Friday, March 27, 2015

Memphis Waking Up to Corporate Welfare Takeover of Schools

Thanks to Memphis Police Association president, Mike Williams, for giving the teachers of South Side Middle School an opportunity last evening on "Wake Up Memphis" to share with the public some information related to the attempted shutdown of South South Middle School to benefit the incompetent misleaders of the Achievement School District.

Many community members called in during the one hour program, and we were able to answer their questions related to the continued push for takeovers by the corporate welfare schemers who see Memphis children as a huge new revenue stream to be exploited.

The one question we could not answer is how South Side came to be threatened with closure and absorption by the corporate I-Zone, when other schools in Memphis, both inside and outside the ASD and I-Zone, are performing worse or no better on the state tests that were used to identify schools for potential closure.

Below are data from the TN public website that shows two elementary schools (Aspire Hanley #1 and Georgian Hills) that have been taken over by ASD three years ago, one middle school in ASD taken over two years ago, and one of the "high-flying" KIPP schools in Memphis, which made the bottom 5 percent Priority List for the State in 2014

As you can see, South Side (shown last) is making great improvements with their 7th and 8th grade students, and if these criteria were used to determine closure, South Side would survive all the other schools listed below.

The effort to close South Side Middle will not go forward, if you join hands with the community to attend the SCS School Board meeting on Tuesday at 5:30.  Come early and be ready for become active advocates for humane public schools in Memphis.



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