Meet the other leader of the opposition to charter schools: Milton Kuykendall, Superintendent of Desoto County Schools. While Nancy Loome and other members of the Parents' Campaign tweet, send out emails, and write letters to the editor on a daily basis in an attempt to stop charter schools, Special K prowls the halls of the legislature, stalking legislators who might be inclined to vote for charter schools. Special K represents the Superintendents, the hidden power in the Mississippi educational system.
Elected Superintendents such as Milton Kuykendall and formerly Mike Kent wield much power in their counties. Some have the power to make or break aldermen, supervisors... and legislators. The Mississippi Association of Superintendents reported a budget of $1 million in 2010. A million dollar budget for a group that has less than 160 members. Think about that fact for a minute. The 2010 tax return is posted below. This correspondent has seen him at the legislature at every committee meeting about charter schools or sitting in the balcony when he thinks charter schools will be discussed. He is usually hanging around Nancy Loome of the Parent's Campaign, a charter school opponent. Yes, I know, they claim to support charter schools but its a ruse. They very cleverly proclaim their support then roll out a laundry list of restrictions for charter schools under the guise of being "reasonable".
I'm not going to sugar-coat it: the charter school bill is in trouble, thanks to these Superintendents and some fumbling by the Republicans. The Superintendents are waging political holy war against legislators in their districts. A few, such as Representatives Arnold and Massengill, are wavering. Want to get re-elected? Better kiss the ring of the Superintendents. They want to exempt school districts rated "successful" or above from charter school legislation. Thus, a school district such as Hattiesburg, rated successful but having a high school that is on academic watch, has an overall graduation rate of 48%, and only 33% graduation rate for male students, would be "protected" from charter schools if they have their way. They tend to represent school districts such as Desoto, Madison, and Rankin that are doing quite well while ignoring the needs of the rest of the state.
Then there is the matter of the Republicans dropping the ball. The Senate passed a charter school bill. The House Education committee passed one as well. The Senate version was considered the weaker bill as language for virtual schools was removed from the bill in committee. Two weeks ago, the House Democrats employed the stalling tactic of having every bill read out loud, which put the House way behind schedule in passing legislation. The House then worked until 10:30 PM that night (Tuesday), 12:30 AM on Wednesday, and 8:30 PM on Thursday. The charter school bill was on the calendar.
The March 14 session was the first day the House had to work the calendar after the stall tactics ended. Did the leadership bring up charter schools? Nope. Instead, the House spent over an hour debating radar for Rankin County. Then it spent a couple of hours debating the fetal hearbeat bill
that will likely be struck down by the courts if it even comes close to restricting abortion. It passed the diabetic dog bill that afternoon, a worthy move this website applauded. Then the House spent three hours, yes three hours until half past midnight, debating an illegal immigration bill. A bill that will likely be attacked by the Justice Department and blocked by the courts. But hey, we showed them Messicans something, so what if our kids can't read and write. Several legislators said don't worry, we still have the Senate version.
Well, the Senate bill is now stuck in committee, suffering a blistering attack by the bureaucrats with high salaries- the one-percenters in Mississippi. The bill will be addressed by the Education Committee Monday or Tuesday. Parents' Campaign. Parents for Public Schools. Clarion-Ledger. Center for Eduction Innovation. Southern Echo. Mississippi Association of School Superintendents. Get the idea?
Friday, March 30, 2012
School Wars: The Empire Strikes Back
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18 comments:
Mike Kent is now working for the State Department of Education - not sure as an employee or on contract!
Just out of curiousity, you ever see appointed superintendents at the Capitol? Not trying to make a sly point, just wondering if only the elected superintendents get involved legislation at this level.
And the fact that I can type the slanty words does not mean I am not a robot.
Massengill's district does not come close to Desoto County. However, Kuykendall is originally from Massengill's neck of the woods in Northeast Mississippi.
Who is running Mississippi's largest school district while Kuykendall pitches his tent at the Capitol? Is Greg Davis getting paid for Milton's job also?
Took it out. Had two lobbyists tell me a small part of it went through Desoto.
Wow! Great post! Sharing! People need to know what this is all about...the main Reps giving grief over this are the ones in the Northern end of the State, and one from Copiah county...Weathersby. Why is Desoto so much more important than the rest of the State? I don't know, we'll have to ask Doug Davis that.
Shouldn't Special K being doing his "Superintendent thing" at home in his district, instead of running up travel expenses and feeling all important?
Part of a Supt's job is lobbying, public relations, speaking to heavy hitters and shakers about the overall picture of education in the state. Especially those elected by their group to speak for the group or educators as a whole. The job doesn't call for someone to sit and grade papers, draw up the cafeteria menu or keep up with how many tractors are out of service in the maintenance department.
(The robot test is tough enough, but, what's with the letters that are beneath the damned line and aren't even discernable? Sometimes a wild assed guess sails through)
LeBeou, most of Weathersby's district is in Rankin, not Copiah. Make the connection here, Representative Tom Weathersby has a brother - the Superintendent of Education in Rankin County. Duh!
KF - disagree with you on the 'tactics' of the House leadership. You fail to mention where the bill was on the calendar - they can't take bills up just whenever they choose. Between the placement on the calendar and the deadlines, sometimes the 'tactics' are not left up to preferences.
And who is in charge of placing it on the calendar?
The bottom line of all this is still - don't tread on our jobs we want to keep them - no matter what is going on with children not learning- this is a grown up game of greed -- all I can see. The present group has had plenty of time to do it if they could.Special K is the special forces sent in to obliterate the target - Charters that will lift thousands from the ghettos. Who could be against that? Only those who want to keep taking money for keeping Mississippi children on the bottom. What they are doing would be a crime if we were a more enlightened society.Where are those who will champion these children against these self serving forces? What numbers are key to call to bring needed support to Charters and renewed sanity in this state's Education Department? Or is that sentence an oxymoron?
The State Accountability Model which labels the schools is a ruse. The Growth Model is fradulant . Dolly Burnham knows it’s a lie and he fight to stop real education in Charter schools.
What percentage of growth would it take to have students performing at grade level by 2020? 35-90%. It’s not possible. Yet Burntham fights against the parents having the chance to have Charter Schools.
One great letter in CL last day or so finally gets it- signed by numbers of mothers I assume-- asking is it the adults these schools are for or the children? now light is beginning to shine into darkness. How long the schools have had these parents confused with all the gobbledygook they put out-- so long I in fact I honestly think they have lost their own ability to think clearly and act in any way but going around in circles chasing their bureaucratic tails. That is why we need Charters and not current long time Mississippi administrators running the show as they have been. The kool-aid they drank is systemic and deadly poisonous to the well being of children
@ 1:11 (oh the drama). "Lifting thousands from the ghettos". What a baseless pipe (F-ing) dream chant.
Should you not have preceeded that with "I have a dream"?
Great description of how politics works from in the educational system...not just in public schools,KF
However,I'm unaware of anything in the charter school bill that will makes this more than a temporary inconvenience to the political status quo and prevent the same dynamics from continuing.
Even with a separate entity running charters, it's just a new bureaucratic layer.
But, more compelling is the
CRF task force report. It's not like charter schools are a new innovation that has demonstrably improved public education. Charter schools have been around for over 20 years now. There are enough in the states and enough children being served now that some evidence of improvement should be seen in this report.
And , something that ought to get our attention is that children who attend private schools in the US aren't scoring but about 1 pt better on the ACT than those who attend public schools...25 vs 26 if memory serves. And, ACT and SAT scores have been modified as to make them easier which is why Mensa won't take an ACT score prior to 1989 for membership.
Humans aren't very good at looking objectively at the causes of our failures and accepting hard truths or tackling difficult tasks. We want easy fixes and someone to blame.
SHouldn't that be "after 1989" if the test has been made easier?
Looks like the troll is back @ April 1, 2012 11:54 AM.
"(The robot test is tough enough, but, what's with the letters that are beneath the damned line and aren't even discernable? Sometimes a wild assed guess sails through)"
You cracked me up. The proove youre not a robot thing needs to be on here, no problem with that. But I feel your pain. I'm 2 days younger than dirt so I have to squint and just keep trying. Thanks for the giggle.
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