Roy Exum
The Shelby County Department of Education just announced it will close three charter schools and begin the closure process for three more Memphis high schools --- Carver, Northside and Messick. The disheartening news – plus the fact a principal for one of the state-run schools was just found to be a felon – has caused Memphis legislator Antonio Parkinson to publicly call for the Achievement School District (ASD) to close down this week.
Shelby County school board member Stephanie Love said that by allowing principal Koai Matthews (who pleaded guilty to conspiracy and counterfeiting) to remain at Lester Prep is “the most egregious slap in the face” so far, this after the state strong-armed 33 “priority schools” in 2011.
“How much do we have to put up with? How many more times will the state cover for this failed experiment? Traditional schools would never be able to get away with half of the issues the ASD has gotten away with.”
Last month the State Department of Education revealed it has identified five Chattanooga schools it will take over in a thinly-veiled “partnership” with local educators, yet I can find not one educator in Hamilton County who will give the terribly misguided notion the slightest chance. I know County Mayor Jim Coppinger is against it, the County Commission and the School Board fully know we can’t bear the extra expense, and, much more candidly, it is my belief that any state intervention will bring ruin to our most fragile schools and the communities each serves.
Look at public education in Memphis right now. That’s where State Rep. Parkinson just said, “It appears that the ASD is attempting to create a new norm for what is acceptable for our most vulnerable school population’s children and their parents. This is not the norm and will not ever be accepted for our children,” the Democrat added.
“This type of decision would never happen in non-minority schools, nor would it be accepted. I can all but guarantee that no ASD leader, the Governor, nor the Commissioner of Education would accept this for their own children. If it’s not good enough for theirs, it’s not good enough for ours.”
The legislator has watched what has happened. He’s seen it firsthand. Candace McQueen, the state’s Commissioner of Education, told the Memphis Daily News, “Under the new federal education law, we have renewed and clarified the role of the ASD, and as our new school improvement continuum begins this summer, we see this as a reset moment to ensure that the ASD best serves the students who most need support,”
Then McQueen pointed out, “As part of this moment, we are re-examining licensure requirements, hiring practices and policies and trainings” and the groans from educators across the state rose in chorus. Seriously, it is believed over half of the teachers in Tennessee will quit in the next ten years.
The most overwhelming reason the ASD will never work in Memphis is because Memphis is one of the “Ten Most Dangerous Cities” in the United States. To dare believe you can take a charter operator from California and place them in a position to better operate an inner-city school in a Deep South neighborhood where the average family income is less that $20,000 a year, is clearly rampant lunacy.
The worst schools in Memphis are in the worst neighborhoods. That’s a tough learning environment. Now, see if you can get your arms around this? If you study the map of where the five troubled Chattanooga schools are physically located, you can find a direct parallel to a fatal stabbing and four separate shooting incidents within just the past week. Understand, not one child was responsible for that violence, but let’s acknowledge each young mind is forced to live within it.
I contend that more effort has been put into our “’poor schools” in the last year that in the previous ten. It is no secret a serious lack-of-leadership in the past has cost us dearly. Many believe we have “lost a generation” of our students because, when 60 percent of third graders can’t read at grade level, that percentage floats all the way through high school. A sad fact is most children can never catch up. That is being remedied and I know that’s true.
We have summer reading programs coming (where poor kids can eat). The new members on the school board are solid and, once we wash away the dizzying superintendent search, “whoever” can make some key decisions. It took a long time to sink so deep, it takes a while to overcome it.
In the meantime, for Candace McQueen to offer nothing more than ‘muddy water’ must be stopped. Our legislators, our donors to Governor Haslam’s campaign, our parents need to demand a minimum moratorium of at least three years. Tennessee teachers are 37th in pay in the U.S. How can Haslam dare approve such a folly when our teachers must take second jobs? Every single stakeholder can easily see Nashville’s “policies and training” are about as desirable as the infamous “Typhoid Mary” coming here and opening a dance studio.
McQueen wants to create a 501(c)3 non-profit for “the poor schools,” have a totally separate school board where her office will appoint 60 percent of the seven-to-10 member board, and an independent superintendent who will answer to – hello? – the majority … the very people who have so horribly hampered public education in Memphis. (The Shelby County Schools’ proposed budget for FY2018 has a shortfall of $86 million.)
The state commissioner has the audacity to believe the “partnership” concept will easily be accepted by the Hamilton County School Board by mid-June but Candace didn’t appoint them. No, the people of Hamilton County did. The majority of the “real” school board is up for election in 2018. Candace hasn’t a vote and each seat will be contested. You savvy?
Our entire community has to fight the state on this one. Commissioner McQueen must make her existence necessary by other means. Yeah, go make your ‘continuum’ for ‘licensure’ somewhere else. Move to another state. I don’t mean to be rude nor critical but I’ll take the typhoid over the failure in Memphis.
royexum@aol.com