The Charlotte NAACP has come out against an effort launched last week to split Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools into three districts, calling it a racist ploy to separate urban and suburban schools (read the statement here).
A group of north and south suburban residents launched a petition drive last week, hoping to persuade state legislators to create three new school districts. Their proposed "central district" would encompass the territory inside the I-485 loop, which includes a swath of schools where most students are from African American or Hispanic low-income families.
"Public education is designed to uplift and to help all of our children not just a chosen few but all," the NAACP statement says. "Splitting up CMS will only guarantee one thing that is the poor will be more
neglected and more thoroughly disenfranchised."
As of Wednesday evening, the online petition had 235 signatures, with a goal of 10,000.
***
Update on the battle of the bells: Vice Chair Mary McCray says she and Amelia Stinson-Wesley, the newly appointed District 6 representative, are trying to set up a meeting between CMS transportation staff and parents unhappy with late hours. It's unclear, though, whether McCray is willing to ask interim Superintendent Hugh Hattabaugh to revise the 2012-13 schedule of opening and dismissal times he announced recently.
Parents have been lobbying the board for a change, saying the later bell schedule introduced this year cut into time for homework, after-school activities and family togetherness. Hattabaugh has said the later hours let buses make an extra run, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.
"I don't understand all the intricacies that go along with the bell schedule and feeder areas," said McCray, who was elected in November. "My hope is we can come to some amicable agreement and a better understanding of why the district has done this."
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
NAACP opposes CMS split
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43 comments:
...that pretty much answers the $64,000 question.
In other news the NAACP declared daytime to be racist since it is lighter than nighttime.
I would be curious to ask the NAACP if they actually spent the time to READ the proposal from the SPARK folks.
If they did, then they still missed several points.
The NAACP said "...they want to have it all and control it all."
Each new district would control its own destiny. I would think the NAACP would be jumping for joy over this. No more "...schemes and shenanigans of the suburban, ultra conservative and separatist communities" to get in the way...
The NAACP accuses SPARK of trying to "...put us back into the dark ages of “separate and unequal.” "
How do they figure this will happen? Each district would receive the same State funding per pupil. Each district would have its own taxing authority. And last time I looked, all those big buildings in Uptown Charlotte generate a lot of property tax revenue. Again, the NAACP should be jumping for joy at this coup that is being handed to them. Neither of the other proposed districts have that kind of tax base to draw from.
Finally, if the NAACP could catch their breath for a moment, they would see that this proposal has NOTHING to do with race. It has everything to do with getting accountability back into the hands of the taxpayers. It has everything to do with finding better and more cost-effective ways to deliver quality education to ALL the children in Mecklenburg County.
I always go back to this question: is what CMS is doing now working?
I think even the NAACP knows the answer to that question.
One last point... I've seen so much angst over this proposal, including from the Observer itself. Why is that? Why are so many eager to jump on the bandwagon spewing that this is such an awful idea?
How about we stop the negativity, actually read the proposal and think about it. If you don't care for a part or parts of it, SUGGEST A BETTER WAY. Please! Our kids are depending on us!
"Help all of the children,not just a chosen few"
Great, then lets give back some of the money from the westside schools.Make distribution of the money equal to ALL the children.Give the same amount of money to all the school equally.Oh,you want a larger share of the money to improve the lower performing scores of the "chosen few" Please, you want the cake,someone to cook it for you and someone to bring you the water to wash it down. Please, after a hundred years, please try to learn how to make a cake and carry a little water from time to time.
If the NAACP is going to use the term "disenfranchised" make sure they know it refers to the South Charlotte high performing schools these days. Their true worry is that if the district broke up their organization would have to work to prove their claims of racism. What truly would come to light is that they probably couldn't manage their own district and wouldn't have anybody but themselves to blame. That just won't do, will it?
The goal is to reduce the "performance gap"
This can be accomplished by increasing the lower performers, or, as appears to be the goal here, lower the performance of the high performers.
And we wonder why there are more engineers in India and China.
I say let the suburbs split off and be ran locally. Don't worry about money as not only will we still receive money from the "big buildings uptown", but also....wait for it.....tolls.
I propose that Charlotte sets up tolls to help with tax needs dedicated only to roads and education.
Suburanites can skip the toll if they use public transportation, what a novel idea...
The bigger problem is the high school bell at 7:15am for teens. An extra hour of sleep in the morning would make such a difference, well rested kids perform better academically, are more alert and happier emotionally.
I oppose the NAACP !!!! and everything it represents ! Always have.
The "Separate but Equal" policies didn't work the first time around and you think that people will fall for it again? Right.
They changed the bell time at former Waddell high school to improve student performance. Didn't work.
CMS changed the bell time at Waddell high school to improve student performance. Didn't work.
Next.
NAACP isn't irrelevant when a school system is only 32% white and four school board members are black.
Carving out districts anytime in the near future isn't going to happen. It's also not cost effective.
Until somebody publishes the tax basis for the three new districts this whole idea is puffery. Tripling the administrative overhead alone will take money out of the classroom. If CMS can focus on what they are supposed to do, instead of trying to be something they are not, then we will begin to see improvement. Note to CMS: you are a public K-12 education system by law...act like it.
11:01,
The bell now rings at 8:15 at Waddell and the diverse k-8 student body will certainly raise the test scores and speak multiple languages.
Anon @ 11:08 PM - I believe those who actually pay taxes have a say in which direction the future school system goes or CMS will become like Atlanta. Who pays for school then? Maybe NCACP leader Mojo Jo Jo?
Anon 11:00,
In regards to using Waddell's experience with the bell change to argue against it, please remember that nothing worked at Waddell and now it is closed.
Common sense and prevailing studies on teen sleep would say that 7:15 start times are not appropriate or benefical for high school students.
Anon 7:01...
My son's start time for 4 years at West Meck was usually between 7:11 and 7:16.
He had lights out at 10:00pm.
Perhaps taking the X-Box controller out of Little Johnny's hand before midnight might also be beneficial.
Wiley, sorry but most would agree with Anon 7:01. I have 4 kids at all levels, Es, MS and HS. They are all good students and involved in extra-curricular activities. No xbox or ps3 during the week. Don't assume all parents are weak and not enforcing some structure at home! 7:15 is a bad time to start HS.
Of course they oppose this it was not their idea. They would not make any money from it either. So its not in the NAACP interest to have education handled on a local level with accountability. Look at the board they just got elected Black,Black and a women with no knowledge. My question too Kojo is do you like how its run today at CMS? If you like LIFT then you will love SPARK ! The central district would stretch from the university too HWY 51 so not all minority based knucklehead Kojo !
Is it also racist to spend 2.5x per student at inner-city Charlotte schools than in schools located in the surrounding suburbs?
11:12--Having three districts would not triple administrative costs--fewer students in a district requires fewer bureaucrats. As things are now for every "chief" at central office there are multiple sub-chiefs to deal with so many complex issues resulting from a huge student population. Fewer bureaucrats=more accountability; more responsiveness; and hopefully more community support/less community anger.
That being said I agree with those who think this is almost an impossible task--first off, how would decisions be made about splitting the system? If 485 was used as a boundary what would happen to the schools just inside 485 that are serving students both inside and outside 485? If they stay with the central district new schools would immediately be needed in the south district. If they go with the south district what would happen to the kids living inside 485 who now attend those schools? Because CMS has messy boundaries sorting it all out would be extremely difficult.
One plus I can see--many in the inner ring and middle ring suburbs have long chastened the far out suburban residents for objecting to busing and gerrymandered assignment boundaries. With those suburbs gone all the gerrymandering will have to be done within the middle and inner rings, and most likely a large majority of the central district's school board will be more than amenable to creative assignment boundaries. It would be interesting to see how the residents of the inner/middle ring areas would react to the new situation.
Anon 8:16...
All of the assumption was on your part.
Personally, I could care less when they start.
You have just as many arguing against a later start because of extracurricular activities in the afternoon and little time to do homework in the evenings.
Get a consensus, set a time and move on.
Either way, Little Johnny needs his sleep.
For the record, I am not posting the link to the petition on this comment string Ann :)
Scott,
Is your wrist still smarting?
Blog corporal punishment.
"Blog corporal punishment"--but only for a select few.
Anon 10:54...
I was called out and slapped on the wrist as well for my incessant whining about a certain topic.
It's a badge of honor, so much so, I printed it out, hung it on my office wall.
Scott and I belong to a very elite club. We meet every third Wednesday of the month....
Wait lets wait for Bolyn to weigh in before we go further. I am sure he is in bed with Kojo over school closings last year. He also has not come up with a solution so he is against SPARK. Wake that fool Bolyn up or yank him from washing Timmy Morgans jeep ! Get him and Kojo out to a discussion and debate this whole breakup. Of course they dont want to learn the positives ! They dont pay any taxes living in a shack.
Thanks, Scott! You'll notice I did it for you. If the economy ever perks up, maybe I can create a golden switch to formally present to you and Wiley. Arthur Griffin once threatened to present "the porcupine award" to board members who were "prickly," and I remain disappointed to this day that it never materialized.
Wiley,
Thank you so much for the parenting advise. I never thought of putting the kids to sleep earlier. When should I have them brush their teeth? Before or after mealtime, and should they brush them again before bed, or not? It's so generous of you to share your obvious expertise in all things related to CMS. Thank you again!
Why not take drastic action and go to Raleigh to split up Mecklenburg into 3 counties instead and be done with it all?
With close to a million people that would be 3 nice size new counties with 333,000 in each.
Then all 3 counties can have their own school systems and you dont have to deal with the NAACP shakedown extortionists.
NC H845 in 2011 stopped municipalities from annexation without 60% of property owner approval but the media is not report this.
With GOP control in the NC Legislature its time to talk a permanent split to end all this mess and lower taxes.
Contact your local GOP state legislator and discuss.
The last Mecklenburg splits were in 1752 as Mecklenburg split from Anson. In 1792 Cabbaras split from Mecklenburg and in 1842 Union split from Mecklenburg.
Time for new splits as the GOP in Raleigh in control will be glad to assist.
Anon 12:36...
Glad to have been of assistance...
The additional 45 minutes that has been added to elementary schools is killing the kids! There are Kindergartners and 1st graders either falling asleep at 3:30pm in the afternoon or throwing fits because they have been in school TOO LONG! The longer days are all about saving money - forget about how it is affecting our kids! Test scores will reflect the longer hours for our elementary kids. The hours are also difficult for staff because we cannot get to a post office or bank before it closes without taking half a day off - no nipping out during our 20-minute lunch break allowed!
12:54 said "NC H845 in 2011 stopped municipalities from annexation without 60% of property owner approval but the media is not report this."
I seem to recall an Observer editorial decrying this move by the legislature.
CMS has been a dumpster fire for decades! We moved out of Charlotte to put our children in a school system run by rational, caring adults who focus on educating children, not poltical correctness. Sounds like a great idea to me!
The NCAAP is showing a very ugly side that both confuses and angers me. If these people had the best interests of their own kids in mind then why not ask for smaller districts that could pay attention to them? The NCAAP seems to be working extremely hard to make sure the achievement gap stays very wide, perhaps they want this so funding doesn't dry up.
EXACTLY
No more gap would mean the loss of millions in funding and an EQUAL distribution of the funds. Cant have that, now can we.
The NAACP won't be happy until they're able to go into your house and drag your smart kid into their dumb kids classrooms.
They don't want "equality" or anything remotely resembling that.
That just screams out in their memo.
They want payback.
They want you to suffer for their benefit.
For as long as they can make you do it.
To quote an former infamous school board member "Duh!!"
9:17, yes payback/revenge is what they want. However, none of these living now have been discriminated against. They have gotten all the breaks, all the preferences, all the extra government funding and they just want more.
Time to cut it all off. It is nothing more than a drug now and they are addicited.
I think starting high school at 7:15 is too early also. CMS just needs to purchase a lot more big yellow buses. Problem solved!
"To quote a former infamous school board member".
"Duh!!"
Wouldn't this be like every past, present and future CMS school board member?
Of course the NAACP would oppose a break up. They want continued access to the suburban money that they have now. Integration is a failed social experiment and a myth. First of all, it has not improved achievement for anyone. Secondly, visit any cafeteria at a local high school and note how the student segregate themselves.
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