Casting an informed vote in the Nov. 8 Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board election is a lot of work. There are 14 candidates, and few are household names. Their views vary so widely it's hard to imagine anyone could be neutral about who claims the seats.
Video interviews done by the Swann Foundation and Mecklenburg ACTS offer a great chance to hear the candidates at length, in their own words, sorted by 10 topics. And you can do it at the time and place of your choosing, with your favorite beverage at hand. Biggest drawback? There are literally hours of material. I spent most of Friday morning and got through two questions.
My advice: Pick a question you care about -- topics include testing, distribution of resources and prekindergarten -- and use the answers to shorten your list to explore further. The more controversial the question, the better for sorting. The superintendent search brought lots of thoughtful, articulate and mostly similar answers. But listen to the answers about diversity, student assignment and educational equity, and I pretty much guarantee that no matter where you stand, you'll scratch some folks off your list.
That question is, as candidate Larry Bumgarner points out in the video, a loaded one that strongly reflects the views of the host groups. But my take was that the candidates who held different views expressed them just as clearly as those more sympathetic to the interviewers. I'm curious whether others agree -- and whether anyone else has tips for making a choice. For those who prefer reading, MeckEd and the local real estate/construction PAC have posted candidates' written answers to their questions.
The Swann videos are shared via YouTube, which leads to some unexpected entertainment when each clip ends and the YouTube algorithm decides what you might like to see next. There are links to archival video, such as Darrin Rankin speaking as the lone Democrat at a Tea Party event during his City Council bid and Ericka Ellis-Stewart being interviewed by former United Way Director Gloria Pace King. Jeff Wise's video steers you to another Jeff Wise jumping out of an airplane for "extreme fear and adrenaline rushes," while Keith Hurley's sends you to another Keith Hurley taping some dude's monologue about "Cleveland sucks." It gets more creative: Mary McCray suggests Larry McCray's Soulshine. Hans Plotseneder brings up a link to a Han Solo clip. And Ken Nelson, inexplicably, ends with a link to someone doing a cover of Coldplay's "Trouble."
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Candidates on YouTube
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56 comments:
It's good that you finally took a look at these videos, Ann. Your comments about the diversity question, especially your remark that the question shows the bias of the host groups, are interesting. Those who watch the videos will specifically hear Meck ACTS' Carol Sawyer and Louise Woods pushing, pushing, pushing candidates to commit to consider using assignment to promote diversity. (and it's surprising how many eventually cave and say yes they would).
Some on this board have chastised and pooh-poohed those with long standing concerns that Meck ACTS supported candidates, if elected, would attempt to lead CMS back into diversity based assignment (in fact one poster in particular has mocked those with that concern). But I don't believe that anyone who listens to the diversity, student assignment, and educational equality question can come away with any doubt as to one of the primary intentions and/or goals of Meck ACTS and Swann.
Any candidate that speaks of:
Diversity or educational equity in my book is a status quo dunderhead.
Diversity to these people means what THEIR definition of diversity is that meets their particular agenda and not the true definition. We already have a diverse school system
Educational equality means income redistribution and not the basic idea that all schools have the same quality teachers and facilities, which we do.
These candidates believe the government (taxpayers) should supply an endless bounty of funds for programs like Bright Beginnings that don't work and continue turning a blind eye to fraud sucking funds away from those who truly need the help, then bilk the minority of parents "who can afford it" for even more money.
We have decent facilities. We have quality teachers. We have the programs and infrastructure in place to help students succeed.
If parents cannot or will not help ensure their kids do the right thing in school and succeed, then that is their problem. Not CMS' or taxpayers.
We need candidates who are willing to move forward and get out of the past where some of these candidates choose to live.
misswhit/Sharon -
The goal of the interviews was not to somehow bully candidates into taking a particular position. Our goal was to find out exactly where candidates stood on issues and determine what, if any action a candidate would take as a member of the Board of Education.
On the testing and teacher evaluation questions, we found that some candidates who opposed the expanded testing program, still wanted to use test results in teacher evaluation. These positions are somewhat contradictory. In order to use student achievement in teacher evaluation, one must have an expanded testing program.
One of the Board of Education's main roles is pupil assignment. Asking candidates to be clear on their positions is crucial. Candidates who said they valued diversity were asked what actions they would be willing to take as a board member in support of that priority. Some of the answers were surprising. No candidates were coerced into taking any particular position.
I would invite all to watch the interviews.
Wiley -
Did you watch Keith Hurley's response to question #6?
http://youtu.be/MKNmTfXZ5LU
Ms. Sawyer, define diversity.
Anon 10:02...
Hurley is a status quo dunderhead.
He allowed the people asking the question, who already have an agenda that includes busing, to put him into that status quo group.
Busing is over. People live where they live, period.
A child going to school one mile from their house will learn George Washington was out first President just as they would learn the same thing being bused 10 miles away.
That's what Hurley seemed to start out trying to convey, but wound up being "Stockholm Syndromed" within 5 minutes...
Here's a great example of inequality in CMS without even comparing one school to another. Twenty-first century technology; e.g., SmartBoards are in a few classrooms in each school, so there is inequality from one classroom to another. With the coming change to Common Core Standards and 21st Century Goals, we need to get our priorities in order!
Compare that to Cabarrus County where EVERY classroom has a SmartBoard--even classrooms that are vacant.
So tired of MeckACTs (and their national funding) trying to manipulate our school district and community.
I'm with you 1:52. Clearly the biasness of the questions, the audience, and the conducting parties is very very dangerous for anyone to belive this is anything but a witchhunt on their part and a push for their agenda which will only move this commjunity further back into the past and the future for our children wil be totally lost. It is bad now. It will be even worse with these folks influencing policy.
WC, let me know your choices. I can not stomach these Swann and MeckACTS folks anymore. This community has got to flush these Swann folks to move forward. Else, we are down the same path of Detroit.
Anon 1:52 -
You must have Mecklenburg ACTS mixed up with another organization.
Mecklenburg ACTS receives no funding national or otherwise. We are an all volunteer group. Our only annual expense is our domain name registration -- about $10/year.
Carol Sawyer, co-founder
Mecklenburg Area Coming Together for Schools
So when are we going to receive the results from the summative tests from last year? Does anyone have an answer to this? I don't see how testing can be an accurate measure of teacher performance when we don't even get the results in a timely manner.
I hope the candidates know that the K-2 summatives are not "standardized" tests. There is no consistency in how these are given or how they are scored. They are highly subjective and can only be graded by the person administering the test which varies greatly even in the same school. I am a teacher who has no problem with pay for perfomance, but if CMS is going to use these tests to compare me to other teachers in the district, I want them to be fair, consistently given and scored across all schools.
TROTS...
I supported Scott Babbidge from day one but unfortunately, he got railroaded out of the running by party politics.
So far, Ken Nelson is the only one I support outright.
I like where some candidates stand on certain issues but concerned by other things they support.
Tim Newman believes in neighborhood schools and not busing but also believes spending $55 million on Project LIFT is somehow fair and supports it.
It's really sickening to watch these interviews from Swann with "diversity" being hammered at candidates. Ken Nelson in my opinion was the only candidate to call them out for their racist approach and that's exactly what it was.
Nelson was right in my opinion that it is NOT up to CMS to initiate social engineering within the schools because people live where they live, but rather it's a community effort to ensure ALL children succeed no matter where they live or go to school.
It would be interesting to know what the "achievement gap" was in 1990 and then compared to 2000 and compared to 2010.
If you read the history of CMS on their website, they tout "closing the achievement gap" about every year going back to 1990. That was during busing.
What has the "achievement gap" done pre and post busing when we supoosedly had "diversity"?
If the past 5 years are any indication, we have another 15 years or so to close that gap.
Personally, I won't support any candidate recommended by Swann.
3:44, you point out the major problem with these tests. Results must be available to the teacher the next day so that they can make an accessment of whether a change in course is warranted. Of course the way your whatever grade student is scored is like the same grade student across the county or even the state since the curriculum is supposed to be state based.
I remember my best learning in school came when I had a returned test, saw what I had missed/did not understand and could direct some effort.
WC, my children and i came to this school system in the 1980's. I confronted Louise Woods many times on her racist views when she kept trying to justify one of my children having a different middle school assignment every year. I passed he off as a loon pretty quickly, clearly not grounded in reality and clearly thinking she was "a legend in her own mind". She is the classic facts be dammed, continue on down the waterfall.
As you stated, there is only one good choice right now. But there are 3 seats. To turn this school system around, we need all three seats. And they must be firm in backbone.
The K-2 tests are subjective because there is no distinct right or wrong answer. It's not multiple choice where there is only one correct answer....the questions are open ended. For example, "Name something that is tiny."
Well, how small is tiny? A mouse is tiny compared to a dog, but a bear is tiny compared to an elephant. If a child said 'a bear' would you count it correctly?
Still waiting on the official definition of "diversity" from Meck ACTS and how THEY would achieve it - if in fact there is a problem.
1:52 PM Don't know about national funding of any sort, although Meck ACTS is heavily involved with Parents Across America, which is national. Of more interest might be what, if any kind of ties Meck ACTS and Swann continue to have with the UNC Chapel Hill Center for Civil Rights. About 7 years ago or so, shortly after CMS changed assignment policy, Swann held a forum about assignment. It was held at the old African American Cultural Center. The purpose was to determine how to return CMS to some sort of busing. Panelists included Jack Boger, then director of the UNC Chapel Hill Center for Civil Rights and now dean of the UNC law school, several Charlotte area lawyers, a pastor or two, possibly a school board member--can't remember for sure. At the end of the discussion the group stood and pledged to do whatever they could to stop the new assignment policy. Jack Boger said specifically that the Center for Civil Rights would do whatever it could to help Charlotte activists. Much cheering all around. You didn't read much about this although reporters were there. One has to wonder if the Center for Civil Rights has been watching and waiting and with whom they continue to be in contact in Charlotte.
Anon 4:57...
Good info.
Perhaps Ann and other reporters should be asking Swann and MeckACTS the same question asked of candidates, then we can compare who they wind up supporting and make our own decisions when voting.....
Wiley,
I'm sure that you have noticed that Meck ACTS has definitely gotten a pass from The Observer on having to explain what it stands for. Swann is obvious--they tell us what they stand for on their webpage and certainly go into greater detail than simply stating they want to unite the community for better education for all children. I don't agree with their positions but they certainly don't hide them. What would be interesting is to learn about the overlap between Swann and Meck ACTS members.
5:57....
Yep... that's why I asked the question.
Swann is what it is, we all know what they want.
I think it is a rather humorous situation when these parties focus on subverting policy instead of focusing effort on the kids and families themselves. We know when we came out of forced busing, the achievement gap the first year of the ABC tests was 34.4. Before that, the school board tried to hide issues with educating inner city kids by changing pupil assignments and trying to upset neighborhoods to keep them fighting against themselves instead of fighting the school board.
Kids were reassigned schools routinely to keep any individual schools from looking like they were failing too badly. Most of the inner city schools hosted the higher end magnet programs that drew kids in from the suburbs. This kept the racists with their diversity agenda more than happy. Most tests given were not broken down beyond schoolhouse level. So they knew the public would never see the data about the failure to educate the inner city kids. If they did not have the data, they could ignore the problem existed and that made them happy.
Ann -
Seems like your readers would like to learn more about Mecklenburg ACTS.
We would welcome a full investigative report. Front page would be great!
Carol
Very simple questions...
Do you support Bright Beginnings and why when there is no data to suport the program works or is worth the $20+ million we spend on it? Even Gorman wanted to drastically cut it stating there was no discernable evidence the program works.
Do you support fully auditing the school lunch program so we can find out exactly how many students truly qualify so we can better target those students with funds and kick the ones off who do not qualify?
What is your definition of "diversity"?
Do you support busing to achieve either racial or income integration?
We know you're against PFP but how do YOU propose to reward teachers who work hard versus those who don't?
Do you support teacher's unions and would you support teacher's unions in NC?
After all the questions asked above, one paragraph from MeckACTS sums up their entire mission:
Mecklenburg ACTS recommends that CMS eliminate the Title I zones and instead create four geographic zones with balanced proportions of Title I and non-Title I schools. We urge citizens to contact CMS and school board members to support this recommendation.
These students have to learn the same curriculum, no matter what zone or school they attaend.
So in the end, in my opinion, all I want to knwo is which candidates MeckACTS endorses for the BOE so I can cast my vote accordingly.
...still waiting on Sawyer's definition of "diversity".
http://parentsacrossamerica.org/2011/03/charlotte-value-added-fight-moves-forward/
Anon 7:21...
The same Pam Grundy who has distain for her neighbors because they don't send their kids to Shamrock Gardens, even though they exercised their right to make choices for their kid's education as Pam did.
If you want to go backwards in public education, by all means support MeckACTs, PAA and Swann candidates - whoever they turn out to be.
What zones have Title 1 schools and what proportion has no consequence on how students are taught. Just another attention grabbing headline by some ego lacking elitists.
Wow your white guilt is showing.
Title I funds are bogus because much of it is based on bogus FRL data.
They don't want to talk about that....
With folks like MeckACTS and Swann around, they better wish the economy does not get any better. If you think the exodus of white and black middle class families has been suspect, it will become a tidal wave.
therestofthestory 6;22 et al. Now there is a meaningful analysis. Shuffle students to give the false appearance of improvement.
Instead of using taxpayer resources to deal with the problem, taxpayer resources are used to conceal the problem.
Other than the racist jab, this is the type of analysis that can benefit the community raising awareness to the superficial approach to public administration practiced by some at CMS.
CMS facilities may look ok at the office but until you really get into them you don't smell or see how CMS treats some taxpayer funded school facilities.
CMS has a core mission and legislative mandate to service the community as a K-12 school district. Monies spent outside of the mandate are taken away from the students CMS is established to serve. This results in CMS chasing after free corporate money and outside influence on the direction of CMS.
Local politicians pandering for votes by authorizing programs outside of the CMS mission are doing harm to the District's fulfillment of its mission to the community.
CMS needs a locally minded home grown Super who can think independently and work toward what is best for Mecklenburg children to compete in the global market.
On the testing comments: I thought it was interesting that CMS' Scott Muri (who's in charge of technology but is also picking up some of the accountability work) acknowledged last week that even some of the summative results -- that is, the tests that are specifically designed to provide prompt real-time info to diagnose student problems -- are not getting to teachers in a timely manner. I think in a district this big, the theory always runs ahead of the practice.
On Meck ACTS: I'm thinking about including them in every blog post just to run up my numbers (just kidding!). However much commenters love or hate them, they're not at the top of my coverage priority list. First, need to get to the 14 folks who are actually on the ballot, and keep up with the supe search. And then tackle some of the academic issues in CMS, such as what the latest approach to reading will be. Peter Gorman's "intensive reading" program has not brought nearly the results hoped for.
Candidates for public office should be forced to debate in the nude.
Ok, that is it, this is the last time I let my bride talk me into going to our place and not taking my Ipad.
All this good stuff happens and I do not get my two cents worth in.
Now this nude interview stuff would that include say the interviewers like Ann?
Oh and anything we can hear from Mecked would be great. They are such a great resource for education as our former Super made sure and funded. Not only that they have a former CMS employee on board. So they nothing but the best of intentions for CMS.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204226204576601232986845102.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Interesting commentary by Frank Tarkenton: What if the NFL Played by Teachers' Rules?
ANon 10:01..
That would be Fran, not Frank.
Interesting analogy but football players produce nothing but personal results.
To compare teachers and tenure to the NFL is absurd. I get the intent of the point being made but the other half of the analogy has been left out - kids.
Whether the system is tenured, pay for performance or a hybrid, there is still huge variable in the process people want to ignore - kids.
Mudd, your conclusion was the intent the families had when the ywent to court to get the CMS busing order overturned. The district was focused only in keeping racial balances in line, which is what Swann and MeckACTS wants to go back to and the district was tryign to keep any schools from looking too bad academic-wize. The families argued that CMS was essentially ignoring education and the tough to educate and was riding on the accomplishments of a few really good schools since none looked too bad.
The argument was that even if you felt like you were consolidating most of the kids into fewer schools, you had better luck actually targeting more effort at those schools to help those kids. So once again, MeckACTS and Swann want a look good feel good change that will make it tougher to help the kids that need help. Anyway, we have seen the extra effort has not really paid off. We clearly are beyond the point of diminsihing returns and we need toscalel back those expenditures. There are a couple of strategies you could put in place to take some burden off the county taxpayer. The problem is the controlling county democrats want to look like they are doing something even though they are getting no results.
From website "Mecklenburg ACTS is an affiliate of Parents Across America, a national group of parents and supporters working for positive, progressive changes in all our nation's schools."
I recall this also coming up when ACTS was complaining about another national group(Gates) effort with Chamber to provide facts about education reform.
One national group (PAA/M A) is based on advocacy to support one position - theirs. The other Gates) supports an initiative that simply asks that the public read the actual facts on the CMS website and school board documents in order to make an informed decision about those facts - whichever side you choose.
Hope the public will be open minded and consider the facts when evaluating school board candidates.
That article by Fran Tarkenton is spot on.
Wiley, you say "Interesting analogy but football players produce nothing but personal results." Football players produce entertainment, not "personal results."
You say the "other half of the analogy has been left out - kids." However, Mr. Tarkenton's point is that kids are getting a raw deal by the retrograde teacher pay system that's been set up in this country.
Mr. Tarnkenton's analogy would have worked for any profession. His point is that organizations should not grant pay increases and job security according to a formula that ignores employee job performance. Most rational people would agree with this, but you instead are focused on busing and arguing that CMS is completely hopeless.
So you think producing entertainment and producing kids who can go out into the world and make a living are the same?
No wonder public education is screwed up.
Wiley, I tihink there is somethign to be learned form that. But as we know, teaching a child is more an art. The point of the editorial has a point. However we do know how we suffered with a defensive lineman last year who played his capability 2 or 3 series a game and cruised the rest with a big guaranted contract. Then knowing he would not re-sign, got a bigger contract and is performing more to his capability this year.
After much research, I am not too sure any one method gives you the effect you want and that is, does the student improve achievement enough so the next grade is more challenging (in the good way) and less frustrating (that is in not being prepared). Sometimes, it is a couple of years to see the benefits in some children. Some do show that however pretty quick.
And as many have pointed out, more and more children are coming to school "defective/below quality standards" and yet teachers have to deal with them as well as the average and high achievers in their classrooms.
We get into the same thing in the corporate world. Managers know who their work horses are and thus give them the "hard" assignments. HR however wants their performance appraisal to be written exactly like that and if they achieve their accomplishments, they are simply rated "competent" not really reflecting their contribution to the long term success of the business unit versus someone else who simply does routine things and also gets rated competent.
Bottom line, we really need to convince Ann to stop being just a mouthpiece for these groups. Her giving them credence is too much for the "sheeple" to resist.
TROTS...
I got the analogy and I have always stated I support some sort of merit pay for teachers who do more than others in their job. In that respect, yes, it is like the NFL or any other profession.
Where I drew the difference is when Fran goes on to state part of the reason public education is failing is due to the current setup of teacher pay and then again comparing it to the NFL.
So again, there is no comparison to the the two end-products; the education of children versus the entertainment of football fans.
Anon 12:43...
The vast majority of teachers are good teachers.
Yes, some outperform others, just as people in other profession outperform their peers.
I don't disagree with that assessment. I also don't disagree that some teachers should make more than others based on their performance.
Teacher performance is not a major issue as to why public education has been in the toilet for decades.
Teachers are implementors, not facilitators and follow policy, so much of the failings in public education that people want to tag onto teachers is just an extension of what they are told to teach by educrats and polticians.
I constantly hammer on the real problems facing public education which is total waste and fraud of funds to the tune of tens of millions of dollars and the status quo that has a grip on the system, which includes those who want to keep kids down to suit their own agendas.
As we know, Dr. Gorman was going to fund his PfP by manipulating the county portion of the supplement which he interpreted as not really being their base pay since it was not from the state. So as long as he never touched the "state" portion of the pay, he never got into the "demotion" dilemna. However, he would get into a protracted court case probably with the teachers associations if they could foot that much of the legal bill. He figured he could probably play government and public sentitment against them and wait them out. He then would use the county supplement or even just the raise portion whenever the time came the state decided to give the teacher pay schedule an increase.
I see this election coming down to 3 candidates that are likely to get the support of a rough alliance of voting parents and the business community:
1) Elyse Dashew
2) Aaron Pomis
3) Tim Morgan
All of these candidates have positive, professional images and rhetoric. They seem to be against the idea of breaking up neighborhood schools. From what I can tell, they generally want to tweak the reforms that started during the Gorman era, but seem unlikely to join the anti-reform block of BOE members (Tom Tate, Richard McElrath and Joyce Waddell).
I think that aligned against these 3 candidates will be 3 other candidates who will get the support of an alliance of Swann / MeckACTS and the teacher's association. As the outgoing head of the Mecklenburg teachers union, Mary McCray will be an obvious choice for this alliance. It will be interesting to see who else they get behind.
Do people agree or disagree? What do you think will happen?
Anon 4:59...
You might want to go back and review Aaron Pomis' answer to #6 when asked if he believed in "diversity" and whether or not CMS was "diverse".
By answering he believes in "diversity" and no that CMS is NOT "diverse", that tells me he's willing to gerrymander the system to suit Swann's position, which is busing.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHUsuy0Bm0g&feature=player_embedded
Elyse Dashew waffles on the same question, eventually putting "diversity" off on the City to integrate neighborhoods, thus integrating the schools.
If she wants to waffle, go to IHOP.
We need people willing to make the hard decisions and not more BOE members who like last year, sloughed off the Bright Beginnings vote onto the County.
If you listen to the questions and follow ups, the panel is trying their best to pigeon hold candidates to their point(s) of view.
Wiley, You have an interesting take, but I don't read into Elyse Dashew's answer and Aaron Pomis's answer the same way you do.
It seems like Elyse Dashew is saying that she believes in diversity, but as a BOE member she would not support busing.
Aaron Pomis's statements are more vague. I didn't think the questioners pressed for a position from him on this issue very well.
Anon 4:59 - who paid you for that assessment of Tim Morgan as having a positive image and wanting to tweak the reforms from Gorman?
He is a political bozo who is utterly disconnected from the parents and teachers in this county. He is either unwilling or unable to assess any positions other than his own. His head was so far up Pete's behind when Pete opened his mouth Tim could see daylight.
He has no data to show pfp/tep/crap will work but he blindly does whatever his employee, the superintendent, tells him to. Look at his voting record.
He is on record as telling people he will hire a superintendent just like the old one. Really, he is in no way a factor in this election. No I take that back, he is someone many different groups and former candidates will be actively working against.
Anon 6:29...
Elyse used magnets to cop an answer and was very timid answering the question.
We don't need timid.
Everybody believes in "diversity", it just depends on what your definition of it is and how you massage it to suit your agenda.
Ann...
Check the spam filter.....
My post was there for a second and then disappeared....
TROTS - the county was never going to let Pete touch any of the local supplement. Ever.
Also Pete's logic was flawed...when he received word from the state that our local and state pay made up our base pay for furlough purposes he lost any chance of touching our local pay.
8:17, while I heard that early on, I became real curious where then the funds were going to come from. The state budget is not going to look significantly better for 3 to 5 years.
Anon 8:12, Your slanderous and derogatory comments about Tim Morgan are devoid of facts. I don't know what Tim has done to make you so angry, other than to support Peter Gorman. I guess we'll find out in the election if Tim is as unpopular as you claim.
8:14, check tim's voting record. Check tim's unwavering/unquestioning support for PR Pete. There is no data to show pfp works, is there? No. And Tim has said he'd hire a person just like the old super.
So where did I slander him?
Yeah, nice try. I hope you are not his campaign manager...
5:42--Are you the wife of one of the school board candidates?
Ha! No, I am not. I am just right in my assessment of Timothy.
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