The Stark Realities of Public School Problems

I know, I know, I've fallen behind in my intent to blog regularly and consistently. My excuse is only that there's lots going on campaign wise and it's easy to put off the necessity of sitting down and writing a blog entry. I'll also confess to spending Saturday engrossed in the State - Carolina game (bummer of an outcome) and Sunday had me on Vestry duty at church which required the better part of the day. However, I'm ready to get back to my blogging duties.

Last Wednesday found the campaign team replete with Gary Robertson of the AP in tow, in Charlotte on an educational fact finding mission. We spent the morning at Central Piedmont Community College, the state's largest, learning about everything going on there as well as several of the major challenges facing our community colleges.

After lunch we met with the principal and numerous staffers and teachers at West Mecklenburg High School. While inspired by the dedication and commitment evidenced by the staff the recitation of the challenges they face on a daily basis was troubling. From the threat of gangs in the schools, to how to deal with foreign students placed in the school with minimal English language skills and even lower academic skills, the staff candidly explained the issues. West Mecklenburg is one of Judge Manning's priority schools and is faced with an enormous drop out problem and high teacher turnover.

I confess to being surprised by the openness of the staff and their willingness to share the good and the bad with a virtual stranger who had come by to listen. The challenge is to be able to really help them - not just offer political bluster and promises of a better tomorrow. More elected officials need to spend a few weeks there trying to get the job done. Maybe then some accountability of the political and education leadership of this state might actually take place.

Our second visit was to a new charter school with it's first class of 94 fifth graders. This KIPP Academy (a national program) was comprised of students from primarily low income areas near the school and all the students were African-American. The kids were simply amazing. Dressed in similar outfits they stayed focused on the teacher despite the intrusion into the classroom by all the visitors. They quietly got in line after class and when allowed to speak to the guest candidate politely offered a handshake and introduction. Then each student I spoke to asked where I went to college. They then told me about their plans for college and careers.

In another open discussion with the small staff, I was faced with a passionate, dedicated group of young teachers who had totally bought in to the KIPP model. They stay late, meet with parents in the home, and demand that homework be completed even if it requires the student to stay into the evening. School ends at 5:00 and meets on two Saturday's a week.

But the most troubling statement of the whole day long visit in Charlotte, came from an articulate, attractive young African-American teacher at the Kipp Academy. She had been the Charlotte-Mecklenburg School System's teacher of the year several years back. "I'll never go back into the regular public school system again." she said. There's too little support, too little commitment according to her description of what it had been like. And so the visit ended filled with inspiration with what had been accomplished with those kids in just a few months and a sense of despair that the regular public school system had lost - maybe forever - a great teacher. So that's the challenge. Less political rhetoric and the critical need to reform the current system.