Jackson Jambalaya

What can you say KF? It's always the same old thing and nothing ever gets done because we lack leadership in this state.

No wonder that so many people leave school and can't balance a checkbook (yes they still make these), are up to their eyebrows in debt and have bad credit. The school can't possibly teach what it doesn't know and this report shows JPS doesn't know S--T about financial accountability or budgeting.

It bothers me that only 55% of DeSoto's county education employees are teachers.

As for JPS, we should understand the mission on JPS is to provide jobs, educating children is a secondary or tertiary priority.

One would not have to dig very hard to find several state agencies with the same problems. There are just too many people in this state (black and white, republican and democrat) who view government as an employment program.

So what is Bryant waiting for???

Facts are so racist.

A comparison not mentioned is transportation (busses). Desota County is bound to be much higher than Jackson as they transport all over the county. Even those costs out, and Jackson is even worse. We all know what the reason is, but can't say it.

We should just throw more money at it. That will fix it.

1:27,

What is racist about anything that has been said---we (MISSISSIPPI) have a big problem with education, crime, politics and religion. It is about time we face up to our short comings.

I've lived here for 75 years and have waited to late in life to move to a more progressive state like Texas, Florida or Tennessee. You young folks had better be trying to move on and quickly.

This closes arguments on the State takeover. Next.

1:06 --- Winter is Coming.

Just read Dispatches from Pluto. its that way all over the State. Schools & Government are the only sources of income in these depressed areas, be it rural or urban. sad.

Rodney Dangerfield: JPS is so bloated
Audience: How bloated??
Rodney: How bloated? When JPS got its shoes shined, they had to take the guy's word for it. That's how bloated.

Education is racist. I can't understand why many in the black community do not want their children to get an education. The black parents are not getting in on the money train that is JPS. Why wouldn't they want a better education for their children instead of a gravy train for a few of the administration?

This is what happens when local government agencies are not held accountable. The nutty people of Jackson are so geeked up over the relatively new prospect of "self-determination" and political power that they don't hold the people they put in authority to any form of accountability. These people then find that they can get away with damn near anything as long as they maintain the appearance of black control and the expansion of black business. So what do they do? Damn near anything. Hire everybody. Friends, relatives, consultants, everybody. Some really contribute, some don't. Keep the poor citizens concentrating on what you don't have, rather than what you do have and the threat of "the white power structure" while you enrich yourself and your buddies. So what's the Answer? The answer is to have that control taken away, at least temporarily, so that the city can see what accountability looks like and so they can see the difference in actual performance. But all depends on the state doing it right, otherwise it will be nothing more than a racist power grab and everything will be worse.

@1:06 Dealing with reality in Mississippi is politically dangerous......not only that, MDE didn't follow its own rules regarding the process of proposed takeover( lawsuit).

But let's just say those weren't issues. How will the burbs feasibly absorb transfer students---forget the angry parents, both Rankin and Madison are over max capacity in general as it stands already.

KF does it one more time!

Facts and figures don't lie. Unfortunately, they also don't stop excuses, lawsuits and denial.

Who is doing well at JPS? The fatasses collecting the paychecks.
Who is doing poorly? As usual, the students.

You really want to vomit? Check out the personnel absences, work comp claims, theft and other "collateral damage" that occurs daily.

The entire system needs to be dismantled and vouchers given to every student.

It cannot be fixed.

Send that opportunist, goofy Dorsey Carson. He can fix it. Fast forward a few years and see if his darling kids are in the cesspool known as JPS.

Dear Gov:
The State SHOULD TAKE OVER, JPS is a mess!

I want my money back

I want to know why the State Auditor has not investigated JPS

3:10: This is pretty close to what every other state in the Union thinks about Mississippi, only substitute ignorant, racist rednecks for blacks in your analogy.

3:29, I don't think there will be a mass exodus of students from JPS into Madison or Rankin counties or anywhere else. In order to enroll in another school district, they have to live in that other district, which means their families have to move out of Jackson. Respectfully, if the parents of these kids could afford to move, then they would have already or could have afforded to send them to private school and not kept them in a failing JPS. Unfortunately most of them are stuck in Jackson and thus their kids are stuck in JPS, regardless of whether it's run by JPS or the State. Yes, some may move to another district but probably very few.

Keep it up Kingfish, the folks in Rankin and Madison can cry all they want. Governor Bryant has no choice but to take over this cesspool of government excess.

Why does it take the threat of a State takeover for the parents of JPS students to finally rally, unite, and protest for things to get better ? It's public knowledge that JPS has been failing and in horrible shape for well over a decade now, if not two decades. Where were these parents before ? Why were they not screaming for change and improvement before ? And can it really get any worse under State control ? It may not get better but it can't get worse.

This is not about race and is not about whitey taking over the schools from black people. This is about the total failure of JPS to provide these kids a proper education, period. The only way for these kids' lives to get better is for them to get a good education, and it cannot be argued that JPS is providing that to them. Sure, a few succeed, but most are not.

Hey Jay Hughes! It doesn't "all start with education", moron. It all starts with a family unit.....you know. The old concept of a dad and mom....and a family. Nothing will change in education until apologists admit it. Education went to shit when 83% of babies ain't got a FATHER at home.

6:11 is right. The best schools in the world will not help a child that does not have a home with caring parents. Even one caring parent can make a difference. People cannot expect a child to make sound decisions when they have never seen one.
If the state does take over it will not make the home life of the children any better. It will not do a thing for the uncaring parent. By the time a child gets old enough to go to school they have already been taught that education is for whitey. A child does not know enough about life to make decisions. That is what a parent should do.
Sadly there are few parents in the city limit of Jackson. There are a lot of baby mommas and baby daddies but no real parents.

The same Jackson apologists keep showing up on here with their 'fake news alarms' claiming JPS students will suddenly flood Madison and Rankin schools. That will never happen.

JPS parents are not equipped or conditioned to care in the first place. None of them has transportation to Rankin or Madison in the second place. Fish don't survive out of water in the third place.

"It bothers me that only 55% of DeSoto's county education employees are teachers."

Why? You obviously know nothing about staffing levels, required support staff, maintenance, cafeteria, athletics, band, clerical, the legions of personnel required to make the ship function.

You don't walk into an manufacturing firm and see 60% engineers do you? You don't look at the Air Force and see 60% pilots do you? Talk to a principal or higher level administrator about staffing levels and then complain. 55% is a pretty high number.

"You don't walk into an manufacturing firm and see 60% engineers do you? You don't look at the Air Force and see 60% pilots do you? Talk to a principal or higher level administrator about staffing levels and then complain. 55% is a pretty high number." A manufacturing facility only needs a few engineers but lots of people actually conducting manufacturing activities. The Air Force's mission is national defense. Flying is one part of that mission. A school's only mission is to provide education. 55% might be a high number and if it is perhaps staffing could be better aligned to accomplish the mission.

Come on Donna, verify these facts and post in JFP. I'm waiting...

55% of DeSoto employees are teachers in a govt agency for teaching? How shocking. If there were 55% cafeteria workers or principals or paraprofessionals in DeSoto County Education then we have a problem. Education needs teachers. Thus, more teachers are needed. Support staff and administration should be there to assist teachers. Not the other way around.

@10:28 The JFP has turned into a platitude platform where only warm fuzzies of Jackson are allowed, save "the wire" section of mostly A.P. articles or re-writes of said articles. I live in Rankin, so I don't get the actual print version. Maybe I'm missing something.
The only thing I remember about ole Donner as of late is her calling out RSS on his BS conspiracy theories and subsequently releasing interesting court documents in PDF format.
Because of the warm fuzzy platitude "articles" and the reluctance to actually investigate anything besides her personal trauma with Mississippi's past, I don't visit the webpage that often.
They have adopted some weird semi-authoritarian policy that any criticism of Jackson means that you hate Jackson. And, watching David Baria's self important comments on damn near everything are quite nauseating.

Then there is the Marine Corps where EVERYONE is a rifleman first.

Desoto County is actually a suburb of Memphis now and included in their metro stats .
It has the highest per capita income in all of Mississippi and is 70% white( not including Hispanics as whites).
The average teacher's pay is $43,102. In Jackson, it's $27,078. (these figures are from the same source so gathered by the same method).
I could not find comparative statistics on the number of special needs students or students with behavioral problems. But, some special needs children do need one worker assigned to each child and that person may need some medical training . There's extra paperwork associated with these "exceptional" children by the government.
I feel rather confident that an " exceptional child" in Desoto likely has a mother with the flexibility in her schedule (if she works) or the money to provide the child's aid needed while in school. And, I expect they have mothers who sub and so don't need to pay teacher's level salary to those subs.
I don't expect you need many buses to get the Desoto children to school and certainly not those with features for handicapped children.
I saw the photos of the schools in Desoto. They are beautiful and obviously well maintained. I doubt they have any major maintenance issues.
Yes, yes..good genes and parents who are skilled in parenting and well educated do better raising children. Sadly, this is the real world and not every child born gets those parents. What do you who blame the parents propose we do with their children? I suspect most of you would not abort them so...what is your solution?
So,while these stats KF provided look awful and much of JPS current costs may be totally unjustifiable, I don't think this is a fair or valid comparison. And, it likely reinforces the worst fears of those in the JPS system who sincerely care about providing the best possible education. It also doesn't help sincere critics as it makes them seem to have unreasonable expectations.
Surely, JPS has personnel lists with job descriptions so we might begin to have a clue about where the unnecessary expenses are? I'm sure they exist. Surely, there are professors at our IHL or in MDE who can give information about why it costs more to educate the exceptional child ( special needs and gifted) .Inefficiencies exist in every system so there will be some in JPS... doubt about that. But, this is an apples to oranges comparison and therefore fatally flawed as a statistical comparison. Might as well compare the costs of patients who have cancer with the cost of patients who have the flu.

When such information was released by MDE until a couple of years ago, Desoto had 14% of its students on IEP's while JPS was at 11%.

Going to blame the buildings? Check out Galloway. Nice shiny building. It is a D school. Forest Hill is fairly new. Never gets above a C. Check out the newer schools. You will see that the age of the building does not correlate to the school rating. Casey is not exactly a spanking new facility and does quite well.

Desoto is only 52% white.

Then you bring up the teachers' salaries. Maybe if JPS wasn't wasting so much money, it could pay the teachers more money. What a concept.

9:54 is just looking for excuses JPS can use to blame for their piss poor performance.
The simple fact is there are too many crooks in JPS. Too many people working that should be out looking for a job.

September 24, 2017 at 9:54 AM = ALLLLlllllllll CONJECTURE

How bloated is JPS.
Take a look at Stokes and imagine a school system in the same shape.

Hey King. Very interesting
Could you post your source documents for the two
documents ?

Hey King. I found the source audits in one of your earlier posts.

KF, with all due respect, that there are more identified and serviced IEP students in an affluent school district is not a surprise. The process to qualify is more likely to be initiated in an affluent district. Parents have to know it exists and initiate the process and be able to participate.

And, I'm not sure what one building has to do with the expense of all buildings.

My Desoto stat is for the county, not the school district. The real issue though is the level of poverty. Surely, you know there's more than a little research about the disadvantages a poor child. Just the exposure to a larger vocabulary and books and good medical care is an advantage in learning. And, then we have the ability to help with homework ,etc. You can't help a kid with algebra if you've never taken algebra.

Also there is an unfortunate reverse discrimination that you find in parents of all races. Many fear that if their children become more educated and more successful, they will no longer love or respect their parents. They may stop sharing their values. They will move up the social ladder and find their parents as embarrassment. You even see that in parents who go to college but will not support their children going to an Ivy League college or out of state to a superior college even when money is not an issue.

I do respect that you are trying to find the problems. I agree with you that there are serious problems in the JPS system. I agree there is more than a little evidence that in poor families being a teacher was the first step out of poverty. It becomes a way of helping the family. As a result, in poor areas, it does affect the politics of the community and with politics comes abuse of power and authority.

Also there is an unfortunate reverse discrimination that you find in parents of all races. Many fear that if their children become more educated and more successful, they will no longer love or respect their parents. They may stop sharing their values. They will move up the social ladder and find their parents as embarrassment. You even see that in parents who go to college but will not support their children going to an Ivy League college or out of state to a superior college even when money is not an issue.

These people would not be called parents. Parents actually care about their children and want a better life for them. Those people you described can be called many things but parents is not one of them.