Posted on 02/24/2011 1:07:45 PM PST by flowerplough
A bold bid by the struggling, majority-black Memphis City Schools system to force a merger with the majority-white, successful suburban district has fanned relatively routine fears over funding and student performance into accusations of full-blown racism.
The fight over the fate of 150,000 public school students has stirred long-festering emotions in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, creating a drama that has spread beyond school board meetings to union rallies, the state Legislature and federal court.
On March 8, Memphis voters will decide whether to approve disbanding the city schools system and turning education over to the county district, which is earning good grades on its own and doing everything it can to stave off consolidation.
Memphis resident and school cafeteria worker Mary Washington questioned why Memphis schools would even want to give over its students to a system that doesn't want them.
"It's just like you losing your freedom going into bondage," Washington, who is black, said after an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees meeting. "In the background, in the foreground, it is about race."
David Pickler, the white Shelby County School Board chairman, bristles at such claims.
"To say that we don't want someone because of the color of their skin to me is the most offensive thing someone can say to me," Pickler said.
Regardless of the motives, it's a pivotal time in the history of Memphis: Jobs, education quality and school closings hang in the balance.
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
They've been in a "pivotal time" since before Elvis checked out.
Watch Waiting for Superman.
I’m done with public schools.
I don’t think it is about race so much as about why would the successful want to absorb the unsuccessful and their problems.
Really? Couldn't it be about BEHAVIOR?
Same old story, same ol groups: the-get-something-for-nothing-crowd of underachievers and problem causers
I imagine the district’s employees and residents will say (and imagine they believe) *anything*, rather than confess, “While spending enormous amounts of money, we have proved to be incapable of providing even the most rudimentary education to our own children.”
Memphis screwed up their school system so bad they want to give to the county. Without the county getting a vote on the matter, and yes Memphis wants a seat on the County School Board too. So they can have the power.
The Memphis residents have done plundered the city and now they are looking for fat, easy hogs outside the city limits.
Of course the suburbanites will be too worried about being called names to actually save themselves and their school system so as they handover the keys to Shelby county to their new masters from Memphis they will put their tails between their legs and slink away.
Job security for jesse and al! (They don’t deserve capitalization.)
Where on earth is the bastard Harold Ford Jr when you need him?
Maybe so, but the teachers, administrators, janitors, groundskeepers, coaches... all got real nice flat-screens and Escalades.
You want to see a real-estate depression? Watch Shelby County if this goes through.
And there it is. - AFSCME. - from their website:
Solidarity Rallies and Vigils to Support Public Service Workers
Pres. McEntee on Huffington Post: Gagging Workers Is Un-American
In Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and other states, politicians are destroying the power of working men and women to have a real voice on the job
Wisconsin Rally for Workers Grows to 30,000
A massive protest against Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers entered its second day in Madison
“Pillars of a Civil Society”
National Civil Rights, Labor Leaders Speak Out on Behalf of Public Service Workers
“The Affordable Care Act Helps Seniors Stay Healthy”
The Communists raise their ugly heads...
I suggest everyone go take a look at this......Detroit Public Schools, with all the machine shops, libraries, books etc......abandoned. Millions upon millions, left for scavengers.
http://onlyndetroit.com/html/steam/schoolsout.htm
Sure. The reason they're still nattering about racism is that they could never admit to themselves that they stole the money.
And I agree with your conclusion.
They were to be recruited from, among other places, retiring black commissioned and non-commissioned officers to enforce minimal standards of dress and behavior.
Went absolutely nowhere. That is because the African-American community refuses to admit or deal with bastardy, the single most pressing problem among their young people ... which is to say, our young people, since the community as a whole pays for them. The African-American community accepts as normal standards of deportment and comportment which are the worst in the organized world world.
Worse than their behaviors is the extremely permissive reaction of the community as a whole. That means us. Until responsible black leaders get in the 'hood and start corrective programs, and I include their "clergy," there is going to be race war and hell to pay. America's new no 1 minority loses very little love for the African-American community. In LA, a major police presence between them is necessary.
Politicians and the media pander to this behavior. Any large scale correction is deemed racist, and probably is. That my friend, is the problem.
Who says we need him in Memphis? He’s a resident of New York now. They can have him.
Their "leaders" want it that way. The more lives broken by fatherless upbringings, the more hopeless people on the streets and in the jails, the more power they have.
In just the same way as the Arab world wants the "palistinians" to be forever a benighted, hopeless people.
Well, I say forever. If, Heaven forbid, Israel is done away with, the "palistinians" will be done away with within weeks. By their own cousins in other Arab countries.
Of course, if that happens to Israel, we'll all have much bigger things to worry about. :(
This will lead to more families moving to Mississippi.
From the article:
“’The mere act of merging the two really provides no education value, but not merging the two ... that provides educational harm for our students,’ Jones said.”
This statement can be understood only by those who are well practiced in doublethink.
Also:
“The 2010-2011 budget for Memphis City Schools is about $890 million to cover 103,000 students, 85 percent of whom are black. For the 47,000-student Shelby County system, which is 38 percent black, it’s more than $363 million.”
So the per-student spending is higher in Memphis, with results that don’t come close to matching the suburban county district. So, as usual, there is simply NO CORRELATION between spending and results.
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