Jackson Jambalaya

So would the bill provide busing for these students? Would it allow the charter school to prevent the 'lower performing students' from attending the charter school, making their original school just that much worse as the higher performing students leave?

Is there anything in there to help make that lower performing public school BETTER?

5:35 PM

Yes. When students leave the sinking ships....and the worst are exposed....then the dead will be allowed to die.

But what can unions or other protectors of the terrible do?

Grab your popcorn and stay tuned.

The two charters in Jackson offer busing without a law requiring it. I think the point of charters is to NOT burden them with regulations.

Charters admit every student they have a seat for. I think Kingfish had a story about Reimagine last year- there demographics are no different than JPS and virtually every child (if not every) qualifies for free and reduced lunch. The bottom line is these schools are taking kids who are 2 or 3 grades behind and turning them around very quickly. I guess when you have extended school days and years it helps.

The charter school in Jackson has taken quite a few students who were literally at a first grade reading level. 14% of their students are IEP's. There is no cherry picking or cream of the crop. Period. However, the truth might clash with your barksdale-molpus pre-programmed talking points.

Transportation to and from the Charter School is the responsibility of the parent(s). Well, until the feds get involved and figure out that it's discriminatory.

Charter schools are public schools. Just as JPS busses kids all around Jackson, I would think the kids would be entitled to a bus ride to a Charter just as they are to Murrah or Provine et.al. Should be the responsibility of the local school district

8:08; What you 'would think' is largely irrelevant. The state (nor the local district) is not responsible for transporting 'scholars' to charter schools.

there's accountability at a charter school. act like a thug and you are out. too many absences and gone. not involved in learning and see you later. public schools fail because they have
to tolerate that crap.

charters are great-perhaps more kids will escape thuggery

I just wish we would compare the performance of charter schools and all public and private schools with the same measures so we could actually identify what works and what doesn't.
That would start with evaluating the children being taught with the same testing of individual abilities, physical and psychological assessments, education and experience of the faculty, class room size, cost per student and existing assets of the school.
It is also important to follow up on graduates and know if they were adequately prepared for college and technical schools after graduation. It is not how many get accepted, it's whether or not they are adequately prepared. How many of the college bound students actually survive their freshman and sophomore years and are able to graduate?
I wonder if our legislature has a clue about how few Mississippians go on to a junior college or IHL and how many of those who do actually graduate and are able to get a job. I wonder if they know we are training some for jobs that don't exist and how much debt they are accumulating in the process.
When it comes to politics, knowing what you are voting on is over-rated though, isn't it? Your job is to be re-elected, not to enlighten or lead your constituents or to improve the State.

@7:06 Exactly. JPS went into the gutter when they did away with physical punishment (paddling) in the early nineties. I had a student punch me -the punishment? "Called her mom." I was not allowed to write students up for cursing, stealing, or walking out of class as this would create "too many write-ups" for the school. I've learned the hard way that you can't help people who have their fingers in their ears going "Nananana I can't hear you! You is racist!" I'm now done with JPS and the only souvenir I took with me was my right-to-sue letter from the EEOC.

People can cry about privilege, poverty, educational strategies, and whatever they want to, but the fact of the matter is that no teacher, whether they are a good teacher or a bad teacher, can teach effectively for very long when they are being cursed at, spit on, hit, robbed, etc. on a daily basis and the only way to fix this problem is to create real repercussions for misbehavior. We have become so wrapped up in our belief that education is a right that we have completely ignored that it's also a privilege.

Right on 1:01. Either people don't know the realities you just addressed or they don't care.

The dungeons in which you toiled are the places that produce and cultivate the behaviors we just witnessed in the MSU recruit who whupped hell out of the girl crumpled up on the sidewalk. It's acceptable. It's a way of life. It's more widespread than most can imagine. It is NOT an anomaly.