You probably do not have the Flash Player (Get Adobe Flash Player Here) installed for your browser or the video files are misplaced on your server!
The saga of education in the South is a never ending struggle. While there are old stereotypes that never seem to die the truth is something otherwise. Just as with other areas around the nation there are high performing schools and school systems and there are those that fail to address the needs of the children.
The debate over education in Metro Atlanta is particularly intense. Black parents base their residency decisions based primarily on the condition of the schools and their safety in the community. Over the past few decades middle class Black families have migrated out of the city of Atlanta proper to the "first ring" cities. These include the counties of Dekalb, Clayton and other areas in Fulton County here Atlanta is located.
In recent years the school systems in Clayton County and Dekalb County have been rocked by problems in their leadership. Clayton lost their accreditation. Dekalb County has lost yet another school superintendent. The one prior was due to political infighting, the most recent now finds himself under indictment for alleged corruption in contracting.
I have reported on this blog previously my knowledge of no less than 5 family friends who have moved from Dekalb County up to Gwinnett County largely because of their pursuit for better schools.
I have also previously reported about the recent attempts by the Gwinnett County NAACP to get the superintendent of the Gwinnett Public Schools fired. Alvin Wilbanks the CEO of schools responded to a report that Black males have a higher rate of school suspensions in every state except Idaho by saying something to the effect of "There is probably not enough Black people in Idaho to register a problem there". For these words there was an active campaign to purge him.
Fast forward to last week. The Gwinnett County Georgia school system was awarded top honors in a NATIONAL competition for successfully educating minority children in urban environments. I am honestly not sure that some of the stone hearted people who are hung up on the "racial-political" conflict and the quest for power get the irony of this honor.
Where as Gwinnett County, the state's largest school system had only 6 of its schools falling below "A.Y.P." thus having a rate of about 90% of their schools passing, neighboring Dekalb County Schools that has leadership favorable to the NAACP and other Black Progressive Establishment members in Metro-Atlanta had only 62% of their schools passing A.Y.P.
Where Race-Politics Leaves Our Permanent Interests Behind
In my fateful day spent at an elementary school in south Dekalb County about 3 years ago a substitute teacher (a Black male) told me that among the ranks of subs that work in the system they understand that Memorial Drive which splits the county into North and South also represents the delineation between quality schools to the north and schools plagued with discipline problems to the south. As he receives his morning call from the school system for coverage - he runs the mental picture of where the school in question resides in the county. If we wants to avoid what amounts to a "thankless day" and he doesn't need the money he passes up on the known problem schools.
Last night I reviewed a web site ran by Black people who believed itself to be the press agents for President Obama. Among their list of "Obama's Accomplishments" I could find few that were directly attached to the Black community. Furthermore the fact that Obama's machine is dominate in these same communities who are most aggrieved (note: I am watching the recording of "CNN Black In America - In Debt" as I type this).
The primary threat that is suffered from the ideological bigotry and political bias in Black America is the tendency to use the political advocacy for the promotion of the ideology and the people in power rather than primarily focused on mitigating the PROBLEMS.
The school systems of Dekalb, Clayton and the City of Atlanta have 'favorable people' running them. These are the schools that contain the lions share of Black students in Metro-Atlanta. While the Black Establishment overlay has these people focused on "Standing With Obama" on November 2nd - their loyalties with their "Permanent Ideological Friends" prevents them from seeing how much their Permanent Interests are being squandered where it counts the most - In their OWN COMMUNITIES AND SCHOOLS. These the institutions that have already been "won" and which they were promised would improve if the people remained unified and did not rock the boat.
No comments:
Post a Comment