School Board MUST Vote To End Its ILLEGAL Transfer Policy NOW!

[MadGreenHornet]

Sam Anderson is determined to try to save Austin-East. He realizes and understands that now that race can't be used to deny transfers and that Knox County has been using an illegal, unconstitutional transfer policy for years, the failing Austin-East High School is doomed to close.

There is now no way to deny white or black students to transfer out of the A-E zone. They will apply for them in droves, as no one, even those in the blocks surrounding A-E, really wants to go to school there.

The blacks have been trying to go to Fulton and West. The whites have been trying to go to Gibbs and Carter. Now, the school board won't be able to prevent them from doing it, and no matter how large the A-E zone is expanded to by this clueless board, A-E will continue to have students sucked out of it.

The handwriting is on the wall. A-E is a failed school, not just a failing one. It must be closed if the county school system overall has a chance to improve. It has practically ceased to be viable and is in danger of being taken over by the state due to its terrible test scores.

Under the old, illegal, unconstitutional policy that the school board foolishly left in place last nite, blacks could never transfer from Austin-East to Fulton, as they have wanted to do in droves for years. Also, no white student in the A-E district could transfer out of it.

The school board, in its utter stupidity, expanded the A-E zone to include all of Chilhowee Hills and all of Spring Hill, all the way northeast to East Towne (Knoxville Center) Mall, in a failed attempt to force more students into A-E, a failing school that the state is about to take over if it continues to fail.

On top of this, the school board continues to reject charter schools, continues to reject things like Chris Whittle's Edison Project, and all of the private solutions that would be the only way to save A-E from failing.

A-E will continue to lose students. They will transfer to Carter, Gibbs, Fulton, South-Doyle, and West. The parents of both the black and white students there don't want to go there. Despite the school board's stupidity, which only served to devalue both residential and commercial real estate in a wider area and make the Magnolia Avenue blighted area corridor expand to Asheville Highway and Rutledge Pike, A-E's student population will continue to decline, as will its test scores.

A-E continues to be a magnet school. However, the main thing it is a magnet for is drug dealers, prostitution, gang violence, crime, guns, etc. Don't forget there was gunfire at an A-E football game not long ago. The criminal element preys on the school.

A-E will have less and less students, no matter how big its "zone" is expanded to. The parents will do what the school board won't, which is close this failing school for good. That is the only way for them to get a quality education for their children and to end all of the crime that is happening in the neighborhood.

That's how the area around the former Rule High School was revitalized, with the Hope Project getting rid of poor housing, bringing in new businesses that are thriving, like Mechanicville's Food City, as opposed to 5 Points' IGA that failed. Neither Burlington nor 5 Points will ever prosper until A-E is closed.

The school board has given A-E more dollars per student BY FAR than any other high school in the entire system. The physical plant is wonderful. The performing arts curriculum is perhaps the best in the state.

However, STILL NO ONE wants to go there, even including the parents and students that live right in the same neighborhood. They want to go elsewhere, but up until now have been denied that choice by the school board. Many stopped applying for transfers because they knew they would be routinely denied under the old, illegal, unconstitutional policy that the school board failed to change.

The ONLY way to "fix" the A-E neighborhood is to close A-E as a high school, make it the Knox County School's headquarters, hold all school board meetings there, make sure it is safe all around the neighborhood for the public to attend such meetings, bulldoze the project housing at Walter P. Taylor and Austin Homes, the abandoned houses where the crackheads and prostitutes hang out, build Hope Project housing, and get Magnolia Avenue revitalized with nice commercial developments.

That is what happened in the area around Rule High School. Once Rule was closed, the area started to prosper and flourish in terms of residential and commercial development. Only when A-E is closed will that happen to Burlington and 5 Points. No one wants to live and have a business in areas where crime is high. KPD cruisers have to intensely patrol the area nightly to keep things manageable.

The handwriting is on the wall. A-E is a failed school and nothing can keep it from failing even more. The transfers will now have to be approved. There is no place for the school board to hide anymore. They are the last to see what is going on with the dynamics of the community they supposedly represent.

The fact is that A-E will have less and less students as time goes on, no matter what the board tries to do to save it. It ceased to be a viable school or a school with passing grades long ago. It is being propped up by people who are living in the past.Build a shrine to Sam Anderson and his football championships of a generation ago, but release the people of the community from their bondage and free them to send their children wherever they want to go, instead of forcing them to go to a failed school and pouring more of our taxpayer money into a hole that is getting deeper and deeper.

The elimination of school zones is truly the only way to go. Why deny parents the right to choose where they send their children? Of course, if they were given this choice, A-E would have virtually no students.Burlington would be revitalized, since it would no longer be zoned only to A-E. Continuing to expand A-E's "zone" only causes more white flight, increases the size of the blighted areas in terms of both residential and commercial property, and forces more and more students out of public schools into private schools. There are some wonderful private Christian schools that are now in the A-E zone and more and more students will go there instead, unless the decide to go to other public high schools.

One of the problems the school board continues to perpetuate is that if you go out of your zone, you have no bus transportation, so even though buses will run right by your home, if you choose to go to a school out of the A-E zone, you must provide your own transportation.

How is that fair to a student and parent who is simply exercising their right to choose? They are taxpayers, too.

The state only requires that someone be given bus transportation if they live at least 2 miles away from the school, if i recall correctly. I'd say eliminate all buses that run from homes within 2 miles of ANY school and save the taxpayers a LOT of money. Buses should only be funded by taxpayers to bring students from at least 2 miles away from whatever school they are to attend. I walked to and from school over a mile away growing up. Why can't today's students do the same?

[Mark Misner]

I would not reply to anybody on this board that doesn't use their real name. It seems only fair to me that people should be accountable for their comments. If you expect the school board/people to reply to your comments you should approach them in a manner that demonstrates your willingness to engage in an open dialogue.

[Cathy McCaughan]

I prefer people use their own name, but posting behind a mask might be the only way some people feel they can share their opinions and ideas. I know a teacher in the schools who is frustrated at the lack of textbooks, but unable to post about it for fear of losing their employment. There is no reason for anyone to answer any questions thrown like spitballs. There's also no need to look for things to find offensive.

[MadGreenHornet]

The current principal is a big buddy & perhaps relative of Sam Anderson. He totally supports him and the school board bows down to whatever Sam wants in terms of A-E.

No way the new teachers will help A-E. No teacher wants to be transferred there, and most of the teachers there have no business in teaching anyway.

The teachers' union is the worst thing about public education and government schools. Far too many have tenure that are inept. They fought Lamar Alexander's Better Schools and Career Ladder program with a passion. They are the reason that private and Christian schools are growing by leaps and bounds and why charter schools and school vouchers are the way to go.

The ONLY solution is to close A-E. Only then will the students going there be motivated to learn, be dispersed into schools where their peers are doing better than them, and they won't be exposed to the culture that exists there now. A rising tide lifts all boats.

I guarantee you that if you put 150 of the current A-E students in each of West, Fulton, Carter, Gibbs, and South-Doyle, all of which could take that many and not be overburdened (there are only 750 students at A-E now at most, so that is all of them), that virtually all of those students would see their test scores raised. Which is more important, propping up a failed school or seeing that the students going to that school start learning for a change?

[ed4kids]

Closing a school doesn't neccassarly make a neighborhood better; nor, does going to a better school make the child smarter. I attened Central when they put half the Rule kids there. Let me be the first to tell you that those first few years were hell. There were more fights than ever, more vandilism, a general lack of respect over all. The only way to truely better a neighborhood / school is to have better educated parents - parents who actually care about thier children's education & their actions. Everybody wants to complain about such neighborhoods & schools - but the problem is rarely solved. Untill we do away with wellfare, uneducated parents, poor employment rates / pay, force people to be responcible for their actions and themselves this will continue to be a problem.

[A. Speeks]

I would like to agree with "ed4kids", I was at Gresham in 8th grade when Beardsley Middle was closed alongside Rule. It was NOT a good year for teachers, parents, or students. We were overcrowded and everyone was MAD. Teachers had to walk us to classes because the halls were so full that if we didn't stay in tight lines, no one could move. We weren't allowed into our lockers very often because they too clogged up the hallways.

No one felt they had been treated well or fairly that year, regardless of skin color. By the time I graduated from Central it was another 4 years and things had settled down, but have we learned nothing from our mistakes in the past? There are no easy fixes. One struggling school does not mean buses should be eliminated. The two issues are not connected.

Problems at Austin-East should be addressed because every parent wants their child to be safe and educated in a welcoming environment. Sending kids away to other schools/neighborhoods doesn't automatically fix things. It just moves the problems around and adds new logistical problems to the mix for families and schools.

And name calling, no matter how fun, is rarely ever productive. I would hope that as parents we would advocate the fairest and most well thought out plans for this school as if it were our own child's school.

[ed4kids]

Plus, as we all should have learned from the past....the school board doesn't really care what we want or think. They hold all these parent meetings as a smoke screen so they can say "we gave you the chance to voice your opinions".

They choose to take care of smaller less contiversial issues like the date the school year begins (which I don't agree with BTW) and even then they try to keep it as quuiet as possible. I'd like to know when our elected officials - from top to bottom - are going to start listening to the very people who SHOULD controll thier jobs.

[MadGreenHornet]

i agree that for the most part the school board needs to be replaced. most of them do not represent the wishes of their constituents. i urge good candidates to pick up petitions to run in these races in february. the deadline is approaching to do so. most of the time the school board races are ignored. parents need to get involved at the ballot box to get this problem solved.

[Debi]

Why not get it on the ballot to have laws changed regarding school zoning. Let's do away with any high school zone & make the entire county open enrollment/vouchers.

[Debi]

What if the only way to address the problems is by shutting down the school? I dunno, I don't live in that zone & I don't have kids who attend there, or even friends for that matter. But I do know I find it offensive that a school in the middle of "crack alley" is called a "magnet high school" when it's not close to any such thing. If it were truly a magnet school, parents of high schoolers would want their kids to attend. I have family in Nashville who were thrilled that my cousins made it into the magnet high school there. Why is A-E not seen with the same respect and excitement? Because it's not a magnet school, it's a failing school with a magnet name/money.

I don't understand the mentality of putting more & more tax dollars into any school, just to be able to say it isn't being shut down. A school being shut down isn't the end of the world when it's done for the right reasons. If the only reason A-E isn't succeeding is because of location, then doing everything other than changing location will not make it succeed. There are many businesses that fail simply because of location; the same with schools. It's obvious our city/county gov have no interest in fixing the problems with East Knoxville, let's hope the community & school board will have the sense to do what our other leaders won't; so far that's not happening, or it would appear.

[ed4kids]

"The ONLY solution is to close A-E. Only then will the students going there be motivated to learn, be dispersed into schools where their peers are doing better than them, and they won't be exposed to the culture that exists there now. A rising tide lifts all boats."

This metality has been proven wrong several times. Putting the good kids with the bad kids will make the bad kids better. WRONG! 1/3 of the time it brings the good kids down.

Education starts at home and the bigger problem with these kids is that most of their parents aren't as active as the parents in other schools. Putting them with children who are already "better" than they are lowers their motivation, it doesn't increase it. The best thing for these kids IS to motivate them as a complete group - not break them up and force them to "conform" to new surroundings.

As far a NCLB - I have yet to see any real positve outcome. It leaves the smart kids to be bored, the handicaped kids to be left out - there was a man this very morning who was saying that his DS child was forced to attend school after regular school hours because "he couldn't function around other normal kids". This is some systems way of making them not count based on the NCLB standards. We need to go back to the days when our Teachers could be teachers and make learning fun and exciting - not just cram all this NCLB crap down our kid's throats. It's like they are creating robots out of our teachers and our children...the smarter ones are getting left out / the slower ones are getting shuffeled around - the less fortunate ones are just plain getting left.

As far as using "screen names" vs. real names - I once used my real name on here and came out with a paint balled house and 2 flat tires from parents who didn't like my opinions.

[MadGreenHornet]

putting those kids, however, in a better learning environment, such as the other high schools besides A-E, would do wonders for all of them. it would also encourage their parents by the peer pressure of the other parents to be more involved in the school. there isn't a lot of that going on at A-E now, but there is at most every other high school in town.

[ed4kids]

I think it's great that you have such a positive view of this kind of situation - however, from living through it in the past - it just isn't how it works.

If some of these parents don't care enough about their child's education now...what makes you think they are gonna care any more when they are forced to have their kids bussed across town to the other schools. When they did this to Rule there were so many people yelling "discrimination" based on race & financial ability - however these same parents didn't get invovled enough in their own children's education from the get go. Their involvment didn't improve much after the transfers were made. A lot of them want to yell and scream but they don't want to take action to better their environment.

We as human beings segregate ourselves - based on morals, financial ability, education, and yes by race. Shuffeling people around doesn't change what comes natural.

The truth of the matter is we are both right -you are giving the best of the situation and I am giving the worst. There are going to be some kids who thrive in a new environment - there are going to be others who just keep failing or worse drop out all together.

I think it would be great if we could pick and choose where our kids go to school. If we don't want them where they are zoned & we are willing to transport them to a better school then we should be allowed to. I wish I could actually afford to send my daughter back to the Montissory program but I can't.