hi, BnB .. WSCA endorses Heather Losurdo in school board runoff
Submitted by KeungHui on 10/21/2011 - 10:44
The Wake Schools Community Alliance is now endorsing Wake County school board candidate Heather Losurdo in the District 3 runoff after having previously backed Jennifer Mansfield.
In a press release today, WSCA says Losurdo "has consistently supported neighborhood schools, advocated for the use of EVAAS and other objective data-driven measurements to meet our educational challenges head-on and called for civility and consensus-building on our School Board."
In contrast, WSCA rips into incumbent school board member Kevin Hill, citing his tenure as board chairman. They blame him for "falling graduation rates," "600 teachers fired, while protecting non-teaching administrators," "26,000 students reassigned," '"Wacky Wednesday' PLT’s were implemented, without regard to their impact on families" and "mandatory year round schedules forced on thousands of families."
WSCA has also apparently gotten over the concerns it had about the new student assignment plan, calling it "family-friendly." The group criticizes Hill's no vote on the plan
"The choice for District 3 is simple: a vote for Kevin Hill represents a step back to the failures of the past," according to the WSCA press release. "A vote for Heather Losurdo means continuing the bi-partisan forward progress of our School Board, focusing on innovation to educate kids instead of labeling them. We strongly endorse Heather Losurdo for School Board District 3, and encourage all of our members to support her campaign."
Yours spiked my interest more in trying to see exactly what the main issue was/is, and gather 'assignment' is a major issue .. have spent too much? on the comments in the one above, (all on the first page) and have a little idea .. OH! .. almost forgot .. i wondered on this bit in yours ..
"In a tear-filled speech to supporters at the Milton's in Wakefield, Losurdo wished Hill well and urged him to work cooperatively with Superintendent Tony Tata." ..
I thought of Beck, of course, then later read this comment .. ....................
New WCPSS Race Data Makes Losourdo a Bad Choice, Too. Sun, 10/23/2011 - 06:40 — lovingpenelope
Virginia and Bob,
Here's something else that has me worried about Losourdo as a choice to represent our district: As reported just this week, WCPSS is now a district where "minority" students -- particularly Hispanic and African American students -- make up the "majority" of our student body:
Considering Losourdo's horribly off-color comments about "Mexicans" and "Immigrants" as well as her horribly off-color endorsement of her husband's racial slurs towards Obama, can we really believe that she'll have the best interests of "minority" students in mind if she's elected?
Sheesh----did you watch the YouTube video full of racists slurs towards immigrants that she posted on her Facebook page after attending the Glenn Beck rally in DC?
It was horrifying---and the fact that she supports and endorses that kind of thinking makes her unqualified to lead in my opinion.
We don't need that kind of racial divisiveness on our school board---and one of the reasons I think Chairman Ron went down was because people were fed up with that kind of racial divisiveness.
I get, Bob, that Losourdo is your only option given your anger at Kevin Hill---and I've always respected you for knowing the issues better than the majority of the people in our county---but I could never vote for a person who has shown an open willingness to insult people of color when she's supposed to turn around and fairly represent those people in our schools.
that put me on Hill's side for sure .. the other article ..
Will Separate and Unequal, 2.0 just become 3.0? By Jamil Smith - Wed Nov 9, 2011 1:48 PM EST
We hear all the time about how elections having consequences. We saw a lot of that last night, and it is a fairly simple principle. In fact, it's one which Republicans understood a little too well after last year's midterms, resulting in what we now know as the Great Republican Overreach of 2011™. It's worth revisiting in the context of one school board election result from last night.
Backed by Tea Party financier Art Pope, the Republican school board chairman in Wake County, North Carolina, has been pushing a nouveau-segregationist "neighborhood schools" plan. Last night, with incumbent Kevin Hill's victory over his LMAO-at-the-skunk-who's-Obama Republican challenger, Democrats now (and for the next four years) hold the majority on the board. On its face, this would seem to spell the end for the idea of resegregating the county's schools.
The runoff election between Mr. Hill and his challenger last night was supposed to be the tipping point, the last chance for voters to stop the "neighborhood schools" plan before it became reality in the 2012-13 school year. The local NAACP exulted in the four Democratic school board wins in October, and they were likewise happy with last night's results.
Except, here's the thing: Mr. Hill (and his fellow Democrats) aren't saying that they'll reverse what the Republicans did:
Hill said Tuesday night that although he voted against the assignment plan, he has no intention of returning to the district's old way of assigning students.
He said he likes the new plan and thinks it can work with some tweaks. He wants to ensure classroom seats in high-performing schools are reserved for low-performing students.
Now, keep in mind: the Wake County school system has been a national model for school integration. The district is not particularly diverse along racial lines, but its schools have reflected socio-economic diversity for a long time now. The Republican "neighborhood schools" plan aimed to completely undo that progress, concentrating poorer students in inevitably poorer schools. And Mr. Hill thinks that plan needs only a few tweaks? Indeed. From WRAL:
Hill reiterated his desire to revise the plan to make sure enough seats are set aside in high-performing schools for students from low-performing areas.
How taking the extreme Separate but Unequal, 2.0 and "tweaking" it into a slightly more palatable 3.0 serves the interests of voters in Wake County, only those voters can answer. Yes, Democrats stood up to 2.0, but they were hemming and hawing on replacing it before they won the majority. That may have helped them get elected.
That is good news...I recall driving in the Cary, NC area not too long ago and hearing political ads for Wake County school board candidates and how appauled I was that NC schools could be used as a tool for a pol agenda.
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