The contempt the education profiteers who populate the Indianapolis Public School board have for the taxpayers and the parents of the school district has no bounds. Over strong objections from the public, the IPS board approved a gigantic pay raise for the school district's superintendent, Dr. Louis, Ferebee, that could allow him to earn up to $287,000 a year, or about $64,000 more than he's currently eligible to receive. Board member Gayle Cosby was the lone dissenting vote on the pay raise. The school is bleeding students, thanks in large part to the education profiteers who now control IPS' board and support the diversion of public education dollars to create more and more charter schools in Indianapolis because it makes their masters wealthier.
"He’s doing a good job," said board member Kelly Bentley. "He’s doing what we’ve asked him to do." That's right, Kelly. He is. Bentley, by the way, is a paid consultant for GreatSchools, a San Francisco-based nonprofit funded by billionaires who seek to monetize public education like any other business opportunity they exploit. It's a bit ironic when you consider that Bentley is the step-daughter of Sheila Kennedy, who spends a great deal of time railing against privatization at her blog when she's not race-baiting her political opponents in typical, hypocritical liberal form.
The IPS board also approved a $490,000 payout to settle a lawsuit brought by a former student who was sexually abused by a long-time employee of the school district that officials knew was abusing kids. According to the lawsuit, Corey Greenwood, a former IPS teacher, began having inappropriate relationships with students more than a decade ago. The lawsuit claimed school administrators knew of Greenwood's predatory history but kept him employed, even promoting him to an assistant principal position.
3 comments:
The school board is getting a superintendent that is doing the job they want him to do, the real question is what are the goals of the school board? One of these goals could be to gut IPS and turn all of it into one giant profit center for the charter school companies
Is anyone whining yet about Super White? When fools ask of schools to be "all things" they are always surprised that all indexes of performance decline. Is there clarity in the "mind" of the public as to what, exactly, IPS is supposed to accomplish? I don't think so. The public, as such, does not think. "Educators" are not much better, being drafted for the most part from the bottom of the SAT score universe (one clown complains of a teacher shortage?). IPS is organized on a socialist model like all other government schools (except charters). Who among us will cast the first stone at a socialist system that cannot perform well in comparison to all of the market based entities who perform similar services? Who would have the temerity to even suggest that a socialist model could perform well(aside from Groth and other true believers in bs).
What, then, is it reasonable to expect of IPS...what attainable goals could they possibly meet? Education need not be expensive....many poor churches have excellent schools, for instance, where kids actually learn to read. Such schools probably don't have a "mission statement" or a surplus of "administrators", or a zillion rules and regulations imposed on them by fools, some of whom change their "minds" every legislative session.
One of the hallmarks of a totalitarian regime is the destruction of and reformatting of the education system. It is no accident that Hitler and Stalin recognized this and set out to destroy the educated opposition by any means necessary.
Here in the USA we destroy the education system by privatization and in the process some people can get rich. Our corrupt campaign finance system virtually guarantees the election of well funded candidates to elected office. Sabotage of the Public Education System would not be beyond the profiteers. A good way to sabotage the system is to find useful dupes to run it, or staff it with people who has as a goal to get rich off it. It's like pouring sand into the gears of a motor.
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