Stefan Sharkansky of SharkBlog is trying to keep his hopes up about the new Seattle School Board members, but it's not easy:
The Seattle School Board has been captured by the loony-toons slate of Sally Soriano, Brita Butler-Wall, Darlene Flynn and Irene Stewart.
Three moderate incumbents, Nancy Waldman, Steve Brown and Barbara Schlag Peterson, were ousted, due to (understandable) frustration with poor student test scores, district financial problems, the forced resignation of a troubled superintendent and the failure to hire a new permanent superintendent.
But I have little confidence that the four new board members will steer the schools in a positive direction. Three of the four (Butler-Wall, Flynn and Stewart) were endorsed by the local teacher's union...Two of the new board members (Soriano and Butler-Wall) were endorsed by the Green Party, whose goal is to
transform pre-K-20 education in Seattle in alignment with all 10 Key Values
of the Green Party of Seattle, through research, education, and advocacy
I've seen campaign statements from three of the four new board members (Soriano, Flynn and Butler-Wall) blaming problems of minority achievement on "institutional racism" (here, here and here)
Oooh, that's not good. These board members also oppose standardized testing; I'll give those of you who are utterly astonished about that a moment to pull yourselves together. Soriano, in fact, thinks the test score gap can be fixed by "embedding the curriculum with awareness of racism, sexism and classism." Appalling.
And what the heck is "pre-K-20" education? Does Seattle assume that its public school system is so ineffective that kids will need to stay in it until they're almost old enough to legally drink? It's interesting, too, that these board members, who so oppose school accountability, have the stamp of approval from the Green Party, which demands police force accountability and corporate accountability. So, it's important to make sure that policemen aren't abusing their powers, but it's not important to make sure that your kid's teacher isn't an idiot?
The Shark goes on:
Butler-Wall wants to solve the "institutional racism" problem by using Ebonics as the language of instruction...
eeEEEw. That'll definitely "embed" more "awareness of racism" into classrooms, once white kids discover that black kids aren't expected to learn standard English. I don't think that's the kind of "awareness" that these board members want, though.
Both Soriano and Butler-Wall propose eliminating the high-stakes WASL test, because the use of WASL scores to label racial blocs of students as failures also constituted institutional racism and/or because it reinforces the public's perceptions about the 'failure' of our schools.
Ahh hah hah hah! What sort of Magical Thinking Class does a school board member have to take in order to believe that removing a test which shows how schools are failing will actually affect whether the schools are failing? Hey, this means if I throw my scale out the window, I can remove the "public perception" that I've gained 20 pounds in the last two years. Yeah, that's the ticket!
Morons.
Butler-Wall's priorities also include eliminating chocolate milk from school vending machines, restricting high-school students' contacts with military recruiters, and rejecting both the accountability of the federal No Child Left Behind Act and the federal funds that come with it.
These four new School Board members will still be in office when my son starts Kindergarten in four years. I hope that between now and then the new board members will moderate their extremism and focus on finding practical solutions to real problems...
Wow. Stefan is MUCH more optimistic than I would be in this situation.
Posted by kswygert at November 7, 2003 11:38 AM