The Future of Birmingham Schools (Valley, Jackson: condos, credit, how much)

[pjg66]

After the long time barrage of bad news about the Birmingham city school system, yesterday's Board of Education election has provided at least a bit of positive relief.

The 3 remaining members of the notorious "Toxic 5" that were running for re-election (Belcher, Ford, and Volker) were all soundly defeated (the other two, Edwards and Maddox, had previously resigned from the Board). This motley crew once controlled the Board, much to the detriment of the school children of this city (fortunately the state stepped in and defanged them). But now we really are rid of the whole lot of them (thank goodness!).

It's true that the abysmal voter turnout (21%) was discouraging, but at least these few people who cared enough about this city to vote made the intelligent and informed decision that it was time to "throw the bums out". So now we start with a new Board.

Will they do a better job? Only time will tell. The school system faces massive problems, including the possible loss of its accreditation (it's on probation right now). The state (in the person of Ed Richardson) continues its control of the system, and in cooperation with Superintendent Craig Witherspoon is putting into effect necessary financial and other reforms (which I hope and pray are not just some sort of window dressing). Here's hoping the new BOE will join with Witherspoon and Richardson in what will prove to be a real and meaningful venture to try to save this system.

But after living here for 7 years and watching the sad story of the school system unfold, I sometimes wonder what it will take to salvage these schools. I personally think that we need a drastic and creative rethinking and restructuring of public education in Birmingham. But I am not knowledgeable or imaginative enough to know what truly effective solutions (effective = it works) might look like. And is there the political will here to do what is necessary? Again, we shall see.

I love this city and am so encouraged by the Renaissance (modest though it may be) that is going on here. But this forward progress had not really bumped up against this really MAJOR problem - the lousy and failing school system. This city will never realize its full potential until this gets fixed.

[Tourian]

Thats good news that those three are gone. If the replacements are merely competant I expect things to start improving. In my experience one or two bad people can do more damage to bring an organization down faster then one or two good people can bring something up. The school system has no where to go but up

[bluebeard]

I've expressed my cynicism before. I would love the Bham schools to improve, I really would. But until it stops bleeding the most motivated and educated families, that have the resources to not attend the schools, I don't think much can change. I think that 99% of the time happens first, rather than after some sort of school improvement. With all the excitement and good will going in it now, there is a chance for that exactly to happen. I sincerely hope it does. But I'm not holding my breath.

I know there has been a lot of blame put on the school board, and you can definitely blame them for not taking care of a really horrible school district situation, but I think its always easy to pin all the blame on the direct leaders, rather than the overall situation the leaders are in. I wonder how many of the people most upset about the current school board member and most activist about removing them actually have kids in the schools? How many don't have have, or even actually use or use private schools? The constant call for sweeping out the new and bringing in the fresh can be seen as a positive of democracy, but sometimes it just leads to instability, and that no one can stay long enough to carry out a vision. It's pretty clear to me the takeover was not just about having financial reserves. I even wonder if the accreditation business was political as well. Perhaps thats seen as a little paranoid, but in politics this kind of thing is definitely possible. And perhaps thats even for the best: getting obstructionists out. Of course, the board can also be definitely blamed for that with the superintendents (not just Witherspoon, but the long line of them). Its hard to disagree with the fact that the bureaucracy is top-heavy and all that. But its kind of crazy that they are consolidating schools so much, removing the neighborhood local schools, and then building shiny brand new mega-schools. That's not my preferred idea of streamlining. I was far from in love with the mayoral candidate Trone, but I agreed with him firmly when he said something along the lines of seeing lots of new physical amenities (buildings and stadiums and such), but inside the classroom was the same old stuff.

I don't know how much of a long-lasting effect this "voter's revolution" will have. I hope it works. I'll wait and see.

[mcalumni01]

I wasn't born in Birmingham so I didn't attend the city schools. imo like the saying goes "one person mess it up for everybody else" that's what I see as far as the school system. the board members are probably the most at fault as to why they are in the situation they in now. those member has made the entire school system look bad and by system I mean....the schools, teachers, principals, students, councilors and parents. don't get me wrong the parents has a lot to blame as well. Birmingham has a total of 7 high schools, 9 k-8 schools, 13 middle schools, 32 elementary schools, and 5 community schools for a total of 67 schools, 11 which was on that so called failing schools list this year....9 elementary and 2 k-8 schools. as a parent you job is to let your child know that school is a place of learning and not a place to get away from home everyday. it's up to your child to want to learn or not. regardless of what the situation is, if your child is willing to do whatever it takes to learn, then your child gone do that. and for the most part the kids are doing that. the board member have drivin' a bad reputation throughout this metro that it's gone to take a lot to get people to feel comfortable about Birmingham schools. but hopefully with new faces on board and if something positive can be established by the end of the year then maybe the future can look good... I don't think it's the kids, schools, teachers or principals fault....for me the blame is the board members and parents. Alabama teacher of this year teaches math at Jackson-Olin, so there are great teachers in Birmingham.

[LongtimeBravesFan]

They can build all the ballparks, condos, parks and bars downtown they want and have all the young urban hipsters move in. But until they can stop the bleeding of the schools nobody with children is going to move into the city and it will continue to die.

[Tourian]

Nice try. Theres more then just hipsters down there. Theres also empty nesters, gays and professionals that can afford to send their kids to private schools. So the city will continue to live and grow despite the shape of the schools.

[LongtimeBravesFan]

Many gay people have children.

[Tourian]

And many dont. The point is saying that the hopes of downtown reviving hangs solely on hipsters is just a flat out dumb statement.

[Tourian]

Your reading comprehension is atrocious. It is ironic that you feel qualified to comment on someone else's level of education.

[raj kapoor]

Originally Posted by megaghost

I guess gay people are somehow "special" ? or "hipsters"...lol....so to speak.

the viability of any city, whether downtown, midtown, uptown, outoftown, countryside does rest on education of the masses ! if Birmingham Alabama had a better public school system it would not be a dumb as it apparently is today. There are failing schools everywhere, dumb sounding adults, dumb sounding children and ignorance all around ! the teachers aren't that special either in the public system it seems either.

You are simply being obstinate. The vast majority of all residents in an academic environment in Birmingham are in excellent systems. Some are even among the best in the country.

You keep posting 'apples and oranges'. Birmingham is its metro area which has far greater numbers of students outside the Birmingham city school system than attending. Therefore your attempt to suggest that a city will wither and die because it is not educating its citizens is myopic to the point of laughable.

What is not laughable is the state of the city system. Unfortunately, the citizens within the city limits, (making up just one-seventh of the metro population) have chosen not to move forward with correcting the problems, although that may be changing. This is true with other issues facing the city proper. Fortunately for the metro, the city is isolated from the metro by legal definition. I say this is fortunate because I am not convinced the electorate of the city is competent to make the best decisions on most subjects based on some of the people they have put in office in the past ten years. (this is not to applaud the citizens of the suburbs either)

However you are ignoring in all this that the prosperity and growth of this community is not at their mercy and neither can we look the other way and not try to encourage and help the city proper to do the best it can and therefore share in the prosperity of the greater community. Obviously Jones Valley, encompassing all of the downtown and Red mountain neighborhoods is flourishing. But we would be what you are trying to suggest if we don't keep pressing for change.
At the present the route most likely to be the best would be to follow Miami and Louisville's pattern and dissolve the city into the unincorporated part of the county. (this would leave fair racial representation in that part of the county so that no one would be disenfranchised.)

I don't believe that you are sincerely interested in the schools , people or the city for sure, but I have tried to explain the unique circumstances that are involved. You don't seem to understand that ALL American cities of any commendable size have inner city areas that do not have the schools and services that are on par with the rest of the city. It just happens that in Birmingham, almost all of that area is confined to the city alone and not the suburbs. Not even the older inner ring of suburbs. That makes the picture look quite grim when someone like you tries to define the merits of the whole by the deficits of its worst part.

In keeping with the topic which I think you are not, I would like to assure you that this community, especially the business and higher education communities are most concerned about the students that are being left behind because of the incompetence of the past years. In fact, I am under the impression that they are far more concerned than too many of the parents of these young people. Poverty does that to people and it also leads to people making bad choices, so it is a difficult situation that exist all across our country. We in this city intend to bring the incompetence to an end and we only have to look to all of our other excellent school systems in the community for our inspiration. Nothing anyone writes here can change the dedication and determination to raise these people to a level that promises them a better future in a prosperous and growing environment.

raj