UPDATE: Where the Oxymoronic Meets the Moronic + Schools Matter: After Cornerstone Charter Abuse Scandal Deepens in Memphis, NAACP Demands Accountability from State and Charter Operators

Schools Matter: After Cornerstone Charter Abuse Scandal Deepens in Memphis, NAACP Demands Accountability from State and Charter Operators:

MASE, First Memphis Charter, Up for Renewal or Closure: Where the Oxymoronic Meets the Moronic

by Jim Horn

When the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering (MASE) opened 10 years ago, it was supposed to herald a new day of great achievement in Memphis schools.  Now ten years and millions of wasted dollars later, what was to be the solution to low test scores is now scraping the bottom of the barrel in test score achievement.  Here's the latest from the State website:

Grades 3-8: TCAP Criterion Referenced Academic Achievement									View Chart ?
(3 year average)	2010		2011		2012			2012 State
CRT	Score	Grade	Score	Grade	Score	Grade	Trend	Score	Grade	Trend
Math	36	F	34	F	39	F	NC	52	B	NC
Reading/Language	39	F	35	F	33	F	NC	50	B	+
Social Studies	41	D	38	F	38	F	NC	54	B	NC
Science	41	D	36	F	36	F	NC	50	B	+

Steve Bares

That's the oxymoronic.  Now here's the moronic, as expressed in the news article below, which includes the following thought disorder from Steve Bares, MASE's Chairman of the Board, who is also a fixture among the power elite of the local Chamber of Commerce:

“Any decision to close MASE has to take the students in mind. … Eighty percent of those middle school students that would now have to go find a school would go back to their zoned school and would be lower-performing schools than MASE,” said Steve Bares, chairman of the 

After Cornerstone Charter Abuse Scandal Deepens in Memphis, NAACP Demands Accountability from State and Charter Operators

by Jim Horn

Cornerstone CEO Sippel

What began last fall in Memphis as the corporate reform schoolers' grand experiment to turn over public schools to white charter operators with no accountability for how children are treated, has turned into a nightmare for parents of children at Cornerstone Prep and other less publicized charter chain gangs for black and poor children in Memphis.

What began as a charter school abuse story that the local media in Memphis tried to ignore has erupted into deep rage among parents who previously were sweet-talked into sending their children to the total compliance charter schools where children are treated like dangerous inmates.  See latest accounts here.

This from local ABC affiliate:
A child's words can be powerful.

"I started to urinate on myself and I started crying,” said 7-year old Cornerstone student as she addressed the crowd at