Michelle Rhee joins clergy today in Atlanta for take-back-our schools conference
Michelle Rhee is in town today to host a screening of the new movie “Won’t Back Down,” which is a fictionalized account of a parent takeover of a failing public school via the parent trigger law. (For information on the first real-life application of a trigger law, go here.)
Michelle Rhee is in town today for daylong conference that will feature new film "Won't Back Down."
Rhee will be part of a panel after the movie that her husband, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, will moderate. Also on the panel will be state Rep. Alisha Thomas Morgan of Cobb, Tony Roberts of the Georgia Charter Schools Association, and Tonya Moore, third-grade teacher at Stonewall Tell Elementary School.
Rhee is here because her group, StudentsFirst, is co-sponsoring the daylong Faith Leaders National Education Policy Summit in Atlanta, which will focus on the achievement gap, drop-out rates and public education policies. The co-sponsor is her husband’s nonprofit group, STAND UP for Great Schools. The movie screening and panel are part of the summit program, which is not open to the public.
Here is an op-ed by two participants in the summit, civil rights leader Lonnie C. King, Jr. of Atlanta, a founding member of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Connecticut state Rep. Charlie L. Stallworth.
By Lonnie C. King, Jr., and Charlie Stallworth
Strong public schools can transform a community. They have the power to positively affect the economic well-being, public safety, and quality of life of the families who live in them. Sadly, our communities have continuously been plagued with poor-performing schools that fail to prepare our children for higher education and the workplace.
While our country as a whole is failing to compete with the rest of the world in key subjects such as math and science, the situation is even more bleak for students of color. According to a U.S. Department of Education report, there has been no significant change in the Black-White achievement gap for 4th grade mathematics and 8th grade reading since 2005. Moreover, several studies have shown that minority students are more likely to attend lower-performing schools.
We have come too far too accept these dismal results. We can and we must do better.
Today, pastors from across the country are convening in Atlanta for the Faith Leaders National Education Policy Summit. This single-day event, hosted by STAND UP and StudentsFirst, seeks to engage and mobilize faith leaders on the education crisis facing our children and how we can unify the push for change.
In this endeavor, Stand Up has partnered with Church of God in Christ, African Methodist Episcopal, Baptist and other denominations to assemble influential faith leaders for this timely discussion.
Education is the civil rights issue of this generation, especially for Black America. For such a time as this, our communities need the aligned leadership of the religious community to stand together and answer the call for our children.
The church must be the driving force of this revolution.
During the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, the church was more than just a meeting place to discuss strategy – for the surrounding community, the church presented a picture of the freedom being sought. The church cultivated unity amongst members and offered encouragement to persevere in the face of opposition. Most importantly, the church provided key direction and guidance from the pulpit.
Members of the Faith community were not only among the most ardent supporters of the Civil Rights Movement, we assumed most of the leadership positions. And in doing so, faith leaders became the catalyst for eradicating discrimination and injustice in modern America. Today, our children need us more than ever. It is our duty to take on this responsibility.
With the right policies in place, we can educate every child in our communities – no matter what zip code they live in. One of those policies that would achieve this goal is Parent Trigger. Rather than being left without options, parents have the opportunity to engage directly in transforming their children’s school. Parent Trigger empowers parents to assemble, and sign a petition to turn around low-performing public schools. By granting this power to parents, low-performing schools can now be held accountable to the needs of the students, and the communities they serve.
As faith leaders, we must mobilize and employ our collective resources to their fullest potential to ensure that we’re providing all children with equality of opportunity.
We encourage faith leaders across the country to participate in this movement, and check out the STAND UP and StudentsFirst websites to learn more about how to advocate education reforms in your communities.
Parents, we urge you to contact your state legislatures and local leaders, and press them to fight for meaningful education reform measures – our children deserve better.
The future of our children is too important to continue accepting the status quo. The time is now.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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80 comments Add your comment
Renee Lord
September 21st, 2012
10:49 am
We, the electorate, have no one to blame for failing schools but ourselves.
That being said, voting “YES” to Amendment One will allow more options for Georgia’s families to choose the school which best meets their children needs.
catlady
September 21st, 2012
10:50 am
I’m all for taking back our schools–from nonsense-peddlers like Michell Rhee!
RJ
September 21st, 2012
10:56 am
MIchelle Rhee? Really? She’s a proven liar that wasn’t successful in her own classroom, yet we should listen to her advice? I prefer to listen to veteran teachers with a PROVEN track record.
B. Killebrew
September 21st, 2012
11:00 am
Amen, catlady.
JB
September 21st, 2012
11:01 am
sigh.
W. R. Martin
September 21st, 2012
11:03 am
We will never improve our schools until the priests learn to keep their grubby paws away from the schools.
The problems with the schools aren’t that the students, teachers, and administrators don’t kowtow to an imaginary being and need to keep a dozen inconsistent and incongruous thoughts in their heads all day. The problems are much more related to those who think the schools should teach to the test and that teachers should be rewarded for how many students get an A and that the administrators are too quick to side with the whiny parents instead of standing up for the teachers. Little Skippy or Suzie failed? That is the fault of the children and their parents, not the teacher. Skippy wants to be disruptive in class? Skippy gets sent away so the other 30 students can learn.
JB
September 21st, 2012
11:03 am
“I’m all for taking back our schools–from nonsense-peddlers like Michell Rhee!”
Yes!
Ernest
September 21st, 2012
11:08 am
I welcome the church becoming more involved in addressing overall student achievement. I only hope this isn’t for show. While I have an open mind and will listen to almost anyone, put me down for also agreeing with catlady!
Dunwoody Mom
September 21st, 2012
11:14 am
It’s Friday, so I’ll be nice and say “no comment”. But, I agree with catlady as well!
teacher&mom
September 21st, 2012
11:21 am
I’d love to see catlady debate Michelle Rhee….now that would be a “Rhee Event” I’d pay hard-earned cash to see.
If you’ve ever watched Rhee debate an educator, you quickly realize she is all bluster and sound bites with very little substance to back up her talk.
Dave
September 21st, 2012
11:21 am
Soo to summarize, cheating chancellor comes to the cheatingest school disctrict in the country to debate her positions? And shes even cheating on the debte by having her husband moderate. First topic: “Cheating, good or great?”
I_teach
September 21st, 2012
11:34 am
Michelle Rhee overinflated her “success” as a classroom teacher. She taped-yes TAPED-a child’s mouth shut-something teachers may joke about, but never DO, because it is wrong.
After a few years–yes, a few, she rose through the ranks. Disrupted good schools with her “radical, new, improvements.”
For profit companies don’t get it. Michelle Rhee doesn’t get it. She was not well liked by anybody-for a reason.
No one bothers to ask current teachers what’s wrong with education–too bad, because we DO know.
Dunwoody Mom
September 21st, 2012
11:57 am
Has Rhee ever agreed to a debate with someone who holds the opposite views on education? My guess is no, as she would most likely be obliterated in such a debate. Count me in as one would love to see catlady debate Rhee!!!
A reader
September 21st, 2012
12:13 pm
Michelle Rhee has about as much credibility as Beverly Hall.
bootney farnsworth
September 21st, 2012
12:16 pm
I bought into the Rhee hype for awhile, but the long term evidence didn’t work in her favor.
pity she’s not half as smart as she is pretty
Jameson
September 21st, 2012
12:19 pm
How Obama, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, liberals, PBS and the Washington Post helped to create Scott Walker —Undernews.blogspot.com
The serious war on teachers unions didn’t begin in Wisconsin. It was launched by Michelle Rhee and her aforementioned backers. . .
But Rhee couldn’t have done it alone. Then-candidate Barack Obama endorsed Rhee in a 2008 debate as a “wonderful new superintendent” and later applauded the firing of every single unionized teacher at Central Falls High School in Rhode Island.–Washington Post
President Obama voiced support Monday for the mass firings of educators at a failing Rhode Island school, drawing an immediate rebuke from teachers union officials whose members have chafed at some of his education policies.—Washington Post
Libs suffering from misdirected anger.
JudyPA
September 21st, 2012
12:23 pm
@dunwoody mom the only time I ever saw Rhee get flustered was when she was in England a few months ago telling their Prime Minister how to run his schools. In an interview on their TV a unionized educator asked Rhee pointed questions about her firing a principal on public TV; Rhee didn’t have a comeback; the professional wasn’t afraid to go for the jugular.
Wilbur
September 21st, 2012
12:32 pm
Doubling down to attack anyone who does not support the slow moving trainwreck that is public education is a fail strategy for teachers. I get that they would like to protect the status quo but parents and tax payers are fed up and are turning against the public education status quo in increasing numbers. Public education in the US rests on an assumption of a population with roughly homogenous aspirations and values. While once a reality, this is no longer true and the old public education model no longer works. More importantly, it never will again.
Change is needed.
Attacking everyone who demands change will work for a few years but will result in a cataclysmic adjustment in pubic education.
Ernest
September 21st, 2012
12:39 pm
Bootney, I’d like to hear your thoughts on the AJC article today which said the $25 million shortfall at GPC was caused not by fraud, but by chronic overspending and senior leaders’ inattention to finances. I guess this makes the case that President Tricoli was incompetent yet not liable or not reviewing the financial. Maybe Maureen will open a blog on that.
Bernie
September 21st, 2012
12:41 pm
Here we are folks. The Charter School religious push with a side of Liberal Intelligentsia. They are here to encourage you and tell you how to VOTE against your own CHILD’s best interest. The only real solution is a return to Good & Responsible Parenting. If we would ALL make that necessary change, such cheer leaders of DOOM & GLOOM would not have an audience.
Beverly Fraud
September 21st, 2012
12:43 pm
Well she’s nothing if not a supportive wife, given the reports she tried to influence the Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of Americorps, to whitewash an investigation into her future husband’s (Kevin Johnson) inappropriate sexual advances toward Americorp’s volunteers.
Read below and ask yourself, “This is a person we trust to have the best interest of children in mind?”
From Bryon York at the Washington Examiner:
“The basic point of her meeting with me was to tell me what a great guy he was,” Walpin recalls, “and what wonderful work he has done, and that maybe he had made mistakes administratively, but that she thought I should give as much consideration as possible to his good work in deciding what to do.”
Rhee’s visit wasn’t a big success. Not long after the meeting, the Corporation for National and Community Service, which is the agency that oversees AmeriCorps, banned Johnson from receiving any more federal money. Walpin referred the financial allegations, as well as the accusations of sexual misconduct, to the U.S. attorney’s office in Sacramento. St. Hope was eventually ordered to pay back $425,000 of the AmeriCorps cash. Prosecutors took no action on the sexual allegations. Johnson, meanwhile, won the mayor’s race.
In June of this year, President Obama abruptly fired Walpin. The White House was apparently unhappy with the zeal with which he conducted the St. Hope probe.
sneak peek into education
September 21st, 2012
12:44 pm
Please see the attached link that proves our schools are improving. This flies in the face of the rhetoric we constantly hear from the reformers, like Gates, Broad, Rhee etc…. Yes, there is still room for improvement and we should do this by unifying the schools, communities, and parents. Vote NO in November and support the fight to keep our schools our the hands of the profiteers.
http://www.epi.org/publication/bp278/
Former Reagan Republican
September 21st, 2012
12:45 pm
The clergy needs do their job which is the spiritual life of American. Our schools are only as good as the society it serves and the American family is in critical condition. The clergy is failing America.
Beverly Fraud
September 21st, 2012
12:46 pm
Yes and we saw just how “concerned” the Concerned Black Clergy was for the children of Atlanta during the cheating scandal.
And what a wonderful job Bishop Eddie Sandusky has done with the children of DeKalb.
Beverly Fraud
September 21st, 2012
12:47 pm
“And what a wonderful job Bishop Eddie Sandusky has done with the children of DeKalb.”
Actually I think his name is Bishop Eddie Long. Not quite sure why the name Sandusky came to mind. Apologies.
Mortimer Collins
September 21st, 2012
12:50 pm
The “clergy” refuses to request its congregation to take responsbility for their childrens actions.
The “clergy” expects the govt to be the provider of food, chld-care, transportions etc and instruct their congregations accordingly.
The “clergy” is a huge part of the problem.
Karen
September 21st, 2012
12:53 pm
I think this is about the most stupid law and idea yet. My sister teaches in a black school in a low income area. The majority of her students do not care. They are violent, disruptive, and down right disrespectful to her. The few that do care don’t have an opportunity to learn because of the dynamic in the classroom. Detentions, failing grades, and calling their parents doesn’t work. Many parents don’t even have a current phone number on record. Parents blame her – they say she doesn’t know how to teach blacks. The parents are equally belligerent and disrespectful – that’s where the kids learned it. Having these parents take over a school will not change a thing. If the faith leaders stepped up and taught the parents and children about respect – how to respect themselves as well as others – maybe some real change could happen. But new laws, new administration, new curriculum and new standards will not do a thing until children are taught to care, to focus, and to be respectful. The curriculum and materials are there – the attention is not.
Bernie
September 21st, 2012
12:55 pm
I wonder, if Mayor Johnson and his wife would recommending using Georgia Charter school funds, as they used a bit of President Obama’s stimulus money to have city workers of SACRAMENTO to come to their Home too WASH & DETAIL their CARS!
They really Value the cleanliness of their CARS! more than anything!
Follow the money
September 21st, 2012
1:01 pm
This is all about getting tax money to church run schools and others who want to run bogus charter schools. Privatization doesn’t work, period. It is just a bill of goods we were all sold in the 1980’s so the fat cats could get at tax money. It is destroying the Military and has increased costs there dramatically. Now they are going after the schools.
Educating every child is not always easy or pretty but the schools work like trojans to do just that. Mrs. Rhee failed at her efforts despite unwaivering support from a gullible mayor.
Becky Sayler
September 21st, 2012
1:04 pm
I applaud parents who want to become involved in their children’s schools. However, people like Michelle Rhee who “shoot now, aim later” with questionable policies are not going to help.
Tom Joad
September 21st, 2012
1:07 pm
Education is not the civil rights issue of our time. Civil rights is the civil rights issue of our time. What about equitable access to descent housing? Equitable access to health care? Equitable access to a living wage? Equitable access to justice? If we address these issues in our society the education issue will solve itself.
Dr. John Trotter
September 21st, 2012
1:18 pm
How many times have I said it? Michelle Rhee is one of the biggest educational hypocrites in the country…along Arne Duncan and Mark Elgart. Phoney or hypocrite. Whatever you want to call her. Her stuff ain’t real, and naive legislators and educrats line up to kiss her posterior. Ha!
Batgirl
September 21st, 2012
1:24 pm
Are Michelle Rhee’s fifteen minutes not over? And why is she smiling?
Frankie
September 21st, 2012
1:30 pm
MIchelle Rhee is a Joke…see us Democrats don’t like all Democrats…
They had to change the qulifications from Superintendent of DC Schools to Chancellor inorder to qualify Rhee..
Frankie
September 21st, 2012
1:30 pm
Kathy Cox will be the next article you read about, birds of a feather and all….
Mortimer Collins
September 21st, 2012
1:32 pm
Tom Joad
September 21st, 2012
1:07 pm
Well spoken. I like the part about equitable access to communism!!
Mary Ann
September 21st, 2012
1:44 pm
Honest question here; I’d love to hear other commenters’ thoughts. Research has clearly demonstrated that regardless of income, socioeconomic status, race or ethnicity, the students at successful public schools tend to have parents who are actively involved with their education. There are lots of reasons that parents may be uninvolved with their children’s schooling– poverty, substance abuse, ignorance, mental illness, cultural attitudes that do not value education, and so on. Most of these factors cannot be impacted by schools in our current set-up, no matter how adept the teachers or how talented and dedicated the administration is. How will diverting even more resources to the children of parents who care and who will agitate for change help the kids left behind, who have no champions? Those kids are the ones who are truly in the greatest need.
As an involved, stereotypically-intown-yuppie parent, I like Rhee’s ideas– how great to be able to only accept the very best for my children! However, I wonder how effective such policies will be for the kids who don’t have a parent/guardian with the time, interest, and social and financial capital to fight for them, who are the ones most truly in need. If I am honest with myself those kids are no less valuable or deserving than my own, and they too have a right to the best education we can give them– and arguably a greater need for it.
How do we avoid creating a permanent underclass of throw-away kids who then are unequipped to help their own kids succeed?
Mary Elizabeth
September 21st, 2012
1:50 pm
I would encourage all readers to check out Jim Galloway’s “Political Insider” column regarding the poll taken to assess the charter school movement in Georgia, entitled, “Your morning jolt: Charter school support holds steady at 58 percent,” September 19, 2012. Galloway writes in his opening line, “The forces behind Georgia’s charter school amendment to the state constitution are out with a new poll this morning that shows voters still comfortably in favor of the measure.”
As the last poster on that thread, I suggested that readers to check out information about this polling group at this link: http://www.mclaughlinonline.com/5
There, readers will learn that this is a Republican polling group, not a non-partisan one. On the polling group’s website are these words: “The Washington Times cites McLaughlin and Associates as one of the best Republican polling firms.” Among its clients are Georgia’s Gov. Nathan Deal and Lt. Govenor Casey Cagle. The CEO and Partner John McLaughlin writes on the “Home Page” of this website that his firm had been “working with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor to help him win a majority in Congress.”
This polling group, evidently then, acts to help clients win elections, not simply to give them polling results. Moreover, in previewing the questions that this polling group submitted to Georgians on the constitutional amendment (from the link provided on that Galloway thread), I found the questions to be quite leading in promoting the value of this constitutional amendment. That is my opinion. It is, also, my opinion that the Republican leaders in Georgia have actively engaged in establishing within Georgia educational policies that are very similar to those advocated by national Republican ideologues of power and influence.
William Casey
September 21st, 2012
1:55 pm
You can almost take it to the bank— if you have heard of an “educator” through the media, that person is a hoax if not a charlatan.
Michele
September 21st, 2012
2:07 pm
We do not need clergy involvement in the education system. If all the clergy in America had been doing their job over the past decades, the United States and Georgia would not be experiencing the effects of the horrific culture we are experiencing in our parents and children where the sense of entitlement is the overwhelming factor in student’s minds. Religious leaders have failed America in their rearing of our youth, so why in the world would you want them to take over education?
MAY
September 21st, 2012
2:10 pm
It’s amazing how many people want the system to continue spiraling downward. Don’t let someone come clean house, don’t open charter schools, forget parent triggers, cry over cut funding (wish those folks could say something like ’see we dropped from 35 to 48 but they can’t because we remain at the bottom during good times and bad). Then they say ‘all we need more parental involvement’….but it’s the parents supporting all of these ideas. It’s really ‘we want parents to make copies for us and come to parent teacher conferences but don’t you dare say we should do anything differently’. Parents are involved and tired of the bureaucracy. They’re ready to hear anyone say they’re listening and want to help. Here’s the action (not words) we can take.
C Jae of EAV
September 21st, 2012
2:13 pm
Panel forums like described in this blog thread would be much more effective if they were not organized as pep rallys.
There are many parents (like myself) and other concerned community stakeholders who are seeking real dialogue concerning the issues of the day related to public education governance and fiscal management.
Unfortunately all we manage to get are carefully crafted commericals that rarely involve tough questions posed to both sides of the debate in tandom.
teacher&mom
September 21st, 2012
2:34 pm
@JudyPA: Here’s a link to the BBC video
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18592185
Beverly Fraud
September 21st, 2012
2:54 pm
Maureen, why not have the AJC invite Dr. Trotter to one of your panel discussions (make it inclusive, invite PAGE and GAE as well). Maybe along with Mark Elgart of SACS?
Beverly Fraud
September 21st, 2012
2:59 pm
“The movie screening and panel are part of the summit program, which is not open to the public.”
These are people who claim they just want to give power to “the public” when it comes to education?
Anybody else notice the irony?
Mountain Man
September 21st, 2012
2:59 pm
I think we need to take back the schools – from the “no-gonads” administrators, the “helicopter” Parents, and the “do more with a LOT less” legislators, and the “don’t care” students.
dc
September 21st, 2012
3:01 pm
There we go…full throat choke attack on Rhee, and completely ignore the real issue…that poor children who want to learn and improve their lot in life desperately need an option to their local failing school – where they’ll be dragged down by the thugs who don’t want to learn, and ridicule (or worse) those who do.
Again..this is why more and more folks are coming down on teachers unions and organizations that fight “reform” at all costs. The willingness to ignore the real issue, and focus on BS, is killing our kids. The only option appears to be to get control of our public education funding away from the educracracy, and give it to people who will get back to the basics…that being a focus on the student, and helping them become all they can become.
Mike
September 21st, 2012
3:03 pm
The church wants to have some control of the schools? Does that mean they will allow the Department of Education to have some control of their Sunday school classes too? Let’s start insisting the Sunday school classes teach scientific theory about geology, evolution, and the capacity of weather systems to flood an entire planet.
Sounds like a fair trade. Oh, and about those property taxes. Some of those churches must be sitting on millions of dollars worth of property.
So we have a deal: You get some influence into how the schools are run, and we get to influence how your classes are run, along with your share of property taxes.
Educational funding problem solved.
Mountain Man
September 21st, 2012
3:04 pm
“Parents blame her – they say she doesn’t know how to teach blacks. ”
Who does? Certainly other black teachers have not succeeded.
(to make sure people don’t think I am racially prejudiced, I should have said “teach low socio-economic status individuals”, that is what it is REALLY about anyway – unfortunately a lot of blacks fall in that category.)
Mountain Man
September 21st, 2012
3:09 pm
“that poor children who want to learn and improve their lot in life desperately need an option to their local failing school – where they’ll be dragged down by the thugs who don’t want to learn, and ridicule (or worse) those who do. ”
These poor children definitely need a solution to their problem – but the solution can be that these thugs and others should be removed from the standard public school – not that the good students need to remove themselves.
Just A Teacher
September 21st, 2012
3:19 pm
the only way we are ever going to equal opportunity for all students is to stop all this nonsense about race and achievement. We need to stop looking at students as members of this group or that group and focus on them as individuals. If Tommy doesn’t study, Tommy won’t pass his classes. It doesn’t matter if Tommy is black, white, brown or purple. I treat my students the same no matter what their race, and I believe all educators would be well advised to do the same. It’s not difficult. Just demand excellence from every student.
Just A Teacher
September 21st, 2012
3:19 pm
Sorry about the typos, but I think you get my point.
bootney farnsworth
September 21st, 2012
3:28 pm
like anyone else, clergy have a role and voice in public education. hence the word public ..
but the best place they can make a difference is doing their part to help parents and kids understand
their path to success comes from hard work and good citizenship, not hanging out, keepin’ it “real”,
and acting like thugs in general
Bernie
September 21st, 2012
3:28 pm
To Lonnie C. King, Jr. of Atlanta, a founding member of Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee and Connecticut state Rep. Charlie L. Stallworth.
The SUPPORT and ADVOCACY of a Charter School Plan is in NO way a better Plan for the millions of African American,Hispanic and Latino Students in Georgia,their families nor their communities. This is a planned SUICIDE event, that would even further decimate the meager educational achievements they currently enjoy. A Blind MAN can see that.
How much Money is ENOUGH for either of YOU, to betray your own people and community in support of such a plan?
10:10 am
September 21st, 2012
4:34 pm
One of this blog’s RARE efforts at understanding the perspective of victims—of the anti-reform, anti-choice union bloc which daily fills these columns with self-centered rhetoric.
Tony
September 21st, 2012
4:39 pm
Maureen, you and the rest of the media need to cast a more critical eye on all the gloom and doom educational statistics like the ones put forth in this blog. There is much evidence that the information is at best misleading and at worst outright lies. People like Rhee are out to profit by pushin an agenda that sounds like it is child friendly when in fact it will rob many children of the chances for a good public education. Her agenda will enrich her friends and the ones who bankroll her appearances if people continue to buy into it.
People like you need to stand up to the hype and dig for the truth. She needs to be exposed for the fraud that she really is.
Disgusted
September 21st, 2012
4:59 pm
Rhee needs to get a real job and quit creating ridiculous organizations that do nothing good for children but only serve her own interests.
bootney farnsworth
September 21st, 2012
5:21 pm
@Ernest
about GPC: for the most part the auditors discovered sand at the beach. while I’d have not been surprised to find fraud, I was pretty sure it was what it was.
a bunch of people spending like they had it to spend, and the bill came due. I doubt Tricoli thought he would be around with the Titanic hit the iceberg, which is my guess to why he just didn’t seem to care.
for all of us, the bigger question is why the USG alleges they knew nothing. that I don’t buy-not at all.
try these links for interesting reading:
http://www.collegiannews.com/2012/09/board-of-regents-gpcs-fiscal-challenges-were-preventable/
http://www.collegiannews.com/2012/08/dismissed-what-they-havent-told-you-about-tricolis-resignation/
sorta blows big holes in the nobody new nothing line
jsmith
September 21st, 2012
5:30 pm
everyday we read about studies about failing schools and why they are failng and what we need to do to fix the problem…. well , how about this for a case study: some kids are Genetically Inferior……. the fact is that some people are too stupd to learn and the fact that our teachers have to waste time trying to teach dumb kids that will never learn and are not capable of it, meanwhile the kids that are smart and capable of great things can not reach their potential because the teachers cant spend enough time on them because they are bogged down trying to reach genetically stupid kids..
bootney farnsworth
September 21st, 2012
5:47 pm
err, nobody knew nothing
too much caffeine
Pride and Joy
September 21st, 2012
5:50 pm
In APS PULL THE TRIGGER!
The Collegian
September 21st, 2012
6:11 pm
@ bootney farnsworth
Thank you for posting the links, we were curious why there was traffic coming from this conference.
We are avidly pursing the “nobody knew nothing” claim.
Stay tuned, more to come.
http://www.collegiannews.com
Ron F.
September 21st, 2012
6:14 pm
All the school reform in the world WILL NOT succeed until we reform the communities the schools serve. In 55 minutes a day, I offer all the curriculum there is to offer, I try to reach kids who society has labeled unreachable, and I can only be so much of an influence. A child is away from school many more hours than he is in it, and the societal pressures and reality of poverty are way bigger problems than any amount of school reform can fix. I can’t stop a child from joining a gang unless I adopt him and put him in a different family environment. Even then, he still has to choose. We can fire all the teachers, replace them with new, and the problems in society will not improve until community leaders and parents decide to make the change. Gut the schools, make them all charters, replace every teacher, and you’ll still have the same kids with the same needs and issues. We have to think beyond the school to the community. And the church leaders are one source of influence we have to work with in order to see substantive change.
I love my kids, flaws and all, and I love the challenge they present me each day. I, like many of my colleagues, do my best to influence their way of thinking about life and their place in the world. But then I have to send them home where that influence either grows or is cut short by the social environment that makes up their reality. What else can I do?
My2Cents
September 21st, 2012
9:17 pm
What, another gimmick that will supposedly take the place of plain, simple classes and learning. Are our educators that simple minded? Well, yes. How much will this one cost us and how far back will our children fall?
Get Educated
September 21st, 2012
10:34 pm
Vote no on amendment 1 on Nov 6. Rhee and other for profit corporations are behind it. And oh yes. No parental involvement required or wanted.
RAMZAD
September 21st, 2012
10:34 pm
All these low quality teachers are coming out to discredit Michelle Rhee.
Of course, they like the status quo, where they can drive their Mercedes and BMW to “teach” at schools where the students don’t learn and warehouse our human resources into mediocrity.
That is ok. These so called educators’ days are numbered. We are going to dismantle the public school system from around these louts- wherever they make their parasitic nests.
bootney farnsworth
September 22nd, 2012
12:01 am
we get Mercedes and BMWs?
damn-I musta been using my 8300 sick days and missed the giveaway
bootney farnsworth
September 22nd, 2012
12:02 am
@ jsmith
is your post an admission on your part?
abacus2
September 22nd, 2012
7:47 am
I have a BMW? I thought it was a Nissan Cube (bought used). Catlady vs. Rhee, YES!
Just A Teacher
September 22nd, 2012
8:04 am
@RAMZAD . . . First let me say that Michelle Rhee doesn’t need my help to be discredited; she’s done a good enough job of that, herself. Secondly, I am not a low quality teacher; my students have won numerous academic championships. Finally, would you please remind me where I parked my BMW? Is it over there behind the 10 year old Buick in the driveway?
Ron F.
September 22nd, 2012
9:14 am
Just a Teacher: I think I saw one over next to my 12 yr. old Honda…oh, wait, that’s the car Rhee rented at the airport. My bad!
Ron F.
September 22nd, 2012
9:21 am
Encouraging community activism is important to improving education. I’ve said many times that working through churches and other organizations where the base of a community is located is important. The message here is what’s wrong. Instead of focusing the energy and angst on how to fix the community (which will take lot of effort and time), they choose to focus on the schools, as if they are responsible for the sad state of the communities where failing schools are located. Do we need to change and improve? Absolutely, but we have to look at everything that needs to change in order to succeed. Make every school a charter school; you might, and I say might, see some improvement in test scores. But you won’t suddenly see gang membership disappear; you won’t see families suddenly focus on their children; you won’t see the stability and structure kids need outside of school suddenly begin. All the school reform in the world can’t fix those problems.
Mary Elizabeth
September 22nd, 2012
9:37 am
An excerpt from the article entitled, “Complaint filed in charter school fight,” which appears on the front page of today’s AJC:
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“An Atlanta attorney contends Georgia Superintendent John Barge and the school superintendents in Fulton County and Atlanta are illegally using taxpayer money and time to lobby aginst a proposed constitutional amendment on charter schools.
His letter to the state Board of Education is the latest sign of the deep contention over the proposed amendment. The battle has been fierce, drawing interest – and hundreds of thousands in campaign donations – from across the country. Barge angered amendment backers in August when he announced his opposition. Gov. Natthan Deal has spoken in favor of it.
The attorney, Glenn Delk, asked the state board to hold an emergency meeting on his allegations and determine if state funds should be withheld from local school boards if they have violated state law.
The board held a previously scheduled budget meeting Friday and did not publicly address Delk’s allegations. It said it would forward the letter to the state attorney general for guidance.
Barge declined, through a spokesman, to comment on the letter. ‘Because this is a potential litigation issue, it would be unwise for us to comment on it at the moment,’ said Matt Cardoza of the Georgia Department of Education.
Fulton County Superientendent Robert Avossa and Atlanta Superintendent Erroll Davis denied breadking state laws.
‘I view this as a sophomoric attempt at intimidation,’ Davis said, adding that officials in his district ‘are neither intimidated nor concerned about these baseless allegations.’ ”
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This is more indication, to me, that the proposed constitutional amendment on charter schools is more about politics than about education. Thus, I will NOT be voting for this amendment in November. Intimidation (if that is what is behind this, as Davis voiced) has no place in education, in my opinion, as a retired teacher of 35 years in education.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
September 22nd, 2012
10:43 am
From Huffington Post:
Metro Nashville Public Schools Losing $3.4 Million After School Board Fails To Comply With Tennessee Charter School Law
The Tennessee Department of Education is withholding $3.4 million of non-classroom, administrative funding from Metro Nashville Public Schools due to the school board’s failure to comply with the state’s charter school law, the Jackson Sun reports.
Last week, the Metro Nashville school board disobeyed an order by the state Board of Education to approve an application from the Phoenix-based Great Hearts Academies, which it had already twice rejected.
The Associated Press reports that members of the school board raised concerns that the proposed charter school planned to draw from affluent white families, as opposed to cultivating a more diverse student body. They voted 5-4 to deny Great Hearts’ application, ignoring a unanimous order from the state school board to approve it.
The charter school has since dropped its effort to open a school in Tennessee, the Tennessean reports.
According to the Jackson Sun, Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman said the funding was withheld as a result of the board “brazenly violating the law” that enables the state panel to have supreme authority when it comes to charter school applications….”
Full story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/20/state-funding-withheld-fr_n_1901174.html?utm_hp_ref=education
So a local school board raises what appears to be a legitimate concern about a Charter, and gets “punished” because the state has decided it should be approved. I hope they follow this up and find out WHY the state is so intent on over-ruling local control in this case.
I also wonder how long it will take for something like this to happen in Georgia if the Charter Amendment passes.
Pride and Joy
September 22nd, 2012
11:07 am
Based on her 10:43 post, itt looks like I love teaching thinks only poor and black children deserve good schools. TN denied a charter school because it included white affluent families to which I say….so what?
White affluent kids deserve a good school as well as poor black children.
And let’s get real here — EVERYONE benefits when affluent white children are in a school because it means they have involved, caring white parents to support the school.
To many here on these blogs, it is a crime to be white and affluent.
Ron F.
September 22nd, 2012
11:09 am
@I love teaching: if the amendment in Georgia passes, those schools approved by the commission won’t receive local funds and will be independent state schools. So if a local district denies the application and the state commission approves it, the school opens, funded solely by the state. Local parents and students get the school they want, and the state becomes the sole authority over its establishment and survival. It becomes a way for a group of parents in a district to establish a school without local approval. The downside is, of course, is that they lose eligibility for local funds and potentially set up an adverasarial relationship with local school boards that could provide much needed funds for them. This, as I see it, is one point the legislature wants to use to its advantage. Considering the financial condition of even successful districts at this point, there is very little likelihood of approving additional expenses for a charter school when the current budget is completely used up. The legislature will then have what it wants- a parallel system of schools that it funds and controls without any local board input. This is a political end-run around the constitutional emphasis on local systems establishing and maintianing schools with state funds. In places like Dekalb, it might just be a good thing. In many areas, it will end up being a way to separate certain groups with taxpayer funds (look at Pataula Charter in Baker county whose population is very disproportionate compared to the districts it serves).
What happens next is the scary part. When the state obligation to its charter schools begins stretching the budget, the state will have to find funds to keep them open. Well, unless there’s a pot of gold somewhere the state hasn’t revealed, my bet is that they’ll find more “austerity” cuts they just HAVE to make, and I’ll bet the farm they cut public education funding even more. And that’s the ultimate goal- to simply remove the state from any funding obligation to established public education as we know it.
Those who argue in favor of charter schools point out that local money gets to stay with the local public schools. In the short term, that sounds good. That’s another reason I think the legislature wants the commission schools as an excuse to further reduce state funding for education. Those systems that could manage to keep some schools open with less state funding could survive in some form, but probably not in the long haul. As the situation worsens, the state will “offer” to come in and help convert those systems to state charter schools and probably convince voters to allow locally generated tax dollars to be “managed” by charter school boards. Then they’ll have a system of state controlled schools receiving funds from local tax payers who have no idea they’ve ironically given up local control to a large extent.
Baruch
September 22nd, 2012
1:34 pm
Rhee is a right wing operative. Her agenda is privatization and dumbing down/. She is receiving support from both the dems and reps because their agenda is basically the same; turning us all into slaves for the 1%. Don’t be fooled by Rhee’s appearance or rhetoric. She’s a very skilled propagandist.
I love teaching. I hate what it is becoming...
September 22nd, 2012
3:16 pm
@Pride and Joy “Based on her 10:43 post, itt looks like I love teaching thinks only poor and black children deserve good schools. TN denied a charter school because it included white affluent families to which I say….so what?
You excell at totally twisting words and arguments around to suit your purpose. It is truly a talent. You should go into politics or become a lawyer.
The concern was that the school was not going to reflect the diverse nature of the district it seved. It was deliberately seeking to engage in practices which would encourge attendance by a majority of affluent white families in a district that had a much more diverse population. Again, if Charters are truly public school using public money, they must serve EVERYONE – not just the affluent, white families.
And before someone comes back and tells me that Charters “have to accept” everyone, check out this little tidbit:
From The Notebook
http://thenotebook.org/blog/125141/district-details-questionable-application-processes-green-woods-other-charters
Questionable application processes at Green Woods, other charter schools
“For years, parents have had to jump through astonishing hoops to apply to the popular Green Woods Charter School in Northwest Philadelphia.
Interested families couldn’t find Green Woods’ application online. They couldn’t request a copy in the mail. In fact, they couldn’t even pick up a copy at the school.
Instead, Green Woods made its application available only one day each year. Even then, the application was only given to families who attended the school’s open house – which most recently has been held at a private golf club in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Green Woods CEO Jean Wallace declined to be interviewed. In an email, she lauded her school’s “very transparent and very collaborative working relationship” with the District’s Office of Charter Schools, which oversees Philadelphia charters.
But this spring, that very office found that Green Woods and 17 other charters seeking renewal imposed “significant barriers to entry” on families. Some, like Green Woods, went to extraordinary lengths to limit access to applications. Others, like Eastern University Academy in East Falls, made onerous and sometimes illegal requests from applicants for everything from typed book reports to proof of U.S. citizenship…..
Given the resources and resourcefulness families needed just to obtain an application, it’s no surprise that Green Woods has one of the whitest, most affluent student bodies in the city. In 2010-11, almost 80 percent of Green Woods students were White. Just 17 percent were eligible for a free or reduced price lunch, the lowest poverty rate of any public school in the city.
Other schools determined by the District to have significant barriers to entry have similarly unrepresentative student bodies. According to the documents obtained by ELC, Laboratory Charter and Planet Abacus – both founded and operated by Dorothy June Brown, now under federal indictment on multimillion-dollar fraud charges – also mandated that their applications could only be completed at open houses.
The forms were not available in languages other than English, and applicants were asked to provide their race, eligibility for free lunch, birth certificate, baptismal certificate, and names of their parents’ employers, among other information.
According to its 2011 annual report, just three students at Planet Abacus received special education services. The report for Laboratory Charter said the number of special education students was “N/A,” or “not applicable.”
So, don’t tell me Charters can’t manage to cherry pick their students. They obviously can and do…not all of them, but enough that is it disingenuous to suggest they serve the same student body as a traditional public school.
I understand parents desire to remove their children from school situations in which violent or disinterest students disrupt the learning environment, but engaged students come from all SES and racial groups – not just the affluent and the white. And why not put an effort into getting the repeat offenders OUT of the traditional public schools, rather than just siphoning off those students whose parents have the means to send their children to charters and private schools?
How about opening up “alternative” schools for those children with discipline issues? Schools with small class sizes and additional counseling resources?
Cost too much I suppose. Too much money spent on the “undesirables” in our society.
Truth in Moderation
September 23rd, 2012
9:52 pm
“As the situation worsens, the state will “offer” to come in and help convert those systems to state charter schools and probably convince voters to allow locally generated tax dollars to be “managed” by charter school boards. Then they’ll have a system of state controlled schools receiving funds from local tax payers who have no idea they’ve ironically given up local control to a large extent.”
@Ron F…. You are absolutely correct. State controlled charter schools have been in the works since the ’90’s. It’s a bait and switch.
GP Youth
September 25th, 2012
1:08 pm
Glad to see Michelle in church. Has a lot of praying to do and so does Kevin.