One more time

Erick Huth, president of the Metro Nashville Education Association, which advocates for local teachers, said charter schools are not the answer to the district's woes and could end up hurting more than helping because they will take tax dollars away from already struggling schools. Per-student funding follows students to the charter schools they attend.

"There's not much a charter school can do that public schools couldn't do," he said. "But some people rally around charter schools because of a belief that public education is evil or awful."

Let's go through this lesson one more time.

First off, money does not equal a good education as MNPS has so clearly demonstrated and every charter school demonstrates.

Secondly, charter schools ARE public schools. Obviously, charter school parents don't believe that public education is evil or awful. It's working well for their students.

"They're making better grades, their scores are up. I see a big difference in my kids." [East Nashville father Scott Gray]

Thirdly, there is, apparently, something those charter schools can do that some public schools can't:

"Publicly funded but independently operated, all three of Nashville's charter schools met state standards and had waiting lists at the beginning of this school year for the first time." Tennessean

The only people standing in the way of more charter schools (and so the education of children) are those who are already running or enabling the ailing public education system--like the MNEA. Let go of the children and let them succeed in the school that suits them best.

Gracie Porter 2004 Election Finances

Gleaning from the 2004 Campaign Financial Disclosure Statements of Gracie Porter , District 5 Representative for the Metro Nashville Public Schools reveals the tremendous investment that Democratic PAC's and the unions involved in the public school system made in ensuring Porter's election.

For those unaware, I was appointed by the Metro Council to fill the unexpired term of the former BOE rep in May of 2006. Just 11 weeks later was the general election and Porter and I, and two other candidates, all ran for the seat. It was obvious during the campaign that big guns were pulled out to keep me from retaining my appointment on the MNPS Board of Education. I think many people will be surprised at how much money and manpower these Democratic PACS and these unions expended to ensure that I wasn't around to ask questions, hold people accountable and provide answers to parents, taxpayers and voters.

Here is ample evidence that the foxes are guarding the hen house. No real progress will be made in Nashville schools until we break the conflict of interest that results when a BOE member owes their seat to the folks they are supposed to hold accountable.



This chart shows $18,300 from PACS and unions. That's 88% of her contributions coming from "Democracy" for America/TN, SEIU, MNEA, AFL-CIO, the Tn Democratic Women's PAC, and the Chamber of Commerce's Success PAC which fought hard to keep Pedro Garcia in charge of MNPS.

So, who do you think is going to ensure her reelection?




















All of this is important to keep in mind as this is the final week to qualify to run for any MNPS BOE seat. Petitions must be picked up from the Metro Election Commission and returned before noon on Thursday, April 3. If you are unhappy with how MNPS schools are being run do something about it. Be or back a candidate that will hold the system accountable with your time and your treasure. It's not too late to get 25 fellow district voters to qualify a candidate.

Here are the current BOE members up for re-election in August.










From left to right:
Ed Kindall on the BOE since 7/9/1985, nearly 23 years,
George Thompson on the BOE in 1991 and then back on 8/1/1996, more than 12 years,
MNPS BOE Chair Marsha Warden on the BOE since 8/24/2004,
Gracie Porter elected in August of 2006 and
Mark North since spring of 2007.

MNPS BOE Agenda Packet for October 24,2006

I never did receive the agenda packet for the last meeting so I was plesantly surprised when this week's arrived in the mail. I've uploaded a .pdf of the 61 page document to my website.


There was, however, a bright purple page announcing:

This is the last Board Agenda that will be U.S. mailed. The agenda will be posted on the MNPS website at http://www.mnps.org/Page23.aspx when it is delivered to the Board of Education.

Full agenda packets will be available in the Board Administrator's office at 2601 Bransford Avenue, Nashville, Tennessee, 37204 if you prefer to pick one up.

I've written asking if the agenda uploaded to that website is merely just the agenda or if it's going to be the entire agenda packet. I'll let you know what they say. I think they should create an e-list subscription of folks who want to receive that entire agenda packet in .pdf format.

Highlights from this 10/24/06 agenda include:

Both the 9/26/06 and the 10/10/06 minutes are included for approval.

The 10/10/06 minutes include an overview of the Science & Math School at Vanderbilt for MNPS students to begin in the Fall of 2007. This would be a one day a week session according to the minutes.

"Big Picture School, geared toward students who are potential drop-outs, high-risk students, etc." was introduced at the 10/10/06 meeting and this upcoming meeting includes the awarding of a contract "to provide the necessary expertise and services to enable MNPS to open a Big Picture School in 2007." Cost is somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000. I'm not fond of $50K in monetary slop. The new Director of the Office of Reform and Innovations will evaluate this on a monthly basis to determine it's usefulness.

The 1Point Solutions (no surprise their website is down) scandal, political scandal, scandal touches our MNPS staff and so the BOE will consider moving that service to Fringe Benefits Management Company. Maybe someone should check their political contributions record before approving this contract. [UPDATE: maybe there won't be much consideration by the BOE as this item is on the consent agenda. That means unless one of the BOE members pulls it there will be no public discussion Tuesday evening.]

The school calendar is up for discussion and the balanced calendar isn't dead. Interestingly the SEIU and the Steelworkers have indicated their opposition to a balanced calendar but failed to appear at a meeting about it. According to Dr. Garcia's District Calendar EE-14 report:

Representatives from SEIU and the Steelworkers were invited but did not attend the meeting in which agreement was reached on the balanced calendar. In a previous meeting, SEIU and the Steelworkers indicated their opposition to a balanced calendar based on the time without pay being spread throughout the year rather than all in the summer. Their concern is about the loss of earnings during the summer for less than 12 month employees. the administration, MNEA and the parent [representative] unanimously recommended that the Board adopt the balanced calendar for 2008-2009 due to the many advantages in all aspects of the calendar.

Both a traditional and a balanced calendar are provided for review.

And it is a new day. Former BOE member George Blue's self-evaluation system is being replaced by a debriefing asking: What did we do well? What could we do better? What would you wish we do at our next meeting?

Again a .pdf version of the 61 page agenda packet can be found at KayBrooks.com here.