Comments on: Connect the right-wing dots

By: Suffer The Children. The War On Public Education. One School District’s Story. « American Commentary Blog

Sun, 11 Apr 2010 10:55:15 +0000

[...] William Pope Foundation. The following post by Chris Fitzsimon at NC Policy Watch called. “Connect the rightwing dots” had this to say on the issue, The staff members of Civitas are unabashed supporters of [...]

By: The Progressive Pulse – Guess they were pretty sure of that vote

The Progressive Pulse – Guess they were pretty sure of that vote — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 20:46:26 +0000

[...] for this Friday. It will feature, among others, Pope employee Lindalyn Kakadelis – who as Chris Fitzsimon noted on Monday of this week, was emailing Papa Ron Margiotta back in November about the [...]

By: Jim Stegall

Jim Stegall — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:57:59 +0000

Folks, if you have any concerns about the training being conducted by Civitas, why don’t you go to their website and check it out? The agenda is there, and I don’t see anything nefarious about it at all. They will have presentations by a former school board member from Char-Meck, a couple of eduation lawyers, and Philip Price from DPI. Anyone can register (it’s only $50 bucks) and attend. It’s on March 5th.

By: Joe Ciulla

Joe Ciulla — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:40:54 +0000

“No, we who support diversity did not stand silently by and allow our at-risk students to go to prison”

Sounds good, but the facts say otherwise. Billy Barber NEVER came before the school board to complain about how we are failing black and ED students.

Wake Ed Partnership, with their million-dollar a year budget, has done nothing but promote our school system and repackage data any way they needed to make us look good.

Please, prove me wrong. Tell me how Jim Goodmon has been putting his money into something constructive, not just WEP. Tell me where the Friend of Diversity (now Greatest Schools in Wake County) have been for the past five years. What happened to the Friends of Wake County? They advertised a strong commitment to education, then vaporized the day after the bond passed.

By: MELONIE

MELONIE — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 20:48:30 +0000

No, we who support diversity did not stand silently by and allow our at-risk students to go to prison. This issue is complex and we will not solve it here. Many hours and heartfelt ideas have been spent by teachers trying to help solve these problems. It is HARD to do. This current school board is going to find that just coming up with neighborhood schools will not solve this problem. It will make it worse. We hear from some members of the board that more money will be spent in these poor socioeconomic schools to help with graduation rates, test scores, and advance course selections. I believe that the old saying,”just throwing money at the problem” is not going to work. PLUS WE’RE LOOKING AT CUTTING THE BUDGET. It takes cooperation from everyone: educators, teachers, administrators, families, and the community to even make a dent in these problems. It takes years and years to undo what history has done over many years. There is so much to do, but shelving diversity and resegregating our schools is not the solution. Working together will help, but I’m seeing little coming together right now. It’s sad.

By: Joe Ciulla

Joe Ciulla — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:57:20 +0000

Marvin,

You dismiss the outright discrimination we have today as “Yes, the WCPSS has problems…?” That’s like a defense attorney saying “Sure, my client has beaten up a few people, but there are worse people out there.”

What about the 31% of schools which already violate the board’s own policy against high-poverty schools over 40% F&R? Where was the lawsuit over that.

What about the 54% graduation rate for ED students, where was the lawsuit over that one? Or, was it ok for these students to fail as long as they were in a “diverse” environment? Seems like many people who are criticizing the new direction of our school system stood by utterly silent while many of our at-risk students were put in the pipeline to prison.

By: Marvin E. Rouse

Marvin E. Rouse — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:07:54 +0000

Yes, the WCPSS has problems but is the current attempt to decide school attendance based on income/race (neighborhood schools) a way to solve the WCPSS problems. I think not but as usual, we see that practical ideas to solve problems are not wanted in favor of a prefect solution.
The potential lawsuit offers the best opportunity to have an independent review with teeth to really look at the issues impacting WCPSS.Under NC law, a school board majority can make any decision it wants as long as they do not discriminate based on race.
If the WCPSS decides to resegrate its schools(neighborhood schools),how can the Board argue that race/income were not factors in its decision.

By: Joe Ciulla

Joe Ciulla — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:42:51 +0000

Marvin,
You’re a little late with your lawsuit. Have you read the EVAAS report issued by SAS Institute? Wake County Schools have been systematically discriminating against poor and black students for years when it comes to promotions to higher-level math. Read the report. Given two equally-qualified students, one white and one black, today’s WCPSS system tends to promote the white student. I would hope that the school board takes action on this soon and issues some kind of edict to stop this practice. FWIW, I don’t know what other training institutions are out there, but I think it was poor judgment to choose Civitas. I don’t think it is part of a conspiracy, but it sure does feed the conspiracy theories.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:08:26 +0000

Mr. Rouse says, … “Now is the time to decide to file a discrimination lawsuit alleged that a Black student has been denied an opportunity for equal education.”

If your going to alledge such activities, show the proof of your allegation.

I have no doubt that students in NC have been denied an education of substance by our local school boards and the state and federal education departments. But in their defense thay have been equally dumbed down across the spectrum of race and economics. Those individual students with the slightest drive and desire excel in spite of any diversity lable placed on them. The rest just wait for their herd to move one way or the other.

By: Marvin E. Rouse

Marvin E. Rouse — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 14:26:51 +0000

Now is the time for Black and White parents who oppose the intended actions of the School Board to be smart and to prepare themselves for a long fight.
Now is the time to decide to file a discrimination lawsuit alleged that a Black student has been denied an opportunity for equal education.
Please note that support for this may cause some of the White parents some heartburn but such action may force County Commissioners and State/Federal authorities to review School Board as major funding may be at risk.