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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3899
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 10:26 am: | 
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Just like in 1960 in the South
Just like in Soweto in 1976
The young people have to take the lead.
Right now several St. Louis City High School students are sitting in the Mayor's office (they have been there since yesterday) demanding to meet with him on the state of the schools.
Our Mayor is attempting to have the accredidation of the schools yanked and a state board take them over--at the same time he is in the State Capitol, lobbying for a bill that would allow him to sponsor and start a charter school.
Get it. If the public schools are ruined he can make some money. This is going on all over the country, but they are starting it in the black public schools first.
What nobody has told anybody here (because they didn't ask the students, and why would they) is that some college bound students will lose their scholarships and even their admission if this happens.
Nobody talked about this. Because nobody talked to the children even though they have been screaming that all they care about is the kids. Wonder why?
So far he is refusing to talk to them and is hiding out of town. I will keep you posted, and try to get places you can email your support. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8884
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 10:48 am: |
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Wonderful. Hope it gets so much media attention the mayor is forced to meet with the kids. |
Cynique
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Cynique
Post Number: 7836
Registered: 01-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 11:55 am: |
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Here in Chicago Mayor Daley is bound and determined to have the city selected as the site for the next Olympics and he's squeezing money from every available source, money which apparently was never available for use in the crises affecting Chicago's schools. A good education is fast becoming a privilege available only to people who can afford to send their kids to private schools. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3902
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 12:51 pm: |
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This is what they are doing. Under the guise of trying to repair the educational system for the kids--which the very corporate powers that ruined the city educational system are pushing--they are trying to get their hands on the teacher's pension money and the large budget--they get to hand out contracts--consulting, etc to their political friends.
Also here it has come to light that the city has underfunded the police and firefighters pensions. This is why they are scrambling to take the kids money.
It is all about the money. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8898
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 01:03 pm: |
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Chris,
Well. In post-Reagan America, it's almost impossible to get/stay in office by even merely inferring the necessesity of a possible tax increase. So that's why all strata of governments are robbing Peter to Paul (then are robbing Paul to pay Patrick).
Crappy schooling =>
@ More poor, undereducated pursing military service.
@ More grossly underpaid illegally immigrated worker
@ More Black prisoners.
Coincidence? I think not. |
Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4022
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 01:40 pm: |
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The school systems are in shambles, this is nothing new, but aren't the students truant by skipping class to wait for the principal that's out of town? And why are they going to lose their college scholarships? I don't understand. Please elaborate.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3904
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 01:49 pm: |
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but aren't the students truant by skipping class to wait for the principal that's out of town?
(They are waiting for the Mayor. They are in his offices. He has refused to come to his offices and refuses to talk to them, even for five minutes. They are at their wits end and trying to get into college. They have been failed by the adults)
why are they going to lose their college scholarships?
(They are going to lose their scholarships because the colleges said so. What one of the students (who was on the radio) says they told him was that they could not in good conscience give him a scholarship if he came from a school system that had lost accredidation and not give it to a kid who had come from a good one.
It's their money and they can do what they want with it.
The crime is three years ago the school system was two points away from being accredited. At that point a school board majority backed by the mayor was elected. They brought in a man named William Roberti, who was a suit salesman before, who pledged to get the schools in order. He tore them to pieces, cutting teachers, custodians, programs, languages, etc.
It now looks as though it was on purpose to set the school system up for a takeover and parcelling out into charter school districts.
Oh, there will be public schools but for the lowest of the low.
By the way, in Missouri charter schools are not accountable to anyone--they don't test them. They can hire uncertified teachers (and have hired kids right out of college with no education background)
What they knew when they came here was that they had apathetic parents or parents who are working two jobs and can't make it to the schools, a passive teachers union, and a black leadership that is not a leadership (how can you be a black leader and you have a job, say selling insurance for a white insurance company)
For those of you who want to put it all on the Negroes there are six white school districts in the state with scores as low or lower than St. Louis but they are not trying to take them over.
I wonder why?
This plan, people is coming to a place near you.
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4025
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 02:05 pm: |
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Okay. Mayor's office. Aren't they still just as truant? It reads as though the students don't actually have their scholarships yet. Or do colleges award scholarships and then rescind them? It seems to me the colleges should make an exception if the scholarships were awarded while the school system was accredited, besides if the system is taken over by the state, won't they be accredited? Are these schools in SL proper or are they in ESL? Just curious.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3905
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 02:23 pm: |
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Okay. Mayor's office. Aren't they still just as truant?
(Just like Martin Luther King was tresspassing when he was arrested and the students who sat in at those lunch counters were breaking the law and Rosa Parks was breaking the law, yes they are truant.
When you perform an act of civil disobedience, you are breaking some rules, yes m'am. So f***ing what?)
It reads as though the students don't actually have their scholarships yet.
(I don't know how many times I have to tell you that they have the scholarships and have been told by the schools that they will be taken away.
When you have proof of something different let me know.)
Or do colleges award scholarships and then rescind them? It
(The last time I applied for a scholarship, I did so before I had actually graduated from school. Had I not graduated, then it would have been taken away. It is contingent on certain things. Have you ever gone to college?)
It seems to me the colleges should make an exception if the scholarships were awarded while the school system was accredited,
(Well they said they ain't gonna do it. So what do you do?)
if the system is taken over by the state, won't they be accredited?
(No. The State will declare it unaccredited, then take over. That is the way they do it)
Are these schools in SL proper or are they in ESL
(St. Louis City Schools. This will effect our college prep school, Metro, which is one of the best in the nation--everybody in the city schools is not a retard, though if you had read the papers and watched tv, that is what they'd ahve you think. There are hundreds and hundreds of kids who graduate from them every year and go to college.)
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Mzuri
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Mzuri
Post Number: 4028
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 02:31 pm: |
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So emotional. No I didn't go to college. I told you before I dropped out of school after the eighth grade. Equivalency high school diploma. Business college. Sorry.
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Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3908
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 02:37 pm: |
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So emotional. No I didn't go to college. I told you before I dropped out of school after the eighth grade. Equivalency high school diploma. Business college. Sorry.
(There it is. Trust me. The way they say it is the way it works. Just like if, say you get up in college on a sports scholarship and get injured before you report so bad you can't play--goodbye, scholarship. Just like you get convicted of serious crime, or you get one based on your test scores only (it happens) but you don't come up with a transcript (cuz maybe you owe money for some schoolbooks you lost or something)
It is not iron clad. A bunch of kids stand to get hurt--
One of their demands is that the Mayor or somebody contact all these schools and get them to commit that if the accredidation is taken away now (which to make it even worse, they ain't even gonna wait until the end of the school year) they won't snatch their scholarships.
He won't do it.
If it was one of my kids, he would have to get him some life insurance. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3909
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Thursday, March 15, 2007 - 02:41 pm: |
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continue sit-in at mayor's office
By Betsy Taylor
ASSOCIATED PRESS
03/15/2007
Jasmine Pitts, 16, (left) and Erica Simpson, 16, (right), students at Metro High School, react to the news they could be arrested for their sit-in at the mayor's office.
(F. Brian Ferguson/P-D)
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- High school students conducted a sit-in at the mayor's office sitday, expressing dissatisfaction with his stance on the city's troubled school district.
A few dozen arrived afternoon. They slept overnight on the carpeted floor and in armchairs in Mayor Francis Slay's office, while he was out of town. Many wore bright yellow T-shirts reading "Please Don't Slay Our Schools."
State education officials are determining whether to drop accreditation for St. Louis, the largest school district in the state. That would allow a new, appointed board to oversee the schools. The St. Louis-elected school board would have no power in a district with academic, financial and leadership problems.
The protesting students said district leadership has changed many times in recent years, and they questioned how yet another set of people in charge could improve things.
"I think to fix a problem, you need to know what you're trying to fix," said Miya Taylor, 18, a senior at the Gateway Institute of Technology.
Students had ten demands to give the mayor, many of which related to decisions that must be made at the state level.
If the district loses accreditation, some seniors have heard they will lose scholarships to the colleges and universities they plan to attend. Taylor said they fear current juniors could be denied entrance to quality four-year colleges when they apply.
The mayor's chief of staff, Jeff Rainford, said the mayor planned to meet with students Thursday to assure them that should not be the case.
He said the city provided security, as well as bagels and orange juice, for the students. He said the mayor would ask them to return to school after their meeting. Students said they had been told they could be arrested, if they refuse to leave.
Jim Morris, a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said by telephone that the department's position is that loss of accreditation should not affect students' scholarships or future school acceptances. However, he noted the department cannot control decisions individual institutions make.
When the students arrived, Slay was in Jefferson City, asking the Missouri Legislature for the power to open charter schools that would be would be run independently of his office, but be accountable to him for their performance.
Missouri charter schools, which are publicly funded but privately run, can operate only in Kansas City and St. Louis and only with a sponsor. Typically, the sponsor is a college or university.
Slay cited the failure of the public school district and the success of a charter school initiative in Indianapolis, as justification for his request.
Instead of more charter schools, Taylor asked for more time for Superintendent Diana Bourisaw, who began this summer, to turn things around.
St. Louis School Board member Donna Jones, among those at the sit-in, said the mayor's office was the site for the protest because Slay previously backed a slate of candidates for the School Board trying "to destroy" the public schools in an effort to bring in more "private and charter schools."
If the roughly 32,000-student district becomes unaccredited, the new appointed board would take over the district, which has struggled academically and financially for years. The St. Louis-elected School Board would remain in place but have no power.
If the district keeps its current provisional accreditation status, the new board would simply advise the district.
The state Board of Education is holding a meeting March 22 to consider the accreditation status of the school district.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8902
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 07:29 am: |
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"Jim Morris, a spokesman for the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, said by telephone that the department's position is that loss of accreditation should not affect students' scholarships or future school acceptances. However, he noted the department cannot control decisions individual institutions make."
HUH???
That reads like some serious political doubletalk.
Has the state education officials and/or mayor's office REALLY tried to determine the extent to which de-accrediting the school may affect the futures of students who are or soon will be applying to college? Can anyone say for certain their actions won't harm these students ability to obtain scholarships? |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3911
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 11:19 am: |
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As of this moment they are still in there.
The student sit ins and their supporters ( a member of the Board of Education and an Alderman spent the night with them last night) think that the forces that want to get them out of there are coming up with this crap just to get them out.
They have a list of ten demands
One is to defer any decision on taking away the accredidation until AFTER the school year is over--totally reasonable, why would you screw it up while only a couple of months is left
Another is that they get letters from the colleges stating that they would not pull their money if this happens.
It seems incredible that the Mayor, the Board members, the administrators, the teachers, the parents, the counselors, NONE of these adults considered that this might be a result and it took the students to try and find out on their own.
Folks when we look at the shortcomings of the kids--and they do have them--you got to look at these asshole adults for at least some of the reason. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1770
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 11:25 am: |
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GOOOOOOO KIDS!
My vote: Choose the next NAACP CEO from that bunch. |
Yvettep
Veteran Poster
Username: Yvettep
Post Number: 1771
Registered: 01-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 11:29 am: |
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Here's a link to some recent news about this story
http://www.ksdk.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=114743 |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8905
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 11:34 am: |
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Chris,
I'm also struck by what the author of your last article you posted as the system being fraught with FINANCIAL problems. That supports your argument of how the system has been INTENTIONALLY looted of cash so that the powers that be can now stroll in, blame the problems on everyone else and then impose upon everyone what they want to, dayam how and whom's hurt by such.
My US congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has for years sponsored an attempt to get an amendment to the US Constitution that requires all American children be provided a basic standard of education. 'Course, since until a few months ago the GOP owned Congress, Jackson's proposal has never made it out of subcommittee. Hopefully now that the Dems are in charge, Jackson's proposal will be given more serious consideration.
Because I believe it may indeed take something as drastically powerful as an amendment to the Constitution to compel EVERYONE to get more serious about educating ALL of our children. |
Chrishayden
AALBC .com Platinum Poster
Username: Chrishayden
Post Number: 3912
Registered: 03-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 01:13 pm: |
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Three years ago the district was two points away from accredidation. They brought in a fucking SUIT SALESMAN, William Roberti. They paid him and his firm 5 MILLION BUCKS for about one year's work that left the district in shambles. Teachers were fired. Schools were closed. Equipment was sold off or stolen (when kids were sitting in some classes with no books, whole warehouses full of BRAND NEW BOOKS were found)
The Schools inhouse food preparation operation, which MADE MONEY was closed. It was outsourced o a firm that brought in spoiled or unprepared food.
I can go on and on but all of it seems to have been done purposely to destroy the district.
Now they say that accredidation is not important for kids going to college, though one of the reasons for the state takeover is that the district lacks accredidation!
Again I say, the cause of this was lackadaisical or absent or overburdened parents, a passive teacher's union, corrupt politicians and a lack of Negro leadership.
They are fighting a rear guard action--my sympathies are with the rebels but eventually the powers that be, the political and corporate entities that want to get their hands on the money will win.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 8910
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, March 16, 2007 - 01:20 pm: |
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Chris,
Yeah...*exasperation* |
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