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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe willful race based destruction of a generation of kids
Last edited Mon Aug 17, 2015, 10:11 AM - Edit history (1)
One fateful decision. Years of neglect.
Five once-average schools remade into the worst in Florida.
FAILURE FACTORIES
By CARA FITZPATRICK, LISA GARTNER and MICHAEL LaFORGIA
Photographs by DIRK SHADD
Times Staff
In just eight years, Pinellas County School Board members turned five schools in the countys black neighborhoods into some of the worst in Florida.
First they abandoned integration, leaving the schools overwhelmingly poor and black.
Then they broke promises of more money and resources.
Then as black children started failing at outrageous rates, as overstressed teachers walked off the job, as middle class families fled en masse the board stood by and did nothing.
Today thousands of children are paying the price, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found.
They are trapped at Campbell Park, Fairmount Park, Lakewood, Maximo and Melrose five neighborhood elementary schools that the board has transformed into failure factories.
Every year, they turn out a staggering number of children who dont know the basics.
Eight in 10 fail reading, according to state standardized test scores. Nine in 10 fail math.
more
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinellas-failure-factories/5-schools-segregation/
yeoman6987
(14,449 posts)Integration could be tried but it depends on how far busing will be needed because that would be the way to integrate pupils from other counties into these schools. Something dramatic will have to happen. More money helps but more needs done then even money.
madville
(7,413 posts)We lived out in the predominantly white suburbs and they bussed us about 15 miles into the city to add some white kids to a middle school that had previously been 90%+ black, driving right by two other middle schools along the way.
In my opinion it was a disaster, there were daily fights, white vs. black brawls involving 100+ people would shut the school down for days at a time, there were close gun shots in the blocks surrounding the school at least weekly, teachers would just tell us to close the windows.
I know the white suburban neighborhood kids I grew up around became the biggest racists you had ever seen within months. Luckily we moved after I had only gone there one year. Interestingly we moved to a rural county with one middle school that was about 50/50 black and white and things were relatively calm because everyone had grown up in the same small town their whole lives.
Elementary school may work better though since the kids are younger. Those were different times also, dropping "rich" white 12-14 year olds into the poorest part of the city back then was definitely the wrong way to do it, things were still segregated within the school.
cali
(114,904 posts)You don't have a clue about this particular situation
madville
(7,413 posts)Sure bussing in students from higher performing areascould boost the school performance numbers on paper. It doesn't address the underlying issues for the individual students, like poverty or poor home lives.
cali
(114,904 posts)But that's only one aspect of this heinous crime
secondvariety
(1,245 posts)of the South Pinellas schools (mid 60s to 74) during the early days of busing, and to say it was a disaster would be an understatement. Our "brawls" made national news in '71. Twenty some years later, my daughters were being bused to high school and the same crap was still happening. After about the tenth visit to the administration office to find out why my kids were being harassed and physically assaulted and getting a mamby pandy answer, I pulled them both out of school. They got their State of Florida Diploma another way.
My granddaughter is now a middle schooler in South Pinellas and if they try to bus her with the intention of making a school less of a failure or it goes back to the way it used to be with the assaults and harassment , I'll pull her out too and home school her. There's no way I'll let her get bused across town or put up with the shit we did. No way.
I'm truly sorry those Southside schools are doing so poorly and I'm sorry those precious kids like Tyree that just want to go to school are getting the crap knocked out of them daily. I can totally commiserate with the parents that are stuck sending their kids there and getting no good answers from the School Board. I'm a 50 year resident of Pinellas and I hate to see it like this.
Unknown Beatle
(2,672 posts)Florida, a state that had jeb bush and now has rick scott as governor. Those two alone have had a destructive effect on anything that they touch, except when it comes to stealing from the poor to give to the rich. Those two don't give a shit about educating children.
cali
(114,904 posts)They are violating the civil rights of those kids
cali
(114,904 posts)Sancho
(9,071 posts)Some recent repub and Jeb-types have desegregated the county. BTW, I'm on the front lines of this one.
The state officials have been pretty worthless, and the current Superintendent is a conservative idiot.
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/05/21/Tampabay/Pinellas_school_deseg.shtml
Pinellas school desegregation: A chronology
cali
(114,904 posts)ieoeja
(9,748 posts)At that time none of the schools had less than a "C" rating. One had an "A" rating.
When the Feds left, the locals quickly returned to neighborhood schools. That *is* much handier for everyone involved. But since the neghborhoods are racially and economically segregated, it meant these five schools became poor overnight. Today, all five schools have an "F" rating.
cali
(114,904 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)what I've been reading it seems like that was in the early seventies
cali
(114,904 posts)Everyone here needs to read it. This is horrific institutional racism.
MuseRider
(34,136 posts)this is so upsetting. I have not finished reading all of the stories yet but at this point I have to ask why? Why and how could any human do this to someone else?
cali
(114,904 posts)MuseRider
(34,136 posts)Among many other things I find this perhaps the most appalling of our short comings. The blame goes everywhere.
cali
(114,904 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)Just have to wonder, if one County in FL is pulling this horror, what else and where else? Undoubtedly, we're suppose to believe that NONE of the state's GOP elected officials, from the County seat, through the State House and on to the U.S. Senate, were aware of what the school board was pulling.
cali
(114,904 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)to what brickbat said: The willful race based destruction of a generation of kids.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)because that's what it was - thanks Jeb et al
cali
(114,904 posts)djean111
(14,255 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)Starry Messenger
(32,342 posts)Perfect storm of horrible education policies and ideology come home with the force of a hurricane. One thing I never appreciated was how quickly segregation and the effects can take hold. People who think there is time to adjust effects in education while you "experiment" might want to give this a serious read.
cali
(114,904 posts)Mnemosyne
(21,363 posts)d_r
(6,907 posts)Just read the comments of one of the board members who voted in 2007 to resegregate the schools before jumping to any conclusions:
Linda Lerner, who voted for the plan that resegregated the district in 2007, blamed the schools problems on the cycle of poverty, not on actions by the School Board.
This is a nationwide thing, not just us. You hear school districts everywhere talking about this, said Peggy OShea, who also voted for the plan in 2007. Its an issue thats everywhere, unfortunately.
We only talk about it in black schools, she added, but we resegregated white schools as well.
See? They resegregated white schools, too. This clearly isn't institutional racism.
Any case anybody needs this:
cali
(114,904 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)Dumb as a bag of rocks.
justhanginon
(3,290 posts)charged with overseeing the education of our children. At this point I'm not sure the voters of Florida have any shame left but they certainly should. This situation needs to be fixed starting now. No BS excuses.
d_r
(6,907 posts)and I'm not a crier.
Weve looked at just about everything we can and put things in place, said Carol Cook, who also voted for resegregation in 2007. I think were on the right track.
Mindblowing, said Terry Krassner, who joined the board in 2010 and who said virtually the same thing about struggling black students four years ago. I think we need to figure out what we dont know.
We keep making the same mistakes over and over and over, said Goliath Davis, a former police chief and deputy mayor of St. Petersburg. What happens to all these kids? What do they do? Every time we fail one, the criminal justice system is a winner.
They wont even consider what other school boards have done, said the Rev. Manuel Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. They refuse to accept that there are people who are doing things better.
They wont even consider what other school boards have done, said the Rev. Manuel Sykes, pastor of Bethel Community Baptist Church in St. Petersburg. They refuse to accept that there are people who are doing things better.
cali
(114,904 posts)These people are criminals
and people should not be fooled.
They aren't just clueless people who don't understand. They aren't simply incompetent.
They knew what would happen, everyone knew. They didn't care.
Linda Lerner:
Brickbat
(19,339 posts)needed more information before they could act."
Willful race-based destruction of a generation of kids. Horrifying.
cali
(114,904 posts)Gumboot
(531 posts)... This was the intentional end result of all his so-called education reforms.
And it's exactly what Bernie is referring to when he talks about institutional racism.
All of America needs to hear this horror story - and its direct connection to Jeb f***ing Bush.
cali
(114,904 posts)RoccoR5955
(12,471 posts)Feeling the Bern
(3,839 posts)Communities, school administration, partisan school boards, the public and politicians that force unfunded mandates on schools have nothing to do with it and don't even enter into the equation.
It's all the fault of those worthless, overpaid, oversexed, undertalented parasites known as teachers. Chris Christie told me so! As did Bill Bennett in 1983's A Nation At Risk.
d_r
(6,907 posts)navarth
(5,927 posts)my wife is a retired teacher. I've seen up close what teachers have to deal with.
tishaLA
(14,176 posts)And what a depressing start to the week.
historylovr
(1,557 posts)nenagh
(1,925 posts)Heartbreaking to read...
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)Also I wonder where our Federal government is on this obscenity?
cali
(114,904 posts)to be a blatant violation of these kids' civil rights
This is heartbreaking and infuriating.
XemaSab
(60,212 posts)Or was the attitude of the school board like "Half the kids are doing great! Nothing to see here, move along!"
Harder to cover up the failure of a generation of poor children when they're the only ones left at that school.
cali
(114,904 posts)The fucking op title is no exaggeration. Not even a little
bettyellen
(47,209 posts)HubertHeaver
(2,522 posts)criminally liable resulting in some serious jail time. Superintendents are a hard-headed lot but they do talk to each other. They will clean up their act when they see a few of their cohorts go to prison.
Typically, School Board members are wholly ignorant of educational matters and depend totally on the professional staff to guide them. They will enact (rubber-stamp) recommendations from the staff. The School Board is only a convenient "whipping-boy" for the administration.
cali
(114,904 posts)And I disagree about the school board. Read the entire series
HubertHeaver
(2,522 posts)I was referring to the typical school board, not this board in particular.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)Their goal is to make it fail to keep the poor and minorities down. Then point to them as inferior to justify their racist superiority, then to propose the solution to the problem THEY CREATED through their sabotage by blaming the very concept of "government run" and claim the solution is private schools.
Why we aren't jailing these bastards is beyond me.
cali
(114,904 posts)d_legendary1
(2,586 posts)Someone in the county needs to go to prison for this.
cali
(114,904 posts)Ms. Yertle
(466 posts)I read the whole article, and I am seething. How can they do this to innocent children?
pansypoo53219
(21,009 posts)the_sly_pig
(741 posts)Black, white, hispanic, asian doesn't matter. This school board has just abandoned any attempt to hide its agenda.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)It's true, but the people directly involved- poc- lose to a far, far greater degree
spanone
(135,924 posts)tclambert
(11,087 posts)They objected to the idea of a "core curriculum." "That should be a matter for the states or local school boards" they all said. And obviously, they don't want to provide any educational help to poor, black children--I mean "urban youth." That would just create a "culture of dependence."
hueymahl
(2,510 posts)The answer to one question is all you need to know about this school board:
http://www.tampabay.com/projects/2015/investigations/pinellas-failure-factories/school-board/
Every board member said yes. That's great. Now, lets start enrolling your children and grand-children in one of those schools. That way you can prove you are not just another disgusting hypocrite.
navarth
(5,927 posts)Elmer S. E. Dump
(5,751 posts)rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)people. Profits uber alles.
cali
(114,904 posts)KamaAina
(78,249 posts)(St. Pete and vicinity) Generally one of a handful of liberal bastions down there.
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Liberal but the county itself is not. I lived there 10 years. I actually know several of these folks on the school board. Will write more about that in a response directly to the OP.
Edited to add: Pinellas is part of the I-4 corridor to include the Tampa, Orlando and Daytona areas which typically determines who wins the state in a close election.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)There is no excuse for this school board.
But this is a common problem with elected school boards. People with no expertise but strong beliefs about education become school board members.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)There should be a minimum standard for all schools. If any fall below then the Federal government should step in (the state having had a chance to act first) and apply resources. They should have the power to remove administrators and have the option to bill the state. That minimizes the temptation to cry wolf as the federal aid isn't a free ride. This also will minimize the temptation to segregate so some taxpayers can save money. No free ride from supporting good schools for all.
I read most of that long article and it sounds like these schools were shortchanged on resources and then things snowballed. So fixing things means starting at square one.
The minimum standard needs to be made into a civil right that the Federal government enforces. It will be cheaper in the long run to just fix things rather than letting kids suffer while we endlessly band-aid while in crisis mode. Spend the damn money and raise the damn taxes on the rich if need be.
Call it jobs creation, just do it.
Edit for grammar and so I might as well add that the article is a must read. It's a major story.
valerief
(53,235 posts)Since the kids aren't being prepared to hold a job.
This is disgusting.
SunSeeker
(51,797 posts)JustAnotherGen
(32,025 posts)Blue_In_AK
(46,436 posts)I'm really glad I live in a diverse city where all the schools are a delightful mix of black, white, Asian, Pacific Islander, Alaska Native, on and on. It's one of the things my grown kids have told me, that they appreciated growing up in a place where everybody is all mixed up together. We are blessed.
http://www.adn.com/article/20150523/anchorage-public-schools-lead-nation-diversity
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)stevenleser
(32,886 posts)I was a district chair in the Pinellas DEC and then Public Relations chair for a while. I was acquainted with several of the school board members while I was living there and I am surprised by this. The actions taken that resulted in this catastrophe seem to have happened 3 years after I left.
Lois Lerner and Rene Flowers in particular I spoke with on occasion and I can't believe either of them allowed this to happen. I am going to see if I can talk with either of them. Flowers I don't think joined the school board until 2012 or 2013, she had other positions in Pinellas so this was probably all put into action 5 years before she got there so it will be interesting to see what she has to say if I can talk to her.
Blue_Tires
(55,445 posts)This "blueprint" has been enacted in other cities as well...