As luck would have it, 5 minutes after the last post about being alive and well and posting education related stories when I could find one, I went to check my email and ran across this story on Yahoo News.

You can't make this stuff up.

I'm sure Shamash has knowledge of this type scenario.....

Dutch immigrant kids take to street demanding 'white' classmates

By Charlotte Van Ouwerkerk17 hours ago

 

Amsterdam (AFP) - Faced with an increasingly segregated education system, Dutch immigrant children have taken to the streets of their ethnically mixed Amsterdam neighbourhood seeking "white" pupils to attend their schools and help their integration.

Around 100 schoolchildren -- Arabs, Turks, Africans, Moroccans -- accompanied by their parents and teachers, wore provocative dazzling white T-shirts emblazoned with "Is this white enough for you?".

Dutch native Annelies, 10, and immigrants' daughter Aminata, 11, have been friends since kindergarten and are also wearing the shirts, which have "All children have the right to integrate" written on the back.

They "want more white children in the school to learn about each other's cultures," said Aminata, her smiling face framed by dangling African braids during Friday's protest......MORE:

http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-immigrant-kids-street-demanding-white-classmates-071506783.html
 

I hope Everyone Is Doing Well...

Hi Guys...

Just wanted to let you know I'm still alive and kicking.

My son went back to Germany this past Monday and with my load at work doubling (I now have 4 salesmen to do marketing for), planting my garden, doing yardwork and keeping up with my antique and collectible business, I have had zero time to do anything else.

Thanks for coming here and continuing the conversation about the epic failure that is public education.

Also, thanks for the kind words about my son's fiancee's graduation and her desire to be a teacher.

She was one of six students that was lucky enough to go to Finland this past January for 10 days and see what the hubub was all about over there. She was impressed but feels the same as I do that they have a totally different system and social structure there and there is no way their system can be implemented here in the US. She did say there were some ideas that could be put in place, but that's about it.

I've refrained from letting her know my opinions on the matter. Maybe someday if the topic comes up I'll spill my opinions.

I hope things are good in China and Lake Lure.

I hope to get some time to post more stories as I find them, but with school letting out in a week or so, the usual rhetoric will subside until about August or if CMS finally decides who the next scapegoat I mean principal will be....

Wiley

The new way CMS uses to give students free lunch is causing problems

This is so........ CMS.

Same ol' status quo BS regarding free & reduced lunches, diversity, blah, blah, blah.

The new way CMS uses to give students free lunch is causing problems

By Andrew Dunn
adunn@charlotteobserver.com

The plan sounds great: Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools cuts down on the amount of paperwork schools have to wade through by simply giving free lunch to everyone in 74 schools with high percentages of low-income students.

But the new method is now causing a number of problems for the school district as it plans for future years. In short, CMS now has no easy way of knowing which of its schools have the most economically disadvantaged students. That makes allotting teaching positions and classroom supplies a whole lot harder.

This is all part of a recently developed federal program called the Community Eligibility Provision. The details get pretty complicated, but essentially it means that a school with significant percentages of students on government assistance can go ahead and get free lunches for everyone.

It means that families in those schools don’t have to provide proof of income or any of the paperwork associated with applying for free or reduced-price lunch..... MORE: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article20536695.html?fb_action_ids=1644003082479447&fb_action_types=og.comments

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article20536695.html?fb_action_ids=1644003082479447&fb_action_types=og.comments#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article20536695.html?fb_action_ids=1644003082479447&fb_action_types=og.comments#storylink=cpy

My Rant on Baltimore & The Blame Game

My Rant on Baltimore & The Blame Game

Wiley Coyote

By now, we've all seen the violence, looting and chaos in Baltimore over the past few days. What were peaceful protests have turned into a state of anarchy.

What happened to Freddie Gray is unconscionable and a complete investigation should be in order, swift but fair and anyone associated with his death should be prosecuted. No one disagrees with that. However, the fact that some people in Baltimore - just like Ferguson and New York - can't seem to grasp there has to be an investigation that takes time and all facts gathered, is not a license to create anarchy.

I watched several different channels reporting and the people being interviewed, from "community activists" to the other usual suspects like Sharpton, blame this violence on: no jobs, poverty, Blacks being arrested for minor infractons and last but not least, lousy public schools.

Schools? Convenient excuse. Are the schools "lousy"? Probably, but Baltimore has also had its share of cheating on state tests as was the case in Atlanta. When programs were put into place to stop the thousands of answers that were erased on previous tests from happening again, scores dropped 20%. They blamed it on NCLB instead of teachers and their union.

Baltimore has taxed its citizens to death so they could have "things", much like Charlotte always wanting to spend tax dollars on capital things like the White Water Center, NASCAR HOF, Baseball Park, the arena, etc.

Baltimore has waged a war on capital for more than 50 years, raising property taxes 21 times from 1950 to 1985 (Cato Institute).

No wonder we hear the same garbage over and over again from pundits. At some point, one would think that after nearly 50 years, the same lame arguments/excuses would be over.

Guess not.

CMS shut out of ‘most challenging high schools’ list

The best part of this story is to read the comments.

It still amazes me how people really believe public education/CMS/urban LEAs are so wonderful. They're either oblivious to history and the facts or living in La La Land.

CMS shut out of ‘most challenging high schools’ list

By Andrew Dunn
adunn@charlotteobserver.com

04/25/2015 2:00 AM

 There are a million ways to rank high schools, but at least by this measure, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools doesn’t make the cut.

The Washington Post is out with its list of “America’s Most Challenging High Schools,” and none from Mecklenburg County appear among its 2,332 schools.
Weddington High in Union County was the only Charlotte-area school to make the list, coming in at No. 22 in the state.

The ranking looks at the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate (or Advanced International Certificate of Education, associated with the Cambridge program) tests taken per year divided by the number of graduates at public high schools. ......MORE:http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article19405971.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article19405971.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-2#storylink=cpy

A Dream Again Deferred?...... Join us to share our past, understand today and help shape the dream for our future.

Really????????.... Really????????????

I suggest these cave dwellers look at the demographics today versus 40+ years ago.

They haven't learned a thing.

 Busing to achieve forced integration was one of the epic fails of all time.

Thank you to the person who sent me the email making us aware of this....

A Dream Again Deferred?

Join us to share our past, understand today and help shape the dream for our future. Join Betty Chafin Rash, Dorothy Counts Scoggins and friends for an evening of commemoration and discussion moderated by Steve Crump of WBTV

Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 5:00-7:30 p.m.
UNC Charlotte Center City

Frye Gaillard, author
The Dream Long Deferred
Amy Hawn Nelson, co-author
Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow; School Desegregation and Resegregation in Charlotte

......A 1999 court decision ended school desegregation in Charlotte-Mecklenburg. Our schools now approach pre-1971 levels of segregation..... MORE:

http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=107b419cc13deac857ba9f8c1&id=2994cdf79d&e=685bfc2f03

Mountain Island Lake Academy getting $2.5 million upgrade

Colossal waste of money....

This school has no room to grow into a K-8 and it's interesting how mobiles - a school that had up to 24 at one time with parents screaming about it - is going to add more in order to house students.

The school has no sports facilities and will have to use Coulwood Middle School's facilities, less than a mile away.

Coulwood sits on 32 acres of land while MIL sits on a little over 16acres.
On top of that, Coulwood is being converted to a STEM school as well, the same school that received an F grade this year.

By the way, when is CMS going to post every school's letter grade on their websites for all to see?

This scenario is the latest status quo blunder put forth by an inept BOE and educrat management system.

Mountain Island Lake Academy getting $2.5 million upgrade

By Andrew Dunn
adunn@charlotteobserver.com

04/11/2015 2:00 AM

 Mountain Island Lake Academy will be getting $2.5 million in upgrades as the northwest Charlotte school prepares to expand to more grades and offer a specialty academic program.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools has budgeted $860,000 to renovate two classrooms into science labs, which entails new flooring, ventilation, plumbing and casework. Another $1.7 million has been slated for a new mobile unit that houses 10 classrooms.

The school board is expected to approve pieces of each project at its Tuesday meeting. The science labs should be complete by August, and the mobile unit by December.

Both projects will help the school as it continues to expand from an elementary school to a K-8. The school offered prekindergarten through sixth grade this year, and will add on seventh grade in the fall....MORE... http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article18195017.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article18195017.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-2#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/education/your-schools-blog/article18195017.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-2#storylink=cpy