Florida: Leaders threaten boycott on FCAT [Blacks not happy with school tests]

Miami Herald ^ | May 12, 2003

[george wythe]

Dozens of South Florida's community activists and politicians on Sunday threatened a boycott of several major industries if Gov. Jeb Bush doesn't rectify recent FCAT results that could keep thousands of high school seniors, mostly blacks and Hispanics, from graduating.

The targets: the state's tourism, sugar and citrus industries.

The plan: to spend the next 10 days traveling the state and informing communities, then begin a boycott May 22 if Bush doesn't find a way to scale back the numbers of students who may not graduate.

On Sunday, community elders and elected officials, from former Miami City Commissioner Athalie Range to House Minority Whip Frederica Wilson, D-Miami, gathered at a Northwest Miami-Dade church, and signed a letter asking Bush to ``reassess the application and the resulting impact of this exam.''

Then one by one they approached a lectern and explained their views of how unfair the test is to blacks and Hispanics. Some said they believed it was created that way.

''We will not continue to support a government economically that will not educate our children,'' Bishop Victor Curry said.

Last week education officials announced that 13,000 high school seniors statewide, 5,900 in Miami-Dade and Broward, would not graduate because they failed the FCAT.

Additionally, 43,000 third-graders, 11,900 from Miami-Dade and Broward, failed the test, threatening their advancement to the fourth grade.

This is the first year high school seniors and third-graders must pass the test in order to graduate. It's part of a controversial ''A+ Plan'' the governor introduced in 1998 that he said will improve the state's education system, considered one of the worst in the nation.

Speaking Sunday at Curry's New Birth Baptist Church, Wilson directed her anger at the state's top lawmaker.

Wilson said she couldn't understand how the governor could find money for 4,000 new prison beds but not for education or social services.

''I am outraged. I am livid today. I know exactly what this is all about. I am upset with the governor of the state of Florida because he knew from the beginning who was going to pass and who wasn't going to pass,'' Wilson shouted.

``It sounds to me like somebody is being set up. You will not destroy my children. If you do not adjust the FCAT, we are going to boycott this state in a way you've never seen or never heard.''

[wideawake]

Those tests are biased toward people who study. It's so effing racist.

[george wythe]

PLAN UNVEILED: Religious and political leaders gather behind Bishop Victor T. Curry as he discusses possible statewide industry boycott if FCAT results stand

[rudypoot]

"We will not continue to support a government economically that will not educate our children,'' Bishop Victor Curry said."

Well, if the children aren't educated, then why do you want them to graduate?

[Uncle Miltie]

"If you insist our children learn, we'll strike! We refuse to educate our children. Graduate them anyway!"

[gov_bean_ counter]

Didn't Warren Beatty wear a couple of those hats in "Heaven Can Wait"?

[george wythe]

The FCAT for high schoolers can be taken beginning at the 10th grade, since it covers material that most 10th graders should know by then.

In reality, the FCAT test measures 8th grade material or simpler than that.

[Pearls Before Swine]

I suppose the good reverend would be happy and consider the kids educated if the test were so simple that everyone who took it passed. Everyone passes, everyone's a winner! It is all so simple -- lower the bar so even the dullest sheep can hop over.

[SJSAMPLE]

The targets: the state's tourism, sugar and citrus industries.

Precisely the industries their retarded, non-studying little asses are going to work for: Driving city buses and picking cane and oranges for minimum wage.

Do they realize that they're asking for the standards to be lowered because their kids are STUPID?

[gov_bean_ counter]

Do they realize that they're asking for the standards to be lowered because their kids are STUPID?

Apple hasn't fallen far from the tree alert!!!

[Tacis]

These guys are missing a good bet. If more blacks don't do well enough to pass the test, why not just boycott the tide. Without surf, all of South Florida will be in trouble.

[billhilly]

How many more years can we take this crap?

[MississippiMan]

If they boycott, I'll do my best to support impacted Florida industries as best I can from MS. It's high time that we returned STANDARDS to education. No, it's years PAST time. There's no excuse for graduating kids who literally can't make change for a $5 sale from a $10 bill, and there are PLENTY of them graduating. I agree with the demand: educate them. Just don't give them anything they don't deserve.

MM

[mhking]

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[george wythe]

It's high time that we returned STANDARDS to education.

The students are screaming that Jeb Bush does not want them to go to college, because their "future depends on this one test."

I was left wondering, which colleges do we have in this country that will take these students who cannot pass a simple FCAT test?

The college to which I went required a passing SAT. The SAT is much more difficult, a lot different level.

[caisson71]

This is America - no matter whatever certain people want us to be - and English is our language. Nobody ever led those "students" to believe the tests would be in any language but English.

[Ahban]

Placate, don't educate!

I commend Gov. Bush for holding the students accountable, even though I don't like the idea of one high value test. In Arkansas, only TEACHERS are held accountable when the refuse to learn (and their parents, like these idiots, back them up).

[Aric2000]

''We will not continue to support a government economically that will not educate our children,'' Bishop Victor Curry said.

Good, then homeschool you idiot.

The public school system is a shambles and should be torn down from the top down, and NOT replaced.

THe state can't keep itself in order, how do you expect them to educate your children properly as well?

The government is NOT good at anything, it should have stayed out of education, and should remove itself post haste.

[keithtoo]

I wonder if those tests are biased against Asians and Jews? Probably not.

Look for a conspiracy of Asians, Jews and Whites against Blacks and Hispanics. That would explain everything.

I wonder if these folks have interviewed those Blacks and Hispanics who did do well on this test. There are bound to be a few. Talk with those folks and find out where the secret test-prepping location is where they were taken and go there and expose it! Brilliant.

[Luke]

You will not destroy my children.

From the days of Noah... until this day children suffer for the sins of their parents. If your child fails to obtain an education it is the fault of the parent not the state.

These communists, socialists, liberals and democrats will never learn.