Madison Prep wants another vote in February. Smells like an elections stunt to me. I really wish instead of cramming their ideas down our throats, we could back up and Urban League would lead an open, transparent and inclusive discussion (that bloggers aren’t banned from) about what we need to do about the achievement gaps in our schools. These divisive and bullying tactics are just gross and the politics of it stinks even more. It seems like it is no longer about the kids. That discussion seems to have gotten lost.
Urban League and Madison Prep Boards to Hold Press Conference
Will announce their plans to seek a vote on authorizing the opening of Madison Prep for 2013WHAT: Madison Preparatory Academy and the Urban League of Greater Madison will announce their intentions to seek a February 2012 vote by the Madison Metropolitan School District Board of Education to authorize Madison Prep to open in the fall of 2013. Three MMSD Board of Education members have already shared their support of the motion.
WHEN: 3:30 pm CST, Friday, January 13
WHERE: Urban League of Greater Madison, 2222 S. Park St., Madison, WI 53713
WHO: Madison Preparatory Academy Board of Directors
Urban League of Greater Madison
Others
The votes are not there and will not be there in February, so this wastes more of the Board and Administration’s time and in the case of staff, time is money. Thanks.
Money may play another role. It is possible that in addition to electoral concerns, this may allow MPA to qualify for the remainder of their Federal Planning Grant (provided they meet the other conditions, including justifying sex segregation). I’m not sure this is the case and would appreciate clarification if anyone knows.
I think what bothers me the most is that Kaleem Caire posted the announcement on FB with the tag “Our Children Can’t Wait…in the spirit of Dr. King. Onward! “. Any BOE member that supports the re-vote better not seek re-election. Nothing has changed since the vote and nothing needs to be re-visited. I question whether their could be a re-vote under MMSD proceedures.
I looked into it a little more and apparently “reapplying” for a second does not change anything around the planning grant funds, but an approval would qualify MPA for the second half of the money.
I thought Madison Prep had promised to open their doors one way or another in 2012.
I would REALLY APPRECIATE more specifics on the target group before we go further on this.
For example, all this talk of schools failing black kids obscures the fact that MMSD has had many high-achieving black graduates and I worry that it hangs the “underachiever” label on all black kids.
I doubt all the victims of the achievement gap are black, and they probably aren’t all poor either. How many of them came up through the MMSD system and how many are recent transfers from elsewhere? Four-year-old Kindergarten won’t solve the problem for older transfer students. An all-black boys school with black teachers would not be the solution for a multi-racial problems, nor would a diversity officer help if the underachievement problem is not due to a lack of diversity. My minority son is a HS freshman now and we’ve seen lots of diversity effort and programming in MMSD all the way through. So let’s define the problem as clearly as possible and then pitch solutions. Maybe we need a summit with all voices included?