There is talk in some Jackson circles that this website is working with the Republicans to take over Jackson Public Schools. JJ doesn’t normally respond to chatter, because someone is always throwing stones at this website. However, the Mississippi Department of Education’s decision to take over Jackson Public Schools is a story that is very emotionally-charged and upset quite a few people. Some see it as another example of the state yet again trying to take something from Jackson. Others see it as Mississippi once again showing its own brand of racism, although some are inclined to see racism in anything. Others are just plain confused and genuinely scared because their children’s education is at stake. JJ will attempt to explain why it has an interest in JPS.
JJ started began taking an interest in 2011 with this January 30 post:
The Mayor had this to say about the Jackson School Board in today's Clarion-Ledger: "But "the mayor cannot dictate to the school board," Harvey Johnson said. "Never has, never will."
Really? That is the problem, Harvey. You appoint members and wash your hands of anything pertaining to Jackson Public Schools. That is why they are a joke. There is no accountability for the board. Citizens have no input, no chance to make things right at the ballot box. See Harvey, if you were a leader and not a machine politician, you would copy the original Kingfish and have the undated, signed resignation letters of every single board member you appoint and hold them responsible for public education in Jackson. Maybe its time to remove the power to appoint school board members from the Mayor and instead start electing them.
JJ began reviewing the performance of JPS in 2012 during the charter school fight and found the record was dark, dank, and dismal. The graduation rates for boys at two high schools were 38% and 36%. Most of the schools received ratings of “D” or “F”. Only half of all the senior boys in JPS graduated that same year. Percolate on those figures for a while. This educational disaster was ignored by the media. Community activists were strangely silent. The Mayor did not use the bully pulpit to demand some changes. JJ compared JPS to similar school districts such as Desoto County. The comparisons were not comforting, as JPS spent nearly $60 million more than Desoto, despite having nearly 2,000 fewer students in 2009. JPS was in such poor shape that it hadn’t completed an audit in three years.
Unfortunately, JPS has been a stepchild ignored by everyone for too long. The media would sometimes cover a school board meeting and provide some live coverage if a controversy arose, but it never told the true story of Jackson Public Schools. The husband of the JPS Communications Director edited the Clarion-Ledger, so critical reporting about JPS strangely did not appear on the front page or any other pages. JJ saw a need and began to pay more attention to Jackson Public Schools.
The school board was untouchable, since its structure guarantees there is almost no accountability. The City Council appoints the members, but once they are on the board, they don’t have to answer to anyone. The business community is blown off, parents are pushed away, and everyone else be damned. Citizens in other school districts have some input through elected superintendents or elected school boards who then appoint superintendents. However, Jackson endured the worst of all possible worlds: appointed school board members appointing the superintendent. Leadership is thus one or two layers removed from the public it is supposed to serve.
The result is the Jackson Public Schools District became disconnected from the community. Although education is probably the leading factor for families making decisions on where to live, Jackson’s politicians abdicated their responsibilities as community leaders and let JPS wither on the vine – and wither it did. Nothing was said about performance or how things were run – it was someone else’s problem. Business suffered, crime grew, and families fled.
JJ said no to this status quo and first started publishing the record of JPS. Such coverage included publishing graduation rates, schools ratings, audits, bond issues, and fees paid to friends of the high and mighty. Numbers were crunched and analyzed. Disturbing patterns emerged that showed how bad the picture really was at JPS: 66% of JPS schools and 88% of JPS middle and high schools had a rating of D or F in 2012. Jacksonians took notice and started to give tips and complaints to this website. There was a hunger for this type of information and a need for the truth.
JJ continued to cover JPS. This correspondent went to the community forums for the new superintendent finalists. Video of the entire question and answer session was recorded and posted. JJ warned the readers that neither candidate was qualified to run JPS, and that hiring them would be a disaster. Sadly, no one listened. The number of failing schools doubled during the new superintendent's second year on the job. Yet, so misguided is the JPS school board that it gave him a raise for reducing the number of failing schools to the what they were when he began his tenure. Such is the JPS school board: Two steps back and two steps forward is progress. He was fired after serving five years. He bragged about improving the district email system, while the district fell to an “F” rating. He didn’t even submit a response to the MDE audit. This story wasn’t told by the media so it's not surprising that many Jacksonians are shocked and angry when the Mississippi Department of Education comes calling. It is no surprise they are lashing out. Why shouldn’t they? Who has told them the truth? Their leaders? The media? The abdication spreads far and wide.
Education is too damn important to ignore. Jackson has played the ostrich all too often where its schools and children are concerned. Everyone gnashes their teeth over people leaving Jackson, but they continue to leave as nothing changes. JJ treats the readers as if they have some sense, unlike most of the media. Documents and videos have been repeatedly posted so readers can figure things out for themselves. JJ didn’t just throw up the 2016 audits last year but instead dissected those audits in a series of posts that made it easier to digest and understand. Meanwhile the rest of the media tried to go through a two-minute drill. Yes, that told you what was really going on in JPS, didn’t it? Fortunately, many readers emailed requests for copies of the audit. I went on two radio shows and explained the audit. Needless to say, more than a few residents of Jackson have encouraged JJ to keep covering JPS and said this website was the only one telling the truth about JPS. Those residents weren’t exactly lily-white Republicans.
Jackson cannot move forward unless it fixes its schools and by fix, I don’t mean a level of mediocrity that was called successful under Dr. Sargent. Children won’t have a future if they can’t learn. This website covers local crime, but frankly, it is heartbreaking to see 13, 15, and 17 year-old kids throwing their lives away when they should be going to school, pulling pranks, enjoying football games, and doing other kid things instead of carjacking and killing each other for fun. Jackson can’t recruit businesses if it doesn’t have successful schools. What little is left of the productive classes that every city needs to thrive will continue to leave Jackson if JPS is not fixed.
Some think that the “Republicans” I.e. the Governor, legislature, and Board of Education, want to destroy Jackson and keep the kids from learning. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mississippi can’t move forward if half of its kids can’t learn. PERIOD. Let us be real honest here. Every time a company such as Caterpillar, Amazon, or Hartford Insurance, announces it is looking for new digs, this state has no chance of even competing for such a prize. We don’t have the workforce, the school systems, transportation, or universities they require. The best we can do right now is compete for the crumbs- satellite offices and plants we can buy with various packages. Such will not change unless we improve what we can offer to those we need.
There is no Great White Conspiracy to destroy Jackson Public Schools. There is no great charter school company on the horizon waiting to come in and sweep up JPS. The law doesn’t allow that to happen. Mississippi’s charter school law is a good one but it is a tough one. Suppose Governor Bryant could wave a magic wand and give vouchers to every student in JPS? There isn’t enough room in Rankin, Madison, or the private schools to absorb many kids from JPS. Quit listening to the crap on talk radio and taking what you read on Facebook as gospel. Just think.
It is very encouraging to see Mayor Chokwe Lumumba take an interest in JPS. He gets it when it comes to understanding to how important the educational system is to a city’s well-being and is standing up in the trenches- more than one can say for most of his predecessors. However, his argument is with education bureaucrats at the Mississippi Department of Education, not lily-white Republicans he mistakenly thinks want to destroy Jackson’s children. His attacks on Republicans might fire up his base but completely ignore what has taken place – or not taken place – at JPS over the years.
Jackson has a future. This moment of crisis can work for Jackson’s greater good. There is no more sand for the ostriches. The band-aid is being ripped off. Jackson’s leaders are now forced to confront what JPS has become. Crucibles can be so unforgiving, can’t they? Jackson’s leaders have ignored Jackson’s children for far too long and it’s about damn time they stood up for them. The question now is will they keep standing up for them when the cameras disappear. It’s time to clean house at JPS regardless of who wins this fight. That means replace the school board with real leaders, tear up the sweetheart deals, audit the damn books to see where the money went, and give those teachers the help they need.
Meanwhile, this website will continue to cover what goes on at the Jackson Public School District because you deserve to know what goes on in your public schools.
30 comments:
The state board of education's audit of the JPS resulted in a 800 +- page summary of findings where JPS has failed to meet the standards set by the state for proper schooling of our children.
I understand that many are upset by what they see as loss of control of the JPS, but they need to back away for a moment and think about 800 pages of instances where JPS is failing in the education of their children.
I am one who believes that the majority of those who live in Jackson care a lot about their children getting a proper education that will help them do better as adults trying to make better lives for themselves and children not yet born.
Where does the fault lie in the failure of JPS? It lies solidly on the shoulders of those who sit in JPS administrative offices and who made the decisions over the past 10 years that carried the system to the abysmal low point where it sits today. Rather than criticize those who fight to bring JPS back to minimum standards and those who report on the failure to improve JPS, we should applaud and support their efforts.
If JPS had any desire to fix things, they would have been fixed 5 years ago. Smaller/poorer districts in the state can meet these standards. Why can't JPS? That is the real question that needs to be answered .
Why would anyone think you should not cover the schools? The two most important factors in determining the success of a city are school and crime. Available jobs would be #3, but if you have great schools and low crime rate the jobs will find you. And if you have either high crime rate or sorry schools not much else matters.
Mic drop
Your analysis has merit and deserves wide distribution. As I have said before, we need to get the MDE into the driver's seat for as long as it takes. I hope that Mayor Lumumba gives his full cooperation once the die is cast. Damn it, the children come first.
In their own way, MDE is just as crooked as JPS.
Charter schools are the answer.
The state does not have a great track record at running anything either. Tough situation all around.
Information regarding the status and operation of JPS is essential to it's ultimate improvement and you are contributing to that. But some people are so emotionally frustrated with the opinions expressed by your bloggers that they mistakenly invent a conspiracy because they think those bloggers are representative of the powers that be in the education bureaucracy. The facts show that JPS has gone beyond the acceptable and has triggered what the state rightly determined to be a "state of emergency". That determination must be made whether it's Jackson, Greenwood, or Madison. The standard must be the same. Whether some blogger is racist, has no interest in educating Black children, or just hates Jackson, has no bearing on whether JPS is providing adequate education to the community it serves. Yes, there are people out there who want Jackson to fail. So what? Jackson has had local control of it's school system and it's not getting the job done. Blaming others who do not control the schools did not help, and it won't.
If JJ were somehow involved with MS GOP in the takeover, it wouldn't bother me one bit! I say "Carry on, KF!"
Not Enough people read this blog for it to have that much influence. I sure hope you don't take yourself too seriously Kingfish.
1:48pm is a troll. Do not respond.
This takeover comes after many years of failure of kids by JPS (2012-2015: D; 2016-2017: F). It needed to happen a long time ago.
Read the 18 month investigation here and see if you come to an educated different conclusion: http://www.mde.k12.ms.us/docs/hot-topics/jackson-public-schools-audit-report.pdf?sfvrsn=2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILQXW2Ob1PU
You are right about the media, WLBT couldn't give a crap about the rotting corpse of a school system right under their nose. You let a horse go hungry for a couple of days though, Marsha, Marsha, Marsha will jump on the hood of your truck and stick a mic in your grill as you speed away, risking life and limb. Jackson kids, nah...
(1) Charter schools are a scam, and have been shown to be a scam around the nation.
(2) If the military (say) doesn't work, you don't abolish the military and hire mercenaries. You fix the military. Our schools don't deserve any less.
(3) JPS is a dumpster fire. It needs the takeover. It (and MDE) needs reform.
Jackson is not loosing control of JPS. It never had control over JPS.
That is one of the problems.
Why does it always have to be about politics for some people. JPS system is failing to do the one thing it is in business to do; educate children properly. This is not a one time failure of JPS. It is a systemic failure. Kids are leaving the school system without the necessary tools to succeed in life. This leads to poverty, crime, suicide, lower life expectancy and all manner of bad things.
When will the Democrats start demanding that their kids get quality education? Failing school age children year after year isn't a Democrat or Republican issue. It is a Mississippi issue and we all suffer with the impact when schools systems fail to perform.
The real question isn't why is JJ covering this story. The real questions is why aren't more newspapers? Why don't the parents care enough to demand change. Why did Jackson let it get so bad? Why is our superintendant of education making so much money and not getting results?
Amen! Great analysis!
JJ: Your introductory comments reveal your totally false (and inflammatory) narrative. You list two possibilities: It's either white people wanting to take over Jackson or its Racism. How about you list the third and ACTUAL possibility, which is 'The State is finally doing what must be done to save a listing ship and its passengers'. You never even allude to that! You just want to stir up a shit storm for the sake of posts and responses.
This tragedy should not really be about Kingfish, yet about every third post wants that to be the case, as does the blog administrator.
I agree with this line "Every time a company such as Caterpillar, Amazon, or Hartford Insurance, announces it is looking for new digs, this state has no chance of even competing for such a prize". This state has ranked below Third World countries for 200 years and will for the next 200 years.
Kids in Jackson are way behind when they are born.
Multiple reasons as to why - history, economics, apathy, etc.
The kids don't need excuses....they need answers.
MDE has to rethink what education is and can be in light of the fact that the parents aren't able to help as much as others, can't eat properly, can't get to school timely often.
It will take much more than books and teachers I'm afraid.
It's going to have to be more involvement earlier for longer periods of time.
It's going to be a life changing event or it's going to fail.
As a parent with a child in first grade at Casey Elementary, we are already making plans to move to a school district outside of Jackson before our child reaches middle school age because we can't afford private school.
Kingfish, I appreciate your efforts in reporting on JPS. I want to see Jackson succeed, but if the problems with JPS aren't taken seriously, I don't hold out much hope. I am sure there are other parents like us who are afraid their children won't get a good education in Jackson and can't afford private school.
In many comments I've read in other forums, the focus is always on the good in JPS, which centers mostly on the magnet schools in the system: i.e., Casey, McWillie, Davis, Bailey, Power APAC and Murrah. But what about the kids in the other schools in JPS? Schools where they don't have properly licensed teachers to teach, so they find someone to sit in the class while kids watch movies? Schools where the bad behavior of some students is so bad as to disrupt anything the other students might be able to learn?
This problem will not be fixed quickly. I believe it can be fixed, but I'm not sure the politicians and city leaders have the ability to make hard choices and call out the problems and make sure they get addressed. Additionally, when you have parents who are basically kids having kids and they can barely function to take care of their homes and families, how are they supposed to have any voice to speak up against wrongs being perpetrated in the school system? They don't know what they should be paying attention to in regards to their kids' education. Some of them barely made it out of school themselves.
So stinking frustrating that we find ourselves here. I graduated from JPS in 1991. It is sickening to see how bad things have gotten in such a short time, but I remember how things were beginning to decline even then.
This is a sad situation for all involved. I sent my 3 children to private schools. It was expensive, but when I looked at what KF reported last week as to how much it cost to educate a child in JPS it was over the $10k mark. Unbelievable, and we still have a failing system with hinds county and Jackson property taxes going through the roof. Maybe it's time we brought some "outsiders" in who can't be corrupted.
I have an employee whose wife is thinking of teaching at JPS. They offered a $5k signing bonus and $1,200/week salary. Not too shabby but if you have to work in fear of your life then it's not worth it.
Like KF said. Many companies are passing us by just because our education system from top to bottom is not up to par. If we could make everyone understand that football and basketball to many are a worthless waste of time at this point. Education needs to take the front burner, then we can address the sports. But, not until we get the education level back where it needs to be.
5:57 touched on a lot of common sense points. Like they said, it will take more than just books and teachers. Some of these kids are getting up for school when a parent is coming home from clubbing. It's very sad because it's a social issue and it is a race issue. I know that's not what you don't want to hear. The black school districts fail simply because the majority do not value an education, plain and simple. Mississippi is as close to becoming a third world country with it's setbacks. Don't believe it? When was the last time you went to the Delta and then went to a third world country and had a flashback?
I don't know what the answer is, and I don't think anyone else has a clue or this would have been dealt with accordingly. But when you allow high salaries for superintendents to come in and not produce them it's the same as stealing. 5 years of a $300,000+ salary? That's a lot money for no results. Who is going to be held accountable?
I saw the graduation rates for 2012, which are alarmjng. What are the most current graduation rates and have they improved?
"I know that's not what you don't want to hear. (5:08)"
Run that by me one more time?
KF, you've done a good job of covering education.
It's the crazy extremists and the extremely ignorant on both sides that keep MS from going forward on this issue or any other.
Alas, it's not really paranoia to entertain the notion that our politicians are catering to their extreme bases.
And, it would behoove the politicians if they tried to focus on facts together rather and would think outside their party boxes. Both sides have some legitimate concerns but neither side will entertain the notion that their way might not be the only way and some flexibility might not only be possible but sensible.
Parental involvement is key to a successful school system. I know there are some good parents who have been involved with their children's' schools and this post isn't directed at them. It's for the parents who have never volunteered at a school and who have never made an effort to get to know teachers or principals. Parents who never take time to read to their children or encourage them to do homework. Do these parents not want a better education for their children? Do they care about their children? Obviously not enough to have been involved from the beginning. if these parents had been involved, they would have seen the problems a long time ago and complained then--filed suit then. It's not about racism or taking something from Jackson. It's about children being cheated out of getting a good education and about parents who do not care.
TO: Casey Elementary Parent
In the event you own a home I suggest you hustle your ass on that move because Jackson residential home values are cratering.
Personally, I think JJ enjoys covering the TSUN scandal more than JPS.
If you compare white vs black districts, it's not about the money which some claim the whites get more and it's untrue. Just look at how much it takes to teach a child in the black districts . It's about parents of the failing districts that do not care! Truth hurts doesn't it?
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