Who's in Charge: CCSD Superintendent or School Board?

Amazingly, the Charleston County School Board has done something not first pushed by Superintendent McGinley: moved Lowcountry Tech from the Rivers building and voted to allow the Charleston School for Math and Science the use of the building instead of multiple trailers. It's a nightmare!

Well, it's a nightmare for McGinley. What this sensible vote suggests is that her long domination of the Board that is legally her boss may be ending. When did the Board last go against her wishes? Not in my memory.

McGinley is beholden to special interest groups who have no real interest in the education of Charleston County's students. They have a political agenda instead. That political agenda does not allow for a fully-integrated school on the peninsula that they do not control through the superintendent.

It would be nice to say that this disagreement with the elected school board is the handwriting on the wall, but don't hold your breath waiting for McGinley to resign, even if she's reduced to stating idiotically that Burke doesn't have room for the tech programs.

So now CSMS must wait for passage of the not-a-penny sales tax extension?

Please.

CCSD Should Pay Attention to More Than Squeaky Wheel of NAACP

Would you believe that the Rev. Joseph Darby surmises that the Charleston County School District's Charter School for Math and Science will be entirely white by 2025?

Really, CSMS has been an embarrassment to the district from its beginnings by a group of diverse parents, to its fight with CCSD administration for trailer space at the old Rivers campus, to its present status of the MOST INTEGRATED SCHOOL IN THE ENTIRE SCHOOL DISTRICT.

Shame on Darby. His ritualistic op-ed columns provide the equivalent of "waving the bloody shirt" of earlier times.

Here's the skinny: Charleston County Schools administration (i.e., Nancy McGinley) made a foolish promise to the NAACP and Ministerial Alliance in order to get their undying support. The aforementioned have no problems with having all-black schools in the district. For a group of grass roots parents to create a well-integrated school on the peninsula without their blessing added insult to injury.

Lowcountry Tech at the Rivers building has never made any sense given that Burke is half-empty and many Burke alumni and parents want the tech classes there. It has never made any sense to bus in students from around the county when their participation precludes participation in sports and other activities or adds two hours to the school day.

The sole purpose of LTA at Rivers at this point is to preclude CSMS from using the rest of the building and to keep the NAACP's support of McGinley.

It's not about the children.

South Carolina Education Association Meets to Denigrate School Choice

Who is the SCEA, and why is it making such wild accusations at a North Charleston meeting of a senate panel? It's a liberal organization that fulfills the part of a public school teachers' union in a state where there is no teachers union. And it's hysterical over the idea that a tax-credit bill promoting some minor school choice will pass the South Carolina senate.

How hysterical? Here's a direct quote from the president of SCEA, Jackie Hicks: "“This seemingly innocuous measure opens the door to subsequent pro-segregation laws diverting taxpayer money to the private sector.” This attitude matches up well with that of Joseph Darby, who believes that every move to support choice is really a Ku-Klux-Klan-like plot to segregate schools. No doubt Darby agrees with Eric Holder, who wants to take choice away from black students trying to avoid failing schools in Louisiana.

These people live in la-la-land. How much more segregated could schools such as Burke High/Middle and Charleston Progressive Academy be? Would you please take the beam out of your own eyes?

My favorite quote comes from Kathi Regalbuto, who reports herself as a "former Berkeley County educator and parent of children who attended public and private schools": she states that "private school vouchers are 'a retreat from our collective responsibility to educate our children' in public schools."  

"Collective responsibility"? Speak for yourself. You're not speaking for parents. Their private responsibility is to get the best education possible for each child, even if that means a private school. Make your own children guinea pigs, if you wish.

EdFirstSC put in its two cents as well. According to its leader, Drayton Hall teacher Patrick Hayes, the evil one, Howard Rich, of New York, is funding conservatives who support school choice. Maybe Hayes hasn't heard yet of Bill Gates and Eli Broad on the other side? And the League of Women [read: liberal] Voters agreed that Larry Grooms's efforts are designed to avoid "a free and quality public school system" in South Carolina.

Maybe these ideologues were in the majority at the meeting, but they don't represent the majority of parents.

Darby Creates "Straw Man" to Argue for Rivers

• In his (dare we say it?) bi-monthly column Thursday masquerading as an op-ed piece for the P&C, vice-president of the Charleston Area NAACP, Joseph Darby, uses demeaning language against Charleston County School Board members Moffly and Taylor. He also insinuates that those two Board members are racist for raising the possibility of putting Lowcountry Tech (that phantom school) at the Burke campus.


• Darby, a non-native of Charleston, non-graduate of its schools, and non-resident of its peninsula, lectures Moffly and Taylor on Burke's history as a "place for minimal vocational training" and "'a place to supply cooks, maids and delivery boys,'" information that he has gleaned from reading about CCSD's history.


• Carrying his arguments to their logical conclusion, putting Lowcountry Tech at Burke would be a racist action. Strange, isn't it? A program providing access to future high-tech jobs he rates in the same category as training cooks, maids, and delivery boys?


• Darby's prism seeks out white racism at every turn, action, and word. There are no exceptions. The reality is that Darby himself is racist. Such an attitude should disqualify him from his post with the NAACP and ought to give those pause who view him as a Christian pastor.

Accuracy in Media for School Tax Credit Meeting

For those of us in favor of accurate headlines and reporting, let's change the P & C's

• Public Invited to Meeting on Proposed School Tax Credit Legislation May 4 to
  

• "Anti-School-Tax Credit Rally Planned by NAACP at Joe Darby's Church May 4."

Be prepared if you attend representing the other side. You're not likely to be heard.

SC Black Voters Support Sen. Ford

Unlike the school discipline survey taken in Charleston earlier this year, this poll cannot be interpreted as skewed by faulty methods by those who don't like the results . See Thursday's P & C for the accompanying story. [Friends, Foes of Choice Lining Up]

POLL FINDS SUPPORT FOR CHOICE

Pulse Opinion Research, a public opinion research group that follows Rasmussen Reports standards, polled 1,000 black voters across the state earlier this month to see where they stand on using tax credits toward private school tuition, and related questions. The poll was paid for by the Parents in Charge Foundation, an organization that advocates for school choice by helping parents pay for private school tuition, including tapping tax dollars to do so. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. Here are highlights:

• Should parents, grandparents or custodial relatives be allowed to receive state scholarships for their children to go to private schools if they feel the public schools are not meeting their children's needs? Yes, 43 percent; no, 40 percent; not sure, 17 percent.

• Will giving parents tax credits and scholarships to allow them to choose the best public school or a private school improve the graduation rate in South Carolina? Yes, 53 percent; no, 28 percent; not sure, 19 percent.

• Do you agree or disagree with this statement, "Trapping poor black students in failing public schools is the largest civil rights issue facing our state today?" Agree, 53 percent; disagree, 31 percent; not sure, 15 percent.

• Sen. Robert Ford is an African-American Democrat state senator who is proposing giving parents tax credits and scholarships to choose the best school for their children. Is Sen. Ford looking out for poor kids by getting them out of failing schools and into a better learning environment? Yes, 61 percent; no, 21 percent; not sure, 18 percent.

• Are public schools becoming more segregated, less segregated or has there been no change? More segregated, 42 percent; less segregated, 22 percent; no change, 26 percent; not sure, 9 percent.

So do the views of the Charleston NAACP's Scott and Darby represent CCSD's parents or not?

Speak Up on SC School Choice Bills

Want your voice to be heard by those considering school choice bills? [see School Choice To Be Vetted by Senators on the P & C's website]

The senate committee " will take testimony from 9 to 11 a.m. [Thursday] on two bills. The first would offer tax credits and create a scholarship fund to help parents pay for private school tuition. The second would require local public school districts to offer additional instructional choices to parents."

Our local NAACP heroes were armed with quotable quotes for our intrepid reporter:

"Dot Scott [. . .] said [Senator] Ford is not considering all the facts as he advocates for his bill, including the fact that private schools are not obligated to accept all children. The Rev. Joe Darby [. . .] said the futures of a lot of children are at stake."

Here's how you too can be heard. Email any of the following with your opinions:
Robert Hayes, Jr. : set@scsenate.org
Luke Rankin : LR@scsenate.org
Michael Fair: FAIRM@scsenate.org
Harvey Peeler, Jr. : MED@scsenate.org
Larry Grooms: STR@scsenate.org
Thomas Davis: TomDavis@scsenate.org
John Matthews, Jr. : JWM@scsenate.org
Phil Leventis: PL@scsenate.org
Gerald Malloy: MALLOYG@scsenate.org
Joel Lourie: JBL@scsenate.org

No doubt they would appreciate hearing from those who actually have children in the system!

Power Structure Wants Status-Quo for Schools

How appropriate for today's whiners to stand in front of 75 Calhoun to complain about Sen. Ford's school proposals! According to the on-line edition of Monday's P & C, "The racially diverse, largely Democratic group included leaders such as Rep. David Mack, D-North Charleston, School Superintendent Nancy McGinley, former school board Chair Hillery Douglas and businesswoman and former Congressional candidate Linda Ketner."

Gee, some of my favorite hypocrites were there. Isn't that NAACP President Dot Scott shoving her way to the microphone? Better step aside. And I think I glimpsed the Rev. Joe Darby, too. Too bad it was during the school day, or the Fraser parents could have been there to ask Scott and Darby their opinions on the peripatetic Fraser students, or ask why schools being closed are almost entirely black.

But, then they apparently don't know that. They had the colossal nerve to suggest that Sen. Ford's plan would segregate Charleston's schools.

Are they living in some parallel universe?

Charleston NAACP Irrelevant to Schools?

Finally someone else has commented on the deafening silence emanating from the Charleston branch of the NAACP. If its influence in the area isn't dying, it's gasping on its deathbed.

See Thursday's Letters to the Editor for one from the Reverend Michael Mack titled, "Where Is NAACP?" In it the Rev. Mack points out that

". . . The local NAACP has not made a sound about how devastating these closings would be for black children. For example, the proposed closing of E.L. Frierson Elementary School would mean that 4- and 5-year-old children would have to get up at 4:30 a.m. or 5 a.m. in order to be bused to schools on James Island and Johns Island."

They would probably not return home until 4 p.m. at the earliest. That is a tremendous amount of stress to put on a young child.

Mack goes on to say, "Is the local NAACP in the vest pocket of the Charleston County School Board and those who control it?"

You noticed! Now the question is, what do Dot Scott and Joe Darby get out of this cozy arrangement?

Charleston's NAACP Silent on School Closings

McClellanville, North Charleston, Johns Island, downtown Charleston--name all of the areas most affected by the School Redesign proposals of Charleston County Superintendent of Schools Nancy McGinley. Notice what percentage of the neighborhood schools put forth for destruction are almost all black--that would be 100%. Notice which communities will be most affected by destruction of neighborhood centers--that would be traditionally black communities.

Then ask yourself: where is Dot Scott? How about Joe Darby? Developed laryngitis, have they? Has the NAACP taken a year-end vacation? Did it take the Ministerial Alliance with it?

Or have they sold out?

Half-truths and Whining Op-Ed from the Rev. Darby

Probably it's a good thing that these days I don't always read the P & C thoroughly before heading to work. Saves me some indigestion. So it was suppertime before I read the Reverend Joseph Darby's op-ed piece in response to a NEWS story about the opening of the Charter School for Math and Science (CSMS). [See New Charter School Must Prove Its Worth.]

Despite the facts Darby, unfortunately, continues to believe in the conspiracy theory of human behavior. All those well-meaning organizers of this new charter school, as the rant goes, are taking advantage of CCSD in order to create another all-white school downtown. Believe it or not, Darby cites Buist Academy and the Academic Magnet as proof of this conspiracy to make schools whiter. If only Darby could see beyond his nose to the conspiracy of silence that has made all other District 20 schools segregated, or, should we say, black? I guess that's not going to happen. No, apparently the Charleston NAACP will continue to make itself part of the problem in CCSD.

Meanwhile, Darby spouts inflammatory rhetoric concerning the approval of CSMS:

"It's worth noting, as my mother used to say, that you can't go the right way if you take the wrong road. Reservations about the charter school led to lengthy consideration by the school district, which ended only because of rude and profane coercion by school board member Arthur Ravenel, who took pride in the fact that his unprofessional and ill-tempered remarks and actions pushed the charter school along the road to approval."

Let's get this straight, Rev. Darby. You mean that Ravenel's somewhat idiotic remarks caused the charter school to be approved? That's called rewriting history.

Much to its discredit, the P & C continues to solicit and publish this nonsense.

"First Take the Log out of Your Own Eye"

Not again!

The Reverend Joseph Darby again opines on the P & C's op-ed page in response to an editorial supporting legislative efforts to allow public charter schools to use public school buildings (already the policy in many states). As is his wont, he strongly implies that the new Charter High School for Math and Science is really a plot to introduce segregation to downtown Charleston, when in reality it is a plot to introduce integration to downtown Charleston.

See Tie measurable diversity goals to free rent for charter schools .

Nothing will be gained by another reasoned response to such willful disregard of the facts. Clearly, the Rev. Darby has an ax to grind, and for whatever reason, the P & C sees fit to provide the grindstone whenever Darby wants it.

Notice what is part of his argument here:

". . .the Charter School for Math & Science is a 'start up' charter school that simply wishes to claim a public building and not pay its way. Should the school district choose to allow them to do so, then the same thing should be done for all future and existing charter schools, like the YouthBuild Charter School.

YouthBuild has had considerable struggles in finding and paying for operating space. Should the Charter School for Math & Science be given a free building, then the same should be done for YouthBuild.

Gee, I haven't heard Darby call for "diversity goals" for YouthBuild.

The reasoning here just doesn't hold water. YouthBuild is in its horrible circumstances because CCSD encouraged it to take on students who the district determined would not return to Murray Hill Academy [for reasons having to do with failures in its McGinley-selected for-profit administration]. The CCSD Board of Trustees was so anxious to have these students at YouthBuild that they didn't look too closely at YouthBuild's director's assurances that a suitable facility had been arranged.

Unlike the charter school under discussion, YouthBuild has never asked for use of a public school building. You might ask yourself why. Obviously that is a solution to its housing problems, as I have said before, and such space does exist.

But don't hold your breath waiting for Darby to call for "diversity" in YouthBuild's classrooms. The de facto segregation in District 20 and in CCSD's other charter schools is part of the outmoded racist thinking of the Charleston branch of the NAACP: under the present segregated conditions it can wield greater power (and get long op-ed pieces into the P & C).

Who cares what's best for the students involved, black or white? Maybe the organizers of CHSMS?

Blog Commenters' Top 20 Quotes of the Year

1. Politicians are stupid, generally speaking, but they make for good conversations.
2. Investigative reporting is obviously not the P&C’s strong suit.
3. [In the Buist lottery] An antiquated bingo ball machine would at least allay fears of malfeasance or manipulation.
4. Give Sallie [Ballard] a break. She recruited and did test prep at 4K programs on James Island and not downtown for a number of good reasons. For one she didn't want to steal from the downtown elementary schools that need numbers for Maria Goodloe-Johnson's points system.
5. In my day these downtown people would have minded their own business and appreciated public servants like Gregg Meyers.
6. It might be appropriate to ask how many [. . . ] real estate deals have determined the direction of our downtown schools?
7. Oh, this has to be a bad movie. Hollywood couldn't write this stuff if they tried.
8. What's the real mission of CCSD under its present leadership? Is it to operate successful public schools for all, or is it to manipulate the half billion dollars a year in public education dollars to benefit other interests, including graft from within?
9. Will someone from the Broad Institute, which trained and recommended G-J for this position, please either take credit for this style of leadership or disavow it altogether.
10. GOD I HOPE THE PEOPLE IN SEATTLE AREN'T READING OUR COMMENTS [about Goodloe-Johnson].
11. No one [in circles of power in 1963] considered that in its death throes, Dist. 20 might actually fight back. Certainly no one ever thought that white and black residents of the peninsula might actually form alliances in a common effort to reestablish quality schools open to all within the inner city.
12. Before McGinley tries to cast herself as doing missionary work in the Deep and Un-Reconstructed South or confronting the ills of abject poverty among minorities relegated to vast urban ghettos, she should first calibrate her aim relative to real conditions . . . .
13. For those of you who aren't familiar with CCSD, some refer to our rural districts as the last ditch before you're dumped.
14. That very bright child at Memminger is too valuable to hand over to Buist. If a school such as Memminger loses 2 or 3 of those high PACT scorers it could mean their school report card drops to failing.
15. When was the last time county school board members and senior school district administrators allowed individual members of the public to ask them direct questions?
16. If Dr. McGinley isn't committed to changing what Dr. Goodloe wouldn't, then she should be gone in a year. This is her one and only chance to demonstrate professional integrity by reaching out to restore trust.
17. I thought the P&C was doing a "feel good" article on the local NAACP organization to be featured in the "Faith and Values" portion of an upcoming Sunday edition. I guess when someone checked the data on the local NAACP chapter led by Dot Scott and her comrade in arms, Joe Darby, they realized the article might have to be placed on the obit pages instead.
18. 75 Calhoun is a cheap, poorly designed and expensive to operate building. It's falling apart. Look closely at the public garage, too. It's cracking. It's all part of a sweetheart deal involving the city, CCSD and the chosen contractors that were paid off with the padded overpriced contracts. We're paying now for a building that is less than 20 years old but is still falling apart.
19. Nothing will change unless they are forced to change through the court system.
20. There should be very little tolerance for failure when people start mucking with the education of children. We’ve allowed CCSD and its questionable experts to do this for nearly 40 years without holding anyone accountable.

NAACP's Segregation Rally at Burke

Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book that argues for integration as the only reasonable solution to America's racial problems, includes James Weldon Johnson's exhortation to "meet any well-meaning white people halfway." That is exactly what was NOT happening at the "Rally for Our Public Schools" at Burke High School last Sunday night, which should have been called the "Rally Against the Charter High School."

In fact, the event, as all participants knew, especially the sponsoring Charleston NAACP, was an anti-integregation rally against the looming possibility of a integrated Charter High School for Math and Science. About 60 attended; who knows if any actually represented downtown constituents (certainly not Darby and Scott). For sure, the participants are confused about who their opponents are. It's not the committee organizing the charter school; in fact, the "enemy" is CCSD itself.

According to the P & C's Adam Parker, "participants [...] decried what they perceive to be an inequitable system whose leaders overlook the needs of minorities [italics mine] in favor of experimental solutions that undermine the public schools." As the presence of CCSD Board members Douglas, Jordan, and Green showed, the "leaders [who] overlook the needs" of those segregated downtown schools were PRESENT at the rally. That leadership gives lip service to "experimental solutions" [read charter schools] but in reality works to undermine solutions and to maintain the status quo. Where are the solutions of Douglas, Jordan, and Green to make Burke a successful and diverse community?

Dot Scott is fond of saying, "if only more white students would attend [Burke]," but she has no plan to bring that diversity to fruition by putting pressure on those very CCSD leaders who hypocritically stood beside her. No one can blame the downtown community for losing faith in CCSD; look what it has done to undermine Burke and the other downtown schools over the last 30 years. Her "Why not Burke" issue is a red herring meant to divert community leaders (who have the overwhelming support of the downtown community) from establishing a desegregated school on the penninsula.

Anyone stating that the charter school is an attempt to bring segregation to downtown schools simply is not in contact with reality or, more likely, is being disingenuous to further other agendas. In less than a decade District 20 has lost 30 percent of its students. Only the threat of a successful charter school has brought CCSD's attention to making Burke a successful school also.

Where are its plans to do so? What are they? All promises and no follow-through, as usual. Why don't Scott, Darby, and the NAACP turn on the perpetrators of the crime instead of those trying to find solutions? If the charter school should fail for any reason, CCSD will again neglect Burke's improvement. Just ask Arthur Peter Lawrence.

Downtown Apartheid, Intimidation, and the NAACP

"No matter how complex the reasons that have brought us to the point at which we stand, we have, it seems, been traveling a long way to a place of ultimate surrender that does not look very different from the place where some of us began."


These days when I see or hear from Dot Scott and the Rev. Darby of Charleston's NAACP, parts of Jonathan Kozol's latest book, Shame of a Nation, about the new apartheid in America's schools, begin to circulate in my head. Kozol cogently points out that, in many cities besides small ones like Charleston, local leadership has made its "deal with the devil" and settled for segregated but equal schools--shades of Plessy versus Ferguson! How else to explain Scott's defense of a system that over the last 30 years has left all downtown schools de facto segregated?


Now, once again Scott, Darby, and every other African-American leader they can cozen or coerce onto their team are in full cry against the new downtown charter school, in the process threatening local black leaders to get on board and claiming it's all a plot by Arthur Ravenel, Jr. They will accept all-black schools on the penninsula but not integrated ones.



When confronted with the charter school's racially-diverse leadership and state laws regarding the make-up of charter schools, the NAACP response is "don't confuse us with the facts." In fact, certain leaders, including Hillery Douglas and Ruth Jordan, CCSD board members who claimed support of the charter school at the CCSD meeting when it was approved, have now been caught twisting the arms of black leaders who SUPPORT the charter school. Presumably the intent is to cull charter school support of its black members so that the NAACP can then cry, "Aha! See, it's a plot to bring segregation back to downtown Charleston!"


Bring it back? Is that a joke? Please step into a classroom at Fraser, Charleston Progressive, or Burke--actually, you can name the school; just leave Buist out.



How far have they drifted from the desires of Martin Luther King, Jr., when CCSD board members "ambush" legitimate neighborhood leaders announcing support of the charter school?



According to at least one person present at the following event taking place downtown, sometime prior to Tuesday, October 9:

For the purpose of forcing a downtown African-American community leader to recant his support for the Charter School for Math and Science, CCSD board member Hillery Douglas set up a meeting with Pete Lawrence. The private meeting amounted to an ambush and attempted mugging. It failed to sway the intended victim and may have in fact caused him and other downtown black residents to become more ardent supporters of charter school alternatives as a way to get existing schools back on track.

Arthur Peter Lawrence is a Burke High School graduate, a co-founder of the Friends of Burke organization, President of the Westside Neighborhood Association and a recipient of the City of Charleston's Koon Award for his record of community service. He is actively supporting another African-American, Dudley Gregorie, in his campaign for Mayor of Charleston. After much soul- searching and seeking answers to many questions, Pete recently came out in support of the proposed Charleston Charter School for Math & Science. He said he did this because the existing CCSD schools located downtown are either not available to most downtown students (Buist) or failing so badly that there is little hope for change in the near future. CCSD claims it is unable to adequately improve downtown schools or make them racially diverse, saying that the causes of poor schools downtown are beyond its control.

Pete has also said that, only after the charter school group became active, did CCSD finally begin to take an interest in advancing plans for the improvement of Burke's academic programs. All previous proposals for Burke were for goals assoicated with minimum standards [Note: precisely the phenomenon described by Kozol in other cities]. It was as if CCSD had no interest in Burke's success until it was challenged with the possibility of losing control to another charter school. This one would become an alternative for the relief of long-suffering downtown parents. Pete said he could support that.

What made this meeting with Pete Lawrence unusual is that Pete was given the impression he was being invited to meet one-on-one with Nelson Rivers to discuss his support for the downtown charter school. Nelson Rivers, a Charleston native, is a highly-respected national NAACP official who helped start the NAACP's North Charleston branch.

It was not to be that kind of meeting. When Pete Lawrence arrived, he found a full house. In addition to Nelson Rivers, it included Dot Scott, Joe Darby, and CCSD board members Hillery Douglas and Ruth Jordan. What was set up as a discussion between two individuals had morphed into a onfrontation with a crowd Lawrence had opposed before. Unknown to Pete until it was too late, the meeting had been arranged and specifically designed to pressure him into publicly recanting his support for new charter school. Nelson Rivers was simply there to "mediate." Pete had been ambushed.

Hillery Douglas reportedly got ugly, saying Pete had to change his position or else and accusing him of betraying the black community by not standing with those who opposed this charter school. What Pete Lawrence discovered was the desperation of these individuals, who all had been in some way responsible for the poor condition of downtown schools, for a downtown spokesman to carry their message of opposition to the community [Note: none of these individuals live downtown except Lawrence]. They were opposed to the racially diverse charter school group. They needed someone with a platform within the downtown black community to be their downtown mouthpiece. They decided that Pete was the one because he had dared speak in favor of the new school. They didn't care if forcing him to change his position meant continuing to cut the throats of downtown schools like Burke. In spite of the pressure, Pete did not back down.

Pete wouldn't cross over, leaving those present without a person with downtown credentials to carry their message. Hillery Douglas reportedly became very angry and began threatening Pete. Nelson Rivers had to physically come between them, according to the witness, or it might have gotten worse. Nelson Rivers, as it turns out, may not have been fully aware of the power play going on until after the meeting had begun.

The strong-arm tactics of Hillery Douglas are deplorable, but it is also highly questionable as to why he and Ruth Jordan, both members of the current Charleston County School Board, would choose to participate in a backroom, closed-door attempt to intimidate a downtown school advocate and private citizen, knowing that witnesses could go public. Without question they were trying to force Mr. Lawrence to change his public position. They wanted him to actively oppose a racially-diverse, community-based charter school group which was organized to create public school choices for downtown parents.



Both Douglas and Jordan have gone on record as supporting this charter school, but behind the scenes we find they are doing something else. By this account, they have misled the public about their support for the charter school as well as knowingly participated in what amounts to a politically motivated mugging.

Pete Lawrence, and other determined parents and residents of downtown Charleston like him, are continuously being pressured and in some cases threatened financially to not support the charter school. Others have been verbally abused and threatened by Hillery Douglas for speaking out for public schools downtown. Pete Lawrence has the courage and the good fortune to not be beholden to corrupt power brokers who have been willing to sell out downtown school children. Because he’s a man of integrity and has no financial ties to these bosses, he continues to speak his mind. Others downtown are not so fortunate. Most downtown parents and public school supporters are just glad that there are people like Pete Lawrence who have the ability to speak of ideas that most people downtown can only think or speak of privately.

Downtown schools, especially Burke High School, are fortunate that they are being defended by courageous and unbending supporters like Pete Lawrence against the assaults and neglect of Hillery Douglas and the rest, including Dot Scott, Joe Darby, and Ruth Jordan.

La-La Land: Darby on CCSD Charter Schools

Gregg Meyers, CCSD School Board member and former civil rights attorney, and the Reverend Joseph A. Darby, pastor of Morris Brown AME Church and vice-president of the Charleston Branch NAACP, have much in common.

First of all, both opine on the pages of the P &C practically at will, promulgating their lockstep views on CCSD. The question becomes, is this access obsequious deference, or is it veiled support?

Second, both are stuck in the sixties on race relations. Both believe that by default any group of people not controlled directly by CCSD or the NAACP must be racist. Sure, racism still exists, perhaps especially in their own minds.

In Saturday's P & C Darby denigrates the motives of a diverse group of parents and citizens behind the Charter School for Math and Science, presumably Lonnie Hamilton among them. One wonders what universe Darby inhabits these days when he makes the following (serious?) comment on the new charter school's use of the Rivers High School building:

"Charleston and South Carolina will be set back a half century to the days when education was separate and unequal and when those of the right color and the right social class had their way without question, and the descendants of those who protected segregation 50 years ago will have succeeded in promoting not diversity, but re-segregation."

• Aren't we already there in District 20?
• And on your watch, Rev. Darby?
• Isn't District 20's education "separate and unequal"?
• Don't "those of the right color and right social class have their way without question" where Buist Academy is concerned while ignoring Charleston Progressive, thanks to the likes of Gregg Meyers?
• Where were you as Burke High School deteriorated to its present state, with students now lacking textbooks in core subjects?

The Rev. Darby knows perfectly well that, should he step inside any public school in District 20 (with the exception of Buist Academy!), he will experience re-segregated, or never-integrated, schools and classrooms.

So a charter high school's going to make that defacto segregation worse than it is now?

That's mathematically impossible.

Op-Ed Pages: Where CCSD Cronies Opine

Todays' P & C Op-Ed page showcases a complaint about CCSD's $77,000 meeting to discuss utilizing the vacant Rivers Middle School building.


Oops! Sorry, I didn't mean to mislead you--the complaint wasn't about the ridiculous COST of the meeting.


Here in his own words--

One-sided input on charter school
BY JOSEPH A. DARBY
Friday, June 1, 2007
The Post and Courier's lead editorial of May 27 urged the Charleston
County School District to house the proposed Charleston Charter School for Math and Science on the former Rivers Middle School campus, and did so under the headline: 'Encourage community input by advancing charter school.' The writer noted the significant and diverse attendance at a recent public forum held by the school district at Burke High School to discuss the issue and noted that the proposal with the most support was for exclusive placement of the charter school on the former Rivers Middle School campus.

So far so good, Rev. Darby, although you make the reader think that "most support" might be a bare majority when the majority was overwhelming.

I attended the meeting and since have spoken with attendees who don't support the proposal and who left the meeting feeling it was geared to achieve the outcome noted above.

Surely you jest! You mean that Harvey Gantt and Maria Goodloe-Johnson engineered groups to support the charter high school? What planet are you on?

Based upon those conversations,

with an unknown number of unnamed persons

I urge the school district to carefully consider its options and gain more objective and balanced input

that would be advocating NOT supporting the charter high school in any way whatsoever

before reaching a final decision.

not to allow the charter school into Rivers Middle.

I agree that community input is crucial and would make some strong suggestions to the school district in seeking community input. The first suggestion is to be clear in intent. The publicity leading up to the public forum indicated that it would be a time for community input but made no mention of the process

You mean that the "process" of input needs to be spelled out in advance to get some community members to show up? Don't tell me CCSD has never used this process before.

or that there would be any kind of vote on any proposed options.

That's called input. Probably the most objective kind to come from such a meeting. Would you be complaining if the vote had gone as you wished?

Had that critical information been shared, it's very likely that many more citizens would have attended to express their opinions by voting.

Face it: there is no enthusiasm in the community for your point of view.

What happened instead was the equivalent of holding a mayoral candidates' forum and then informing those in attendance that the next mayor would be elected by a vote at the end of the forum.

No. The vote did NOT decide who the next mayor would be, sorry, what would be done with the Rivers building. An equivalent scenario would be a candidates' forum followed by a vote to be considered as another piece of information before APPOINTING a mayor.

The second suggestion is that preparatory information be shared in an even-handed and public manner. The five options presented were not widely publicized prior to the forum.

They were if you paid attention.

I noted when listening to the group reports, however, that those who support using the Rivers campus for the charter school seemed to express the same pros and cons on the proposed choices in each of their groups.

Maybe because those pros and cons made sense to a great number of attendees, and charter-school supporters have had months to marshal their facts?

Since four of those choices were only presented on the night of the forum, it made me wonder if the Charter School's supporters were privy to information that was not made available to all interested parties.

Oh, that's right. It's a conspiracy. The charter-school supporters have a secret line to Goodloe-Johnson. She has only pretended to be against them every step of the way, just for your benefit!

The third suggestion is to see that facilitators in future discussion groups are familiar with the full scope of the issue.

"The full scope of the issue"--being unnamed, of course.

Some of the facilitators were not, which led to needless and time consuming debates on 'side issues' rather than on the merits of each proposed option.

Who decided what the unnamed "full scope of the issue" was, Rev. Darby? You?

The goal of facilitation, in fact, seemed to be not to prompt earnest dialogue, but to reach a speedy end without having to face pointed questions.

Sorry, but isn't that ALWAYS the goal of CCSD's public meetings?

The afore stated concerns and eventually predictable outcome made many of those who attended the forum feel that it was an exercise in futility.

Many whom I spoke to

Such as Dot Scott

felt that our mayor and other political and business leaders, who wrote letters endorsing the charter school placement on the Rivers campus, simply made up their minds to make that happen and that the forum was crafted only to provide some shred of justification.

There being no OTHER justification?

In that light, the promises regarding the well-being of Burke High School

Haven't you fully supported the district's treatment of Burke High School?

sadly seemed like the kind of window dressing that's usually presented before questionable decisions are made to tamp down dissent.

I assume you meant "window dressing to tamp down dissent," one of CCSD's [and the school board's] greatest talents.

As a Charleston resident of eight years standing,

Well, Rev. Darby, you had me fooled. I assumed you were a leader from the long-benighted downtown communities ill-served by CCSD. I never realized you were an outsider, not having attended CCSD schools yourself! And you may live in Charleston, but don't you live in West Ashley? Did YOU send your children to Distraict 20 schools?

I won't at all be surprised to see the proposed Charleston Charter School for Math and Science placed in the former Rivers Middle School building. I've learned that when the powers that be here set the table, they usually get their way.

That would be the "powers that be" almost everywhere, not just here, Rev. Darby. But it depends on who you think the "powers that be" are. Are you implying that the mayor and business leaders run CCSD?

I still hope, however, that the school district will hold another forum with clearly stated intent, proper sharing of information and well prepared facilitators.

Are you suggesting that Harvey Gantt's expertise, for which he was paid $77,000, was inadequate? Why are his name and that of Goodloe-Johnson not mentioned in your piece? Weren't they responsible for the meeting?

One supporter of the charter school's placement on the Rivers campus frankly stated that her concern was a matter of trust in the school district.

Who wouldn't agree with that? Oh, I guess Buist parents.

I share her concern, but from a slightly different angle. For those without influence and privilege in our community, trust is a rare commodity because of past decisions that only benefit certain segments of our community.

Right. That would be, for example, Buist admissions and resource policies versus those of Charleston Progressive. You're confused about who "those without influence and privilege in our community" include.

When we get beyond that sad trend

i.e., ingrained policy

and make decisions for the good of the entire community

Now you're impugning the motives of charter-school supporters, black and white, as not for the good of the whole community.

and do so with clear intentions,

Again, what could be clearer than hoping to improve District 20 choices for all of its residents? Or are you suggesting that the real motive is to have an integrated high school on the penninsula? Horrors!

then 'community input' will be a valuable tool for progress and not simply a cursory, one-sided affair.

The Rev. Joseph A. Darby is senior pastor of Morris Brown African Methodist Episcopal Church.

and a product of Columbia schools and vice-chairman of the Charleston branch of the NAACP, which clearly prefers that District 20 schools remain segregated.