Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

The city has been tearing itself apart for a year now as DCPS fails the city once again by not quickly changing the names of schools named after confederate generals. Instead of doing both the easy and right thing, DCPS has engaged in a year-long odyssey. Another school district faced with the exact same issue did things much quicker and better.    

From the USA Today, 

The eleventh-largest school district in the U.S. has renamed a high school formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School after civil rights icon John Lewis.

The school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, voted Thursday to rename the school after the congressman, who died this month. The new name, John R. Lewis High School, takes effect this school year.

Representative Tamara Derenak Kaufax, a Fairfax County school board member, proposed a resolution to remove the Confederate general's name from the school in Springfield, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., in February.

Several board members cheered when the unanimous vote was announced.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/education/2020/07/23/john-lewis-new-name-fairfax-virginia-robert-e-lee-high-school/5498267002/

Here is a little more from the Patch,

In February, the school board voted to start the renaming process and seek public feedback. However, that CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: A tale of two high schools named Robert E. Lee.

Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

DCPS has set up a system where people can vote to change the name of Lee High School, but Robert E. Lee can still get the most votes. This is failure a failure in leadership and it would not surprise me if it was by design.   

I wish I could vote to change the names of all the schools, as a citizen of Jacksonville it is an embarrassment that in 2021, we have any schools named after slavers and traitors let alone six. Furthermore, four of the six schools are minority-majority too which means most of the children that attend them attend schools named after somebody who thought they were subhuman. 

The process that DCPS has set up has been a slog. I guess they have never heard of just ripping the band-aid off and instead went with the slow painful way, a way that has seen racists emboldened, teachers doxed and a community unnecessarily divided.     

All of this could have been avoided had the district had any sense of urgency but of course, they had none. 

When the district decided to go on this arduous journey, who exactly was it for? It was not for the CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: With the school name changes, the district sets up the racists to win even if they lose (draft)

Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

The Southern Poverty Law Center is a premier social justice organization that has fought against white supremacists, anti-semites, Islamaphobes, and all manner of malcontents on the wrong side of decency. Well, friends, you can now add Duval County Public Schools to that list. 

They have even represented Florida's public schools in their fight for fair funding, a lawsuit I testified in. It is manifestly disappointing that DCPS is on the opposite side of them. Disappointing but sadly not unexpected.  

From the Southern Poverty Law Center:

The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and the private employment law firm Scott • Wagner and Associates filed suit in federal court today on behalf of a Florida high school teacher who was removed from her classroom and reassigned to administrative duties in retaliation for displaying a Black Lives Matter (BLM) flag over the objection of school administrators.

The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, claims that officials at Duval County Public Schools (DCPS) violated her First Amendment rights and other constitutional and statutory protections because of her advocacy on behalf of Black students.

Amy Donofrio is a white teacher at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, a school where about 70% of CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: The Southern Poverty Law Center says DCPS is on the wrong side of what is right

Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

Another failure in leadership

The renaming of our schools is another failure of district leadership. 

For ten months, the process to change six of our schools named after confederate era figures has been going on. TEN MONTHS.  

Last June, after the killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbury, and Breonna Taylor, the nation had a reawakening of interests in civil rights, and protests erupted all over the nation, not just because of the deaths but because of generational and systematic racism too. Duval County Public schools decided to join in, just in their own slow, disorganized, and painfully awkward way. 

I spoke at the first meeting where the name changes were proposed by Board Member Warren Jones. The gist of my speech was we couldn’t have schools named after people who never did anything questionable because we could never find anyone, but we could have schools that weren’t named after slavers, racists, and traitors. That and sometimes we revere historical figures despite their flaws, see our founding fathers, but confederates were revered because of their flaws.  

This was the beginning of June, and I was optimistic that those schools would open in the fall with new names, but that has been far from the case. 

After months of little or no action, it became obvious that the district did not want to do anything until after the vote on  CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Another failure in leadership

Education Matters: Tallahassee Republicans continue to attack schools, students and teachers

Education Matters: Tallahassee Republicans continue to attack schools, students and teachers

Tallahassee Republicans continue to attack schools, students and teachers

Representative Dennis Baxley out of Ocala, whose day job is that of a mortician has proposed radically changing the Bright Futures scholarship program, a program that annually pays the college tuition for tens of thousands of high school graduates that attend Florida schools.  

He says some college degrees do not lead to employment and went as far as calling it an entitlement program, failing to understand the benefit that it provides to the many families that use is that is then paid forward by having students attend local schools and with them then in turn living and working in Florida. Bright Futures is also heavily financed by the Lottery, not the general fund. 

Teachers, colleges, parents, and as you can imagine student groups have fiercely opposed the proposed changes, but they do have one group that seems to overwhelmingly support it and that is republican legislators in Tallahassee. Which begs the question why? I believe it is because they do not understand the value of education and have a pathological dislike of public education and everything that comes from it. You see it is not just students and their scholarships that they are seeking to cripple but teachers and public education itself. 

There is currently a half dozen anti-teacher union bills working their way through Tallahassee including one by local representative Cord Byrd. He wants to make it more difficult to join and stay in unions by stopping automatic reduction withdraws. His proposal would only affect teachers, not police or firefighters which are also heavily unionized. He says it is because he wants to narrowly focus on education, but the reality is Byrd like his fellow local republican politicians, Yarbrough, and Fischer, routinely do all they can to marginalize and CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Tallahassee Republicans continue to attack schools, students and teachers

Education Matters: CATCH UP WITH MR. G - THIS WEEK IN DUVAL COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS DCPS

 Education Matters

CATCH UP WITH MR. G 

THIS WEEK IN DUVAL COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS DCPS

In Florida its trade scholarships for vouchers and everyone loses.

24by Unknown / 2d

Among many of the bad education bills making their way through Tallahassee perhaps the worst are SB 48, a bill expanding vouchers, and senate bill 86, curtailing bright futures. On the surface, it might seem like once you get past they both have to do with the education they are related to, but the truth is they are and that's because of money. If Bright futures are curtailed for many kids, the s

DCPS jumps the shark with its prom announcements.

41by Unknown / 9d

First, let me say I am all for these kids getting back to something normal and not missing out on any more milestones or events like prom. It is literally heartbreaking how much they have missed. That being said, the district's prom announcements are just bat-@%#$ crazy. In case you missed it, DCPS has announced that schools will have proms starting at the end of March, with one huge caveat, atte

Superintendent Greene says she supports staff, but her actions often speak louder than her words.

44by Unknown / 10d

Superintendent Green recently sent me a note. She was replying to something I had sent to the school board about the frustration so many teachers are experiencing. Thank you for sharing the posts you are seeing on Facebook. I understand how difficult this year is and the impact recent events have had our teachers and other staff. We will continue to seek ways to support them throughout the year.

How teachers elected DeSantis and may do so again.

56by Unknown / 10d

Florida’s teachers elected DeSantis, and they are sadly about to do it again. A recent poll said Florida’s teachers overwhelmingly disapprove of how DeSantis has done. From Florida Politics: The Clearview Research poll found

 Education Matters

Education Matters: CATCH UP WITH MR. G - THIS WEEK IN DUVAL COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS DCPS

 Education Matters

CATCH UP WITH MR. G 

THIS WEEK IN DUVAL COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS DCPS

DCPS jumps the shark with its prom announcements.

41by Unknown / 2d

First, let me say I am all for these kids getting back to something normal and not missing out on any more milestones or events like prom. It is literally heartbreaking how much they have missed. That being said, the district's prom announcements are just bat-@%#$ crazy. In case you missed it, DCPS has announced that schools will have proms starting at the end of March, with one huge caveat, atte

Superintendent Greene says she supports staff, but her actions often speak louder than her words.

44by Unknown / 3d

Superintendent Green recently sent me a note. She was replying to something I had sent to the school board about the frustration so many teachers are experiencing. Thank you for sharing the posts you are seeing on Facebook. I understand how difficult this year is and the impact recent events have had our teachers and other staff. We will continue to seek ways to support them throughout the year.

How teachers elected DeSantis and may do so again.

56by Unknown / 3d

Florida’s teachers elected DeSantis, and they are sadly about to do it again. A recent poll said Florida’s teachers overwhelmingly disapprove of how DeSantis has done. From Florida Politics: The Clearview Research poll found 76% of teachers in Florida disapprove of his job performance, and just 21% approve. That net -45 rating marks a dramatic shift from two years ago, when the then-newly inaugur

DCPS try's to trick parents into sending their kids back into school... during a pandemic.

47by Unknown / 6d

DCPS is like an onion. On the outside, it may look normal, but as you peel back the layers, it makes you want to cry. Recently the district has been sending letters to parents whose children are doing just fine with DHR, implying they are failing and must return to school. This is beyond the pale. A teacher reached out to me to tell me the district sent one of his families a letter saying their c

DCPS creates problems, then wonders why there are problems.

42by Unknown / 8d

One-sixth of DCPS teachers leave from year to year. Where there are many reasons teachers leave, the lion's share of why they do has to fall on the shoulders of the district. Bad leadership and bad policies have led to this exodus. The Times Union recently reported on a JPEF study about teach

 Education Matters