Standing In The School House Doorway

Does anyone remember the picture of George Wallace standing in the school house door in an effort to challenge the school desegregation orders? We will get back to that question.

Suppose I told you that a university decided to "adopt" a low performing elementary school with the intention of increasing the performance of the children in the low performing school.

Suppose I told you the university developed plans with the school and parents of kids in the school and implemented those plans.

Suppose I told you after implementing the plan, with the aid of the parents, the low performing school showed an increase in performance. In fact, suppose I told you the school no longer is considered to be a failing or "in need of improvements" school under NCLB.

Suppose I told you the Lt. Governor, who is charged with chairing a commission on improving education in the state, found out about this achievement, spoke to the university president, and they both decided to try to implement the same success with a low performing high school that, historically, has a rich tradition in the area.

Suppose I told you a politician, who is in the opposite political party of the Lt. Governor, but whose district contains the university, the improved elementary school, and the poor performing high school, used their political skills and intimidation tactics to shut down the effort to help the high school.

Would the picture of Wallace standing in the door come to your mind? It did to me.

Now let me fill in the blanks. The university in question is Coppin State University. I wrote about Coppin "adopting" the elementary school in May. The name of the elementary school is in that post. The high school in question is Frederick Douglass High School, also in Baltimore city. Here is a snap shot of the performance of the school on standardized tests.

The Lt. Governor is Michael Steele, a Republican who is Black.

The politician who blocked the effort by Coppin is a Democrat who is Black.

Who is standing in the door way?

I was told this at the meeting I had on Friday with aides to Governor Ehrlich charged with coming up with schemes to improve education in Maryland. I know the name of the politician and will do some work to verify it. But I strongly suspect what I was told, happened.

It isn't a white man who is standing in the way of education, it is a Black Democrat.

I'll say this again: Black Democrat politicians in the state assembly of Maryland, don't give a damn about the education of Black students.

Comments

[Temple3]

A bit more information would be helpful. Democrats are a fairly despicable lot (though not any more or less so than their adversaries). I'm sure this politician is pissed that the Lt. Gov. didn't come to him first with the proposal - and probably sees this effort as grandstanding tied to an imminent election. I can only gather this from my own experience - if this is not the case - feel free to illuminate.

The main problem is that the "blocker" probably never took an initiative of this type on any level. The same type of opportunities for university alliances exist within the realm of housing, safety, land use, brownfields preservation, etc.

What's the next step in B-mo'?