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In Memphis, old strife heats up over schools, race
AP/World magazine ^ | 21 Feb | Sainz

Posted on 02/24/2011 1:07:45 PM PST by flowerplough

A bold bid by the struggling, majority-black Memphis City Schools system to force a merger with the majority-white, successful suburban district has fanned relatively routine fears over funding and student performance into accusations of full-blown racism.

The fight over the fate of 150,000 public school students has stirred long-festering emotions in Memphis and surrounding Shelby County, creating a drama that has spread beyond school board meetings to union rallies, the state Legislature and federal court.

On March 8, Memphis voters will decide whether to approve disbanding the city schools system and turning education over to the county district, which is earning good grades on its own and doing everything it can to stave off consolidation.

Memphis resident and school cafeteria worker Mary Washington questioned why Memphis schools would even want to give over its students to a system that doesn't want them.

"It's just like you losing your freedom going into bondage," Washington, who is black, said after an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees meeting. "In the background, in the foreground, it is about race."

David Pickler, the white Shelby County School Board chairman, bristles at such claims.

"To say that we don't want someone because of the color of their skin to me is the most offensive thing someone can say to me," Pickler said.

Regardless of the motives, it's a pivotal time in the history of Memphis: Jobs, education quality and school closings hang in the balance.

(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: memphis
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1 posted on 02/24/2011 1:07:53 PM PST by flowerplough
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To: flowerplough
Regardless of the motives, it's a pivotal time in the history of Memphis: Jobs, education quality and school closings hang in the balance.

They've been in a "pivotal time" since before Elvis checked out.

2 posted on 02/24/2011 1:10:36 PM PST by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: flowerplough

Watch Waiting for Superman.

I’m done with public schools.


3 posted on 02/24/2011 1:11:08 PM PST by RobRoy (The US Today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: flowerplough

I don’t think it is about race so much as about why would the successful want to absorb the unsuccessful and their problems.


4 posted on 02/24/2011 1:12:27 PM PST by nolongerademocrat ("Before you ask G-d for something, first thank G-d for what you already have." B'rachot 30b)
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To: flowerplough
"In the background, in the foreground, it is about race."

Really? Couldn't it be about BEHAVIOR?

5 posted on 02/24/2011 1:12:45 PM PST by JimRed (Excising a cancer before it kills us waters the Tree of Liberty! TERM LIMITS, NOW AND FOREVER!)
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To: flowerplough

Same old story, same ol groups: the-get-something-for-nothing-crowd of underachievers and problem causers


6 posted on 02/24/2011 1:13:22 PM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Ball of Confusion: That's what the world is today . . Hey Hey")
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To: flowerplough

I imagine the district’s employees and residents will say (and imagine they believe) *anything*, rather than confess, “While spending enormous amounts of money, we have proved to be incapable of providing even the most rudimentary education to our own children.”


7 posted on 02/24/2011 1:15:24 PM PST by Tax-chick (All that, plus a real-meat cheezburger and wine.)
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To: flowerplough

Memphis screwed up their school system so bad they want to give to the county. Without the county getting a vote on the matter, and yes Memphis wants a seat on the County School Board too. So they can have the power.


8 posted on 02/24/2011 1:16:18 PM PST by Sybeck1 (Memo to Mitt Romney: Just go away.............)
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To: flowerplough

The Memphis residents have done plundered the city and now they are looking for fat, easy hogs outside the city limits.

Of course the suburbanites will be too worried about being called names to actually save themselves and their school system so as they handover the keys to Shelby county to their new masters from Memphis they will put their tails between their legs and slink away.


9 posted on 02/24/2011 1:20:07 PM PST by VeniVidiVici (Why are public employee unions attacking taxpayers?)
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To: flowerplough

Job security for jesse and al! (They don’t deserve capitalization.)


10 posted on 02/24/2011 1:25:06 PM PST by RobinOfKingston (An election is not a (national) suicide pact.)
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To: flowerplough

Where on earth is the bastard Harold Ford Jr when you need him?


11 posted on 02/24/2011 1:25:41 PM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. N.C. D.E. +12 ....( History is a process, not an event ))
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To: Tax-chick
I imagine the district’s employees and residents will say (and imagine they believe) *anything*, rather than confess, “While spending enormous amounts of money, we have proved to be incapable of providing even the most rudimentary education to our own children.”

Maybe so, but the teachers, administrators, janitors, groundskeepers, coaches... all got real nice flat-screens and Escalades.

You want to see a real-estate depression? Watch Shelby County if this goes through.

12 posted on 02/24/2011 1:25:53 PM PST by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: flowerplough
Washington, who is black, said after an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees meeting.

And there it is. - AFSCME. - from their website:
Solidarity Rallies and Vigils to Support Public Service Workers
Pres. McEntee on Huffington Post: Gagging Workers Is Un-American
In Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and other states, politicians are destroying the power of working men and women to have a real voice on the job
Wisconsin Rally for Workers Grows to 30,000
A massive protest against Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s attempt to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers entered its second day in Madison
“Pillars of a Civil Society”
National Civil Rights, Labor Leaders Speak Out on Behalf of Public Service Workers
“The Affordable Care Act Helps Seniors Stay Healthy”

The Communists raise their ugly heads...

13 posted on 02/24/2011 1:27:00 PM PST by bill1952 (Choice is an illusion created between those with power - and those without)
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To: flowerplough

I suggest everyone go take a look at this......Detroit Public Schools, with all the machine shops, libraries, books etc......abandoned. Millions upon millions, left for scavengers.

http://onlyndetroit.com/html/steam/schoolsout.htm


14 posted on 02/24/2011 1:27:23 PM PST by ScreamingFist (Quiet the Idiot)
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To: Steely Tom
the teachers, administrators, janitors, groundskeepers, coaches ... all got real nice flat-screens and Escalades.

Sure. The reason they're still nattering about racism is that they could never admit to themselves that they stole the money.

And I agree with your conclusion.

15 posted on 02/24/2011 1:29:57 PM PST by Tax-chick (All that, plus a real-meat cheezburger and wine.)
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To: flowerplough
Back in the 1960's there was Ford foundation plot afoot to put "Deans of Discipline" to use an old Catholic-School Term, into every majority black school in problem urban schools.

They were to be recruited from, among other places, retiring black commissioned and non-commissioned officers to enforce minimal standards of dress and behavior.

Went absolutely nowhere. That is because the African-American community refuses to admit or deal with bastardy, the single most pressing problem among their young people ... which is to say, our young people, since the community as a whole pays for them. The African-American community accepts as normal standards of deportment and comportment which are the worst in the organized world world.

Worse than their behaviors is the extremely permissive reaction of the community as a whole. That means us. Until responsible black leaders get in the 'hood and start corrective programs, and I include their "clergy," there is going to be race war and hell to pay. America's new no 1 minority loses very little love for the African-American community. In LA, a major police presence between them is necessary.

Politicians and the media pander to this behavior. Any large scale correction is deemed racist, and probably is. That my friend, is the problem.

16 posted on 02/24/2011 1:32:21 PM PST by Kenny Bunk (With a friend like Obama, a country needs no enemies.)
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To: bert

Who says we need him in Memphis? He’s a resident of New York now. They can have him.


17 posted on 02/24/2011 1:40:21 PM PST by NCC-1701 (Impeach the Kenyan usurper. This administration is unConitutional. Show us the long form.)
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To: Kenny Bunk
...the African-American community refuses to admit or deal with bastardy, the single most pressing problem among their young people ...

Their "leaders" want it that way. The more lives broken by fatherless upbringings, the more hopeless people on the streets and in the jails, the more power they have.

In just the same way as the Arab world wants the "palistinians" to be forever a benighted, hopeless people.

Well, I say forever. If, Heaven forbid, Israel is done away with, the "palistinians" will be done away with within weeks. By their own cousins in other Arab countries.

Of course, if that happens to Israel, we'll all have much bigger things to worry about. :(

18 posted on 02/24/2011 1:40:54 PM PST by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Kenny Bunk

This will lead to more families moving to Mississippi.


19 posted on 02/24/2011 1:41:41 PM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (Go Hawks !)
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To: nolongerademocrat

From the article:

“’The mere act of merging the two really provides no education value, but not merging the two ... that provides educational harm for our students,’ Jones said.”

This statement can be understood only by those who are well practiced in doublethink.

Also:

“The 2010-2011 budget for Memphis City Schools is about $890 million to cover 103,000 students, 85 percent of whom are black. For the 47,000-student Shelby County system, which is 38 percent black, it’s more than $363 million.”

So the per-student spending is higher in Memphis, with results that don’t come close to matching the suburban county district. So, as usual, there is simply NO CORRELATION between spending and results.


20 posted on 02/24/2011 1:44:01 PM PST by swain_forkbeard (Rationality may not be sufficient, but it is necessary.)
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