Jackson Jambalaya

We here at the C-L are going to soooo rip you off on this one Kingfish. Sam R Hall is going to drool all over himself when he reads this morning's JJ monitoring report. Thank you!

I don't want to pay for Scribd. I'm an alum of Peeples and Wingfield. Anyone know any report findings on either of these?

I'm glad this is finally coming to light, although under the current leadership nothing will change. The primary reason principals are forbidden to call JPD is because it creates a record which can be queried to indicate specific activity/problems.

Also, in many schools throughout the state information related to gang activity that is collected by SROs and SSOs is either hidden or ordered to be destroyed by administrators.

It is definitely time to re-think how we do school security in Mississippi.

What the hell is going on here? How can this be considered a school system?

Something troubling is all the structural damage like sewage water flooding the weight room at Callaway. Where is the money from gambling that was going to fund such things forever and ever? Same question for every tax and millage increase for the last 25 years. Hell, even liquor sales, legalized in 1964, were sold on the backs of schools and school kids and funding education for years.

JPS is pathetic and the administration has a lot to answer for, but so does the state government that has pressed all these new streams of revenue as school saviors. They a) sell the next tax increase as "for the schools and the children", b) dump the money into the general fund rather than set it aside, c) spend it on non-education projects and administration, then d) beg for more money next go-round.

Tell me why MDE is the lesser evil in this scenario.

Scribd is the only means I have to post pdf and word docs online. Docstoc and Google Groups used to do it but they shut down. If there is another service I can use, let me know.

Email me at kingfish1935@gmail.com and I'll send you the audit if you like.

Violence and total chaos goes hand-in-hand with the culture at JPS. This is more than a school issue. It is a reflection of Jackson and the total lack of control as a city and as a culture.

JPS has systemically imploded. The audit findings are NOT exceptions. The other scandal is why MDE hasn't already stepped in to declare a State of Emergency and taken over JPS -- especially in the onset of a new school year. They've assumed control of so many other school districts over 1/4th scale the problems the JPS audit reveals.

Exactly why all the fine members of Jackson's white guilt wing of the Mississippi Democratic Party send their kids to McWillie and wax eloquent about more money for public schools then quietly enroll their kiddies in the privates, or move to Madison/Rankin counties, when 7th grade rolls around.

Think of JPS in its entirety as a large prison system and each of the schools as satellite prisons, like the one in Rankin County or in Natchez with the primary prison being up in Sunflower County.

JPS is nothing less than that. Feed them three, demand little, provide a modicum of oversight, keep an eye (sort of) on visitors and those who might throw something over the wall into the exercise room.

Closely monitor who is allowed to say what to the media (schools and prisons alike) and threaten to take off the heads of any who violate that edict from on high.

Have some meetings, luncheons, a few tours and the occasional execution (either a prisoner or a teacher) and count the days until retirement.

Is it coming together for you now?

Thank you so much for calling attention to this report and offering in-depth reporting. You are spot on in all of your commentary. I taught in a JPS middle school many years ago, towards the beginning of the decline. I always felt safe where I was - even though we had crime around us and even criminals in the school. We had order in our building and we were able to teach. It is sad it has come to this with the selfish mismanagement of funds and power.

There are many parents and students who care and want an education - but they are stuck with this horrible mess.

I have been in an A district for many years now. Every year we get a few students moving in from JPS. Most (but certainly not all) are concerned parents and students that have managed to get out. They are usually capable students that are horribly behind in all subjects because of previous schools. Something must be done.

Nobody's really surprised by all of this, right?

Sadly, I do not believe that JPS can be fixed. It has been left to die on the vine by their administrators and it has been reduced down to air conditioned day care. Just keep doing what you been doing is their mantra.

Much of the problems (violence, pregnancy, acting out, etc) can be solved or alleviated by one simple, radical step: educate kids from grades 6 up in gender-separated schools. All the girls go to one junior high, all the boys to another.

In the current system, the girls want to learn and perform in an educational environment, but are distracted by the boys, who want to have fun and garner the attention of the girls. Schooling the boys in a separate school with mostly male teachers, and without the distraction of female attention will result in more of the boys getting serious about education and life in general.

There you go again Kingfish screwing up Patsy's narrative.

I can't wait for the State to take over the schools, then the entire city. Please let this happen sooner rather than later, before even more damage is done.

Do the people not know what the J stands for in JPS? Why would anyone think the schools system would be any different that the city? Kids in Jackson are born into this kind of world. It is all they know and all they are taught. The people of Jackson have made their choice. It is their heritage.

It ALL starts with education. If only they had more money, they could have more student discipline.

There needs to be accountability for the findings in this report, especially concerning student and teacher safety in the buildings and the SSO/SRO debacle.

But there are two questions I want to pose to the commenters who insist that JPS leadership (Supt. and Board) are incompetent and failed leaders:

1. What are ways in which JPS can better educate students who are poor (the district is over concentrated with poor students who need more "wrap -around" supports than the community and the state are willing/able to provide)? It can't be just about "failed leadership" because, if that is the case, then why don't we simply incentivize school leaders and teachers from Madison, Rankin, and Clinton to run JPS, the region's biggest district? I'm sure they have all the right answers (they do run "A" districts after all).

2. What do you mean by a "culture" in jackson that foretells these types of findings in the schools? Where does this "culture" come from? Why is it affecting the proper functioning of the schools such that the school system inevitably fails the children and citizens of Jackson so badly?

There needs to be more than just eh leadership in JPS being held accountable for this. There are several entities and realities that hardly ever get questioned when these audits reveal such sad findings.

- Poor children in hyper concentrated poverty environments (like in Jackson) need more supports that children who are not raised in these types of environments. There are concerns with health, diet, home safety, and community resources that are not an issue in other types of environments. This means that schooling; effective and empowering schooling, for populations like these require investments not only in money (though that is important), but human capital, time, and civic support that are simply absent.

- The State political leadership historically and even today simply does not see the value in educating the state's poorest citizens. There is incentive (in their eyes) to keeping a large part of the workforce undereducated. Undereducated workers are cheap labor, which is marketed by the state's political leadership to multi-national corporations as a more profitable economic incentive to build in MS. This economic development model is outdated and renders the state virtually stagnant in economic growth and social mobility.

-This lack of investment in the education of the poorest citizens also means that opportunities for those citizens who are highly skilled and educated are severely lacking. NO High tech opportunities are available to most skilled laborers who are trained in MS. So they must leave in order to take advantage of opportunities and use their training most efficiently. Thus, the "Brain Drain" In MS is exacerbated by the lack of investment in public schooling.

I agree that JPS is a mess right now, but it isn't simply because of "Failed Leadership" and "culture" (which are really dog whistle terms used by racists who are really saying black people cannot lead and are unintelligent). there is a history, and a "culture" in MS that has not been reconciled and failed state political policies and practices that must come to light if we are really seeking solutions to help better educate all children in MS, who sorely need it.

The MDE and our school districts have a cozy relationship. People move from MDE after spending time there, into "consulting" firms that get nice contracts from the districts. Of course, nothing they ever do improves things, but, the system provides a living for those that can do no other.

Dont be surprised at the interwoven relationships on the education gravy train. It has very little to do with education, and lots to do with people who have "studied" education, gotten college degrees in education, and come into the system, teach a little bit, and then figure out how to maximize their personal economic benefits from the system. The system is broke, because it is purposely designed as a jangled up complex web of relationships that no person who works for a living could ever figure out, given that they dont take a year sabbatical from their work to pour over complex org charts, made deliberately to confuse, obfuscate, delay, and generally slow anyone down trying to get at the heart of the matter, i.e., the money flow.

Rather than focusing on blame toward JPS administrators, thinking people should look at what are clearly predictable results in the failure to have any plan for probable emergency situations. There is a good probability that a tornado, fire, or other natural calamity will strike any of the 60 school sites in Jackson while children are present. There is a distinct possibility that a Pearl like event or a drug deal gone bad could happen at any of the schools.

Anyone trained in emergency situations will tell you that in order to prevent injuries and death, you have to have a plan and to practice implementing it on a regular basis. The failure to plan for contingencies and KNOWING that you have no plan is beyond gross negligence and begins to enter the world of criminal knowledge in my opinion.

Please don't let JPS (or any other school) administrators tell you that it is all about the children when they are willing to let them die because they failed to plan for a probable emergency situation. Unless, that is, you subscribe to the concept of disposable kids.

Patsy: Quick, Kate, Larrison, to the Bat Cave. We need a charter school story stat. Our children's future depends on it!

This report will be opened by "The Bowtie", the first sentence will be glanced over and it will be thrown in the trash. Guaranteed.
In order to even attempt to fix this problem, every "civil right" would have to be violated, and everyone who actually tried to help would be a racist or an Uncle Tom.
Unfortunately, this sinking ship is not salvageable.

I learned decades ago to never hire people like @9:24 AM because their penchant to want to solve all problems at once in toto makes them wholly ineffective.

Rather than focusing on blame toward JPS administrators, thinking people should ...

Thinking people in Jackson aren't provided the opportunity to directly elect JPS board members. Thinking people in Jackson have less ability to influence events at JPS than even the people in some localities who previously were allowed to elect stupid people to head up their school district.

Please refrain from admonishing Jackson's thinking people.

To 8:14.
Agree, it is an emergency.
Why isn't it being addressed as such?

@9:24. Seriously? What is different about the hyper-concentrated poverty of this group than it was for the million of 'legal' immigrants that came to America in the late 1800's and early 1900's? Somehow this group embraced education and respect for their elders while living in some of them most deplorable conditions. Cries of poverty, more money and lack of State interest are dog-whistles used by democrats to keep their voting base demoralized and in-line so they will think the only way out is through more hand-outs.

I beg to differ --- it all begins at home, children are not being taught to respect themselves, each other, or authority; often because their parent/guardians or whomever looks after them have no respect for themselves, each other, or authority. The default argument is always racism, when it really should be personal accountability. Tell me how poverty has any affect on personal responsibility, and how people treat one another, you can't because it doesn't.

That being said, JPS' failure is all about competence, establishing and following rules and regulations and putting the child first...Mississippi seems to embrace the "no administrator/CONtractor/CONsultant left behind" mentality. A good parallel can be drawn between schools and charities, success is measured by how much money makes it to support the cause (in this case the student). However, we can't look strictly at cost per student, the dollar figure needs to refined down to administrative cost per student, I bet the results would be quite revealing.

Change is hard, especially when any attempt at it is rife with racial/privilege pretense.

I learned while working in the field of education that people like @9:49am are too comfortable with the status quo to work toward real, workable solutions to these problems. Their insights are generally off base and pointless because they are grounded in anecdotal conjectures and stereotypical thinking that really only have traction in echo chambers filled with sycophants.

JPS is in huge trouble. But it is not unsalvageable. No children anywhere on this earth are unsalvageable if people care. Each generation is a new opportunity. If you understand that people will meet whatever standard is necessary for their survival you know that at some point the people of Jackson and the State of Mississippi will realize that education is essential to modern survival. It hasn't happened yet because the leadership of Jackson and Mississippi has operated on the premise that some people are destined to be stupid. So why not learn to live with it? Take advantage of it. The problem comes, when there is no more advantage to be taken. Now call them stupid and unsalvageable.

At some point you have to just say the raw honest truth. Its a culture problem, not a money problem. Those that want to make something of themselves will, and those that won't, won't. Throwing money at the problem will not help. Integrating school districts will not help. People with bleeding hearts and the purest form of sacrifice for wanting to help wont work. At some point you have to shrug your shoulder at those who cry racism and admit that not everyone is "equal". Yes, everyone has a chance to be "equal", not all choose to. And not all of those that recognize this are racists, but rather realists.

I agree 10:20. The Irish are simply a culture of drunks and hotheads. Stop spending money and time on them. That's not racist just realism.

@10:07,
One big difference is that the people you cite are/were "IMMIGRANTS", people who came here on their own volition, willing and able to assimilate culturally without blatant laws, practices, and policies that prohibited them from doing so. You can ignore history, or paint it with a broad, inaccurate brush if you like. The reality is that generations of legalized terror and injustice that yielded generational poverty to this day and beyond cannot be rectified by ignorance. There are policies and practices today (white and middle class flight to suburbs, mass incarceration, divestment in education for the poor, zero tolerance disciplinary policies in schools, etc.) that further characterize the realities that we see. Without addressing those, how do we really create better educational realities for these children?

How do we do more to hold deadbeat parents accountable? How is that not being done now? These children suffer because of the community they were born in. We cannot simply say this is just about parenting. What parents decided to underfund MAEP every year? What parents decided that their children's teachers on average are less experienced, expert, and present than children's teachers in the suburbs? What JPS parents decided that there would be no funds available to fix the broken sewage system at Calloway? While I agree that the children with bad parents would be better off with better parents, how is that a policy, practice, or intervention that we as taxpayers can advocate for and/or implement, through fiat or decree "good parents for all children"?

But even more egregiously, the assumption is that most of the JPS students are coming from homes where parents "have no respect for themselves, each other, or authority". How do you KNOW this? Where is the data that says that this is the main problem; because the schools have poor facilities, safety hazards, and terrible discipline policies? I would think that one wouldn't indicate anything about the other. It is easy to blame poor, voiceless, and discounted parents for these problems that are really at the feet of policy makers in Jackson and the history and reality of racial injustice/segregationist thinking throughout the state economic and political elite. We are lamenting bad parents when the state leadership just granted a tax cut it the State couldn't afford and then cut services like mental health and education that could really address the challenges we seem to solely blaming "bad parents" for, who made none of these decisions.

Interesting.

Wait a second, aren't you the guy who was criticizing the charter schools for spending too much time on reading and math?

9:24, I got a chuckle about the keeping a large part of the work force uneducated.
Why exactly do you thing anyone wants an uneducated work force. There is just so many burger joints that need people who cannot read.
If you are going to point blame point your finger in the right direction. JPS admins. have decided the kids in Jackson are not worth educating.

JPS has failed. Period. No amount of funding will improve this. This is about city leadership and personal responsibility. Funding is not going to improve discipline and security in schools. We need to give kids/ parents who care an opportunity to get out of this bad situation then have the state takeover the district if that is what it takes. No excuse one of the largest districts in the state is failing its kids. The city itself is failing and this is just one aspect of a community that needs to come to grips wth the education of its children, rising crime, and subpar infrastructure. They need to refocus on the basics of what makes a community thrive. It is really sad.

As long as there is a law on the books that prevents a Superintendent who is ousted for state takeover from ever having a Super job in the state again you aren't going to get qualified folks for these positions. Why would anyone risk coming into a failing school system to try to fix things when they can be banned for life? Why would anyone from an "A" district come work in a failing district so they can be painted with the wide brush often used here? Yes, there are bad admins and bad teachers, but to constantly say that everyone needs to be fired and everyone is doing a crappy job does absolutely nothing to attract good people. Call out the individuals who are responsible. But, also find ways to encourage those who are doing their best in a system that doesn't reward it.

My statement will probably. Be taken as racist. But it's just a means. Of making a point. Most private schools do not spend as much per student as the public system. One obvious reason is they do not have the layers of "management" of the public system. So is $$$ the real issue or how it is spent? If I pay tuition to send my child to a private school I have expectations. If I'm just pushing them out and he door I may not care. Schools public or private need to be run by the school principal and teachers not political hacks.

More blabber @10:14 AM the sort you hear a la DonnerKay where gums get flapped ad infinitum but nothing, nothing, ever gets accomplished.

I'll say it again, KF, and you'll censor me again, but" it's cultural. That is the problem at its root, period. The problems don't stop until the culture changes.

Future criminals. All of them.

Anonymous 9:24/10:33 (same person) -

How would YOU address the "policies and practices today (white and middle class flight to suburbs, mass incarceration, divestment in education for the poor, zero tolerance disciplinary policies in schools, etc."???

Answer my question.

And, how would YOU "create better educational realities for these children"???

Answer my question.

You got answers, Anonymous 9:24/10:33? I know you post here quite a bit, given the Newspeak and catchphrases utilized in your wordy posts.

And for what that's worth, your language is straight out of the SJW/Identity Politics-Mongering Handbook.

-Messick

(See, I use a name. Can you?)

JPS is the end result of Mississippi - period! Does anyone really believe they want to see these children succeed? Many of you want to see them locked up or serving you a hamburger! Nothing more! Can you blame all of this on the race card, no - that's denying self accountable. To say non of this has anything to do with racism is delusional as well. Jackson needs a Governor and a legislative body - that wants to partner with the Mayor and City council, where both entities are proactive and have a legitimate concern with getting the largest city in Mississippi on track - where they are addressing education, infrastructure, and the economy. Until that happens - this kind of mess will continue to happen.

Not sure what the fuss is about. As long as these students know how to vote Democrat, thats all they need to know. The rest will be provided for.

Knew there were major problems, but still, I am actually surprised at the extent of violations and that it appears to occur at every school in the system.

Step 1: Armed National Guard presence in every school. These children need to learn fear and respect.
Step 2: Assignment of a qualified manager/monitor at every school to report behavior violations of staff/teachers.
Step 3: Building repairs and maintenance to insure a safe and healthy environment.
Then and only then can they get to the basics of providing an education and giving these students and this society any hope at a future.

@11:27,

How to provide better educational experiences for poor children in Jackson? I do not have all of the answers, but, as an educator, I would first start with state accountability systems.

Schooling policy and practice are aimed at meeting the state accountability model to yield the best "grade" possible. As it sits right now, schools are not graded on how well they provide wrap around services for poor and minority children. In fact, school systems are graded primarily on proficiency and growth on state tests and graduation rates. Since it is very hard to move the needle in these areas with very needy children, this incentivizes districts to "push out" or not test these children (rather than change to teach them effectively). Thus residential segregation (and the resulting concentration of poverty) are actually incentivized by the current accountability model (check residency laws, and the recent HUD lawsuit in Ridgeland to see the reality in practice).

Also, I would do a massive overhaul of teacher and administrator preparation. Teachers and administrators would have to thoroughly understand cultural competence, culturally responsive pedagogy, student centered discipline policies, and education's role in family and community development. The primary way to develop the academic and intellectual skills in all students is to engage them with relevant and impactful learning experiences. Too often, the curriculum is only relevant and engaging to middle class (mostly white) learners. This often results in a disconnect between the learning goals (and investments)of the school and the students in poor and minority communities. Thus the differences in how these students experience and engage in learning, which usually manifests itself in disproportionate suspensions, expulsions, and academic learning and achievement gaps amount demographic groups, among other inequities.

Those are the first two areas that I'd address with schools. These could have immediate impacts in terms of the educational experiences had by poor and minority children. These changes also do not require two parent, suburban homes for the students to live in, massive investments by the state (which ain't coming), nor radical "culture" changes with students that aren't possible or necessary to deliver better educational experiences to children. Of course, other things need to happen, but those would take longer term, systemic changes, much of which are out of the control of educators.

7:52 AM, we've been through this before. Yet you and your brethern continue to harp the lie. Casino gambling was never sold as a revenue source "for education". It was sold as a revenue source for the state, and of course a large part of the state budget goes to education. But - there was nothing in the proposal, the legislation or the proponent arguments about casino gambling that the revenue would be "for education" or even better "for the kids".

9:24 - you are full of crap. Do you write for JFP or for Miss Patsy at Barksdale's new media outlet. There are so many answers to your questions/statements it would take writing another tome like yours to address your b/s and its not worth the time.
'
The state doesn't want to educate the poor (and to you, that means black although over half the state's poor are white but don't let facts get in the way)? First time I've heard that one said quite that way - but I beg you to find one state leader that wouldn't like to see the 'true' education of kids raised in the state, poor and otherwise. JPS spends more per student than any district in the state and this is the result that comes about - and a lot of that extra spending is because the kids come from a poor background.

You fail to address the lack of upbringing at home - which is a major cause of the discipline problems at the schools. Also the quality of teachers that remain in the JPS system - certainly not an indictment of all of them but when we have state supported colleges that turn out teachers that (after completion of their course work) still can't pass the entrance requirements of quality universities - you have a road map to this situation.

I don't think it is the poor family situation that leads to teachers playing games on their smartphones while they are supposed to be teaching. Or the poor family situation of the kids that leads to no accountability for attendance reporting - granted it may be for why the kids don't show up, but it is no excuse for the administrators not properly reporting the numbers.

This could go on and on. But it would not matter to you - you already have the reasoning figured out, and nothing will change your mind.

@12:56 did you really just insinuate that general curriculum is racist?

Love the great source of knowledge that continues to argue the 'state leadership' (read, of course, Republican - based on the rest of the comment) doesn't want to educate the poor kids.

It was this 'state leadership' that has fought the education bureaucracy for years and is finally succeeding in creating opportunities for these very kids you are talking about - charter schools. Granted, while having to fight the very bureaucracy that gives us the failing schools the poor kids still have to live in certain areas to qualify for a way out. If the 'state leadership' didn't care about trying to do something to provide a real educational opportunity for these 'poor kids' - why would they continue to claw and fight the entrenched bureaucracy (both at MDE, MAE, and at JFP) to provide a chance for those that want to learn.

Or, why have they directed that more of our state dollars go into the classroom, restricting it from the administration offices? Again, fighting the education establishment to make sure that the good teachers get the money for use where the kids reside, not where the administrators party.

The 'state leadership' has not been able to bust into the bureaucracy yet on a true merit pay system for teachers - wonder why? Or allowing districts to hire competent teachers in subject matter areas who might not have the right "education" hours on their transcripts - but they are still trying.

To blame the problems at JPS on state leaders who don't won't the kids to be educated is about the stupidest thing I have read anywhere, including JJ comments. And that brush is broad enough to include a lot of stupid stuff.

9:24 is not "full of crap."

Neither are many of you responding to him/her.

I think an overall large part of the problem here in Mississippi is that, being so bad and last at so many things, we develop this ridiculous pretentious mindset where we try to sub-categorize everyone and determine this specific way we are better than the other. Growing up in Madison, it was how we were better than Rankin or Hinds. Oh I grew up sailing at Gulfport Yacht Club and you just grew up on the Reservoir. Oh you've only been to Eagle Lake but not the other in Vicksburg? Hmph. I could go on and on.

I do not think most of the commenters around me are racists, nor do I think that they only want some people to succeed in education and not others. In general, most people around us are not that evil.

What I do think is that we are inherently complacent. And over time and without much hope that complacency can lead to laziness of action and laziness of thought. It's easy for all of us to be Jackson Jambalaya comment warriors to defend our entrenched viewpoints but it's actually a lot harder for all of us to get together, agree to disagree on things, but actually find common ground and try to make things around better.

Wake up y'all! NO ONE GIVES A F about us here in Mississippi. A magic 100 billion dollar lottery is not coming for us. NOTHING is ever going to become better if we sit around feeling better than our neighbor and content to only point out how we think they are wrong but not actually find ways to work together with them to fix things. Sending a yearly $1100 contribution to a politician is not going to cut it.

We say we take pride in pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps. Well here's to hoping a day comes when someone inspires us and leads us to actually do that for the betterment of all of us. For all Mississippians.

9:24 --

Do parents bear no responsibility? Or is it racist to ask that?

but he who didn't know, and did things worthy of stripes, will be beaten with few stripes. To whoever much is given, of him will much be required; and to whom much was entrusted, of him more will be asked. Luke 12-48

Everything and everyone is a racist; so there.

@2:52.

Sure, we can blame the parents. What then? How can that help provide better educational experiences for our poor and minority children?

@1:47,
The evidence is there to suggest that the state leadership that panders to multinational manufacturing corporations and markets the state as "business friendly" and can back it up with right to work laws, tax incentives and literal cuts, and points to a workforce that is "hardworking", but low skilled. This translates into lower wages for labor, which is a part of the incentive to come to MS.

Also, why is it so "stupid" to assume that this state's political leadership would avoid investing in poor and minority people? Have you even looked at the history of this state? Do a google search of "Segregation academies" and "School integration in MS" to see just how much this state's political leadership has stood by investing in the education of poor and minority students.

To laud school choice, vouchers, and cutting "administrative costs" as evidence of the legislature's desire to education the poor and minority students needs some interrogation. Charter schools represent options for some poor parents, but they are hardly solutions and represent a cheaper alternative than fully funding MAEP to the legislature. Also, MAEP funding does not pay local administrator salaries, so the whole argument about "directing more funds to the classroom" is really a straw man set up to district from the real issue, that what is depleting funding from classrooms isn't administrative costs, but the underfunding of MAEP.

@2:16
I agree with your approach. We do need to figure out a away to get out of our ideological entrenchments and try to come up with solutions, for all of our sake. But solutions are hard to come by when so many are content with the status quo are resigned to our current reality because of stereotypical thinking. If there was a way to ground our discussions in facts, research and data, and not unsubstantiated ideological talking points (on both sides), perhaps we could see some progress.

MDE should be ashamed of themselves right along with JPS. This obviously isn't an issue that has developed overnight. All of these identified deficits have been an ongoing issue for 20+ yrs. The need for an "audit" and subsequent MDE control of JPS should have happened umpteen years ago. I went to Chastain Middle School in the mid 90's, (that's a long time ago), and these issues were just as prevelent then. Stepping into that school system was like stepping into a time warp that took you to another world. I learned quickly to keep any belongings I wanted to posses by the end of the day on my person, physical fighting (for both boys and girls) was the only way to survive and have others not bother you, drugs and alcohol was as free flowing as the brown water coming out of the restroom faucets, (not that you went to the restroom often bc that's where everyone had sex), the "security officer" was too busy trying to sleep with the teachers, and unfortunately some of the students. I literally spent my entire 7th grade year in math doing the daily crossword puzzle from the CL that the teacher actually took the time to run copies for everyone and then left the class for the ENTIRE period while everyone played spades, dominoes, and smoked out of the roll out windows. Beating eachother mercilessly to the point of someone being unconscious was a regular occurrence. Go to first period, have your name marked for attendance, and you could leave pretty much anytime after that. The education is a TOTAL WASTE of time and tax payer dollars. I would be interested to see the "safety concerns " in relation to their bus system as well. Our bus driver would pull over and let one another beat the other one until we were done and then just get back on the road..our bus was always late needless to say. This report is a reflection of the community in general. You wake up trying to survive, you get on the bus trying to survive, you go to school trying to survive, you get back on the bus in the afternoon trying to survive, and those children go home to an empty home and more than likely empty cupboards. Those children go outside to play and end up just trying to survive...survive the neighborhood and the community in general. By time you make to high school you are conditioned to the normalcy of the situation. It's sad but unless you've lived it yourself you have no clue.

3:38 -

@2:52.

Sure, we can blame the parents. What then? How can that help provide better educational experiences for our poor and minority children?

Nice straw man. I didn't say anything about "blame." I asked if the parents had any responsibility. You replied with a common fallacy.

If, though, you acknowledge that parents have some role in the rearing of children, your position (what can we do for the kids now) tacitly admits that this glaring blight on the black family and culture is unchangeable.

Perhaps, since it's not getting done in the schools, the black community itself could take on the root causes.

If there was a way to ground our discussions in facts, research and data, and not unsubstantiated ideological talking points ...

Pure pablum.

FYI. Jackson and Mississippi schools are not the only ones in this situation. Chicago, Detroit, DC, LA, on and on. Yea I know I don't want these kids to succeed cause I'm a racist and want to keep them down. Actually I want them to get an education have hope and ambition get a decent job, pay taxes and contribute to society. If they do it will help keep my taxes reasonable and add to the quality of life of my children and grandchildren. But I'll be damed if I'm going to get all guilty feeling when I busted my ass to get a college education that I paid for as my family didn't have the money. i worked hard to make a good living for my family. Most of those I know, black, white and brown have done the same. We may not be able to control their home life but we damn sure can make the schools safe and an atmosphere for learning but it will take getting tough and demanding teachers do their jobs and students do their work.

Everybody was poor when my parents were in school in the thirties. My mother says she had two dresses...one for school and one for sunday school. She was teaching high-school without a degree because war broke out and teachers were called to duty It's called Dedication, a set of values and a moral compass. Can't be taught in school. Has nothing to do with poverty.

Messick: You're a dunce. White-flight cannot be the cause of the ills of JPS.

Somebody tell me why the African American race is the only one in our nation's history that has not brought itself up by bootstraps but has been satisfied to wallow in forever poverty, entitlement, lack of achievement and no expectations and demands placed in front of their youth. What all will you blame it on?

Kids are not born in school. They do have, or supposed to have, a home for a few years before they can be dropped off for the school to raise. This is the formative years for a child. If they are raised in a single parent home where that single parent does not care for them they learn that. If they are raised in a home where drugs are used or sold they learn that. If they live in a home where criminal activities are frequent they learn that.
When a child is raised this way for several years they do not know any better. That is what they are taught. By the time they can be pushed off on the school to raise they have already formed mostly what their life is going to be.
Put the blame where it should be. The parents have the job of teaching a child right from wrong long before they go to school. If the parents fail to do that school is not going to change it.

10:29 hard work was never a problem for the Irish and they didn't depend on the government to save them. Today's black culture is in greater bondage to the US government than during slavery. At least then they understood that they were enslaved. As it stands today they are completely controlled by their government. From where they live to food access to healthcare. It's incredibly sad and they keep voting for their own demise.

I survived JPS from 1st through 8th grade. It was 1977 and I was enrolled at Chastain Jr. High. Alex Haley' "Roots" hit the TV and next thing you know there were 300 Kunta Kinte Jrs. ready to whip the ass of any white boy. I told my parents I'm done. Luckily they had the means to send me to a private school for the next 2 years then once deciding my destiny wasn't Millsaps or Suwanee, and things had cooled down, I finished my last 2 years of JPS schooling at Callaway. Funny how I look back now at the early years of my now "Liberal-champions of civil rights" friends and they all went to private schools for the duration of 1st-12th grade. I spent more time with minority classmates on that first day at McLeod Elementary than ANY of them spent in 12 years. 1977 was a bad time to be in Jr. High in the JPS. Now I'm much older and wiser, with no children in any school system. I look at the portion of my property taxes that go to the schools and have the idea to start a movement---lets call it "Thump a kid in the head"---I'm paying for the neighborhood kids to go to school with my taxes. Since I don't have a dog in the hunt, this is clearly "taxation without representation"! Therefore, we should all demand excellent grades from the neighborhood kids in the public school system. If they are slacking off or flunking then thump their damn heads and tell them to straighten up and fly right, because WE are paying for it!

Everyone here is beating around the bush because they fear being labeled "racist". Let's be real, it's a cultural issue in the black community. I was a white middle school student in the early 2000's and it was a nightmare. The black students would call us racial slurs, beat us and stick gum in our hair. Over 20 of my white classmates were taken by ambulance in 7th grade to the hospital because black students attacked them over being white.
Everyone is terrified of being labeled racist so we will never fix this problem.

@3:38 - why don't you move into the 21 century? Segregation academies and "School integration" were issues of the 1950's/60's. By the mid-70's that time had come and gone. The state's leadership of this decade is a little different minded than that of the Ross Barnett era.

Touting the state's workforce includes a great deal of emphasis on workforce training. Take the recent Tire Plant in Hinds County - the involvement of the Community Colleges was a major factor in luring them to MS. And before you get on the bandwagon, check out the wages that these CC trained individuals will be earning.

Your argument about Charter Schools also doesn't hold water - if the education bureaucracy wouldn't fight alternative educational opportunities as they do, there would be more and more of those choices. For ten years, the education lobby kept charters limited to one for the entire state. Still today the idea of allowing charters to go anywhere they want to take the investment chance is fought by the education bureaucracy.

And keep on crying MAEP funding - to say that none of that money goes to administration costs is just wrong. The fact that the formula does not allow for even funding which was what it was intended to do makes the whole system suspect. According to the JPS audit the ADA - a major factor in the formula - is screwed from the beginning of the school day since there is no accounting for who is actually attending and who has left the grounds. Much more could be said of the formula but it loses credibility before you get past the third data entry.

All your crock tears don't work in this case. Find some way to defend the fact that this audit - conducted by the education bureaucracy itself - shows nothing but failure by the administration, board and staff of JPS.

Donna Ladd is a total FRAUD.

Over $9300 per student. It is a crime.

Adults are the issue not children. Let's remember the game is already over by the time these children reach Pre-K. Poor children are easier to exploit both white and black and public schools are happy to take the 9000 dollars per student and babysit. The Charters will work because the kids go to school for 12 hours and day and politicians will be happy with petty crime rates improving.

What's unique about Mississippi is that poor black folks live very close to wealthy white folks...(heritage not hate.) Poor white folks live in more provincial areas both geographically and culturally. I have spent time in JPS and in Toshimingo county (whitest school district in Mississippi). There are very interesting similarities with both poor white children and poor black children in terms of being out of touch with their mortality. Poor children may feel they have less to lose? Most folks who come to this discussion come from a Mississippi Delta or Jackson perspective where it is clear that there is a correlation between race and class.

I am learning about a class of black folks in Jackson that attend the private schools that are doing quite well by every measure and I am not surprised that they don't want to be socialized with children in poverty either? White flight is not the issue, middle class and upper class flight is what has changed since 1970. I know I am being ambitious but we need not to prejudge folks based on skin color and realize that poverty is the reason we Mississippians are last. It should be no surprise that the poorest state is the least educated and within that state the wealthiest schools perform the best. This is not about race its all about class. Poor white and poor black equally suck at school and the larger the number of poor you put in a space together and "educate" them with irrelevant material that will not help them get a job the more this will be a problem. The only thing public school should do is vocational ed and special ed. For college prep students Vouchers, Charter, Private.

There's a reason why JJ is #1.

Top notch deep research based fully-sourced contextual journalism!

I do not have the patience to read all these comments although I have scanned them. Have thought about this report many times today. No doubt, the genesis of our crime problems is in education. No doubt, the genesis of the City's problems is education. Had we consolidated the schools differently we would not have experienced such economic flight and the school taxes would not have prevented the City from raising needed taxes for better roads and water, etc.

Gangs and drugs are rampant in the schools. I have been told that very young elementary students know which gang they will be part of. I understand that gang colors and symbols are allowed in schools. All the more a reason to require uniforms than just because you cannot tell outsiders from students in the hallways.

Some of the above posts would lead you to believe it is just race and culture but Jackson has totally black private schools that are full of students who excel regardless of the family's income or make up. How about comparing the new charter school to the same grade in regular public school?
It is located in a neighborhood with some very poor families and I believe all their students come from that neighborhood.

It is leadership in the system coupled with lack of being able to discipline in ways that work that creates or allows to continue this debacle. Watching the metal detectors would be a good start. We need a few good Marines to volunteer to monitor each classroom and back them up with videotape. Same with school buses.

This report reveals a completely dysfunctional system that costs a fortune and is not productive. I agree with one person above, start by separating the sexes. This is the least expensive thing to try. Also, re-visit Barksdale's offer. If he is still agreeable, let him chose the leadership. Lord knows, the results of doing it the Board's way is not productive. Every year that we lose another class, we are producing more criminals and unwanted babies.

Education is the key to civilization. Lack of education is ciaos.

Let the White guilt liberal crowd wring their hands and wail in solidarity over the plight of the the po' Black kids.

Geez . . .

I no longer pity the Fondren/Belhaven crowd.

They will never ever "break even" . . . if they were able to sell their homes next week.

It isn't the fault of the people who choose to move to a nicer, safer area to raise their family. Who is dumb enough and cares so little about their family that they would choose to live in an area where the schools and the streets were not safe?
Years ago parents wanted their children to have a better and easier life than they had. They worked for that purpose and made sure their children were raised the same way.
Now we have a group of people that care absolutely nothing about their kids. They don't care what kind of life their children have or even if they have a life at all. A kid is a meal ticket. Not the actual kid themselves, only the record that there is a kid. The kid has to fend for itself as best as they can. Schools are a place to send these children so the parents? will have someone else paying for their meals and providing a roof over their heads.
It is sort of hard to teach anything when you have too many of these children in a classroom. Even those who really want to learn cannot.
Until parents? change what they are doing schooling is a waste. More money will only go into the hands of people not involved in teaching.

And we wonder why MS is last in everything. So long as we see each other and think "At least I'm better than you" and don't recognize that we are all perishing as fools....

"Somebody tell me why the African American race is the only one in our nation's history that has not brought itself up by bootstraps but has been satisfied to wallow in forever poverty, entitlement, lack of achievement and no expectations and demands placed in front of their youth. What all will you blame it on?"

Says the person that probably groups all black people together and holds are black people accountable for bad decisions, based on seeing one idiot on the 5pm news. SMH

7:31 (and all your previous postings) " Segregation academies and "School integration" were issues of the 1950's/60's. By the mid-70's that time had come and gone."

To be so verbose you are ignorant of the facts. "Segregation academies" weren't around in the 50's/60's. It was after MASS INTEGRATION was implemented mid-year (during Christmas/New Year break), 1970, that they began to spring up.

Thank you for sharing this. I hope that JPS has some major changes in their administration. As a former coworker from a JPS middle school would say, "Our downtown people like to think that they are uptown, but they really just need to get out of town."
Many good teachers have left the district because of no support. It is frustrating to be told to send students to the office if they do not follow dress code, and then when a teacher does send them, the teacher is the one who gets in trouble because they are sending "too many" students to the office and not handling business on their own. Thus, the teachers just resort to kicking the kids out of class and that is why they are roaming the halls (the dress code issue can escalate quickly in many cases, as there are a handful of kids who just choose defiance).
In one instance, a fight broke out in my class, the principal came in and a child actually tried to fight the principal. It was ugly. The principal called the assistant superintendent to the middle schools (Beatty--fired two years ago) and begged for this child to be sent to alternative school. The response was no and the child would only get a 3 day suspension. This was a child who had failed twice and was a 16 year old in middle school. At that time there were rumors that kids weren't being expelled and not given long suspensions because Dr. Gray was trying to increase ADA for more money and to get himself a raise (which eventually happened). I even had a parent meeting and after telling the parent what the child did, the parent complained that the school wasn't being strict enough, our AP had to explain that the district policy was much more soft now.
Most of the kids want to be in school and do work, but when 95% of the teacher's time is dealing with clowns and getting no support, they only have so much energy left to actually teach. And lets not forget the infamous surprise all day meetings that are pulled by the district office. They will pull teachers from class with no warning for "professional development" and the teacher has no time for preparing something for the kids to do in their absence. I fully admit that by March, I had pretty much given up on lesson planning in advance, because I never knew what was going to happen. The district sends in "consultants" and we are told just to do end of year test prep. These are people who are paid more than our full salary for just two months of work and they have no clue what is going on. There is a complete lack of organization from the top administrators and this is something that could be easy to change, but won't because chaos hides so much. It is hard being a teacher in JPS and, increasingly in Hinds County because they are following suit.
Kudos to the brave teachers who have stayed in JPS and continue to fight for the students. We have to find a way to support them. Some of the most outstanding humans I know are teachers in JPS and I hate that they often get slighted because of the terrible district for whom they work.

I wondered when 12:19 would surface with his bullshit about Mississippi being last. Never fails. His repetitive bullshit posts are meaningless.

1:59- "School integration" was an issue beginning in the 50's (Brown vs BdEd). Schools in MS started integrating in the mid-60's. Not deep - started in many schools with 'voluntary' integration of a few grades. My school was grades 1, 2, 3 and 12. Segregation academies started before the full integration of the Christmas break full integration but yes the proliferated then.

But by 1980 integration of the schools was not the same issue it was in 1960's. Yes, the academies continued but most of those started solely for segregation and continued solely for segregation had shut down by 1980. (I didn't say all, I said most.)

If you want to come back and dispute these facts, I'll take it on. I can name plenty of 'segregation academies' that started before the 'all-in' integration of the 1970 year.

10:09

Very, very few prior 1970.

Very, very few prior 1970.

Very, very few? Bullshit. Maybe in other states, not Mississippi.

Great job on WJNT-AM this morning Kingfish. The deafening sounds of silence from Jackson's voting majority -- and their McWillie K-6 only white sycophants -- tells you that Jackson is lost.

Then you have Donner Kay Ladd Watchdog Fraud claiming she's never seen anything as thoroughly detailed in the MDE audit during her JPS school visits.

P.S. did you see where Donner is also claiming to be an expert on Mississippi gangs? ROFLMAO

Detroit, Michigan here we come!

JA started in 50's. I think Prep started in 1971. Does that make prep more racist than JA or was JA ahead of the racist curve of 1970 bc they were the ultimate racist. Of course, they are both white privileged, racist scum. That is a given. If you are white, you are racist. I just want to know which group excels the most at being racist.

JA started in 1959 as a grammar school on Northview Dr. It was started by Loyal Bearss using his ideas of phonics teaching. It didn't get a high school until the '80s

JP started in 1970 as a 7th-12th grade school.

Council Schools (segregation academies) began around here in the mid '60s. Many turned into academies and many of those folded.

Does prep's hiring of diversification dude absolve them of the sins of the past? Can the sins of the past even be forgiven? Not only did prep help speed the demise of jps, it even left the city and stole the name, adding to the white flight.

Both schools are a bunch of racist. Throw in MRA and you have a axis of evil. Anyone notice how MRA's numbers swelled when Flora kids started attending the vastly majority white Madison Central? All white people are so racist.

1:45, please tell me you're deep in Irony. Your post has to be satire. At least, I HOPE it is.

Were prep and 99.9% of academies started as a direct result of desegregation? Yes. Did MRA's numbers explode when Flora HS and Jr High were rolled into Madison Middle and Madison Central? Yes.

You can call it whatever you want 424pm, but i call it racism, which is what it is. The absolute true reason is that rich white parents couldnt stand the thought of their precious angels sitting next to a black kid.

Hire all the diversity officers you want. The truth is still the truth.

Why is it always the fault of the parents and people who want a better life for their families?
White flight. We hear a lot of people complain about it. It is real. Anyone ever wonder where the people came from who replaced all of those who left? Would you call that black flight? They left somewhere for some reason.

urrently a teacher in JPS at one of the high schools listed on the report. I can honestly say that nothing detailed in this audit is fabricated or exaggerated. In fact, if MDE observed longer, they may have seen worse. There are too many politicians, who claim to be stakeholders in children's education, making decisions without consulting the people on the ground level such as teachers and building level administrators. I have had my principal say many times that, "his hands are tied," when it comes to handling certain disciplinary issues. Now, as a teacher it is your responsibility to teach every child and one who doesn't is robbing a child of his or her future. However, I can see the other side. I've seen teachers who come in with zeal and zest leave disheartened and broken. It is difficult to teach when there is no discipline, when students are allowed to use profanity and threaten teachers, when electronic devices cannot be confiscated, when the teacher is made to just babysit and ensure students ate supervised as to negate any fighting. Our handbook states that, "Teachers have the right to teach." Unfortunately, teacher's rights are being violated severely. Not only is there a lack of discipline impeding the teacher's right to teach, but the physical work environment is neither safe nor constructive. Several classrooms in the building I work have leaky ceilings, one classroom floods when it rains, mold is on the walls, classrooms don't have cooling in the summer, and heating isn't turned on until after we return from the Christmas break.Maintenance request go unanswered. I am not condoning the behavior of the students.Parents need to become more involved and present in their child's academic career. Many of these issues can be resolved with visible parent involvement. The powers that be in JPS like to keep up appearances, and an overwhelming discord from parents and media attention will force them to make constructive changes. The powers that be need to put money back into the schools. How can a child take pride in his or her education when the building is falling apart?JPS is barely providing a decent roof over the students head. Also,the powers that be need to let building level administrators discipline their own students.However, teacher's and principals become frustrated when there is no support. Kids will do what you let them get away with. When they see negative behavior resulting in no consequences, they act out.Yes, parents should teach their kids proper behavior; however I have seen on numerous occasions that parents are surprised by their child's behavior because "they don't act that way at home." This is because it isn't allowed at home whereas it is allowed at school. JPS has created an environment that is not beneficial to learning and the main person responsible...the self proclaimed "Lead Teacher for JPS" has gotten a raise and a three year extension. That money needs to go towards improving the physical condition of our schools, recruiting dedicated, knowledgeable teachers, and school resources. JPS is the largest school district in the state. There is no reason for this, especially if our leader cannot maintain a functional, safe, and constructive learning environment at it's current size. Perhaps the answer is to consolidate the schools, select the best administrators and teachers from each, and put the time and resources towards ensuring that those schools have all the necessary tools to be successful. No matter what, a drastic change needs to be made. This is hurting our children, and as we all know lack of quality education leads to poverty, poverty leads to crime, crime leads to jail, jail leads to parentless homes, and the cycle of generational poverty continues. Please do not think because this is an innercity school district that the success of these students does not affect those in the surrounding areas. If the problems in JPS are not resolved we are all at risk. This is a state issue.

Those of you who are commenting on the fact that this issue is because JPS is a poor school district or because it's predominantly an African-American school district are not acknowledging one simple thing...greed and corruption. Rural school districts and districts labeled as critical needs (such as JPS) receive federal funding mostly from Title I. Teachers in those districts have higher salaries as well because they are given what is called a subsidy. The problem is in these poor and critical needs districts there is a lot of nepotism and buddy/buddy system and money is not allocated properly for resources. If you dig, I bet you'll find that JPS receives more federal funding than Madison County schools and most private schools do not receive any federal funding. The difference the expectation is for districts like Madison County and private schools too have adequate and effective resources. Parents ensure that the schools are meeting their child's academic requirements. Unfortunately, in poor and critical need school districts, the assumption is that the district just doesn't have the money, and with close friends and family members holding privileged positions in the school system it is easy for money to disappear without accountability. Often times students are cheated out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Still ignored by the media.

Rest easy Kingfish.

Considering the substantial work you did Sam R Hall noted in our staff meeting -- (by the way we were lucky to find such a journo-juggernaut as Sam R Hall right here in Mississippi after an exhaustive search of newsrooms nationwide) -- that he needed to let more time elapse before we cover the MDE audit of JPS story in order to provide plausible deniability that we ripped the story off from you.

If you have any stories for us to cover early next week please go ahead an publish them. We run all those full-page community voices ads because we're short on actual content but doing so really hurts our meager bottom line. Thanks.

Their athletic teams are pathetic. All those "urban" kids cannot even put up a decent fight against superior school systems.

It is unfortunate that we have so many reasons to bash JPS, but we do not have the courage or "synergy" to unite to formulate a workable solution. JPS = Jackson!!! Yes, there are ills in the city and the school district. Do those ills stem from multiple sources? Is there a quick solution? Are you willing to be part of the solution or just a proponent of the chaos?

Truth be told, there are issues in every school district in the Metro Jackson area including the "A" districts. They are not publicized as much as JPS. Also, have you ever wondered why MDE relied on so many allegations from parents? Would the validity of the responses been checked if from other school districts?

As it relates to federal Title dollars, the responders would be surprised at how many private schools including some of our most prominent schools receive Title dollars for students attending their schools who are zoned for a JPS school. This money pays for computer labs and computer assistants and other educational resources. Many of the shelters in the area receive federal monies and services through funds from JPS. It is so complex...It is not simple at all.

I encourage each of you to visit a JPS school that is close to you and offer your services. Get your community groups and churches involved...Instead of investing in foreign outreach help the children in the city to become all that is possible for them to be. JPS is not a lost cause nor is our city, but we need courageous leadership that thinks outside of the box and who puts personal gains aside to make sustainable improvements for our school system and city. It is time out for talking. It is time for action!

Alignment Jackson was on the quest to gain business supporters for JPS. I'd like to know where they are now. I would encourage them to become even more vigilant and put some true action behind their words.

I believe in JPS because I am a product of the school system. I work in the school system, and I have not lost my hope for school, the district, or my city. We need to synergize and make it happen!

Pray for our school district, pray for the individual schools, pray for the leadership on all levels of the school district, pray for the students and their parents or guardians, pray for the teachers and all of the school employees...

The change can happen! Let's put our actions behind our words and do something! Don't complain... be a part of the solution! You are important and vital to the revitalization of our school district and city! Be a change agent- a real one!

Rant... I have more physical injuries than you would believe and been in more situations with guns and violence in schools that I could write a book (and 90% never publicized). I've worked at all levels and I've witnessed embezzlement, grade changing, certification falsification, cheating, and shattering rules by grown educated people. and never once... Quit. I'm close now. Having students direct profanity at you all day, while trying to teach some that care, while worrying if you have the right forms filled out and in the right place on your desk and wall has become to much.
The thing is you can't blame school level administration who work with what they are directed to implement. Teachers can't be expected to, for the salary they are paid to risk health or liability by getting involved in the safety and well being of students knowing you may get taken to court any minute.
It starts at the top. Factors, including disrespectful, in subordinate, and threatening students, excessive paperwork that has nothing to do with what is being taught,or distracting environments to stop teachers from teaching and students from learning must be the focus for district leaders. They have to trust school leaders to ensure safety of the students or hire ones they do trust. Remove those factors and let those remaining students be educated.
It's time to stop over thinking.
Another problem created? Kids on the streets? I know kids will learn with rules that are enforced..that's the job of the school. Not to provide a place to disrupt.
So many good kids suffer and miss the high school experience because of the ones who no matter what they do, keep being put back in classrooms to disrupt the process and they know nothing will be done.
I may not have the answers, but I do know, leaving it while good teachers finally just have to choose between health and family or remain a teacher is a ridiculous counterproductive path.
Why would anyone become a teacher now?
Educate those who want to be... While still have teachers.
TAKE STEPS.
Any steps.
Not an English teacher.. I know.
Not a teacher anymore soon enough.