In the Herald and in many other publications, much has been made regarding the crisis that exists re low student performance in Connecticut’s public schools. This crisis is particularly acute in urban systems with high minority enrollment.
Opinions as to who is to blame are rampant. That is to be expected, maybe. From Governor Malloy to parents, blame the teachers! Solution? Attack everything that protects teachers such as tenure laws, union contracts and hapless, uninvolved parents.
Gov. Malloy picks the area in which he feels he’ll get the least resistance, tenure laws. Others say it’s the uninvolved parents in the low socioeconomic tier. All of these are areas of concern. Perhaps what has not been mentioned but what I feel is of paramount importance, is the level of incompetence among those that are charged with supervising instruction in the schools, to wit, administrators and accountability!
When a system breeds incompetence from the superintendent of schools on down through to the principals, what I call a “good ole boys network” emerges. People get promoted in many cases because of a intertwined network of friends who follow the practice of, you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. People that are marginally competent get promoted because of who they know rather than by proven performance. It’s easy for a supervisor to ignore poor or substandard performance when his or her job is on the line. If a school is perceived to have few or no problems, good job! If test scores don’t agree, blame the teachers.
Boards of Education, largely, aren’t equipped to deal with this problem. Nor are most hapless politicians like the governor. What is needed are honest, competent administrators that have the courage of their convictions to do what is professionally viable to correct the problem. Stop the witch hunt on teachers and the blame game.
Louis G. Salvio
Must be George Bush's fault for Malloy's disastrous failure!
ReplyDelete(CNN) Sept. 11, 2009 - For years, children from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, have attended schools across the border in Del Rio, Texas, but this has changed for students who cannot prove residency. The local school superintendent imposed new regulations to stem what he said is a long-standing problem for the district. "We have seen van loads of kids with plates from Coahuila State (in Mexico) pulling in front of the school," San Felipe Del Rio School Superintendent Kelt Cooper told CNN. "Everyone knows what is going on. It's real blatant."
ReplyDeleteKelt Cooper, who joined the district 11 months ago, previously was superintendent in the border town of Nogales, Arizona, where he had to deal with similar circumstances. There, he remembered, he once had 32 students with the same home address. When district officials checked, the property was a vacant lot. In Del Rio, Cooper said he began to notice "there was some slackness in the protocol" dealing with proof of residency. "Border towns are really unique," Cooper told CNN in a phone interview. "There is a lot of fluidity between the two cities. Having grown up in the border, I know this is very common." When Cooper received confirmation from authorities at the International Bridge border crossing that some 540 school-age kids were crossing the bridge in the mornings. Cooper said the situation was "getting out of hand," so we dispatched district staff members to the bridge to talk to the parents accompanying their children from the Mexican side. The staff was able to identify 195 students that could be barred from the district's schools if they failed to provide proof they lived within the district.
To prove residency, the district requires parents or guardians to provide an official document such as a utility bill, lease or proof-of-rent payment, none of which Gomez said she can provide since everything is in her sister-in-law's name. She said her only alternative may be homeschooling her children.
Cooper said he knows some of the parents who received letters are upset, especially those with children who are U.S. citizens. But he said the issue is a matter or residency, not citizenship or immigration status. "Citizenship is a moot point. It really comes down to whether you live here," Cooper said. "I am not U.S. Border Patrol, Customs or INS. If you are a resident here, you get to go to school here, if you don't, you don't. This is not a matter of border enforcement."
A 1982 Texas Supreme Court ruling protects students from being discriminated upon based on immigration status, but Texas law states the student must live in a school district's area to attend a school within that district. Cooper and his staff are trying to work out a tuition system for students who cannot prove residency. He is in talks with state agencies to calculate an appropriate tuition fee, but the school board would first have to approve the program. "We are saying if we have room, you can pay tuition. We don't want this to be a burden on taxpayers. Some of the parents we have talked to have expressed interest in paying tuition," he said.
But as Cooper has learned that the tuition program has proven unsuccessful in other cities. He has spoken with three superintendents of other border school districts, all of whom have said to him they tried the tuition program but it didn't work. "I got the impression from them it was not worth the hassle," he said. Cooper estimated that in a worst-case scenario, the district could lose some $2.7 million in state funding since budgets are based on attendance.
If anyone knows the Del Rio school district better than Kelt L. Cooper, it’s Del Rio's Mayor Roberto Fernandez.
ReplyDeleteMayor Fernandez has been mayor for two years now, and spent 38 years working in the school district. He served as schools superintendent from 2003-2008, until handing the baton over to Mr. Cooper.
I did the same thing he did, Mayor Fernandez said, referring to Cooper’s hands-on policy of sending school staff to the International Bridge, which connects Mexico and Texas, to see if young people were heading to neighborhood schools.
When I did that the 2009 CNN story didn’t pick up on it, and I guess it was bad timing for Kelt Cooper when he did the same thing, Mayor Fernandez stated. Cooper was following the law, to go to our schools you must be of age and have to be a resident of the district or reside with a parent of guardian, that is state law.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteIf anyone knows the Del Rio school district better than Kelt L. Cooper, it’s Del Rio's Mayor Roberto Fernandez.
Mayor Fernandez has been mayor for two years now, and spent 38 years working in the school district. He served as schools superintendent from 2003-2008, until handing the baton over to Mr. Cooper.
I did the same thing he did, Mayor Fernandez said, referring to Cooper’s Hands-on Policy of sending school staff to the International Bridge, which connects Mexico and Texas, to see if young people were heading to neighborhood schools.
The Del Rio Mayor pointed out that when he did the district Hands-on Policy of residency as school's superintendent, the CNN 2009 article didn’t pick up on it; and I guess it was bad timing for Kelt Cooper when he did the same thing. Cooper was following the law, to go to our schools you must be of age and have to be a resident of the district or reside with a parent of guardian, that is (Texas) state law.
When CNN and Fox News picked up on the Del Rio, Texas school story on residency and ran with it, Kelt Cooper became a national hero to anti-immigration activists. But local civil rights organizations began looking into potential rights violations. "There was no due process," says Courtney Schusheim, an attorney with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid and Del Rio chapter of The Border Organization. The law is clear when it comes to a student's immigration status. In its 1982 decision in Plyler v. Doe, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that school officials cannot ask about a student's citizenship status. But according to Texas state law—which Cooper says he was following—children must reside in the district where they attend public schools in Del Rio.
ReplyDelete01 MARCH 2012/ NB Politicus - New Superintendent Search Missed Key, Controversial Information on Kelt Cooper.
ReplyDeleteKelt Cooper, the choice of the Board of Education (BOE) to lead New Britain schools, rose to the top of the finalist list based on a good educational resume, accomplishments with English Language Learners and extensive experience in diverse districts in Arizona and Texas.
The winnowing process concluded after two days of interviews by advisory committees and the BOE. In a divided vote that stood at 5 to 5 during a tense meeting, Cooper finally got the nod 6 to 4 and may be the schools' chief come July 1 subject to contract negotiations and a critically important site visit to the Texas district of Del Rio where he is superintendent now.
On Wednesday and the day of the decision, however, the process received a disturbing jolt of information about Mr. Cooper that did not turn up during the vetting process. (Chairman NB DTC) I found out about it from a retired New Britain music teacher and passionate advocate for education who posted on her Facebook page a disturbing story from the Texas Observer after what must have been a cursory search on the web.
The balanced and thoroughly researched story, written by Melissa del Bosque, covers Superintendent Cooper's controversial actions to expel students who "allegedly" were crossing over the Del Rio International Toll Bridge from Ciudad Acuna. The word "allegedly" is important here because Cooper turned out to be wrong about most of the children nabbed at the border by school employees who passed out warnings. All but a few were legally entitled to an education in his district. Nothing like using a sledge hammer to kill a fly to obstruct the civil rights of immigrant children.
#30#
If Danny Boy wants to find someone to blame for the disastrous failure of his administration, all he needs to do is look in the mirror!
ReplyDeleteWhile Jodi Rell held the record for the most popular and beloved governor in all of America, it appears that Danny Boy Malloy just may earn the record for being the most unpopular governor in Connecticut history, at least that is what today's Courant poll indicates:
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think?
How is Gov. Dannel P. Malloy doing?
Good, considering the thrashing he's taking from teachers unions. Voters seem to support his measures to evaluate teachers and make them accountable. (58 responses)
14%
Not so good. To get a tie in a Democratic state isn't great. Malloy has a growing budget deficit, though he promised his tax hikes would close it. Even Democrats are worried about his spending, apparently. (324 responses)
78%
So-so. He's tough on teachers, but bad on spending. Voters like the former, not the latter. (35 responses)
8%
Apparently FAILURE is DANNO's real middle name!
A good follow up to this particular blog is to read Kevin Rennie's column in today's Courant.
ReplyDelete