Monday, January 26, 2009
Education / Politics / Woods Black Leaders Condemn 'Vestiges of Racism' in School Rezoning
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 11:33 AM
I think that it's just shameful that this city that I have loved has not produced the leadership so that by this time we could have quality education for every child in this city. That is not and has never been an impossible task. It is a task for which there are sufficient resources in our community to accomplish if there were the will for it. It's disgraceful in this land of ours that we are still having to organize ourselves to defeat the vestiges of racism that have never been dismantled and remain. Those are most hurtful in this city in the area of public education where it is the black children and the poor children of many different stripes who are denied access to the gift of life, denied access to the kind of education that can enable them to explore and grab hold of the precious gift of life that is the creator's gift to all of us. It's shameful, disgraceful, immoral that this plight is still upon us.
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So let's see. NAACP would be cool with this if the board abandoned the "resegregation" plan. That would take us back to the status quo. Pearl-Cohn would be 88% black instead of 92%. Several of the elementary schools in the Pearl-Cohn cluster would still be almost 100% black. Maplewood and Whites Creek would still be 80% or more black. Hillsboro would have significantly fewer black students, and Hillwood again would have significantly more.
And then everything would be hunky and progressive again?
I can see why the NAACP and the Scene would argue that we need a completely new approach to school assignment. We could have a very interesting discussion on something as radical as allowing complete free choice on school assignment within the district.
But it's more than a little disengenuous to call this a "resegregation" plan when the status quo is already heavily segregated in many of these schools, and when those who are hollering loudest about the bad new plan would be content to return us to the bad old plan.
It's worse than merely reshuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic. It's actually wasting time in complaining about how those deck chairs have been reshuffled.
One good question to ask Jesse Register is how committed he is to the idea of assigning the best and most experienced teachers to the schools that are struggling most, even if it means finding a way to pay them more for their trouble? It's a strategy that has been proven to work.
Or is the Scene more interested in scoring cheap points? Honestly, how can you guys complain about Phil Valentine when you're taking a page right of his playbook on this issue -- ignoring the complexity of the larger issue for the sake of punching a few hot buttons?
You're right, BBB. The status quo is wrong, and it ought to be changed. More enlightened cities are trying to desegregate. We're going in the opposite direction. First things first. Given the current budget shortfall, the school board obviously isn't going to keep its promise to spend more money on Pearl-Cohn schools as part of this rezoning plan. For that reason alone, the board ought to rescind the plan.
One major oversight in Woods' article and in the NAACP's position is that the rezoning plan was unanimously recommended by a black majority committee. This majority-black committee spent months reviewing the status quo and considered all options before making this unanimous recommendation.
How come no one wants to recall or acknowledge that fact?
It's also true that the issue isn't race - it's poverty. Lots of middle income black families have been fleeing to private schools to avoid having their kids contend with the baggabe that kids in poverty bring to a school environment.
The U.S. Supreme Court has rules that school systems no longer have any duty to consider race in student assignment. We do, though, have a moral duty to consider poverty issues and to provide extra services to those kids, which is what the rezoning plan does.
I wonder what those on that committee who are black would say now? Most committees of the Board are established with a foregone conclusion and are used just to justify that conclusion. This was no different. Viable choices within geographical areas, like other cities have done, has stabilized some school systems. Court-ordered busing really leaves a bad legacy but hindsight is always 20-20.
If they know they won't have the money to spend on Pearl-Cohn, then, yes, they should rescind the plan -- because that was an integral part of the plan. A more face-saving alternative might be to announce that the implementation of the plan is being suspended indefinitely because of the budget shortfall.
In fairness to the board (and it's not easy for me to be fair to the old board), they were tasked with coming up with a plan for more efficient facilities usage, not with a plan that would change the de facto segregation in many areas. True, they could have (and should have) used their task as an opportunity to come up with something truly innovative. But it's not like they decided to pick up this political hot potato merely because some influential people wanted to change the racial mix at Hillwood HS.
And that leads me to one of the other elephants in the room that nobody much seems to talk about. It's true that concentrating low-income students together is a big factor in producing low-performing schools with high dropout rates. On the other hand, nearly 70% of the students in MNPS are low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches. When 7 in 10 students are low-income, how exactly do you come up with a formula for school assignment that doesn't create a heavy concentration of low-income kids in our schools? And even if you could come up with a magic formula by which every school in the district was a perfect demographic reflection of the entire district -- with 30% of the kids from middle- or upper-income households -- would that be enough to transform the low-performing schools?
I doubt that it would.
So there are a couple of general directions we can go. We can try to attract more middle- and upper-income families back into the public schools and into Davidson County. (Notwithstanding what some people keep trying to claim, many of those who want to pursue this strategy are motivated by more than a concern for their own kids.)
OR, we can more or less accept the currently reality of a school district that is significantly segregated by race and income and devote unequal resources to the schools that are farthest from offering equal opportunity. It will take partnerships with the business community, and good for Karl Dean for pursuing that (and for recognizing that the bizpigs of the Chamber of Commerce have a stake and an interest in this). It will take more innovation with charter schools (and good for us on that score that Pedro is gone). Michelle Rhee in DC and Joel Klein in NYC are doing some very promising things we should be paying attention to, even though de facto segregation in DC is much more pronounced than in Nashville.
Maybe Register can move the ball forward. But I wonder: Did they hire this guy because he can help bring change, or for the defensive reason that he gets along well with the state officials who are running more of the show?
I think real change here is going to take much bolder leadership than what we're likely to get from the board and director of schools (or from the state, for that matter).
Jeff, here's an idea for the Scene. Why don't you guys make a commitment to this issue the way the Scene once made a commitment to urban planning and design? Give readers a picture of some of the innovation that's taking place around the country, so Nashvillians could get a sense of what things COULD be like here. Champion some specific reforms. While it is illuminating to point out the failures of the school board, they're just the low-hanging fruit. Aim higher.
And if you have to justify to the out-of-town corporate bosses why you should be doing several cover stories this year on education -- as opposed to, say, sensational crimes -- you might point out to them that you always get a high number of responses on this website when you post something about education. The interest in the community is out there.
How is 1 school resegregation? Why is this not about all the schools all over Nashville? This reaks of trying to show muscle power. What is the real agenda here?
Can I say they need money! You have to prove your existence by some means and the misleading begins. WHY? TO RAISE MONEY! TO REVIVE THE NAACP.
NAACP seeks $1M, 5,000 new members
http://www.tennessean.com/article/20090113/NEWS01/901130335/-1/ARCHIVE01
Marilyn Robinson, the branch's president, said the local NAACP needs to hire full-time employees so it can be more successful
"We've got to take this unit to the next level," she said.
The Nashville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is celebrating its 90th anniversary this year. It has about 2,000 members now.
The NAACP needs you! Can you please donate two hours to assist with NAACP Centennial Celebration Tele-A-Thon?
Date: Monday, January 26, 2009
Time: 9:00 am - 7:00 pm
Place: WPLN 90.3, 630 Mainstream Drive
Nashville, TN 37228
RSVP: 615-425-1912 cell Marilyn Robinson
The NAACP is built on one premise that all men and women are created equal. From the ballot box to the boardroom, the NAACP continues to fight for civil rights and social justice.
In celebration of the NAACP Centennial, we invite you to help us with the Centennial Celebration Tele-A-Thon.
Please call or email us if you can help. Tell a friend to tell another friend.
Fun, Food and Fellowship! Refreshments will be served!
Time Schedule
9:00 am - 11:00 am
11:00 am - 1:00 pm
1:00 pm - 3:00 pm
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm
5:00 pm - 7:00 pm
Pearl Cohn made AYP, Hillwood did not. And you are complaining about sending kids to Pearl Cohn? I would think that many parents would be fine with sending their kids there -they have many social services that are meant to address issues of poverty. Hillwood does not. They have good sports,Hillwood does not. They are not going to be taken over by the state this summer, as Hillwood is likely to be. Hillwood is no great shakes, this rezoning change is a last ditch effort (probably too late) to make it a community school that can have community support. Hillwood is a failing school on it's last breath and making this solely a racial issue misses the bigger picture. A district is only as good as its weakest link, and that link right now is Hillwood. They have got to get more locally zoned kids in or shut it down.
The schools have failed Nashville, not vice versa. Close them and get creative. This could be Nashville's shot at a return to a high quality of life and end the shame that is our public education system. Otherwise Nashville will continue to be the armpit of this state, wherein even Shelby County retains local control of its system. I don't care whether it is vouchers or some other new and provocative plan. The first step is to admit there is a problem. If that problem in intractable, admit that as well.
School choice is a smoke screen. It lets Republicans appear all innovative and serious. In reality, they just don't want to pay taxes to support public schools.
You very well may be right, Woods. What doesn't require the qualifier "may" is whether rezoning or whatever the witless geriatrics at the NAACP want will work. Neither will. Once we acknowledge the public school system has failed and arranging chairs on the deck of the Titantic won't work, we can get beyond the tired arguments of taxes and expenditures. If something radical isn't done, we will produce a city of illiterates.
I'm serious about a complete closure. It won't happen but is should.
We need radical action, all right. We need public officials who won't tolerate bad teachers and principals. We have the data now to judge their performance. We ought to be acting on it. It ought to scare the hell out of every parent that the state Education Department this summer saw the need to sack so many principals who had been allowed to languish in their jobs for years. What does that tell you about our current system of governance? To begin with, electing the school board is idiotic, but don't get me started.
Outlaw the NAACP. Scandal plagued race baiters that they are, need to go away like a dinosaur.
50 years of social engineering has produced dumber kids and a failed school system.
OK send the black kids to the white schools to get better educations. WAIT the standards are too high, lower the skills and standards fro the blacks so we can compete. More money and lower standards! That ain't working! More money and cry racism! Foul - HEY - All the white folks are moving away! Time to do more bussing! Uh Oh! All whitey is gone, we is now bein in ours own schools by ourselves. Mo Money and cry racism!
Please stop. Blacks failures is not the fault of whitey. It is the fault of race hustlers like the NAACP
Ah, I was wondering how long it would take the knuckle-draggers to discover this post.
Most "whitey's" making their comments about the NAACP don't personally know anyone who belongs, much less have had a meaningful conversation, with a member of the NAACP. Not all members are black,or live in North Nashville or have personally experienced race bias. The NAACP has historically worked on every front, legal, policy and personal, to enable children of color to overcome the historic and continuing handicapp of being in the minority. Minority is not a numerical count but relates to who has the power. It is about kids and for that reason no one apologizes, ever!
Here's how Jesse Register is going to pay more to teachers in the Pearl-Cohn cluster. These school will become enhanced option schools, which means kids at these schools go to class an extra 45 minutes a day. It means you pay teachers extra for the extra work they are doing. That equals out to an extra 20 days of work on a teaching salary, which is about a 10 percent raise. This is one way to get around MNEA approving a pay hike for one, and only one, cluster when most of the clusters have very high poverty in their schools.
Why is school choice a smoke screen? Are medical, legal,transportation, food, housing choices smoke screens? It's a hard puzzle to solve but it can be done and has been done other places.
I hate to be the bearer of news, but has anyone else notice that no one WANTS to be around us as blacks? Everyone can clearly see that we have been suited for, and are comfortable with mediocrity at best. We then get angry because no one else wants mediocrity, so we try and force our bankrupt thinking on everyone else....Hey, Here's an idea! How about we stop trying to make white folks be around us. Let them go! How about we focus our attention like a laser on providing a superior education to our children no matter what the situation. I'd bet the world would come crawling to us to be included in our communities if we'd just get off our knees is this humiliating posture, trying to force others to like us and integrate into our ghetto schools that even WE don't like!
