Postlewait Promises CCSD "Miracle on Enterprise Street"

Among the 40 goals proposed by new Charleston County School Superintendent Gerrita Postlewait is the following:"Postlewait wants to ensure at least 10 percent of each eighth-grade class meets the academic criteria for admission to Academic Magnet High School in response to concerns over the increasing lack of diversity at the top-ranked high school in the district and the state."

Shall we talk turkey?

AMHS has diversity; what it does not have is many black students. "Diversity" is seemingly the new code word for integration of black students--this year only 12 out of 650 at the school.

Board member Michael Miller seems the voice of reason:

Postlewait’s 10 percent plan “sounds good in theory,” said board member Michael Miller, but he’s worried about implementation.

“How do you make that work?” he said. “Don’t get me wrong. Maybe she will bring us information to tell us how we’ll get to that point, but as of right now, there ain’t no way in hell you’re gonna get 10 percent of those kids in those schools just because those schools don’t offer the classes those kids need to score well enough at Academic Magnet.”

Data from the school district shows that students from predominately black and lower-income middle schools rarely apply and are rarely accepted into Academic Magnet. For example, at Jerry Zucker, Sanders-Clyde and Northwoods middle schools, none of the 18 total students who applied to go there this year were accepted. At Burke, not one eighth-grader submitted an application.

As usual, the devil is in the details. All of us wish that the top 10 percent of every eighth grade in the district would meet the criteria. Does that mean the criteria will change and the district will institute a lottery system? Will Postlewait perform miracles with the sixth- and seventh-graders now in the system? Even with her experience in Horry County, as Coats suggests, it's hard to foresee that outcome in the near future.

Please, prove me wrong, Gerrita!