Guest column: Only six of 10 kindergartners will graduate high school. Vote “yes” on charter amendment to improve their chances.
Here is a pro piece in favor of the charter schools amendment by Atlanta educator Tyler S. Thigpen.
Thigpen is Head of Upper School at Mount Vernon Presbyterian School in Sandy Springs. A former teacher in Gwinnett County, Thigpen is co-founder of the Chattahoochee Hills Charter School of SW Fulton and continues as a voluntary adviser to the school.
By Tyler S. Thigpen
Money and control are at the heart of the current debate about our state’s upcoming charter school vote, critics argue, while innovation, choice, and opportunity are king for amendment supporters. But there is another, and more urgent, narrative that should move us when we vote next week: We are in desperate need of stronger leadership and higher standards in Georgia k-12 education.
Let us create a statistical snapshot of 10 children who entered kindergarten in Atlanta this year. These darling children have since been sounding out letters, singing songs, and writing the alphabet. It does not take more than a classroom visit to see that that their minds are open, their futures bright.
But if nothing changes in our schools, then by the time these 10 kindergarteners are 18, only six of them will have graduated from high school. And by the time these same young people are 21 years old, only two of them will have graduated from college.
Ten kindergarteners. Six high school graduates. Two college graduates.
Statistics statewide are equally as dismal, the Chronicle of Higher Education reports, with a mere 24 percent graduating from college.
That is, of course, if nothing changes.
What has been absent from the recent conversation about charter schools is that when the state-appointed Charter Schools Commission, in its day, authorized charter schools, in every instance the commission held its schools to a standard higher than the one to which their local district held neighboring schools.
When we applied for charter status for Chattahoochee Hills Charter School, we had to demonstrate our commitment and plan to outpace Fulton County Schools in absolute terms (that the percentage of our students scoring advanced or proficient on end-of-grade tests was greater than in other schools in FCS), in comparative terms (that we outperformed other FCS schools with similar demographic profiles), and in longitudinal terms (that the percentage score of individual students in our school increased over time at a rate greater than at other). Schools lacking either a similar plan or the expertise to execute did not make it past the first round.
The commission also has a track record of meaning what they say, having denied the reauthorization of underperforming charters like Imagine Marietta and West Chatham Preparatory Academy. Moreover, the commission was made up of uniquely qualified educational leaders, including a former University of Georgia president, who, unlike elected officials who navigate competing priorities, could be focused singularly on academic achievement.
Few to none would deny that what Georgia needs is 10-10-10. Ten kindergarteners. Ten high school graduates. Ten college graduates.
Every sector of our economy stands to benefit from achieving this goal. Business savvy college graduates will populate our state’s corporations. Well-trained administrators will fill our state’s public offices. Shrewd alumni will enter and positively shape finance, law, housing, and health.Georgia boasts the busiest airport in the world, the fourth busiest port in the United States, and, if Georgia were a stand-alone country, the 28th largest economy in the world. As a state, we are economically ambitious, yet we remain academically underperforming.
Within 10 years, more than 60 percent of jobs will require a college degree. Already, most new Atlanta jobs require higher education. And these jobs are quickly outpacing the number of college graduates that our state is producing.
In “Immunity To Change,” authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey suggest that at this moment in history, we are experiencing a mismatch between the world’s complexity and our own. To fix it, we can try and reduce the world’s complexity, or we can enhance our capacity to manage that complexity. The first won’t happen. The second, they argue, has long seemed an impossibility of adulthood and something too difficult to achieve in our schools.
But failing to prepare our children to navigate a 21st century marketplace is not a valid option. And 10-6-2 is absolutely unacceptable. We must confront complexity head on.
After the Georgia General Assembly established the Georgia Charter Commission in 2008, national leaders lauded our representatives for positioning the state to experience academic innovation and growth, and high-performing school leaders were drawn to Georgia where they have launched successful schools.
Charter schools are not a panacea. But they are a mechanism for change. And in a state where 10-6-2 is the reality, change is sorely needed. More school leaders in Georgia should be thinking about how to outperform neighboring schools and outdo their own growth year after year. And we need state leaders who demand it.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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141 comments Add your comment
Rafe Hollister
November 2nd, 2012
8:00 pm
I’m voting yes, trying to save the kids I can. The theory that we can save them all is not working, has never worked, and never will work. The ones who want to learn and have parents that support them deserve better than what they currently have to suffer through. As long as we are not discriminating and give everyone the opportunity to take advantage of a better way, we owe it to the kids to do so.
10:10 am
November 2nd, 2012
8:03 pm
I too voted “yes” on the charter-school amendment.
While the money being squandered in an anti-reform crusade by local NEA affiliates would have been more than enough to ensure my antipathy—Kyle Wingfield’s several excellent columns on the topic give substance to arguments in favor of the amendment.
ref: http://blogs.ajc.com/kyle-wingfield/2012/10/26/follow-the-money-for-anti-charter-amendment-campaign-too/
Private Citizen
November 2nd, 2012
8:07 pm
Pride and Joy I accept the challenge to be realistic.
The prison population was increased primarily by public policy changes causing more prison sentences and lengthening time served, e.g. through mandatory minimum sentencing, “three strikes” laws, and reductions in the availability of parole or early release. These policies were championed as protecting the public from serious and violent offenders, but instead yielded high rates of confinement for nonviolent offenders. Nearly three quarters of new admissions to state prison were convicted of nonviolent crimes.
Pride and Joy, you may brace yourself for the red ink in the chart at the top of this link. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_States The curve on increased incarceration looks like the side of a witch hat – sharp angle straight up. This is completely crazy. Incarcerating people has been turned into big business, big for-profit business. It is difficult to relate to but we must own it. It is being done in our country. And think of the amount of money being spent to cage these non-violent offenders although, according to the link, the incarceration rate is being marketed as protecting the public from violent offenders.
U.S. has experienced a surge in its prison population, quadrupling since 1980, partially as a result of mandatory sentencing that came about during the “war on drugs.” Violent crime and property crime have declined since the early 1990s
teaching taxpayer
November 2nd, 2012
8:17 pm
I support charter schools, and I wish I could vote for Amendment 1. Our legislature and governor could have given us an amendment that would let the VOTERS elect the people who spend our tax dollars on state charter schools. But no. Amendment 1 would let Nathan Deal APPOINT his cronies to spend taxpayer money. Vote NO to unelected, unaccountable Deal cronies spending YOUR money!
Private Citizen
November 2nd, 2012
8:21 pm
PS One day was a heavy pouring rain. I was waiting it out a little under the awning of a store so as hopefully not to get drenched going to the car. While waiting I talked to a fine fit and good natured young man. He said he had just gotten out of jail. I asked him about it and he said he had been in jail for six months due to the police finding one “joint” in his car. I immediately winced when I thought of the implications for his future work, having this weight around his neck.
Meanwhile other countries decriminalize this type of drug use, and / or allow people to grow their own marijuana at home for personal consumption. I’ve got no use for such drugs personally, but I admire countries that shephard their money and exercise care that money is spent in a way to care for their populace, as opposed to what I think of as harassing and punishing people according to a system that has now been made to profit stock-holders in prison companies, which is completely immoral when looked at with the incarceration policies and recent 4x increase in prison population. In many ways, it tracks with the increase in testing that results in money paid out to for-profit testing companies. During the same time period that the prison population has increased x4, the amount of testing in schools has increased x4. I wish Mr. Barge could connect these concepts and apply real meaning to them, but for some reason that I will not ever understand, “guys like him” (no disrespect intended) seem to go along with this stuff even in contrast what any sane systems engineer or analyst would determine as a startling, expensive, and connected system that is soaking the populace for money, penalizing simple souls, and being immorally used for gain by the few individuals willing to exploit these means.
Janet
November 2nd, 2012
8:31 pm
It seems a large part of the argument is that kids in, for lack of a better word, “crappy” schools will get a better education in a charter because the worthless un-involved parents and their apathathetic and often violent offspring won’t bother to transfer to a charter. Thus, leaving it for those who care about education.
That theory does make sense… in the short term. But I would think eventually there would me mass consoidations of the traditional public schools due to lack of enrollment/cost saving measures which would lead to alot of kids having to be bussed really long distances. Wouldn’t eventually those “bad seeds” start to make the switch to charters rather than be bussed all the way across town to the next closest “crappy” traditional school.
I haven’t heard anyone talking about how all of this might play out in the long term. It seems naive to me to think that the “bad kids” will just stay in the “bad schools” forever. Also, I think eventually there is a potential for lawsuits reguarding fairness and equality in the quality of publicly funded education. My point is, I don’t think the “bad kids/parents” will stay in the shadows forever.
mountain man
November 2nd, 2012
8:45 pm
“My point is, I don’t think the “bad kids/parents” will stay in the shadows forever.”
MY hope is that the charter schools would have the ability (and the willpower) to actually enforce discipline and attendance rules, and would retain students who fail a grade – things that “traditional” schools won’t do. Bad kids/ bad parents can try to get into charterss, but to stay there they will have to accept and live within the rules. Like they should be doing in “traditional” schools.
Private Citizen
November 2nd, 2012
8:58 pm
Unrelated to education, the U. S. also needs to take responsibility for the havoc being wreaked in Mexico due to U. S. drug consumption. This could be largely remedied by producing the drugs in the U. S. Similarly, there is an area of Canada that produces a lot of marijuana that is imported to the U. S. This area of Canada is already wealthy due to abundant natural resources, timber, etc. and they’re laughing all the way to the bank with the huge influx of money due to producing marijuana to meet the American demand for the product.
Related to education, if the drug prohibitions were figured out and taxed and U. S. drug use treated as a public health issue, this would go a long way toward providing money to fund both health care and education, although it would require a reconceptualization of local law enforcement who have been trained to prosecute personal-use drug offenders. If you want better and resourced schools, I think it would literally “pay” to take an interest in these issues. The U. S. appetite for illicit drugs and in particular “soft drugs” i.e. marijuana is not reducing. Would make more sense to decriminalize and tax it, stop spending money incarcerating people for personal soft-drug use, and take responsibility on the gang war mayhem in Mexico that is the direct result of U. S. drug consumption. It’s the only right, correct, and responsible thing to do. With drugs treated as a public health issue, this is the sole way for drug use to lessen and to take the steam out of the appeal of use. The distinction between “soft” drugs and “hard” drugs is that soft drugs do not particularly injure people, whereas hard drugs seriously injure the users. Currently we are spending an awful lot of money incarcerating soft drug users and additionally losing the tax monies that can be made by regulating distribution. And there is the additional moral responsibility that U. S. drug consumption is putting real hardship on the people of Mexico. I used to enjoy crossing the border to have lunch to do tourist shopping. Now I would not do so for fear of getting machined gunned by a drug supply gang.
In addition to exploiting resources for the public good, there is also the added benefit that decriminalizing soft drugs would make for less of the “Red Dog” approach to policing. Currently in a lot of places in the U. S., you’re taking your life in your hands if you call 911 for a legitimate reason. There is no telling what can happen when the amped up police show up, trained as they have been to use swat tactics for many situations. I’m thankful that the police are mostly still community oriented where I live, but many places this is not the case.
Private Citizen
November 2nd, 2012
9:12 pm
And I quoth:
“This excerpt was taken from abcnews.com:
Contrasting government figures for traditional crops — like corn and wheat — against the study’s projections for marijuana production, the report cites marijuana as the top cash crop in 12 states and among the top three cash crops in 30.
The study estimates that marijuana production, at a value of $35.8 billion, exceeds the combined value of corn ($23.3 billion) and wheat ($7.5 billion).”
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_much_money_is_spent_on_marijuana_yearly
________________________
Imagine the revenue dollars available by managing, regulating, and taxing distribution and keeping the production in the United States, as well as money saved from stopping the incarceration of personal use of soft drugs. Might be time for a little savoir faire (know how) on the subject. It’s your country and it’s your money.
Private Citizen
November 2nd, 2012
9:22 pm
Larry King agrees. http://video.answers.com/larry-king-on-marijuana-legalization-517496502
mountain man
November 2nd, 2012
9:23 pm
Private Citizen – I am torn about the legalization of drugs. I would like to see “soft” drugs legalized, but my only issue is that we have not effectively dealt with our current legal drug of choice – alcohol. Too many people are dying every day from the effects of this legal drug.
Legalization would help with the subsidiary effects of drug use – burglary and other crimes in order to get illegal drugs – maybe.
mountain man
November 2nd, 2012
9:26 pm
For example – how would you set legal limits on being under the influence of marijuana? Or cocaine?
M Phillips
November 2nd, 2012
9:43 pm
I firmly believe this is step one to completely dismantle public education. Vouchers didn’t work, so now it’s charter schools. Charters are not a cure-all. There are great charters, just like there are great public schools. The people in favor of this amendment claim to be small government advocates…until the smallest level of government disagrees with them. Its hypocrisy at it’s best. The budget impacts on public school systems will be dramatic.
Janet
November 2nd, 2012
9:56 pm
@M Phillips – Or anyone else who can answer this question. Forgive my ignorance… but do you know if or how a district with good public schools (who do not want charters) will be affected by those neighboring districts that do?
I live in South Forsyth County where the traditional public schools are great and parent participation is a mommy eat mommy/cut throat gig (ie very competitive). I am having trouble understanding how, or even if, I would be affected by this ammendment and charters in general. Will funding for my school be taken away? Or is funding only on a district by district basis? So if Central Forsyth or North Forsyth districts want to bring in Charters, will my South Forsyth school be affected?
Cobb mom of 4
November 2nd, 2012
11:21 pm
I’ve already voted NO on the Charter school amendment even though:
I agree with the idea of Charter schools and even sent my son to one for a short period of time.
Even though the schools in my area of Cobb are so bad that I have pulled all three of my school-age kids and put them in private school.
Even though the private school tuition for 3 is definitely a financial burden that I wish I didn’t have to undertake.
I voted NO because I do not want my tax dollars used in a for-profit education SCAM.
I voted NO because I am appalled at the biased wording of the amendment.
I voted NO because this poorly worded amendment is going to change our state Constitution and very few are upset that this is a slippery slope.
I voted NO because I resent Corporations insinuating themselves into our lives as they have resently, even to the point of telling us who to vote for.
I voted NO because I don’t trust Nathan Deal.
Beverly Fraud
November 3rd, 2012
5:50 am
Let’s cut though ALL the fog and get down to brass tacks. This amendment offers two choices:
Vote “Yes” and introduce Somali pirates into education mix, under the guise of “competition”
Vote “No” and allow the North Korean government continue to run things, under the guise of “local control”
Ain’t Georgia grand? Plus, we got FISHIN!
Rodney
November 3rd, 2012
7:48 am
I am tired of seeing that little black girl on those commervials for charter schools. This is GA and if you see a black face on tv supporting something the Governor wants dont just vote no vote hell NO! I voted hell no last week. Keep education in local hands period. Yes I am black.
Jack
November 3rd, 2012
7:51 am
The failing 40% were born in homes to parents who had already failed.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 3rd, 2012
7:55 am
Janet,
Good and fair question. I am an advocate for the charter school amendment. I hope those who oppose this amendment will correct me if I’m wrong or let me know if I am spinning anything.
Cherokee is similarly situated. They arguably have some of the best schools in the country. A majority of the Cherokee residents feel that their traditional schools are as good as schools are going to get or at least good enough. This a minority of the community that wanted chartered schools. Cherokee Academy was turned down by the local board, but the state granted them a charter. Many parents feel that the charter school is better for them and many parents feel that the traditional school is better for them. Either way they have a choice. Every state chartered school is different. It is impossible to say if a chartered school in South Forsyth will be better for you or not.
Funding
Funding affects of funding is obviously an important part. All local money, property taxes and sales taxes, stay with the local school district. State money follows the child. Ultimately, that means for every child that goes to a state chartered school the school district has more money per child to spend on education. The local school district has fewer students and less total dollars.
Please let me know if you have any questions. I hope the opposition will correct me if I misstated anything.
DeKalb Inside Out
November 3rd, 2012
7:59 am
M Philips,
this is step one to completely dismantle public education – I have heard this comment before. Please explain how state chartered schools dismantles public education in any way. All local money stays with the local school district. For every child that goes to a state chartered school, there is more money per child for the local school district to educate students.
I see more money per child as a way of helping the local school districts. I want to do whatever it takes to help traditional schools. Please let me know what that plan is.
AnnieAD
November 3rd, 2012
8:48 am
Misleading headline and statistic: “graduation rates” are actually “four year completion rates” meaning that if a student takes even one summer longer to graduate he/she is cow Ted as a drop out. Students who receive Special Education diplomas are counted as drop outs as well.
The “graduation rate” of a private school reflects students who may or may not take longer than 4 years to graduate. Private schools do not accept severely handicapped and special needs children.
94% of children in Georgia attend public schools. They are our future workforce.
VOTE NO to taking money away from their education so that state leaders can cater to special interests group.
Pardon My Blog
November 3rd, 2012
8:52 am
Perhaps the only answer is to privatize all the schools and run them like a business. The tax dollars would “follow the child”as parentoftwo suggested and competition for the best students and best teachers would raise the bar. However, this would only work for those kids who want to be there and the parents or guardians who actually are interested in their child receiving an education.
AnnieAD
November 3rd, 2012
8:54 am
Janet, the state portion of the FTE funding for a child in Forsyth Cpunty would go to the State Charter schools as a result of State Charter Commission Schools. Already, this is happening.
The public needs to be aware also that Title I federal money was diverted last March from every school district to give to 3 State Commision schools. If you want to confirm this, contact Margo Delaune at the Georgia Department of Education.
A Conservative Voice
November 3rd, 2012
9:24 am
Yeah, OK, you wanna go back to pre-integration days, i. e., segregated schools, vote for the charter school amendment. Folks, all it’s gonna do is create more problems and lower the already low status of the public schools (non-charter) that are left and create even more discipline problems, if that’s really possible. Everybody’s looking for a fix for our ps problems when the answer is right there in front of your face and our USDOE is too stupid and liberal……oops, that’s redundant, sorry. HOLD THE PARENTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR CHILDREN WHO CREATE PROBLEMS AND FINE THE H*LL OUT OF THEM IF THEY DON’T TAKE CARE OF IT. IF THEY CAN’T PAY THE FINE, LOCK ‘EM UP. Granted, it’ll take a while to straighten it out but, it will begin to improve. Again, you’ve got to hold the parents responsible…….Remember, VOTE RESPONSIBLY ON NOVEMBER 6, 2012.
davidaub
November 3rd, 2012
9:33 am
My take is that the local public school system does not perform. The state legislators see the charter schools as a less expensive means of improving education. There is no doubt that a charter school in most cases will outperform the public school due to parental involvement, This however does not fix the public school system. I think we should fix the problem at the local level-Do not place state autorities in the equation-Hold the locals accountable. Vote No and face the problem head on.
Bill Mackinnon
November 3rd, 2012
10:11 am
Not every child is able to go all the way through graduate school, nor through college. We should require every child to have a high school diploma. Our culture essentially requires this for anything remotely approaching a decent job (debatable, I know).
Real reform should start at Kindergarten, and advance one grade level each year. Identify the progress of each child each year to insure they have learned the reading, thinking and math skills at each level. Give them the resources they need and are necessary to achieve. Involve the parents through out reach as early as possible. Bring in the volunteer mentors for individual children who need at the first indication of need.
Trying to reform all grades at once with “comprehensive” programs has not worked, ever. The ones who need to be brought to grade level are not helped en mass.
Ronin
November 3rd, 2012
10:19 am
101-10-10 is not realistic. It’s the basic model that everyone needs to go to college, “as that is where you’ll earn the most money and most jobs will be.” Hogwash.
We have oversold college at the expense of vocational trades. Not everyone should be on the college track to work in corporate America. When all the corporate drones were getting their walking papers, electricians and plumbers stayed busy.
Everyone wants to live in a 2 million dollar house, no one want to fix it.
Bill Mackinnon
November 3rd, 2012
10:21 am
DeKalbinsideout- if you believe there will be more money for each child, you have not been paying attention to the legislature – they have cut more than $1 billion from the State education budget over the last several years. The politicians, without any voter control (read that as no elective process), will suck money from the local tax base to give to charter schools the commission authorizes. If local BOE’s refuse to authorize charters, they can voted out of office. Voters have no such power wit the charter commission.
Bill Mackinnon
November 3rd, 2012
10:53 am
@Private Citizen re: skyrocketing and mass incarceration. What you haven’t stated is that the overwhelming percentage are black men. It is the new Jim Crow (read “The New Jim Crow”). These men are taken from their families, put in jail, on probation and parole for long periods of time, removed from the voter rolls, consigned to very low wage jobs ( if they can find a job), and marginalized to second class status. They are removed as productive citizens. Studies show over and over that drug use is no more prevalent among black and brown populations than white, yet black and brown citizens are an overwhelming majority of felons under public safety control. These men are not available to their families to support their children in schools. The number of poor, single parent households only increases, consigning their children to downward spiral of poverty, school failure. Yes, we can blame individuals for their bad choices, yet if your only choice is crime because, as a felon, you can’t work, get unemployment, housing, TANF benefits or any other social support. Not mention the SCOTUS eviscerating the 14th amendment rights (search and seizure protection). Charter school commission will do NOTHING to alleviate any of this.
Truth in Moderation
November 3rd, 2012
10:56 am
For-profit Charter schools and corrupted public schools are two sides of the same coin. The taxpayer is on the hook for corruption from either side. At this late date, the only solution for the gangrene is amputation. The real amendment that should be passed is one that would RESTORE our original State Constitution by overturning the Compulsory Education amendment. Public school is a forced monopoly, and as such, attracts massive fraudsters. These same fraudsters gain political control through political donations and tax exempt foundations. Wake up! The system is BROKEN beyond repair! Citizens must cut off this element AT THE SOURCE. Parents, take responsibility and educate your own kids. Those with religious charitable leanings, use your 501c3 status to provide schools for the poor. Those parents who will not care for their kids will personally suffer the consequences. We must put PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY back into the equation. If you are warned to evacuate because a storm is coming, and you refuse, you just might end up without food and water for an extended amount of time. IT WAS YOUR CHIOCE. Why should others put themselves in harm’s way to come rescue FOOLISH YOU?
Of course, government schools aren’t the only institutions overrun with fraud. Why were taxpayers left holding the bag when “too big to fails” did? The documented FRAUD that led up to this event is discussed in depth by Bill Black, former bank regulator during the ’80’s S&L crisis. He and his team sent thousands of banker frauds TO JAIL. After “criminal deregulation” exactly ZERO bankers went to jail for “liar loan” mortgage fraud which precipitated the 2008 TAXPAYER bailout!
Find out how Bill Black put those in pinstripes, into horizontal stripes:
http://backbillblack.com/bill-black/
AlreadySheared
November 3rd, 2012
10:57 am
@DeKalb Inside Out
Re Cherokee County Schools. Maybe best in state (I don’t know). “Best in country” is pushing it a bit, don’t you think?
DeKalb Inside Out
November 3rd, 2012
11:14 am
Conservative Voice,
state charter schools are segregated schools – Why do you say that? State chartered schools have attendance zones and cannot pick and choose their students just like traditional schools.
State chartered schools will create more problems and lower the status of public schools – We have had state chartered schools for years. How do you blame the decline of traditional schools on state chartered schools? I would argue traditional schools are decline whether we have state chartered schools or not.
We are all looking for fix – Yes, but nobody believes state chartered schools is the cure. This amendment is just another tool.
Hold parents responsible – Amen to that. Let’s make that happen. Fines and jail aren’t going to go over very well with the public in general, but I applaud where you are going. I do like the idea of public boot camps and public reform schools … but I don’t think that’s going to go over very well either.
Question
While we are trying to hold parents responsible, can we also have state chartered schools? I don’t see why we can’t advocate for both.
Tony
November 3rd, 2012
11:29 am
@Maureen – I ran across this today. In it is a reference to a former APS teacher whose test results were implicated as part of the cheating scandal. Now, that former APS teacher is running for school board in Minnesota. http://nepc.colorado.edu/blog/telling-fibs-america
It seems that TFA experience automatically qualifies one to be an authority on matters of public education. It usually takes years of study and experience to become an expert.
Regarding this blog topic, Mr. Thigpen is wrong on so many of his points it is not funny. More scrutiny needs to be applied.
Cobbian
November 3rd, 2012
11:59 am
Big, BIG mistake to let our legislature be in charge of charter schools. Granting charters will become another trough which monied interests will fill with campaign contributions upon which political pigs will feed. It will not make education better. After years of cutting funding to education in this state it will only be another way for the legislature to divert money from public schools and put it in private schools.
Support public education by supporting local schools boards. Keep an eye on them, but support them.
Dunwoody Mom
November 3rd, 2012
1:38 pm
As someone who was previously adamantly opposed to this amendment, I will confess that now I have no idea which way I will vote on Tuesday. The questioning of my previous stance has nothing to do with any op-ed piece(s) – those are simply proproganda and I ignore that. I choose to take the time to do my own research and make up my own mind. This possible change of heart has come about for one reason. A few months ago I started a project in order to “fact-check” Dr. Atkinson’s claim of a significant down-sizing of the DCSD Central Office. I have entered all the data from the HR Monthly Reports since May (when the RIF’s and Resignations started) through this month’s HR report into a simple Excel spreadsheet. The visual picture that this spreadsheet gave me was stunning and sobering. I’m not sure where Dr. Atkinson’s “signifcant downsizing” is coming from, unless she considers Bus Monitors and Plant Services Central Office personnel. These 2 areas were decimated with RFI’s. It solidifies the view that this school district and its Board of Education are just simply not dedicated to making sure the students of DCSD are receiving a quality education.
While I am uncomfortable with any committee that Nathan Deal would appoint to approve Charter schools, how much more harmful could these individuals be than the current DCSD administration and BOE?
Private Citizen
November 3rd, 2012
2:50 pm
man from the mountain any trained law enforcement officer can determine impairment.
Truth in Moderation Public school is a forced monopoly, and as such, attracts massive fraudsters. These same fraudsters gain political control through political donations and tax exempt foundations.
That’s not moderation, that’s pure truth!
Truth in Moderation
November 3rd, 2012
11:56 pm
American public school history and the Prussian system:
“Government schools got their start in the 1840s, when Horace Mann returned from Prussia bearing news of an amazing school system. The Prussian system was also rooted in Hegelian thought. Hegel had believed we lived in a universe of Absolute Reason that would be expressed politically as the Absolute State—the exact opposite of the limited government the Founding Fathers had established. In the Prussian system children were educated not for intellectual accomplishment, but for obedience to the state…..Massachusetts, Mann’s home state, bought into the idea, and became the first state (in 1852) to enact a compulsory attendance law. Government schools did not catch on right away. A number of theologians (R.L. Dabney is an example) warned of their dangers. But very slowly, the American population began to accept them. Compulsory education laws were passed in one state after another. Numerous state constitutions (including my own state of South Carolina) adopted planks committing state governments to financing government school systems. The consolidation and centralization of education had begun.
The super-elite watched all this with great interest. They saw, in government schools, a path to a controlled population—a population of “sheeple.” The earliest incarnation of what would become the Rockefeller Foundation, before the turn of the century, began with the meeting between John D. Rockefeller Sr. and one Frederick Taylor Gates. Rockefeller Sr. had begun giving money to a variety of causes, many of them very worthwhile. He had bankrolled the University of Chicago, for example. Gates had ideas of his own, about how to use Rockefeller money. He would lead Rockefeller’s eldest son, John D. Rockefeller Jr., into an interest in education that would lead to the founding of the General Education Board in 1902. In his Occasional Letter No. 1, a publication of the General Education Board, Gates penned the following chilling two paragraphs:
“In our dreams, we have limitless resources and the people yield themselves with perfect docility to our molding hands. The present education conventions fade from their minds, and unhampered by tradition, we work our own good will upon a grateful and responsive rural folk. We shall not try to make these people or any of their children into philosophers or men of learning, or men of science. We have not to raise up from among them authors, editors, poets, or men of letters. We shall not search for embryo great artists, painters, musicians, nor lawyers, doctors, preachers, politicians, statesmen, of whom we have an ample supply.
The task we set before ourselves is very simple, as well as a very beautiful one, to train these people as we find them, to a perfectly ideal life, just where they are. So we will organize our children and teach them to do in a perfect way the things their fathers and mothers are doing in an imperfect way, in the homes, in the shops, on the farm.”
By Steven Yates
http://sovereignty.net/p/gov/stevenyates-5.html
Private Citizen
November 4th, 2012
1:04 am
Bill Mackinnon Good insight on the effect of incarceration laws displacing families. It is distressing to think about.
Truth in Moderation There’s a term for it, importing education concepts. I forget the term. It is a standard term used in higher studies of international comparative education. Oh, now I recall. The term is “policy borrowing.” It is a whole group of scholarship, case studies of policy borrowing and how it works out. I can tell you this, in the places where the Prussian schooling comes from, they study Hegel. If you want to learn philosophy in the United States, you better be autodidactic (self taught) because it is not being taught in the schools. The major medias even ridicule philosopy as one of the loser-degrees statistically yielding lower income than high school graduates or somesuch. Is it not a little odd that we have no philosophy classes in public high schools? Seems we’re preoccupied with getting students to read right up to 12th grade. There might be a philosophy class somewhere in Georgia government schools. I haven’t seen one. Seems pretty basic to teach the basics of logic and such as formal thought / history. One problem in teaching philosophy is that it gives voice to identity and individuals. That’s a big no-no and does not follow the script.
Know anything about Pierce? He’s American and at least one person gave him a rave review. Apparently the academy didn’t like him and he had a hard life. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/peirce/
Did I ever tell you about a friend of mine married a personable young woman getting a .phd from a major U.S. university is sociology. She ended up teaching identity politics courses to undergraduates and doctrine of “white privilege” is on her syllabus. She had hobby of a little book collection of old books (victorian?) on sexual paraphilias and thought this was cool and stuff. I immediately said, “Well, of course you’ve read Havelock Ellis?” and she had never heard of him. He wrote the first encylopedic inventory of human sexual behavior, three volumes. It was pioneering / groundbreaking work. He was put in court for it, the whole bit. He motivation was as a humanist. He cared about people and was an excellent researcher. Anyway, my point is that in the United States, a lot of “educated” people seem to have little education. Aside from the person’s hobby, how could a .phd in sociology not have heard of Havelock Ellis?
Ole Guy
November 6th, 2012
1:48 pm
All these…”findings”…sound good. No, they seem…great…wow, “10-10-10″…does that make for some snappy print. Let us not forget, however, that these are simply the subjective ramblings, cloaked in some upbeat lingo (10-10-10…man, am I impressed or what!), which the as-yet UNPROVEN pre-k proponents espouse.
Again…repeating my oft-mentioned challenge: show me, the public who actually gives a damn about education, some IRREFUTABLE, SUBJECTIVE results of a cross-section of kids, throughout the state, from different socio-economic backgrounds, tracked from pre-k, through high school and into the world of collegiate challenge. When this “finding” shows a “10-10-10″ result, compared to the similar tracking of kids without “benefit” of pre-k…THEN, and only THEN will pre-k, or any other resource-draining initiative receive my endorsement.
Until then, I suggest (here we go again) a return to the tried and proven educational methodologies of yesteryear: FROM GRADE 1 TO THAT HIGH SCHOOL (FAUX) GRADUATION, INSIST ON STANDARDS, BOTH ACADEMIC AND BEHAVIOR. wHEN THESE STANDARDS ARE NOT MET, ROLL A FEW HEADS…NOT THE TEACHERS’, THE KIDS WHO FIND IT FAR EASIER TO SLIP N’ SLIDE.
period
des
November 6th, 2012
2:49 pm
I’m a 13 yr. old and i think we should vote yes because people in America are looking really stupid compared to the Japanese .
DeKalb Inside Out
November 6th, 2012
3:23 pm
Des
Fearing the Japanese went out with the 80s along with perms and acid wash jeans. Today we Americans fear the Chinese and the Indians (dots not feathers).