require teachers to be in their powerful union. The UFT is a big supporter of the Democratic party and opposes Republicans who are always trying to cut education budgets, especially in urban areas.

LiA blogger bluebearcat says Let's call charter schools in Alabama by their true name

Scab schools. What is their real purpose? To create an environment where "problem children" and teachers' unions are out of the picture. It is pits family against family inside communities and is de facto education privatization.

We do need substantial education reforms in some parts of the state, but charter schools are not the answer. When you have some exceptional models for innovative public education already in place in Alabama, why not try to adopt those models in different places?

No wonder Rep. Phil Williams (r) wants Alabama to become the 41's state to allow charter schools. Are Rep. Laura Hall and the Local chapter of the NAACP helping him? Nope.

"I think Alabama has an opportunity to do it right because we can look at what other states have done. If they've not done well we can know we need to correct that," said Rep. Hall.

Alabama has an opportunity to do it right (pun intended) all right.

When we are in an education funding crisis - and make no mistake, once the stimulus stabilization funds run out, we will be in a true crisis - I cannot see how you can justify diverting public education money to an educational program that is totally unproven in Alabama. As you said, the most important factor in whether or not a charter school program is successful is the way its specific contract is written and the way that specific program is administered. What in the history of Alabama suggests to you that local and/or state governments would do a good job administering a charter school program that does not have any of the protections or regulations of traditional public schools?

As I've said before, charter schools (like Teach for America) sounds great in theory but in practice, the effectiveness of both programs vary much, much more than traditional unionized classroom instruction. There are school systems where the problems are so profound and so endemic that charter school programs on a limited basis make sense. When education systems are flush with cash, it makes perfect sense to experiment on programs like that but this year, we not only have finite resources, we have extremely limited resources. Taking on the burden of charter schools that the Education Trust Fund and/or local school boards will be responsible for funding in a few years is not a smart move right now, especially when there are already models for innovation with the traditional Alabama public school system.

My Daddy says always know who is driving the wagon before you hitch a ride. Looks like the Black Alliance for Educational Options and The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice (vouchers) is driving this one. Be sure and check out the members of the BAEO advisory board.

Remember this mantra, "Charter Schools are backdoor privatization of education".
9.13, 4.82, Just left of Gandhi.
by: archangelsk

Redeyes Wake the F%^k Up Rant

Democrats need to wake up and smell the @#$ coffee. I've been screaming this at the top of my lungs for years, but instead of listening to me I was was banished from the front pages of a blog that is supposed to connect progressive voices. We will never get our message out as long as those of us who stand up for the middle and lower class; we who stand up for the teachers and education; we who stand up for good paying jobs and unions; we who believe in the freedom of the individual to choose - be it religion or no religion or otherwise; are marginalized and minimized by the status quo. We will never get our message out until we have an effective counter to the right wing noise machine aka talk radio.

Of course it would help if ALL of us were on the same page and we didn't have the reform wing, the anti choice wing, the conservative wing, the blue dog wing, the anti teachers and education wing, the anti labor wing, the anti affirmative action wing etc. A bird only has two wings and they must work together in order for the bird to fly.

In the interest of time I am going to re post an original Redeye WTF Rant in my own voice when I tried to sound the alarm in 2009.

W=Where, Why, Who, When or What.

T=The

F=The F word,

WTF is the democratic party?

WTF have we lost 2 special elections in a row?

WTF did we even have to have 2 special elections in the first place?

WTF was the GOTV?

WTF were the town hall meetings and rallies?

WTF were the television, radio newspapers ads?

WTF was the freaking organization?

WTF where Artur Davis and Ron Sparks?

WTF is in charge?

I tired to calm down, really I did, but I'm pi$$ed. Before I go any further let me be perfectly clear, this rant is not directed at anyone specifically, it is directed to everyone collectively and rhetorically.

One thing I'll give the republicans credit for. They always bring their A game and they play to win. If they weren't anti minority, anti choice, anti gay rights, anti labor etc. they would be my kind of party. They know how to play to PR/spin game. They know how to excite their base. They know how to frame the issues so they look like the good guys instead of the bad guys they really are. Of course it doesn't hurt they have the media and the Injustice system as enablers.

WTF is wrong with the democratic party? It's as if they don't want to win. It's as if they are afraid to stand up and fight for what is right (no pun). Who/WhatTF are they afraid of?

Rest of Rant (be sure and read the comments)

Edit~Jim Folsom lost, blame Hank Sanders Robo Call

There is an old saying in Alabama..if you throw a rock at a pen full of pigs the one that squeals is the one that was hit. Well, there's a whole lot of squealing going on about Alabama State Senators Mad as Hell Robo Call to DEMOCRATIC, I repeat DEMOCRATIC supporters. I emphasize DEMOCRATIC supporters because the non DEMOCRATIC supporters are squealing like pigs because gasp! Anderson Cooper discussed the robo call on AC 360 and showed Sweet Home Alabama for what it really is, I mean in a bad light, for all the world to see. Not only that... according to them, the race baiting robo call may have hurt Jim Folsom.

CNN reaches a lot of people, even in Alabama. Folsom only lost to Kay Ivey by about 45,000 votes. There's no way to know how many people came out to vote for Folsom because they got the call vs. how many were motivated to vote against him because they heard about it, but I'd love to see what kind of movement Folsom and/or Ivey's internal polls showed between October 15th, when the calls hit Alabama answering machines, and Election Day. I recall hearing of a similar robocall using highly charged language in the 2009 special election that sent Paul Sanford (R, SD7) to the Alabama State Senate. The call was on behalf of his opponent, Rep. Laura Hall, who is black, but it ended up on some of the wrong answering machines and fueled charges of reverse racism. GOP turnout was very high for a special and Hall lost badly.

Let's not re-write history. If I recall radio boy, aka Dale Jackson, sent out an email with the official state seal of the Alabama Secretary of State on it telling democrats they were to vote on Wednesday instead of Thursday, in addition to calling State Representative Laura Hall a racist coward  on his blog. GOP turnout was very high because Bob Riley's evil plan worked. Remember?

The Riley administration has carefully planned the special elections this year to minimize turnout, especially Democratic turnout. They set the special elections in Madison county after Alabama A&M and UAH had finished their spring semesters, and they set the House District 6 primary to fall right after the Memorial Day holiday - when people might be distracted, or otherwise stretching a holiday weekend out for another day

And let's not forget WHY we were having a special elections in the first place, because of the so called democratic culture of corruption and cronyism.

And sometimes prosecutions of Republicans by the Bush Justice Department reflects not even-handedness, but equally insidious corruption. That’s the point for my notes today.

If we had to pick one state in the nation where these evil tendencies are most obviously on display, then certainly it is Alabama, home to the nation’s highest profile and most abusive political prosecution. A major television network will shortly be exposing a number of lurid details surrounding the Siegelman case which point to corruption inside of the Justice Department. I have formed the view that the corruption on the prosecutorial side of the ledger greatly outweighs the corruption charged against the defendants in the Siegelman matter. The corruption inside of the Justice Department is exhibited on several different levels:

• The politicization of the U.S. attorney’s office
• The process of “targeting” political victims
• The corrupt manipulation of evidence
• The process of working to secure convictions through collaboration with “friendly” media

Yeah, we've got it all in Alabama. Lucky us. H/T mooncat

What Hank Sanders said!

Cooper asked Sanders what evidence he had that the Republican opponents would take Alabama back to Jim Crow days. Sanders said, "Well, there's a certain mean spiritness that's out there, not only in Alabama but it's in America. And that makes this election extremely important."

If some white voters didn't vote for Jim Folsom because of Hank Sanders robo call, they probably weren't going to vote for him anyway. But what does this whole controversy say about white voters? Are they squealing because the robo call hit a nerve? Did it expose the dirty little secret about racism not only in Alabama but in America? Racism is that thing you did, not that thing you said. Remember?The way to eradicate racism is to expose it.

State Senator Hank Sanders is a grown a$$ man. He has the right (no pun) to say whatever he chooses, however he chooses. If some cats are "offended by it" tough titty said the kitty.

There is a real dilemma in communicating with masses of people. If we speak in a way that is acceptable to everyone, we move few. If we speak in a way that effectively moves many, we offend some others. I have worked for years to effectively communicate so I move many without offending many. I don’t always succeed.

Well, I cut a second robo ad. I did not back away from the word “hell.” I said, “I will stand until hell freezes over!” I said “Hell no, I will not go back!” One of the first responses to the ad came from a woman in Mobile. She said that she had not intended to vote, but after my robo call, she not only was going to vote, but was urging others to vote. She said that she was “also mad as hell.” Our perceptions, judgments, and responses are so different.

Lt. Governor Jim Folsom was asked to renounce, reject and repudiate State Senators Sanders and like a big man he refused to play the part of Plantation Overseer.

"It wasn't by me," Folsom said. "I have no responsibility for it."

Asked what changes he would make if he wrote the script, Folsom said he would not use any four-letter words.

State Senator Sanders robo call didn't hurt Jim Folsom, removing the Confederate Flag from the state capitol hurt Jim Folsom.

James E. Folsom Jr. was Alabama's governor from 1993-95 and the only governor so far to assume that office as a result of the felony conviction of his predecessor. He is also one of only two fathers and sons who served as governors of Alabama, the other being Edward and Emmet O'Neal. Folsom is notable for his removal of the Confederate battle flag from the state capital, and he appointed a number of African Americans and women to his staff. He also helped initiate the movement of the automotive industry to the Southeast when he helped bring a Mercedes-Benz plant to the state.

I have more R-E-S-P-E-C-T for State Senator Sanders, and Lt. Governor Jim Folsom than I do for Anderson Cooper and his merry panel of all white, except one, African American Talking TeeVee Pundit Heads.

It wasn't the Robo Call that hurt Folsom. It was the stoopid racist and the stoopid racism. Of course it's easier to blame it on the black guy.