Black People : Washington and Arne Duncan, trying to return school segregation?

[Omowale Jabali]

to the claims of charter school excellence since the statistics show thatthe majority of charter schools are doing on par or at times worse.
The fact remain that there are 50 states with many different situations, but in general per city,
no great influx of other minorities, only regentrification and whites moving in. Folks who have worked in education for many years understand full well that the innercity schools are less publicly funded then those in the city within the well to-do areas.
And under this old neocon con game of seeking privitization, while folks wallets are strapped,

it is in these majority Black districts that teachers are being fired and schools being closed.

http://www.wmich.edu/wmu/news/2007/04/014.html

Brother Kwame used to say, "No participation, no right to observation. No investigation, no right to speak." I did mention the difference in racial demographics. The article does state a problem with charter reformers leveraging funding. This is the fundamental problem. However, the issue of white gentrification is, again, a matter of demographics. A larger part of the picture is "Black flight" away from the inner-city, and rising immigrant populations which effect the nature in which education is delivered. Quite frankly, if Black teachers are not functional in non-primary (bilingual) language instruction they are at-risk of losing positions as secondary language and english language development classes become a primary mode of instruction.

"No great influx of other minorities"

This may be true in your part of the planet but its certainly not true in southern Califronia, and it was not true when I worked in north Texas (Collin County).

 

[Ankhur]

Brother Kwame used to say, "No participation, no right to observation. No investigation, no right to speak." I did mention the difference in racial demographics. The article does state a problem with charter reformers leveraging funding. This is the fundamental problem. However, the issue of white gentrification is, again, a matter of demographics. A larger part of the picture is "Black flight" away from the inner-city, and rising immigrant populations which effect the nature in which education is delivered. Quite frankly, if Black teachers are not functional in non-primary (bilingual) language instruction they are at-risk of losing positions as secondary language and english language development classes become a primary mode of instruction.

"No great influx of other minorities"

This may be true in your part of the planet but its certainly not true in southern Califronia, and it was not true when I worked in north Texas (Collin County).

Like you say about observation, and as Kwame is mentioned both Kwames,

my concern is not just Brooklyn or my isolated little area, but the diaspora of those of African descent, because the purpoe of posting a Kwame Toure post is to illustrate the aspect of the evolutionas he spoke of the collective effort for the common good

rather then isolationalism and the European Asili

 

[Omowale Jabali]

Like you say about observation, and as Kwame is mentioned both Kwames,

my concern is not just Brooklyn or my isolated little area, but the diaspora of those of African descent, because the purpoe of posting a Kwame Toure post is to illustrate the aspect of the evolutionas he spoke of the collective effort for the common good

rather then isolationalism and the European Asili

No isolationist view on my part. I'm speaking from experience working in one of the largest and most culturally diverse school systems on the planet. One which reflects a dynamism relative to rapid demographic change where Black parents are taking initiative in recognition of the failing traditional, mass schooling system which only plays lip service to closing achievement gaps. The same system which disproportionatly treats Black youth as criminals within the system as reflective of higher than norm suspension rates as well as escalating dropout rates.

I have minimal response to your query in regards to Nguzo Saba since I am more familiar with its principles and are more concerned with application of Kawaida, not its theoretical component. Peace!

 

[Ankhur]

No isolationist view on my part. I'm speaking from experience working in one of the largest and most culturally diverse school systems on the planet. One which reflects a dynamism relative to rapid demographic change where Black parents are taking initiative in recognition of the failing traditional, mass schooling system which only plays lip service to closing achievement gaps. The same system which disproportionatly treats Black youth as criminals within the system as reflective of higher than norm suspension rates as well as escalating dropout rates.

I have minimal response to your query in regards to Nguzo Saba since I am more familiar with its principles and are more concerned with application of Kawaida, not its theoretical component. Peace!

Well, unfortunately, the Obama administration has adopted and is building on the foundation of No Child Left Behind. And as I explain in this book, I believe that No Child Left Behind has been a failed policy, that it’s dumbed down the curriculum, narrowed the curriculum. Our kids are being denied a full education, because so much time is being spent on test prep and on tests that are really not very good tests and, in some cases, even fraudulent scoring of the test. The kids are getting a worse education as a result of No Child Left Behind.

The Obama administration, however, has bought into this rhetoric of accountability and choice, and they’re actually taking the Bush policies to a greater extreme. There is more support from the administration, this administration, for choice, because they have no opposition in the Congress, because it’s a Democratic president and because they had all this money, this $5 billion, to use as play money with no authorization, no oversight from Congress.

They’ve said to the states in the “Race to the Top,” this competition that was just held, that the requirements to be considered are, first of all, that the states have to be committed to privatizing many, many, many public schools. These are called charter schools. They’re privatized schools. The Bush administration would have never gotten away with that, because Congress would have stopped them.

They’ve also required states to commit to evaluating teachers by the test scores of their students, which means that that will put even more emphasis on standardized testing, more drill down of test prep, more emphasis on basic skills. And also, it’s a very unfair measure, because it means that the students who live in poor communities, that they’re likely to get small gains, whereas the kids in the affluent communities will get big gains. And so, we’ll see the third emphasis of the Obama plan, which is close low-performing schools.

And Obama has said that he wants to see 5,000 low-performing schools transformed or closed, as we saw just recently in Rhode Island, where the only high school in a desperately poor community is supposed to fire all the teachers, close the school. And I think this is a terrible thing for public education. And I think we’re going to see a devastation of public education over the next—however long this president is in office, unless he changes course, which I hope he will, and doubt that he will.

small exerpt from the full article and video;
http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/5/protests