Thursday, March 31, 2011
Scott's Folly Rejects Common Sense
What folly is subscribed to by Dot Scott, President of the Charleston NAACP? Simply this: the belief that any charter school in the Charleston County School District is in reality a plot to create an all-white public school. Conspiracy theorists take note: Scott may also believe that it's a plot by the Bilderbergers to create an all-white school in CCSD. The reality is that reality itself has impinged on Scott's monomania. When the Charter School for Math and Science was just a gleam in the eyes of its well-integrated organizers, she predicted that they planned to create an all-white school. Flash forward to today. What has happened is that CSMS is the most integrated school in the entire district. Take that, Scott! Ludicrously, Scott proposes that the district not enlarge the old Rivers building to meet the demands of this highly successful school at a time when that same district has access to hundreds of millions of dollars in funds provided by the recent one-percent sales tax increase. Or, she would prefer that its iconic auditorium be destroyed. In conjunction, Bill Lewis suggests that he has "left over" funds from other building projects that might be used. Huh? They talk about Lowcountry Tech, and I do mean "talk." Scott proposes to halt the growth of a successful, integrated school or destroy an historic auditorium useful to the community for a CCSD program that doesn't exist and that parents in District 20 (downtown) want placed at Burke High School when and if ever it gets off the drawing board! Get a grip, Dot. Full disclosure: Scott doesn't live on the peninsula, nor does she now have children in school on the peninsula, nor has she ever had children there. Maybe she forgot.
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3 comments:
If they seriously wanted this program, they wouldn't be bickering over 40% of nothing. They would be busy scheduling classes and providing proof that the need and demand existed.
When charter schools succeed, African-American students who attend them have a success rate that is on par with the entire school. The most successful charter schools in Charleston reflect an enrollment by race that is most similar to the racial and economic demographics of CCSD as a whole, something that CCSD can't seem to accomplish. It's "best" schools have a low percentage of African-American students. CCSD's "worst" schools have a high percentage of African-Americans. A school's success or failure (and CCSD, too) is reflection of management, not the race or socio-economic makeup of the students who attend them. The challenges for management might be different, but the job of making schools and the students who attend them successful isn't about race. Just look at Cecilia Rogers and Charleston Development Academy Charter School if proof is needed. CCSD and the NAACP both have played the race card to oppose charter schools when the issue is really about power, money and control. It ain't about the children!
Unlike magnet schools, access to charter schools is limited only by the number of seats available and then only by a lottery. CCSD can't say the same about magnet schools which statistically exclude African-American students. CCSD has no defense and the NAACP has no excuse for ignoring the facts.
Based on the facts magnet schools should be the object of the NAACP's ire and converting Burke to a charter school should be their goal.
Burke has a large, really nice campus, as I saw when our CCSMS students competed in the Academic quiz bowls. It would make so much more sense to listen to what the parents at Burke and in District 20 want, rather than what Dot Scott wants. I see how the students at CCSMS work together, play together and are getting the kind of education we want for all CCSD students. It is really getting old to hear the same misrepresentations from Ms. Scott and the Rev. Darby. They should stop fighting CCSMS and fight the school district for programs that can really help students.
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