Roy Exum: School Board Suckered

  • Sunday, May 27, 2018
  • Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Roy Exum
Just eight short days ago, Hamilton County Commissioner Tim Boyd called a study on Hamilton’s County’s pseudo ‘socioeconomic desegregation’ farce as “the most far left, liberal document I have ever read. It does not represent the values of Hamilton County and I am insulted and disrespected by it." Then the School Board got so embarrassingly suckered on Thursday night that I had no choice but to walk out of the meeting.
I was fearful I would burst into gales of such laughter the diligent Sheriff deputies would march me to jail.
Go to Thursday’s security tapes -- you can see me leaving – because when our leaders get so badly snookered that ‘I am insulted and disrespected by it,’ then, brother, I’m out of my daily allowance of tolerating stupid. This week, under the ruse “somebody else is paying for it,” the board voted 8-1 to hire a consulting group of shameless carpet-baggers to finally lead us to the liberal elite’s mindless goal of socio-economic desegregation (diversity.) We all know it’s impossible. UnifiEd’s moronic report just proved it, their irrational and zany APEX Project immediately going down in flames less than a month after the opening pitch.
But what the School Board refuses to acknowledge is that cancer is an insidious disease and UnifiEd’s horribly misguided interlopers have the staying power of some God-forsaken medical melanoma. When you wonder who in Chattanooga’s realm has ever even heard of the Howard Group, or how the liberal elite could possibly come up with an amazing con in just one week, the far bigger question is why our school board’s blind mice would so nonchalantly approve a $290,000 contract to hire such carpetbaggers.
‘A carpetbagger’ remains as a term coined right after the Civil War that, politely stated just before a Johnny Reb would lower his rifle at such vermin, is “any person from the Northern United States who came to the Southern states after the Southern surrender and was perceived to be exploiting the local populace for their own purposes.” (It still happens all the time: i.e. the school board just got ‘got’ for $290-large.)
In recent weeks we have learned UnifiEd – passed off early as an education non-profit – is instead a far-left cast of political organizers who, for example, just hired 50 poll-watchers for a county primary. Nowhere else in America is that part of education – in Chicago it’s called ‘brain-washing children.’ Really. UnifiEd sent dozens of white kids to canvas a predominately black district in such an eyebrow way one lady giggled it was “a Caucasian Invasion.’ (You can’t make this stuff up.)
Ah, but I digress. During the primary, UnifiEd’s most-unwanted involvement created such a stir in the community that it was exposed, its APEX Project was shunned, and its sordid election manipulations scorned. The whole ‘diversity’ stir was labeled as “hogwash” and – what? -- the “liberal elites” go into panic mode.
So, what do politicians do in such times as these? Easy – they get some “consultants” who can evermore stir the mud and put a new twist on wacky stuff the conservatives will buy.
In every day that I have been alive, I have never heard of ‘socio-economic desegregation’ until this week but, nonetheless, I’ve heard a great deal in the last eight days.
I have heard our most urgent need is a security officer in our schools. I have heard 60 percent of our third graders still cannot read at grade level but we advanced each one to the fourth grade where, next year, the vast majority won’t be able to read at grade level. I have heard deep-seated rumors of the worst academic performance at The Howard School ever. I have heard that some children – victims they well may be -- will go hungry every day starting this week across town with schools now closed. I have heard East Ridge Middle School is today a virtual United Nations with 51 different languages being spoken and lot and lots more.
But I can’t seem to hear when, to be blunt, socio-economic desegregation is at the absolute bottom of our educational food chain. Wait, what’s that you say? Some small batch of blundering fools just authorized $290K to bring a Washington consulting group among us to further take our eye off the bullseye, which is teaching the child. My golly gracious!
The con is alive and well right here! The way the con works is you convince the mark (sucker) that it won’t cost a dime. Puh-leeze! Pay attention here … “free” takes the place of “diversity.” The sheep’s wool ploy is written about in the Bible but it was P.T. Barnum who proved “a sucker is born every minute.”
Next, look at the money. Nearly $300,000 looks like a lot of cash and while not one School Board member had any prior knowledge of The Howard Group before Thursday night, we rejoice in the Godsend. Hey, these geniuses are based in Washington D.C. so they gotta’ be official. Man, they’ll teach classes like “Creating Trauma Sensitive Classrooms” and “Culturally & Linguistically Responsive Pegagogy.”
And don’t worry that the suicide risks will rise exponentially among any teachers forced to endure such tripe, the con’s trick is to make it so awful, so unbearable, the School Board – exactly like a cancer patient – will say or do anything to make it go away. That’s not just the liberal’s misguided goal, the misery is his guarantee to keep our schools in such chaos. This is Satanic.
Want to know why our teachers quit? Need to know what a “lack of support” means when you force a faculty to “Examine Implicit Bias” without a cocktail hour prior? This is stuff that leads to mental illness.
But, wait, Mr. Wizard, the money has to come from somewhere. Yes, we agree it is simply a divine miracle that such a wonderful opportunity with the Howard Group could come just one month after the APEX Project fell flat but you just can’t go out and pluck $290-large off the tree. You can’t just go out in one week and be so assured of over a quarter-million ask that any School Board member would approve it!!
Pay attention, freshman. Last week you learned that the UnifiEd wasn’t at all what you thought. Well, neither are our charitable foundations. UnifiEd Board member Alison Lebovitiz is the chair of the Lyndwood Foundation ($125 million in 2015) and UnifiEd Action chair Paul Brock is one of seven on the Benwood Foundation ($102 million in 2015). Put another way, you can get a pile of $290,000 in two phone calls if you don’t misdial.
It has been said that Candy Johnson, Supt. Bryan Johnson’s wife, is his greatest asset. Everybody loves her. But with her on the state diversity board with Commissioner Candace McQueen, with a full-time diversity office in the county’s Department of Education, and a diversity committee in place in the HCDE, do you think we might get those folks to huddle up and use $290,000 – if still available – to feed some hungry innocents this summer instead of diversifying them?
This whole thing would be so laughable if it wasn’t so nauseating.
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