Birmingham’s school district debacle

Where do I start? I will say that Birmingham school district is royally fucked if this isn't solved very soon.  In my opinion, they seem they have such a dilemma that most urban school districts seem to have these days. That problem is fiefdom mentality when it should even be this way. (Preference, what I am about to say is the honest yet objective truth). When it comes to the Birmingham school district, the whites that mostly now live in the suburbs such as the municipalities Hoover, Vestavia Hills, Gardendale, Fultondale, Clay, and Trussville or incorporated areas like McCalla and Grayson Valley, or western Saint Clair and northern Shelby counties were the ones that screwed up the school district because they didn't want their children to attend schools with blacks back in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, but it was the mismanagement of the majority black and AEA (Alabama Education Association) led administrators that has led to the school districts problems since the 1990s. This is nothing new because school districts in New Orleans, Memphis, Atlanta, Washington DC, and many others across the South has this problem as well.

The whole "they are trying to take over our schools" mantra perpetuated by the Frank Matthews and the same crew of misguided individuals aided the selection of the ineptitude leadership of William Bell aka "the Jackal".  I weep for the socially progressive, working-class, and urban enthusiasts in the city of Birmingham because they have no true allies at all. It seems like instead of find some common ground with those across the city whom want to turn the school district around.  Many of these individuals have children in the district's schools that refuses to provide a quality education that is offered in the surrounding school districts.  As a result, many are forced to do just day either leave for the suburbs if their children cannot get into the Ramsey High School, the baccalaureate academy at Parker High School, or cannot afford to send their children to one of the private schools in the region if they want to remain within the city.  Instead of trying to improve the school district, the board members want to continue status quo so they preserve the jobs of those whom are family and friends in the Birmingham Board of Education central office.  Advocates of reform had to turn to the one entity within the government organization that probably has the least amount of regard for the urban school district in the one city that it wish would die more than anything else, the Alabama State Board of Education.  

Yeah, sure the current board has attempted to oust the current superintendent, Craig Witherspoon, more than once, but the Alabama Board of Education and apparently the courts are against that. However, it is the unlikely allies that reformers of the school districts battle against mediocrity and the current foes are what are worrisome. Let me not forget the current Birmingham School Board president being ruled a resident of Trussville rather than Birmingham after proof of him not being a full-time resident of the city was discovered. The school district is at risk losing its accreditation with the Southeast Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS) over the recurring problems with specific schools and the majority of the board's idiocy (can you say Clayton County, Georgia all over again). Finally, having a group of entitled urban mostly black bureaucrats are actually making things worse than their white counterparts and have the working-class, majority black electorate in the city thinking this is a racial usurp to get retribution on them by the state of Alabama. Now this is truly sad…

The one bright spot is the fellow blogger, Laura Kate Whitney, of MagicCityMade blog pointed out that Birmingham like most urban places are worth fighting for in the long run.  This battle has revealed that racial animus is behind the majority of this foolishness on the black members whom are against district reform on the Birmingham Board of Education.  As a black American, I understand and fight for the struggle of a socially egalitarian US by calling out the inequities of all times and bigotry of all.  However, the board members needs to realize that sometimes it best to not fight change because all they are doing is inadvertently destroying Birmingham's chances of recovering.

It's not about you guys, it is about fixing this declining school district before there is nothing left. *SIGH*

Why are charter schools such a problem in Alabama?

Well, I know for starters that Alabama Education Association, also known as AEA, are against this because they wouldn't be able to recruit and ensure their thrall on those involved in these entities as they have with other school districts across the state of Alabama.  AEA isn't exactly an educators' union or teachers' union because they include the membership even janitors and cafeteria workers, which null and voids the actual purpose or name of the association organization.  Another thing, charter schools usually are places where there is a specific goal or 'charter' for its existence.  In the case of Birmingham, it may be the only logical solution for the time being for the beleaguered city because of the screwed up nature that AEA and its shenanigan-starters have created for the Birmingham school district.

The mayor's wife has a position in the Birmingham Board of Education main administrative building in downtown with a grandiose title but wouldn't be able to provide an adequate job description if her life depended upon it.  Then there is the AEA-supported and elected (why I don't know) school board that seems to be always at odds with any superintendent that seems to make strides towards fixing the problem, too many employees but not enough students or reason for facilities to remain open because of the shrinking enrollment of the district.   Finally, aside from Ramsey & Parker high, Powell, Epic, and Glen Iris K-8/elementary schools, the school district's schools overall performance still sucks even through there have been some improvements over the years.  The quality of education in the district is still poor even compared to other urban school districts in Alabama.  I've met one too many high school graduates of Birmingham school district that have gone on to 4-year universities telling me how they were playing catch-up via remedial course in their freshmen year of college or even graduate school.

In the end, charter schools may be the only practical and realistic solution to this institutionalized problem that exists within Birmingham and other urban school districts like Anniston where teacher tenureship and job security is more important than the quality the curriculum of the schools.  I am all for protecting the collective rights of educators as well as other work-class jobs, but in education it is imperative that the student still come first more than anything else.  This is why charter schools are very important to Birmingham and Alabama's future...

Oh look at what DeKalb County is doing now...

The employment carnage that is known Dekalb County, Georgia has yet to truly see an ending.  Since late 2009, the various governmental agencies from the county government to county school district has been shedding jobs left and right like it's going out of style.  According to this past Wednesday's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they are planning on outsourcing custodial jobs. Although these are the lowest ones on the totem pole of functionality of a school district we knew who holds most of these positions... (***HINT*** It's folk ***HINT***)

Outsourcing is one of several suggestions that came up earlier this year as part of budget cuts. Facing an estimated $50 million shortfall in next year’s budget, the proposal is back on the table.

I'm more perplexed how a rapidly growing county in Metro Atlanta has been able to function over the past 15 years since they've seen the county population jump by 100,000 new residents.  The county itself has been in the spotlight of mismanagement from the cost-of-living pay raises that occurred for outgoing county commissioners staffers last fall in the midst of massive deficit while refusing to give county police officers raises  to the former county superintendent being indicted for racketeering to 430 school district employees being laid off to  the recommendation to close 14 declining enrollment schools to now this.  Chaos at its very worse in DeKalb.  Unfortunately, it's the one jurisdiction aside from Atlanta proper that I would prefer to reside in Metro Atlanta... ***SIGH***

The gifts that the Alabama Education Association (AEA) has brought to us

The Alabama Education Association (AEA) has basically sabotaged anything remotely progressive (or on that matter, rational) for Alabama for the next 4 years.  There are basically 2 morons running for governor, and anyone with a spark of knowledge about politics knows that it's usually this way.  However, the caught is that AEA has funded both of their campaigns by spreading lies about their primary opponents and using political action committees (PACs) to do it.  We all know the narrative about how the idiot known as Ron Sparks wind up on the Democratic gubernatorial ticket.  This time around, I'll tell the tale about how the ornery dermatologist from Tuscaloosa, Robert Bentley, wind up on the Republican ticket. 

Apparently, AEA and Stan Pate, a major Alabama real estate development from Tuscaloosa, got into cohorts with one another to spread lies via 9 different PACs against primary opponent, Bradley Byrne.  The PACs all swore they represented "conservative Alabamians" and such.  Meanwhile, all of their addresses were P.O. Boxes that were owned by AEA members or the organization itself.  The whole scheme wreaked of fraud and underhanded campaigning on the part of the AEA.  This led to the run-off between Byrne and Bentley where the PACs continued their spreading of misinformation.  This type of scam occurred on the Democratic ticket as well along with the help of Joe Reed and his sycophantic org, the ADC (Alabama Democratic Coalition) along with the pseudo-progressive black org, the ANSC (Alabama New South Coalition) against Artur Davis.  

Now the majority of Alabamians are having "buyers remorse" before the election because they finally realizing that were played like Nintendo by the AEA.  The AEA is a fraudulent organization that doesn't represent anything but status quo these days.  If they stood for integrity they would have helped Alabama secure funds for the the federal education improvement programmed created by President Obama instead of fighting against it all because it would allow state-administered charter schools.  They would have been fought tooth-and-nail to improve adequate funding for school districts in places like the Black Belt, rural South Alabama, where there are schools where there are no texts available for their students.  The AEA is another symptom of the shit that plagues Alabama and should be treated the same way other lobbyists are treated, with a long-handle spoon...

Oh brother, Mississippi is still doing this...

On Tuesday, Senior Judge Tom S. Lee serving in the U.S. District Court of Southern Mississippi had to issue an order requiring that Walthall County in Southwestern Mississippi to desegregate their school district.  Apparently, school officials were allowing a large chunk of the white students to transfer to a majority white set of schools while depleting any sense of diversity in the reminder of the county schools, which are majority black. 

WASHINGTON – A federal court has ordered the Walthall County, Miss., School District to eliminate policies that have resulted in significant racial segregation among students in the school district, the Justice Department today announced.

The United States filed a motion on Dec. 21, 2009, in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi arguing that the Walthall School District is in flagrant violation of a prior court order from 1970, the Equal Protection Clause and Title IV of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

"More than 55 years after Brown v. Board of Education, it is unacceptable for school districts to act in a way that encourages or tolerates the resegregation of public schools," said Thomas E. Perez, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. "We will take action so that school districts subject to federal desegregation orders comply with their obligation to eliminate vestiges of separate black and white schools."

According to the motion, the district's practice of permitting hundreds of students – the vast majority whom are white – to attend schools outside their assigned residential attendance zone without restriction prompted a disproportionate number of white students to attend a single school in the district, leaving a number of other schools disproportionately black.

Indeed, evidence in the case suggested that the community regarded certain schools in the district as "white schools" or "black schools." The United States also asserted that officials in certain district schools grouped, or "clustered," white students together in particular classrooms, resulting in large numbers of all-black classes at every grade level in those schools.

The order issued today by the court requires the district to modify its transfer policy to permit students to transfer to a school outside their residential zone only if the student can demonstrate a compelling justification for the transfer. The court further ordered the district to implement protocols to ensure that students within district schools will hereafter be assigned to classrooms in a manner that will not lead to segregation.

The enforcement of the Equal Protection Clause and Title IV in school districts is a top priority of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

According to the Washington Post:

For years, the local school board has permitted hundreds of white students to transfer from its Tylertown schools, which are about 75 percent African American and serve about 1,700 students, to another school, the Salem Attendance Center, which is about 66 percent white and serves about 577 students in grades K-12. The schools are about 10 miles apart.

Salem became "a racially identifiable white school while the student enrollment of the Tylertown schools has become predominantly black" because of the transfers, U.S. officials alleged in December, based on data from the 2007-08 school year, according to Lee's order.

At the same time in Tylertown four K-12 schools, "District administrators group, or 'cluster,' disproportionate numbers of white students into designated classrooms . . . resulting in significant numbers of segregated, all-black classrooms at each grade level," the judge wrote, summarizing the Justice Department lawyers' case.

So the clustering of white students in majority white school and the cluster of black students in other school, huh?  Well, Mississippi Department of Education have a lot of explaining to do considering they likely knew of this when they did their annual enrollment and demographic profiles of each schools in each school district.  Considering this is the notorious for being still practically "Indentured Servitude Country" aka Southwestern Mississippi, I just not surprised that is occurred here at all.  This is portion of Mississippi that is still stuck in the early 20th century in so many ways more than one can explain.  Mississippi is making a name for itself this year and it's only been 4 months in; first, with the prom fiasco in Itawamba County and now this ignorance.  WOW, WOW, WOW! 

Why teachers' unions are the problem?

After watching enough TV ads into ad nauseum from Alabama's Education Association (AEA) and other teachers' unions across the nation, I've come to the conclusion when it comes to education reform in Alabama and most places that teachers' union are at fault.  Yeah, I said it!  They seem to be come preoccupied with preserving the teachers' jobs rather than educating students with the best methods.  However, instead we have this bizzaro situation where they are flooding the airwaves with the same ignorance that socially conservative interest groups uses to scare the common consumer into believing that "Washington wants to control your lives and your children's education with their liberal ideology".  Sounds familiar, huh? 

Also in other non-Southern states like Rhode Island, where there are school districts that are bold enough to terminate the entire teaching staff of a school when that isn't the answer either.  The administrators should be held as equally accountable as the teaching staff because this problem didn't form overnight and those administrators who have been there for years have seen this coming and knew what was happening.  So if you are going to fire the teachers then the administrators needs to be fired as well.  This hierarchical prejudice and ridicule of those on the lower end of the totem pole needs to cease because those higher ups are just as responsible.

Meanwhile, states like Alabama are missing out on critical funds that are needed to fund charter schools because the teachers' unions are too busy trying to cover their asses and member enrollment and dues.  The radical polarity of their isn't wise or practical at all because most solutions to any problem doesn't require switching from one end of the spectrum to another.  Also this is the time for those with a little sense and individual thought to stand up to these damn teacher's unions and their bullshit whining, bitching, and moaning about preserving their members' jobs when they are have school districts like Birmingham that are nothing but jokes, but all the administrators are getting paid $100K salaries annually....  SMDH

A little advice to Progressives, don't ally yourself with unions especially teachers' unions because as every other interest group, it's every man for himself.  Pluralistic alliances are ALWAYS the most productive ones because it allows the issue to be pushed to the forefront and made into a policy.

Haley Barbour and his recklessness of MS HBCUs and a womens' university

A little late, but still new to me...

Last week, Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour proposed a cost-cutting plan to merge all the state-funded historically black colleges and universities into one saving a whooping $35 million dollars out of a state budget that is running hundreds of millions in deficit for Fiscal 2010.   There is also plans to merge or do away with the women's institution, Mississippi University for Women into Mississippi State University. 

"Under Barbour's plan, no campuses would close but Alcorn State and Valley would be merged into Jackson State. Each of the smaller schools is roughly 100 miles from Jackson. Barbour said the merger would save money by reducing administrative costs and eliminating academic duplication. He also wants to consolidate Mississippi University for Women with nearby Mississippi State University. The governor said the restructuring could save the state $35 million out of a nearly $5.5 billion budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.The black university presidents have made clear they want to remain independent."The governor's proposed budget cuts will change the face of higher education in Mississippi for decades," JSU President Ronald Mason said in a statement. Alcorn State President George Ross said the university leaders didn't find out about the plan until Monday."

Now his plans calls for the merger of Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State universities into Jackson State University (JSU) in Jackson.  The state only has 3 publicly-funded universities, but the thing is that those other 2 besides JSU are all rural universities serving the very impoverish regions of Mississippi's Black Belt and Delta regions where like in Alabama, it's predominately black. 

Before I attack Barbour, I'll be pragmatic for a minute and say this: HBCUs were very pivotal institutions for providing the educations for a significant number of black leaders who led cultural and scientific breakthroughs for modern society here in the US and the world over.  However, since the Civil Right era they become mostly cultural hubs for young blacks who want to get a taste of black culture for the first time or places where alums come back to every year for the homecoming festivities.  On that I digress, the majority of them are publicly funded (barely) or privately funded with lacklaster results from alums and donors.  The exceptions to this rule are Howard, Hampton, Clark Atlanta, Morehouse, and Spelman. 

However, this is clearly callousness on Barbour's part, who for the record said last week that, "a state with about 2.9 million residents can't afford eight universities. He said Monday he's not worried about appearing racially insensitive with his proposal." 

There it is for you, another Southern white governor that doesn't care, but that's too simplistic because he is also the former Chairman of the RNC in the 1990s and current head of the Republican Governors Association.  Also Barbour could careless since he is term-limited and can't run in 2011, but this will buy him some cool points with that "certain demographic group", i.e., rural whites.  However, this doesn't stand a chance in hell of passing Mississippi State Legislature in the 2010 general session due to the shear numbers of the black legislators and how barely helps their deficit.


Oh, the irony!

A fool decides to stay in the race after lying

Only a fool would decide to stay in the race after you been confirmed to be a liar and caught doing it. Well, that fool is Antwon Womack is staying in the Birmingham Board of Education election for District 6. Now the real question I'm asking is, "why is there elections for Board of Education seats?", but that is another story for another day.

Back to this story, dude is a donkey for sure. You got caught lying your ass off about graduating high school and having this experience, but you have the audacity to stay in the race anyways. (Knowing your ass is going to lose...)

Sigh! I disgress.