Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba issued the following statement.
Monday,
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba along with Chief Administrative Officer, Dr.
Robert Blaine, and Director of Human and Cultural Services, Dr. Adriane
Dorsey-Kidd announced plans to develop a Universal Pre-K pilot program
in Jackson, funded by a $1.2M grant awarded to the City by the W.K.
Kellogg Foundation.
During
the announcement, Mayor Lumumba said, “We are excited about the
partnership with the W.K. Kellogg Foundation
to support the city’s initiative to provide universal pre-K. We have
recognized that one of the significant deficits in our children’s
ability to learn in Jackson Public Schools is that they are entering
into the school system at different levels of preparation
and we need to assist our community in preparing our young people to
start the learning process. To take a quote from Frederick Douglas, it
is said that it is a lot easier building strong children than repairing
broken men. And so, as we try to build a dignity
economy, we need to prepare our children from the start.”
While research shows that 90% of children entering grade-school are ill-equipped for learning, the Universal Pre-K
pilot program, Ready To Learn, seeks to ensure that every child in Jackson is well prepared to enter Kindergarten by the age of five.
“Ready to Learn
creates the opportunity to develop a program that ensures that all
five-year-olds enter Kindergarten ready for the learning environment.
One of the greatest enhancements that we can make to our educational
system is to make sure that students enter Kindergarten
on grade level. If we can make this transition, it will both enhance
what happens in our public schools and provide a foundation of
educational success for all of our students,” said Dr. Blaine.
The
Ready To Learn pilot program will undergo a two year development
process with the first year dedicated to building data and coalitions of
early childhood educators across the city. The second year will focus
on implementing the pilot universal pre-K
program at two early childhood development centers in Jackson.
“I
think the grant from Kellogg is going to be life-changing. It gives us
an opportunity to level the playing field. Our kids are invested just as
any other child would
be. I think their brightness will shine through, because if given the
same opportunity, we can perform at the same rate or better according to
research,” said Dr. Kidd.
The
Ready To Learn program will be made available to homeschooled
children through child television programming and curriculum offered on
the City of Jackson’s PEG Network. Additionally, the grant seeks to
offer technical assistance for early childhood development
centers to become certified universal pre-K facilities.
Through the implementation and success of Ready To Learn, the City of Jackson hopes to expand the program with federal funding.
30 comments:
Yeah, except he didn't get elected to be in charge of the school board.
Throwing some more money at a broken culture.
It is NOT up to the school system to raise your children. You do it.
City with unwed birthrate of 90%. Nope. No reason why there should be a pre-K at all.
Head Start??
If you put the 1.2 million in a trash can and set fire to it, you would at least be warm for a while. Which would be a better use than this.
1.2 million and you’re getting a program at two day care centers? Damn...a dollar just don’t go far these days...
At last! More state funded daycare!!
I quit eating cornflakes a long time ago.
I have patients whose grandchildren are at home constantly due to being expelled from school and raise utter hell in home. These are our future leaders? AOC with her donkey smile comes to mind. We are headed there, be prepared......
Uh, sorry KF, but the birthrate to unwed mothers can't be changed by having any pre-k program(s).
That needs to happen before the kid hits the ground!
Seriously? Ninety percent (90%) of children are ill-equipped for grade school?
What is the source for this statistic?
What the PH*#% is the PEG Network?
One would think the general consensus is W. K. Kellogg Foundation would do their homework before granting anything to something else for our great city to waste.
Foolish nonsense, Bro!
Was it also agreed to that there would be NO paper trail of the funds after the money makes its way south of County Line Road?
And, no accountability for those in charge, because there is a 90% chance they will screw it away.
These people think Technical Assistance means purchasing as many iPhone XR as the Apple Store has in stock.
I've had enough of this Bull Crap.
I would like to know how we have made all the advancements in technology in the last 150 years without Pre-K. Just think, if the Federal Government had been providing Pre-K all the years we might have already put a man on the moon. It's a shame what we have missed.
As usual, Taliaferro Junior babbles to his poor ignorant base.
He manages to throw in the goofy term "dignity economy', and the crowd goes wild.
Not being facetious, but Jackson died a long time ago.
What the hell is a dignity economy"?
As usual most of the money will be wasted. But if they put any kind of a
preschool program in place there's always some kid who is going to take advantage and rise out of his situation. At least one. It's just a lot of money to spend on saving one kid.
For 200 years southern whites justified outlawing the education of blacks and then for another 100 years they rationalized offering sub standard education with no transportation provided. Then under court order they built private academies and defunded predominantly black districts. And now today any effort to bring the state's minority black population into the 21st century is scoffed at and ridiculed as being undeserved. Funny how all this effort to "preserve the history of the south" is narrowly focused on Rhett and Scarlett's progeny while conveniently dismissing Mammy and Prissy's descendants as useless and expendable.
BTW, what homage do SCV's give to their Confederate ancestors for Andersonville?
Do you feel better now "Rod"? We've seen that rattle soooo many times the only explanation for you providing it here today is that you needed to feel a sense of cathartic superiority.
Kingfish: Perhaps you will enlighten us as to why a 90% unwed birth rate justifies more money for baby sitting? And also tell us why we, then, don't need midnight basketball and an after dark tutorial corps.
At least this will put some baby-sitters to work, although they will have to be relatives or friends or supporters of the current administration. First question on the application: "Who yo people?"
Rod Knocker: You do realize you're talking fifty-sixty years, two generations ago. Hasn't LBJ's Great Society had time to catch up by now, at least minimally? Desegregation, integration, private schools, discrimination....nothing you mention has caused this 90% birthrate to unwed mothers. Fifty billion dollars in grant money would not stop unbridled reproduction and absent parenting.
To all the haters, listen up.
When you have nothing to pimp but poverty, and no capital except white guilt, use what you got to get rich. There is plenty of money for missiles and destroyers, there is plenty of money for the JSU MBA'S and PHD'S to see some revenue.
Got to learn how to hustle.
Other than going downtown a few times a month, I rarely enter the city of Jackson. Last month I visited a relative in South Jackson over off Cooper Rd. I'm ashamed to say I hadn't gone to their house in 6 years.
All I can say is I was horrified. What has happened to that city is a shame. I've been to third world Caribbean cities with less decay and crumbling infrastructure than Jackson.
You're damned if you do, damned if you don't with some of you people. I think Pre-K is important. Sorry some of y'all would rather waste your money on pills that my taxes pay for.
It always depends on WHOSE children you're wasting money on. No amount of money is too much if you're spending it on my little darlings. They are God's precious gift and they should be given every opportunity. Those other mutts, and you know who I'm talking about, are just a waste of time and money. They'll turn out just like their parents. What a waste.
No, Theca, you're NOT damned if you do or don't. You're just damned for not solving the own problems your own neighborhood has created. And please stop demanding we shovel money at the symptoms and you start attacking the causes. That way, one day the rest of us can stop shoveling.
By the way, this particular grant from Kellogg comes from people who never set foot in this state and who have no earthly idea why these problems exist. They only buy into the illogical foolishness of people like you, Donder and Chokeway. And they write checks. You all call them 'victory checks'.
Damned if you do... The children are not to blame. Try their examples. Isn't Pre-K before you get to school. Try just a little discipline and learning at home. Not at Grandma's house. Try teaching the children to earn something instead of hustling or getting a handout. The Leaders in this damn city always hustle away everything they don't earn, just to hurt the children. If they would stop wasting time worried about receiving or hustling for Federal Funding and hustle their ass to finish a project on their own, they might have something to be proud of.
It’s purely a case of numbers. For generation upon generation, the numbers of poor, uneducated people have spiraled exponentially off the charts. Why, why, WHY do really destitute people continue to pop out baby after baby, with absolutely NO means to feed, clothe, and educate them? Often with no father anywhere in sight? I could maybe—maybe—sort of see how it could happen before the Pill, but once that was readily available, why did these hapless idiots not TAKE it, for God’s sake, and limit their offspring to a manageable number?
Do these people not see the connection between their rampant, irresponsible breeding and POVERTY? Most, if not ALL, of them probably grew up hand-to-mouth in similar homes, where there were too many mouths to feed, no money, and not much thought to education. WHO is sooooo stupid that they cannot connect the dots, and figure out that wow, gee, diapers and formula and baby food, then big-people food, and clothing, and housing COSTS MONEY, and that maybe one or two kids could be managed, but...five or six? Sadly, huge families among the poorest are not the exception. Look at the sad stories in the paper...nobody is doing anything about placing limits on family size. I think it’s time the government did just that. These people have had decades to figure out how to better help themselves, and have made an utter MESS of it.
Throwing money, even millions, at the whole out-of-control fiasco is like putting a Band-Aid on a spurting artery. These pre-K kids will still go home to a disorganized, chaotic household, probably with Mom too busy birthing yet another one to do her job as a parent. And one of a parent’s biggest jobs is teaching common sense, and COMMON SENSE says you can’t expect to have anything decent when you spread your limited resources too thin. And to expect the government/taxpayers to give-give-give endlessly is not going to work forever. And I think the end is dangerously near.
Don’t want Uncle Sam telling you how many babies you can have? Then DO THE F#*&ING MATH and exercise some common sense.
Studies are not showing significant improvement in test scores and some areas have worse outcomes in children who attend preK. Until there is a culture change that involves two parent households raising children, outcomes in Jackson will continue to be dismal.
https://mobile.edweek.org/c.jsp?cid=25919761&bcid=25919761&rssid=25919751&item=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.edweek.org%2Fv1%2Few%2Findex.html%3Fuuid%3DE752AFAA-8ACE-11E8-9BBE-7F0EB4743667
https://www.brookings.edu/research/does-state-pre-k-improve-childrens-achievement/
https://www.educationnext.org/pre-k-helps-test-scores-short-run-hurts-later/
Considering how little you earn Melvin I doubt you pay much in the way of taxes at all.
Really surprised anyone could object to using private money to help "the least of these".
Good point, 8:40. Private money instead of bilking the taxpayers for yet another fruitless attempt to help those who simply refuse to help themselves, overpopulating their homes then doing nothing to home-train them...great idea. Kellogg, pour on as much money as you want. The “least of these” will love the free babysitting, and the kiddies will get a few hours away from their three or four younger siblings.
2:48 and 8:40 - I hate a pick-pocket; whether he's picking the pockets of taxpayers or private foundations.
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