Was it all just a dream?

Cue in Dixie


Did the last election really happen?

Did Democrats not retain control of the Senate?

Did President Obama and Vice President Biden win a second term?

How many  miles have to be marched, how much blood has to be shed, how many tears must be cried, before we get our voting rights back?

How many poor women will be forced to bear children they can't afford to take care of?

How many children will go to  bed hungry?

How many public schools will close?

How many college students will face debt as far as the eye can see?

How many people will be homeless?

How did the winners turn into the losers, and the losers turn into the winners? 

The Truth about the ALGOP School Flex Bill and nothing but the truth

National Center for Children in Poverty

 
Let's get one thing straight about the so called School Flex Bill the ALGOP rammed down the throats of Alabamians once and for all...THE ALGOP DID NOT PASS THIS BILL BECAUSE IT GIVES POOR CHILDREN A CHANCE TO LEAVE FAILING PUBLIC SCHOOLS.  You got that?

The ALGOP could care less about poor children having access to a quality public education.  If poor parents think republicans are going to allow poor children from failing schools to transfer into non failing schools, after all they've done to keep their failing donkey's OUT of them....I have a bridge in Selma for sell.

The purpose of this bill is to bankrupt the government school system by giving those who choose to send their students to private schools a tax credit.

I wonder if John Archibald is reading my blog?

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

Even poor black children can learn with the right (pun intended) approach

Ask the Perry County Alabama School system. And guess what...they fashioned a winning formula without a high priced Superintendent, budget cuts, and dozens of clueless consultants. You see, this is is what happens when professional educators do what they are trained to do...educate regardless of race, gender, or income. Big H/T to Tuscaloosa News staff writer Jarmon Smith

MARION | In this area of the state’s Black Belt region where dirt roads, farmland and dilapidated buildings are a common sight, and poverty and unemployment are high, a school system — Perry County Schools — has managed to do the opposite of the trend that the area’s demographics would suggest: provide top-tier education.

According to the U.S. Census, more than 30 percent of Perry County’s 10,591 residents live below the poverty line and more than 20 percent are unemployed.

In the Perry County School System, all of the system’s 1,800 students participate in the free and reduced lunch program, and 99.9 percent of the students are black.

In general, such demographics — black students and those on free and reduced lunch programs — perform worse academically than any other groups except students in special education. Schools across the nation that have large numbers of students in those groups generally fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress, minimum state academic standards.
Yet for four straight years, all of Perry County’s four public schools — two elementary and two high schools — have met continuously rising AYP standards when no other school system in West Alabama has been able to do so.

That's right, instead of whining about parental involvement (or the lack there of), balancing the budget on the backs of students, lynching public education, laying off teachers and support personnel, closing schools, and keeping students from hearing President Obama's annual Back to School speech,and other sad, sorry, excuses they get the job done.

Perry County Schools also boast a 97 percent system-wide graduation rate with a higher than 75 percent college placement rate. Its schools were given the Healthy Schools Program National Recognition Silver Award for its healthy school lunch menus from the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a nonprofit organization that seeks to reduce the rate of childhood obesity by 2015, and the 2010 U.S. News & World Report on best high schools named Perry County’s Robert C. Hatch High School a “bronze school,” putting it among the top 6.3 percent of high schools in the nation.

What John Heard, superintendent of Perry County Schools said!

“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.”

Now that is the kind of philosophy I wish the Huntsville City Schools had instead of the one they have.

Perhaps the reason that Dr. Robinson isn’t concerned about it taking two months to get a comparison between the FY 2011 and FY 2012 budgets is that she’s convinced that the system is meeting the requirements of the IEPs. In a brief conversation that I had with her after Thursday’s board meeting, she said that she knew that the system was meeting the requirements of the IEPs because the system isn’t being sued.
Let’s let that settle in for a moment.
Our board knows that our children are being educated because they’re not currently being sued for failing to do so. (I am aware of a number of lawsuit that are currently in process. The legal process takes time, as Dr. Robinson should know.)

It's the curriculum stupid!

Heard said Perry County’s students begin school already at a disadvantage economically and socially.

Students enroll in school knowing far less words than they should, typically 1,000 fewer words than their fellow students in more affluent school districts.

“It’s not that they don’t have the capability, it’s that they’re not exposed,” Heard said. “So we immediately attack this by exposing them to a language-rich environment.”

“We put them in a research-based structured reading program from kindergarten through third grade,” he said. “All students go through this program. It’s mandatory. We set aside a block of time each morning just to do this.”

It's about working together to break the vicious chains of poverty for future generations and beyond.

Heard said students know their ticket out of poverty is education. That’s something that every administrator, teacher and even maintenance personnel in the school system stresses to them on a regular basis.

“College is the only option these kids have because there’s nothing else here for them to do,” Heard said. “The only opportunity they have to be successful is to be educated.”

A major reason that so many students in Perry County graduate and go to college is the system’s dual enrollment program.

Heard said that Perry County Schools partner with every organization and business they possibly can, especially four-year and community colleges, which allow them opportunities to offer students a plethora of career exposure and training options.

Caring, certified, professional teachers, administrators and support personnel make the all the difference. This is what happens when the Superintendent works with teachers and support personnel instead of being at war with them.

Helping Perry County’s students succeed is a total team effort, said Marcia Smiley, Perry County Schools’ assistant superintendent.

Teachers are the driving forces behind the system’s success, but their success occurs at a high level because they’re heavily supported.

“Mr. Heard allows buy in from everyone,” Smiley said. “Everyone has support. We’ll bring the community in, the janitors, everyone.

“Everyone’s involved because when you have buy in from everyone you have everyone’s support.”

Heard said that Perry County’s elementary schools have good parent involvement through the PTAs, but parent support drops off at the high school level.

That doesn’t mean that education still doesn’t get accomplished, Heard said.

“Programs are just tools,” Heard said. “We have committed people who believe our kids can achieve. Once you have that, they’ll find a way to make things happen.”

The Perry County school system should be a model for the state and the nation because it is living proof that every child can learn with the right approach. It's not about the money, it's about the people who put students first for real.

Education is the HOPE of the republic.

The Lynching of Public Education in Alabama

I'm convinced the status quo republicans in the state of Alabama want to destroy public education in Alabama. After all we just inaugurated a governor who doesn't believe every child has the right to go to college, and elected a red, republican state legislature whose first order of business was to destroy the Alabama Education Association.

Now comes the Lynch v State of Alabama school funding lawsuit where civil rights attorney's claim the states method of funding schools purposefully discriminates based on race.

Alabama history is headed before a federal judge in Huntsville, as civil rights attorneys argue that the state's method of funding schools purposefully discriminates based on race.

At stake are the state's property tax rates, the lowest in the nation. Attorney James Blacksher of Birmingham contends that tax structure violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, largely by limiting the ability of rural counties to tax wealthy white landowners.

"Because of the anemic property taxes available to most local school systems, low-income students throughout Alabama, who are disproportionately black, suffer from underfunding," contends the suit.

Sweet Home Alabama is a state that cares more about property values than they do educating it's children. Strike that, the State of Alabama cares more about protecting property values than they do educating poor/disenfranchised/minority students.

Concerns over public housing can still draw a crowd, as almost 250 people on Tuesday gathered for the second meeting of the South Huntsville Civic Association.

"We need something in south Huntsville they've had in other parts of Huntsville for years - a cohesive voice," Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks announced from the stage at Grissom High School.

Brooks, one of two key speakers, said that the Huntsville Housing Authority has quietly used vouchers to send poor families south and plans now to single out south Huntsville for more.

In February, the authority surprised homeowners with the outright purchase of 50 units at Stone Manor near Chaffee Elementary. That sparked a raucous public meeting at Chaffee on April 6 and led to the creation of the civic association.

On Tuesday, the upstart group drew an influential crowd, including Republican Brooks, a former legislator; newly elected state Sen. Paul Sanford, R-Huntsville; state Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur; and Republican gubernatorial candidate Bradley Byrne.

Going through the numbers at Whitesburg Elementary, Brooks argued that schools in south Huntsville have seen test scores drop "thanks in large part to what the Huntsville Housing Authority has done to us."

This is what happens when property values are tied to student/school achievement.

But the state argues that any forced change in tax rates would decrease all property values, injure all property owners who plan to sell, paralyze the commercial real estate market and cause "widespread havoc in Alabama's government and real estate markets."

Yep, opponents know what buttons to push to distract from the real issue, which is racial discrimination.

It has been projected that the relief sought in Lynch could result in 1000% property tax increases on residential and forest land, 500% on business property and 300% on utility properties.

Projected by whom? According to new anointed Left in Alabama Legal Contributor Old Prosecutor, the information is from unsourced articles. I thought factually incorrect information wasn't allowed on the front pages of Left in Alabama, but I digress.

Alabama's property tax rates are the lowest in the nation as is student achievement. Because of the current property tax structure low income students in Alabama, who are disproportionately black suffer from the underfunding. Students live where their parents can afford to live. Students with affluent parents have access to the best public education their parents tax dollars can buy. Students with low income parents have access to the worst education their parents tax dollars can buy.

The state of Alabama might as well give up trying to run a public education system because it's obvious some don't believe believe every child should have access to a quality public education regardless of race, gender, religion or their parents station in life, like this ;

If you live in a poor county and you dont (sic)believe that the school in your area is up to standards the simple and obvious solution is that you move. I would not let my children attend a school that I believed did not prepare them for the future. The problem is you could throw billions at the schools in these black belt areas and you would still end up with the same low level perfomance (sic)that they have now. The reason is that education begains(sic) at home with a caring father and a mother with values and a work ethic who push their kids to do well. And that is something the vast majorty(sic) of these kids dont(sic) have and will never have no matter how much you spend...

That's right, blame the parents with false, media driven, racial stereotypes. Education begins in the classroom with a certified teacher who is given the resources to educate children in a safe, orderly environment that is conducive to learning. One things for sure, not throwing billions at the schools in the black belt areas has produced the same low level performance. Only a fool does the same thing hoping for a different result, so let's "throw billions at the schools in the black belt" and see if we get a different result.

I have a dream one day the citizens of Alabama will care more about the future of it's children than they do maintaining their property values.

What if the great state of Alabama treated public eduction like they treat the Alabama and Auburn football programs?

What if public education was funded like the football programs at the University of Alabama and Auburn University?

What if there were a public/private partnership (boosters) who made sure all of Alabama's public schools were world class learning institutions second to none?

What if the state of Alabama recruited the best and brightest teachers with proven results from all over the country?

What if the state of Alabama paid public school teachers,administrators and support personnel like they paid some football coaches and their staff and rewarded them based on merit/performance?

What if public school teachers/administrators were like college football coaches and judged students on their ability and not the color of their skin or their parents circumstance? Nick Saben and Gene Chizik don't care how poor a player is, or about skin color, they care about ability. They also don't use arbitrary quotas (except for their coaching staff but I digress).

Seriously, what if the state of Alabama were number 1 in public education and in college football? What if every child had equal access to a quality education regardless of race, gender, zip code or political party?

What a wonderful state it would be if the state of Alabama embraced public education like they embrace college football.

Redeye's Tuesday Must Reads Local/ State/National

If you can't dazzle them with brilliance then baffle them with bull$%#t Mo,

I favor "good" earmarks. I oppose "bad" earmarks. It really is both that simple and that complex. It is a matter of judgment as to which earmarks are appropriate and which are inappropriate (using proper federal government function and cost/benefit analysis tests).

I have a few question for Commissioner Mo Brooks(r.Tea Party); Do you or don't you believe residents who live in North Huntsville have a lower IQ than residents that live in South Huntsville? And, do you believe "project kids" should not be allowed to attend south Huntsville schools because they will lower standardized test scores? And, is it or is it not true you will not be attending a debate sponsored by the local chapter of the NAACP at the Richard Showers Center with your democratic opponent Steve Raby? If elected are you only going to represent the intelligent residents of south Huntsville and oppose ignorant residents of north Huntsville?

The baffling blundering bull$%#t just keeps on coming from the gop candidates.....Huh?

In discussing the issue of transportation in and around Birmingham, Bentley said he would not support light rail for the metro area. That's fine. Reasonable arguments can be made on either side of that issue. But he went on to say: "If light rail brought people into the city, well there is nobody in the city downtown, there's not a lot going on down there, and it's not necessarily right now the wisest use of our dollars."

"Conservative Principles" are like knives. Stupid people shouldn't flash them around. H/T revbob

Ian MacIsaac: Americans don't learn lessons: The Moral failures of conservative leaders and the intellectual failures of average Americans

Barack Obama is not like you. He’s not normal. We’re not exactly sure what it is about him, but something just isn’t right.

God, you’ve been hearing that a lot, haven’t you? The above quotes are just a sample of the nonsense spread over the past month or two about the president. Maybe it was all inspired by this Ground Zero mosque hubbub, but there seems to be a pretty consistent and united effort on the part of conservative talking heads nowadays to paint Obama as both (a) foreign and (b) untrustworthy. There was a lot of this before the election, but at least within my sphere of news it had steadily declined after he’d actually taken office, and people began to get interested in real issues again….

The Undisputed Truth tells us what we've learned about the Tea Party.

We have learned that they may dislike Dems, but they hate Republicans. They hate Republicans until they win I guess and then they are waiting in line for the hand-outs and infomercials they get to do on FOX. We have learned that these folks were the crazy cousins hiding in the attic of the Republican Party. We have learned that these folks are the reincarnation of the “Know Nothings, the Moral Majority, and the Christian Coalition. We have learned that they really aren’t independent nor or they grassroots

Guest Post: Reform School Versus School Reform (Rant)

I have taught off and on for the last decade, and prior to that I was a student in this once great education system. Contrary to former President Ronald Reagan's "A Nation At Risk" report, education was better in the 1980s and 1990s. I have vivid memories of projects, arts and crafts, books we read, dioramas we made and the California Achievement test we all took that was nationally normed.

There was 4H, shop, career explorations and computer class ... sans test. We still had to take state tests, but this did not stop teachers from giving us skills we could use in real life. (I.E. writing in cursive, all of our math facts, daily physical exercise, fine arts, music, etc.) We had at least one thirty minute recess per day. It was awesome, rigorous, and to be honest, I never recall having what some now call "bad teachers."

Charter Schools and Waiting for Superman

“The message of the film is that public schools are failing because of bad teachers and their unions. The film's "solution," to the minimal extent it suggests one, is to replace them with "great" charter schools and teachers who have less power over their schools and classrooms.
This message is not just wrong. In the current political climate, it's toxic.”
This film tells a moving story about problems and injustice in public schools but it blames the problems of schools on teachers unions. Why is that ? We should ask why the film focuses on teachers’ unions and not on poverty, race, school bureaucracies, or the foundations of the rich who support these initiatives.

Somethings rotten about "Waiting for Superman"

Something smells here. And it isn't the fresh, crisp, fall scent of number two Ticonderoga's.

Professional educators are going to take a major hit in the coming months and the Billionaire Boys Club, who are out to privatize our public schools by creating their own charter school networks, couldn't be happier.

The promotion of the movie Waiting for Superman has been nothing less than phenomenal for an education documentary. Oprah aired two shows about it, all pie and sunshine. Don't be fooled by the hype. This is just another in a series of hoaxes perpetrated on the American public by the very wealthy. We have something they want -- the minds of our children!

From Big Easy to Big Empty

Following the first broadcast of this film a criminal complaint was filed against producer Matt Pascarella and reporter Greg Palast by the Department of Homeland Security. The charge, filming “critical infrastructure” was dropped.
Maybe DHS was annoyed because From Big Easy to Big Empty, filmed a year after Hurricane Katrina, is critical of infrastructure, specifically Innovative Emergency Management of Baton Rouge which was paid a half-million dollars in 2004 to deliver a emergency preparedness and evacuation plan of New Orleans–only no one could find the plan when it was needed–that’s pretty innovative; and of FEMA itself which at the time of the filming, in 2006, had displaced 73,000 residents into trailer parks. Palast interviews a resident who explains that there is only one bus out of the ironically named, barb-wired ringed Camp Renaissance, and it only goes to the Wal-Mart.

Reading is fundamental! Happy reading!