Next year, parents on their own in transporting kids who transferred under No Child
A DeKalb reader sent me a note about local school districts no longer having to provide transportation for AYP transfer students next year. The reader said: “I think this will lead to a lot of angst, especially in DeKalb, where we had hundreds of transfer students.”
I agree.
Here is the letter from DeKalb County schools to parents, explaining the change:
As of June 30, 2012, there will no longer be a Public School Choice (ESEA Choice) transfer option under ESEA as reauthorized under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the DeKalb County School District will no longer be required to implement ESEA Choice or pay for ESEC Choice transportation as implemented under the ESEA.
This change will go into effect for the 2012-2013 school year. All currently authorized travel reimbursements will continue to be processed through the end of the 2011-2012 school year.
Any student that has previously transferred to another school by exercising ESEA Choice must be allowed to attend that school until he or she completes the school’s highest grade; however the DeKalb County School District is no longer required to pay for the student’s transportation cost during the duration of the student’s attendance at the current ESEA Choice School.
If your student intends to remain at his/her current ESEA Choice School for the 2012-2013 school year, please notify your current school’s principal no later than Monday, April 16, 2012. This will allow the schools time to plan for the next year. Thank you.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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110 comments Add your comment
tony
April 14th, 2012
11:10 pm
instead of making the bad schools better just send the kids from the bad schools to the good schools and bring down the good schools that way everything is even and fair !! the liberal mind at work !!!!
Public HS Teacher
April 14th, 2012
11:10 pm
Oh come on! Who won’t expect this?
We cut education to the bone in Georgia. Let’s change the ad velorum tax so that the money goes to the State and not to the school districts! Let’s reduce the money to school systems and give it to the private companies running charter schools!
Then, we provide AYP options to transfer to other schools AND the school systems pay for transportation.
Then, gas prices go up and up and up.
Seriously, who won’t think that this would happen?
hoodtechie
April 14th, 2012
11:21 pm
As a black male parent this just goes to show you how un-dedicated the parents and the DeKalb county school system are in educating our kids. No child left behind was hated because it put the pressure on parents to ensure their kids were learning properly and the pressure on teachers keeping their jobs to keep the students learning. Our kids will never achieve a higher level of learning because parents and teachers are setting the standards to low. Why do you think so many kids from DeKalb county schools are in remedial classes in college, because no one held them to a higher standard? Our kids are getting a 2nd rate education and the system knows it. The parents are to busy with their nails, hair and cell phone features to ensure our kids are being prepared for the next level of learning. And then we wonder why we have so many 35 yr old men/women still living at home with their parents. They are not prepared for higher learning or the work force and we have no one to blame but ourselves. If we spent as much time seeing that our kids are educated and less time on the cell phone we would see progress. Until then in the black community we will always be at the bottom of the economic ladder, worse off than our grandparents. At least they valued an education.
Teacher Reader
April 14th, 2012
11:34 pm
As I have said before in these columns, if you truly want to understand why our schools are the way they are read The Deliberate Dumbing Down of America, by Charlotte Iserbyt or John Gatto’s Underground History of American Education. Both books are self published, because of what they found out. Both authors wanted this information to get out, so that parents, teachers, and anyone who cared about the education system of America would be able to get and know all of the facts and not have it edited by the large publishing houses.
I have read the Deliberate Dumbing Down of America and am waiting for my copy of John Gatto’s book, as it’s on back order, but from what I’ve heard they have very similar information. Our schools are the way they are and stink for a reason, the government, rich people who control the wealth and power of our country want it that way. The Democrats want it that way. The Republicans want it that way.
If you are a teacher, parent, or just care about the quality of education child in America receive, get your hands on these books. Read the actual evidence that they share and decide for yourself. I know that it made me sick and also made me realize why I was able to teach less and less each year, and why our kids are not able to think and reason and want the government to take care of them.
It’s not about AYP, NCLB, or any education acronym. It’s far more powerful and reaching than that and it started long ago and is just coming to fruition.
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
12:07 am
I really encourage the black parents who are chiming in on this topic to get involved as suggested here and encouarge the community leaders to start to change the paradigm of what’s really important so that education becomes as valued as it once was within the community. I think that until the community itself values education for what it can give them (and perhaps also realizes that government entitlement programs really, ultimately, works against them–it’s the “giving fish rather than teaching to fish” thing… ), there’s really nothing out there that will “fix” the schools (maybe other than a voucher system and even that might not work because it requires affirmative involvement.
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
12:08 am
Thank you for your comments.
Beverly Fraud
April 15th, 2012
6:50 am
“We cut education to the bone in Georgia.
Yes we have Public HS teacher. But look what schools did with the money when they were flush with it. Pity the poor teacher, caught in the crossfire (who actually expects GAE and PAGE to “advocate” for them when they get PAID by the very same members of the administrative BLOAT class that bleed the classroom dry.)
The problem is the legislators won’t be honest. The same conservatives who preach “law and order” and “respect for the rule of law” won’t address discipline.
The entire enterprise lacks integrity. FUBAR.
Dred Scott
April 15th, 2012
8:49 am
Here is just one more reason why communities need to be enpowered with community run, community focused charter public schools as an option. This option is an outlet for parents who are frustrated with th various reasons why their child’s needs are not being met by the district.
d
April 15th, 2012
9:14 am
@Dred Scott I have to disagree with the fact that a school needs to be a charter – time and time again we’ve seen that when parents and the communities take an active interest in their school – be it charter, private, or heck, even traditional public – the school thrives and the students in the schools thrive. Maybe this is the wake-up call parents need to 1) get involved 2) actually do their job as a voter and get people elected to the school board, the General Assembly, and the Governor’s office based upon the issues rather than the party affiliation.
@Beverly, was the PAGE/GAE comment necessary here? Can’t we ever have a discussion without turning it bash the professional organizations? Do you honestly think anyone paid any attention to the four MACE members/staffers holding signs outside the AIC on Monday? We don’t have to agree on everything, but at some point the professional associations need to lay their differences aside to work for what’s best for the educators and children of Georgia.
yes i am worried
April 15th, 2012
9:14 am
Dred Scott,
These parents could start by demanding better from their local schools. Transferrng has been the solution of choice. You almost never hear a parent from a “failing” school show up at a board meeting and demand better.
Proud Teacher
April 15th, 2012
10:08 am
Perhaps the new concept of neighborhood schools and neighborhood responsibility will come back into vogue. Children should not have to be bussed, trained, and carpooled for miles and hours to learn how to adequatley read and write. Teaching the children to run when something doesn’t go their way is not lending to raising responsible adults. “Me me me” should be taken out of the dialogue unless these dreaded words are used in a vocal warm-up for choir! This entire education quagmire is the responsibility of the “we” and “us.” There is no room for “I” or “me.” Vouchers and charter schools are only bandaids for the real ills of public education. We need to treat the root of the problem and that is the real public school. Until integrity and pride return are returned to the school and classroom, we have little hope . . . unless you are a classroom teacher who loves the job of watching children learn and grow. Those teachers are the ones who should be making the decisions, not the bottom-line sound-byte loving people who make all of the decisions for education today and yet have never experienced what a real teacher does every day. I certainly don’t look at my students’ scores as the bottom line on a spread sheet when we tackle a difficult concept. Too many people only see numbers and not the faces of students who need real teachers.
Dekalb taxpayer
April 15th, 2012
10:20 am
This is good news to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if some parents transferred their children just so they could get their transportation check. Also, Dunwoody Mom, Dekalb ended their magnet transportation a few years ago, at least for high school students. I know because my son was a magnet student and we had to provide his transportation for the last year or so.
yes i am worried
April 15th, 2012
10:25 am
No DeKalb Taxpayer, the system changed from door to door transportation to a shuttle system for magnet that is still costing $$$$$.
Old timer
April 15th, 2012
10:33 am
Dr. Halford dd know good teaching …as he was a very good teacher.
Old timer
April 15th, 2012
10:33 am
Did
yes i am worried
April 15th, 2012
10:59 am
Dr. Halford may have been a good teacher and perhaps even a good administrator but he was the king of the friends and family plan. He promoted incompetent folks in order not to fire them. He established the precedence of overpaying employees that were connected.
Decatur Joe
April 15th, 2012
11:08 am
@ Dread Scott, you are 100% correct. Public education needs as many solutions for parents, chilren and communities. Charter schools are not “the” answer, but one of the many answers we need. Are charters a silver bullet? No. Charter schools are one more way for parents to say to their local board that they want something different; they want change. I support parents being vocal at local board meetings, expressing their views. But at the same time I support parents quietly voicing their opinion by trusting their child to be educated by a public charter school. These options go hand in hand.
SassyT
April 15th, 2012
11:58 am
@senseandsensibilty: My child was a straight “A” student from elementary to middle school. As a 9th grader, my child has maintained a 3.6 GPA. My child has never attended the home school because I feared that the home school and its environment would not allow my child to thrive academically. As a single parent, I read to my child at night; drilled my child with math facts over the summer so that my child would be ready for the next grade; sought and paid for private tutoring when my child had trouble in certain subjects. When it was time to choose a high school, I was warned NOT to transfer under NCLB, because of the hostile attitudes and preconceived notions toward children transferring in under NCLB. Given my child’s academic achievements, I think certain schools, Dunwoody, Druid HIlls, and Lakeside, should have welcomed my child and the GPA that would have come
Single Parent
April 15th, 2012
12:15 pm
My child has never attended the home school. They were always operating below acceptable standards at each level. I did what the education experts told me to do: I read to my child; did math drills over the summer to be ready for the next grade level; paid for private tutoring when needed. Attending the home hs, whose current graduation rate, under the new calculation method is 54.7%, down from the old calculation of 72.8%, was not an option when my child was a straight “A” student entering hs. My child earned a 3.6 for the first semester of 9th grade at a school where the stduents, parents, teachers, and administration are all on task. It is not my child’s responsibility to fix a school that has been failing for decades, as the previous DCSS Superintendent said on several occassions before being indicted on felony charges. My child’s education and future are too important to put on hold while the school gets its academic act together.
Single Parent
April 15th, 2012
12:26 pm
@Anonmom: I know that this discussion has focused on DeKalb County, but if this discussion is broadened to look at the state, it should be noted that there are not enough Black students in the state to bring the entire state down. That would mean that there must be plenty of white parents who don’t value education and whose children are not making the grade at their respective schools across the state. Do you assume that those parents are waiting on government entitlement programs to save them as you intimate about Black parents? Perhaps that state needs to look at its historical culture of not valuing education, among the masses, in solving its problem of failing schools across the state, as evidenced by the terribly low graduation rate of high schools.
Single Parent
April 15th, 2012
12:36 pm
Please stop assuming that Black parents are not involved in their child’s school. SInce the schools are so segregated, just who do you think is running and participating in the PTA in many of the Southern, Eastern and Central DeKalb schools, wher Black people live in greater numbers in DeKalb? Who do you think the Band Booster parents are in the same area high schools? Who do you think are chaperoning field trips, where there were field trips, organizing and chaperoning the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances? Who do you think transports the student athletes to the schools for their games, and sits in the gym to support that athelete and the coaching staff? Black parents, that’s who. Please don’t make sweeping statments based on your limited knowledge of what actually goes one in these schools and who’s getting it done. That kind of thinking only fuels the thoughts that all white people are racist, or at the very least, wowfully misinformed. Certainly that is not true for all.
Gerald
April 15th, 2012
12:50 pm
Anonmon:
I am sick and tired of the racist argument that productive, goal-oriented law-abiding blacks have to be held back by the unproductive members of their race. Do white people follow that same nonsense? What are upper class whites doing to help whites in Appalachia, trailer parks and those who have lost tons of manufacturing and farming jobs? NOT A THING. So why should BLACKS have that same burden? Anything that you tell a member of another race to do that you are not willing to do yourself is racist.
No black person should sacrifice the future of himself and his own kids in some vain quest to “uplift the community.” What if the community doesn’t want to be lifted up? And how can this be done if the people looking for a way out are vastly outnumbered by the people who want to stay right where they are? It is just nonsense from racists who want as few black kids at “their schools” as possible … the same old Brown vs. Board of Education “segregation now segregation forever nonsense.” It is just like that city in DeKalb – I forget which – that is buying up apartments in the area to turn them into parks that the city doesn’t need just so the kids who live in them won’t be able to attend the local schools.
As far as the transportation argument goes … it could be figured out if they want to badly enough, especially since DeKalb does have MARTA. But this “go and fight for your own schools … you people need to value education” is just pure evil. Parents should not be forced to keep their kids in situations where their peers don’t want to learn. It is hard enough to raise your own kids, especially if you are low or moderate income, and you want these people to take responsibility for altering the behavior and mindset of everyone else’s kids and their parents?
Fine. Blacks should start doing so when whites and Jews like you do the same with your own low-income peers. Until then, blacks (and whites and Asians and Hispanics and Martians and Plutonians) who to escape their circumstances should be thrown a lifeline. It is a proper, necessary role and function of government.
If you aren’t willing to do that, then end government education altogether. You upper class folks should pay for the education of your own Biffies, Buffies, Chads, Throckmortons and Dorons with your own money instead of having taxpayers finance your palatial suburban government funded playgrounds. That’s the worst part about it – you upper class people can easily afford to pay for the education of your own kids, choose to take the government welfare money anyway, and have the gall to call yourselves conservative Republicans and claim that “those people need to figure out how to help themselves.” You pay taxes? Excuse me, but so do the people trying to escape bad public schools, and they pay a higher percentage of their income for terrible public schools than you do. They deserve quality, effective efficient services in return for their tax dollars just like you do, and the idea that they should keep paying taxes in order to send their kids to bad schools because “they need to work to change and uplift their community” is racist.
This just proves that so many of these “conservative Republicans” are frauds like the TEA Party types with their “hands of my MediCare!” signs. You don’t want smaller, limited government. You want government that works FOR YOU, and it’s the same old Jim Crow mentality where the government rigged the game for some at the expense of others. That’s why none of you folks would vote for a real conservative like Ron Paul, because he’d kick all of you off your “welfare for the upper class” programs. They claim that Paul is racist, but his policies are actually far less racist than those advocated by the Dixiecrats that you folks keep sending to office. “Keep those checks coming to us just so long as you cut them off from ‘those people!’” right?
It has nothing to do with “your people valuing education for 4000 years.” It is about not wanting some hard working black kid from a low or moderate income family with good values going to your school and benefiting enough from the superior educational environment to take your kids’ slot at Georgia Tech. You’d rather that kid succumb to peer pressure, join a gang, commit a serious crime (against another black person) and do 50 years in jail rather than see that happen, wouldn’t you?
P.S. What happened to the conservative claim that “we are all Americans and we need to stop these distinctions by race”? If white conservatives actually believed that, they’d take as much responsibility for fixing the culture in these communities to help their “fellow Americans.” The truth: white conservatives could care less about “their fellow Americans” no matter what color they are. Low income blacks figured this out long ago. When low income whites stop falling for southern strategy politics and realize the same, the faux conservative movement is in for a heap of trouble. Then again, it probably is already, which is why you folks can’t do any better than Mitt Romney as your standard bearer.
Dunwoody Mom
April 15th, 2012
12:57 pm
@DeKalb Taxpayer, while it is true that there is no longer any door-ro-door pickup for magnet programs, DCSD runs a satellite shuttle program for the magnet students.
BC
April 15th, 2012
1:05 pm
In order to save our schools our society needs reforming then our schools will improve. Public education has become the scape goat for society’s problems and we can’t be all things to all people and we never will be!!
Dekalb taxpayer
April 15th, 2012
1:09 pm
Dunwoody Mom and the other poster, you are right about the Dekalb shuttle program for magnet students. I had forgotten about that option because the nearest shuttle location for us was the same distance away as the school.
Dunwoody Mom
April 15th, 2012
1:09 pm
It is just like that city in DeKalb – I forget which – that is buying up apartments in the area to turn them into parks that the city doesn’t need just so the kids who live in them won’t be able to attend the local schools.
Well, if you are referring to Dunwoody, the citizens voted that down. Try again with your racist nonsense.
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
1:38 pm
Gerard — I grew up very middle class in a blue collar neighborhood. I have worked my tail off, as has my husband, to get through a blue collar high school, college and grad school and we came out, on the back end, with six figure student loans that we then spent 10 years paying off so that now we can be told that we’re “privileged” and “earn too much” and our kids don’t qualify for anytning but we haven’t had much “extra” to save for them because we’ve been paying back our own loans. We pay over 50% of what we earn in various taxes at vaious levels because we’er not so “rich” so as to have the “gift” of “breaks” that so many really wealthy seem to have….. At the same time, I see our school system waste millions of dollars — my tax money — in corrupt and wasteful ways running, essentially a jobs program and not actually educating kids and not giving them a future so that society can not have these children as productive members down the road. We do a lot to help our own communities. Our “church” leaders work on helping our communities — I am encouraging you and others to to do the same (and I have no idea what you do or don’t do). I don’t necessarily expect you to “sacrifice” your own children in the process — I won’t sacrifice mine. But I am doing everything in my power to fix what I see is wrong so that I can make it better for everyone else while I’ve done what I need to do for my own childen. If the community would work together, I think it would make a difference. Those outside the community can not make the same difference — it won’t work. But the bishops and the ministers and preachers can make a difference if they set their minds on doing so and would work together. I wonder why they don’t try to make the difference. I wonder why there is such a high percentage of males in jail. I wonder why there is such a high percentage of single mothers. But it’s not my community so there is only so much I can do about it. I can only pose questions here and have you throw stones at me.
Atlanta Media Guy
April 15th, 2012
2:07 pm
The NCLB bill was also written by Theodore Kennedy. It was W who got the ball rolling and Teddy was happy to oblige to get it through Congress. The bill was severely flawed from the beginning and people from the left and the right have been screaming ever since. I’m a pro voucher/school choice guy personally,. I think that is the true way to make the teachers and administrators accountable. If you have a successful school that people are clamoring to get in, it would force the hands of the other not so successful schools to succeed or else changes would have to be made. Plus, hold parents and guardians responsible for their help and commitment as well.
The DCSS transportation gaming has been going on way too long, for several years a lot of people were unaware of the program. Like Kim from Cross Keys says, DCSS(D?) schools should have the same offerings, whether it’s Title 1 or not. Everyone who pays into the system should have an equal shot at all programs offered at all schools whether it’s Arabia Mtn, SW DeKalb or Lakeside, DESA or Chamblee High. The kids should have a shot. However, if a parent is willing to get their kid into a school outside their district, that parent should be responsible for transportation. I don’t think our private schools offer free transportation to their schools, why should the government schools offer it?
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
2:11 pm
Gerard — also – you don’t seem to know your southern Civil Rights history very well either — read “The Temple Bombing” by Melissa Faye Greene — it’s one of those very difficult reads — very detailed with lots of footnotes and such but it goes into the details of why The Temple was bombed in October of 1958 — it had everything to do with Rabbi Rothschild’s friendship with Dr. King and everything the Jewish community was doing in active support of the Civil Rights movement. The Jewish community has always been supportive of these issues — I don’t believe that “the favor” has been returned and there seems to be significant anti-semitism in the black community, including by vocal members of the clergy…..
Another voice just responding
April 15th, 2012
3:59 pm
Gerald,
Thank you for your comments. People forget that many African Americans have come from blue collar homes, have worked all of their lives, have student loans that they are paying off and also did not qualify for various entitlement programs for their children because they weren’t poor enough. We pay taxes too but people would rather stick to that stereotype where everyone is like “Kinsheshe” and had their first baby at 12 or 13 and another at 14 or 15 and is now wearing weave, fake nails, getting food stamps and section 8 and has school age children that they won’t help educationally at home.
Reading a deeply annotated selection does not make you smarter than anyone else. Quoting it doesn’t either. Having a superior knowledge of Eurocentric history or Asian history or any other history doesn’t make you more intelligent than a person who knows where Palmares was. The perception is that no matter how well off an African American is, they are still inferior to whites and Asians and should not be in schools with children of these groups. Actually, extremely intelligent African American children of middle or upper income families don’t have to be subjected to inferior classrooms any more than any one else.
This is what is about to happen in APS. Someone got jealous because Inman Middle School has Advanced Reading and Mathematics. Inman is at least 50% Black and Black Middle Income parents have moved into the area to get their children in the school. They don’t want their children to go to school with Kinsheshe’s children. Kinsheshe is worrying about scraping by from day to day and may not have the time that Mitt Romney’s wife has to raise her children correctly. They are probably behind when they come to school and they have the perils of devastated lower income Black neighborhoods to deal with. Gang violence, drugs, cell phones, expensive sneakers, weave and nails salons on every corner, etc.
What well off, law abiding middle income African American parent wants to subject their child to a dumbed down curriculum, baby mommas and baby daddies who don’t have time to be ultra involved in their schools and/or are too busy living a lifestyle not in keeping with the values of the middle income African American. The ones who couldn’t move into the area got jealous of the great school Inman is and want the lines redrawn so that the place is lfooded with Kinsheshe’s kids. The teachers won’t be able to keep the bar high because they will have to dummy the class down for the children who are 2-5 years behind because of the cheating scandal Thus, Inman will fail and the jealous ones will be satisfied. Upper income Blacks and whites will withdraw their children and move on…the ones of both races will put them in Charter schools. “Kinsheshe” is not an option.
Parents want their kids to have the best education possible, the whole basis of Brown vs. the Board of Education…inferior schools. And, it goes to the higher education level also. So many bright young Black women were applying to Spelman College in the late 1980s and early 1990s…they had to start turning Honor students away. They had too many with high SAT scores. Spelman got ranked as one of the best small colleges in America..it wasn’t about race; most of those girls had Middle income or higher income parents. It was about Economics. Their parents had made sure that they had the best education prepartion possible and that raised the bar at Spelman because so many of those young ladies wanted to go there. The young women would be going to school with the best and the brightest who could challenge the best minds in the country, no matter the race. But Spelman is only one college and it is private. Remember when they first started the teacher tests in Georgia. Spelman’s graduates had a much higher pass rate than most of the white public colleges in Georgia.
Yes, some people would be frightened to know that African American children who come from homes where they are nurtured, challenged and taught to appreciate education can do extremely well in school and do very well on standardized tests without coaching. That is a frightening though for some. As for Kinsheshe’s kids…it takes a nation to raise its children. Until we change the culture that Kinsheshe is subjected to in her community and the racism inside and outside of it, no amount of busing is going to change anything. Educated African American parents do not want their children to go to poor, all Black, no resources, undsiciplined schools. Shuffling the kids around is not going to mask anything..it will just lower the bar at schools where they are transferred to. You have got to get racist notions out of your minds and change the culture that allows underdeveloped neighborhoods with drugs and gang violence to continue in America. Stop blaming it on the teachers…they can’t overcome all that. Help Kinsheshe stop having kids too early, learn the value of staying in school and not wasting her money on foreign run convenience stores, foreign owned beauty supply stores,nail salons, tight clothes, drugs, and her body on old stupid acting men. Keep her safe in her community and teach her how to become more productive. Is that too much to ask for Americans?
Beverly Fraud
April 15th, 2012
4:27 pm
@Beverly, was the PAGE/GAE comment necessary here?
Yes, because if there are two things, above all else, that might help education, they are as follows:
-Stop administrative retaliation, so teachers can TRULY advocate for their students (Even with THE largest cheating scandal in United States educational history, has PAGE/GAE done anything tangible to empower teachers to speak out without retaliation?)
-Restore discipline to the classroom
PAGE/GAE won’t address these, because it takes away POWER from the very administrators who pay DUES to GAE/PAGE.
Not so? Then why, when a policy was proposed that would allow teachers to use THEIR PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENT to remove a student violating the sanctity of the teaching/learning environment GAE did everything in its power to defeat it.
Repeat. GAE worked toward ABOLISHING the right of a teacher to remove a SEVERELY disruptive child from the learning environment.
Now when you add that PAGE, in this very paper said there was “merit” to a proposal that would ban teachers from running for elected office where they live and pay taxes, yes I think it’s fair to ask if PAGE/GAE can truly advocate for teachers, without conflict of interest.
yes i am worried
April 15th, 2012
4:28 pm
It is important to recognize the reality of DeKalb’s demographics. At about 80 percent African-American and 10 percent caucasian, there is absolutely no way that most AA children will be in a classroom with white children. Add to that, the reality that 75 percent of DCSS students qualify for free and reduced lunch, this system is responsible for the education of 10s of thousands on poor minority children. And they are doing a crappy job at it.
Until members of the African-American community send the message that what has happened in DeKalb is unacceptable and hold both their school board members and legislators accountable, nothing will change.
In DeKalb, we have no majority white high schools. We have Dunwoody and Lakeside that are about 40 percent white, and Druid Hills, and Chamblee are about 20-25 percent white. Tucker is 11 percent white.
The results are dismal — change is needed. More diverse voices are needed to advocate for the needed change.
BlahBlahBlah
April 15th, 2012
4:54 pm
In another 20 years public schools will be the educational equivalent of Medicaid – used only by those who have no other option. What a disaster.
@anonmom
April 15th, 2012
5:28 pm
If you truly want to help better the schools, you need to read the books that I mentioned above (Teacher Reader). Like Fay’s book, they aren’t easy reads, but will open your eyes and look at public education in a different way.
There is a reason why Ms. Downey hasn’t taken time to read them and post on them here. They go against her beliefs and ideals. Anyone who really wants to understand and change public education in a positive way needs to understand the REAL history behind it-HINT: Teachers aren’t taught this in college, nor is anyone else. I wonder why?
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
5:30 pm
I don’t think Lakeside is even 40% white… I think the number is lower…..
d
April 15th, 2012
6:31 pm
@Beverly – we’re talking about DCSD not paying for NCLB transfers anymore. No part of your argument is relevant to this discussion. If Maureen has a post about the merits of various educational organizations in Georgia, you’ll be in the right place. I will say this, you often do have valid points when you are talking about education in Georgia (and frankly, I enjoy reading those posts), but when you get into the bash GAE/PAGE mode, it does nothing to move the cause of public education in Georgia forward.
Until then, I will add this to this discussion…. I hope that DCSD will use the Title I funding that it was paying for this transportation to fund improvement in the classrooms with strategies that will work – and not more programs that could lead to teachers being replaced by anyone who can read and will work for minimum wage (think scripted lessons). We can work on reducing class size, work on ensuring that these students have access to enrichment programs and the arts in their home schools. Until this year, how many DeKalb elementary schools did not have art or music teachers? We know that arts education and physical education help students improve their academic performance. We know that teachers can do more to help students if they have smaller classes. I know from experience that if students are a) bored and b) unchallenged they will have greater discipline problems. I was speaking with a teacher from another system – they used part of their ARRA money to start a summer enrichment program for their gifted students. DeKalb purchased America’s Choice. They had success, DeKalb…. well…. it’s DeKalb.
Fowzia
April 15th, 2012
7:19 pm
I believe most parents want their children to be a productive citizens and get a good education,I am black and immigrant and my daugther graduated with honors in SWD she was in the Magnet Program and took AP classes ,my son is sixth grade at Wadsworth Magnet ,and my other son is enrolled dual highschool/college program,it doesn’t matter if you are black/white ,rich or poor if the parents and the students are willing to do their part most of the children will succeed,if we can do it so can whoever wants.
Truth Today
April 15th, 2012
7:35 pm
DeKalb should discontinue funding transportation beyond the normal school to home transportation from schools outside the 2 mile zone for their local home school. Magnet programs, NCLB school choice, and the use of magnet schools contribute to a dysfunctional school district and underperforming neighborhood schools. Parents should fix their local schools and hold the Board of Education accountable for such. DeKalb has become a community wherein parents believe that their children receive a better education in northern schools which is certainly not the case. No, I will say it to clear the air, “White is not Right” as so often seems to be the belief of many parents sending their children from southern schools to northern schools and for northern parents who refuse to send their children to higher performing southern schools. The data is very clear. Many southern schools are doing a better job at graduating their students and sending them to college albeit there needs to be improvement in student achievement data and college entrance tests. DeKalb’s parents must demand a change in those significant factors that improve student achievement and become less consumed with the superficial changes that focus on maintaining the stairs quo such as attendance lines and magnet schools to name just a few.
Anonmom
April 15th, 2012
8:59 pm
I heard a story that south dekalb actual fostered the “north is better” mindset by doing idiotic things like not connecting something as simple as a line for gas for a science lab. By not connecting it, school administration could play ‘but the north has science labs” game… and keep the fiction going rather than actually fix things internally. I think that Dr. Atkinson is actually trying to change this — on the other hand, I think that Dr. Lewis fed off of it. There is much more to what is going on in
DCSS than meets the eye and I think that much of it has been done in a way to enable the “skimming” of as many dollars as possible off the top for the “privileged” ones with no checks and balances in place to look out for the welfare of the kids.
Another voice just responding
April 15th, 2012
9:09 pm
Oh please excuse those typos in my treatise above. It is great to have a place to express your opinions.
@ Fowzia, you are a concerned parent who has your children’s best interests at heart. You are involved and your school has a Magnet Program to draw the best and the brightest. Keep up the good work. I went to an all Black elementary school and high school and ended up at a mostly white liberal arts college. It was extremely competitive. When I came back to Georgia, I was at the top of my graduate class at the AU center and at my mostly white graduate classes at GSU. My working class Black parents believed in hard work and giving their 6 children access to a great education. We all made it and I am glad that my parents were as hard on us as they were.. My children repeated my process but went to HBCU’s. But, their children can’t seem to get the level of excellence at the mostly Black public schools that I got. Something has changed…therefore they have opted to send them to schools where the African Americans represent no more than 50% of the population. These seem to be the only schools that have enough resources and enough competitive children. Something has changed…
Ezekiel
April 15th, 2012
9:11 pm
Welcome to the club. Atlanta Public Schools has been doing this for years. You can request that your child attend a school outside of your zone, but if you want to ride the school bus, you have to go where it takes you. This is probably why the schools that are half-capacity or less have THAT many students.
Truth in Modertion
April 15th, 2012
10:38 pm
Another good reason to home school. Save gas.
The current system needs to collapse to rid itself of the corrupt parasites that steal resources from the students. WE ARE BEYOND THE ABILITY TO REFORM!
Pardon My Blog
April 16th, 2012
7:16 am
Sorry, but most DeKalb parents on the southside saw the opportunity to get extra income and sent their kids to schools on the northside. Their priority was free money and not a better education for their kids and yes, they are being paid by the mile for each student and yes, they are either riding MARTA or they are carpooling, either way being enriched by the system.
Transportation, if needed, should only be provided to the individuals home school. If the parent has decided that school does not meet the needs for their child, then they should be responsible for the transportation. The money that will be saved could be better utilized in the schools for programs that DeKalb currently can not offer due to budget constraints.
There are many excellent schools on the southside with excellent educators but it takes parental involvement to help it succeed.
Dunwoody Mom
April 16th, 2012
9:02 am
From what I understand, DCSD still plans to continue to shuttle service for the Magnet programs next school year. I fail to see how morally, and perhaps legally, this service can continue when other school choice students, i.e., charter schools, theme schools, do not have that option.
Colonel Jack
April 16th, 2012
9:34 am
@Atlanta Media Guy … Who in the world is “Theodore Kennedy”? If you mean Senator Edward Moore Kennedy (known as Ted or Teddy), then okay, I get it. Surely you’re award that “Ted” is a nickname for Edward as well as for Theodore, right?
Sheesh, you expect a media guy to know this stuff …
Atlanta Media Guy
April 16th, 2012
10:45 am
To those who think the south Dekalb students are getting a better education than the students in the north, why do so many employees of DCSS pick the northern schools to send their kids? Lakeside has a bunch of admin transfers as does Chamblee, why? Does the Palace staff know something the folks in south DeKalb don’t? I’m just sayin’…. What about Arabia Mountain? Visit their website and see what they’re doing there. This school is an option for those living in South DeKalb.
This whole argument is silly, stop blaming Bush, Obama, Kennedy, Deal, Miller or Perdue. Personally, the Feds need to get out of education completely but the unions in other pars of the country won’t ever let that happen. DCSS has a 1.2 Billion dollar budget and it’s always gotten higher every year, yet our teachers have had the screws put to them and we all sit here and blame race, Bush and everyone else except for people like Dr. Walker, who has never met a dollar he didn’t like. Sarah Coppelin Wood, enough said, Paul Womack, give me cell phones or give me death and who can forget Jay Cunningham, the pizza man! These folks have been around long enough to make a difference and well? Look at their success, or lack of it. Furlough Days need to go, if you can’t pay the teachers then it’s time we buckle down and start cutting back that Palace staff SIGNIFICANTLY! Has anything been done with that full audit of staff at the Palace? Where is the school level audit, that everyone speaks about? Has that audit been released yet?
Title 1 is a disaster as elected leaders have gamed it for years. Educational “coaches” that do not teach students, but walk around with clip boards and worry about bulletin boards and paper work. PLEASE! Why don’t some Title 1 funds actually go to teachers or para pros? They need the help! the classrooms are abysmal. To think of the Title 1 money DCSS has received then thrown away and all the little tentacles that never seem to help any student directly, but has kept the pockets of friends and families and churches full of green backs.
Atlanta Media Guy
April 16th, 2012
10:49 am
Hey Col! Just a joke in my family of democrats, my dad has always called him Theodore. My Dad is retired from AP and UPI and well I apologize if I offended anyone. Anyway ole Teddy had his finger prints all over NCLB.. Personally, the Feds need to get out of the education game completely, but the unions will never let that happen.
Colonel Jack
April 16th, 2012
1:35 pm
@Atlanta Media Guy … Roger that! And you’re right, Ted’s just as much to blame for NCLB as W is. No offense … sorry if *I* offended.
about time
April 16th, 2012
1:50 pm
They should eliminate all free busing for schools. Huge drain on budgets. Have it on a needs based system where as parents apply based on income just like free/reduced lunch. Improve and reggulate both systems.
Warrior Woman
April 16th, 2012
1:50 pm
Choice without transportation is meaningless when school districts can idenitfy as their only “choice” schools ones that are an hour or more from the problematic schools.
@d – If parents aren’t investing in their local, failing schools, perhaps it is because their efforts are unappreciated and unwanted by school management, or that all school resources are being redirected to help failing populations, thus putting average and gifted students at risk. Before we took AYP transfer out of the failing middle school district where we were formerly districted, I had been a PTSA officer for 2 years, including serving as president the year before we transferred. When the new principal decided to cut Advanced Content classes to redirect funds to ESL students, we left. The principal wasn’t interested in enrichment activities for the brightest to keep them engaged, but wanted to waste those students time by having them serve as tutors and mentors for slower students. When this news came out, the majority of gifted students took AYP transfer. IMO, any parent that didn’t act to ensure appropriate gifted services for their gifted child is guilty of neglect.