The Carter School And Other less Important Issues

Jayden Hardacre on June 30, 2011 in School Stories

The mayor’s original proposal for a build and lease back was a very bright idea in a bad real estate market.  As I recall, there were 15 respondents.  Finally, the Devon group was selected, but lo and behold, only a 2 year lease back which is nothing.  Also Clayton and Haslam happen to be the advisers of the Devon group.  Very astute people, made their fortunes by hard work, and no one should think that they will be dumb enough not to look after getting a good return on whatever dollars they invest.

Forgot to ask first an important question.  I read that there is mold and other toxic influence in the old Carter school.  That is a negligence issue.  I asked several people who were “riding this horse” real hard, if there is a health inspection report anywhere, that has ever been published since the formation of our nation, but there is nothing to back up that claim.  But there were promises by politicians to get votes.  Plenty of promises.

 

At the same time the KCS educational results are disastrous as they have been for at least 11 years.  I looked at only the past 11 years.  Disastrous means only 15.5% of those kids entering as freshman are job/college ready when leaving high school.  That means that 84.5% will be minimum wage mostly unemployed.  A real bum deal based on how much we pay for education per child.  In tax dollars.  One only has to know how to subtract, a real challenging task nowdays, and look at the 2010 TN Report Card and the 2010 ACT report to get these numbers.  Well, WE pay the tax dollars.  Of course if your parents are wealthy, don’t even have to be a Haslam or Clayton, you will go to a private school, where the job/college readiness is not 15.5% but 95-99% – for less money in many than what the tax dollars buy us at KCS.  So such wealthy parents don’t have to care about what will happen to our state or country as a result of the poor education.  They will say that they do…but please…actions speak.  Not words.  Everybody promises…well not everybody…only the BOE and the superintendent… “Improving our children’s education”, “World class education” and similar lofty goals that we never even come close to and naturally no one can measure, or they might discover that we spend most of our tax dollars accomplishing nothing more than stuffing some pockets…ummm…sorry….paying six figure salaries for doing something that has zero impact on increasing ACT scores.  That’s just an innovative way of stuffing pockets.  Of course one also needs then “public relations” people, not just one of course, to work the fog machine…mirrors…disinformation principals, that say that if you repeat something enough, people may not know better, and people will accept it, as truth.

 

Hence the importance of focusing on the very important few things like the ACT score itself, and you can also repeatedly ask a simple question like  “What ACT average consolidated score will we achieve in the 2012 school year for spending $384 million dollars on our schools.”  My God, that’s complicated.  Then they will say, we have a great goal called 100/90/90/90.  That is similar to a tactical nuclear cannon shot to produce a huge fog bank.  It is like tear gas.  It will make you cry.  Just go back to the same simple question that is rather simple, and should be very easy to answer.

 

Man, I am sure firing some missiles and we are not sure where they will hit.  They WILL hit, I know where, but not today.



What will Governor Haslam do about the education disaster?  I like that man.  But the odds are that he will also not make the moves necessary to increase our schools’ low performance, just like any other politician or appointee by an elected body or individual.  Bills ARE passed “for education”.  My point is, are they the right bills that would increase the ACT SUFFICIENTLY next year, or the year after?  NOT SO FAR.  Maybe ten years from now?  A REAL Maybe.  Forget THAT ball game.  It would be TOO LATE.

We better focus on something a thousand times more important than some issues I see in the Sentinel and here with such enthusiasm, before we become like Mexico.  THAT is our direction now, thanks to a very old, archaic education system, about which our leaders do nothing more than lip service So FAR.

The BOE could be asking some hard questions and demand increased ACT scores NOW.  Well, BOE, you just have to pick the right indicator of educational results, which is the ACT, and demand at least a 0.5 point increase per annum in it, instead of just assuming that you are in expert hands now.  The results to date for several decades indicated that you are NOT in expert hands.  Don’t accept how many kids will be above 21 ACT.  That’s not meaningful, since a 21 ACT has a very poor job readiness definition.  It’s BS.  Ask for the average consolidated ACT score for the district that will be achieved.  That’s meaningful.  There will be tons of hesitancy to answer you.  Just insist.  Each of you is in charge.

 

You may be told that we as a Board must agree about everything first, even if you as an individual have a question.  That is also a classic disinformation control position.  YOU, represent the public, who pay the taxes that finances the entire school system.  I would hope that YOU do not represent the system that produced the incredibly poor results, that YOU have witnessed and did nothing about.  Not you, just the majority of you to date.

 

You supposed to be in charge.  So take charge!  If you look back at history, there are tons of examples showing that prior experts accomplished nothing that shows real improvement in education.  Just like to date.  Past BOEs did nothing about it.  Well, all BOEs did nothing about it to date.

 

You could!

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