Fill out this form to email this article to a friend
Schools
NAACP president blasts student assignment plan
By DONNA WINCHESTER, Times Staff Writer
Published October 12, 2007
|
Norm Brown, President of the NAACP St. Petersburg Branch, discusses his dissatisfaction with the proposed Pinellas school district student assignment plan.
|
 |
|
[James Borchuck | Times]
|
The president of the St. Petersburg NAACP leveled harsh criticism at the Pinellas School Board Thursday, charging that its proposed student assignment plan is a step backward that will result in the resegregation of south county schools. The plan is so deeply flawed, Norman Brown told the St. Petersburg Times editorial board, that it has caused the NAACP to question the board's commitment to educating children. "We are advocating for all children," Brown said. "This is not a plan that advocates for all children."He went on to describe the board as "wandering" and said that his wife, Mary Brown, can't wait until she's no longer board chairwoman. Brown called school superintendent Clayton Wilcox weak and incapable of "thinking outside the box" when it comes to closing the achievement gap between black and white students. "Coming from a district with a high minority population, we had hoped he would have ideas about how to deal with this problem of student performance," Brown said. "He's been here three years now, and he has not come up with one innovative idea." Brown's remarks coincided with the board's decision at a workshop to postpone a preliminary vote on the assignment plan scheduled for Tuesday. Brown had urged board members to put the plan on hold in recent weeks at a series of public meetings. On Thursday, he ramped up his criticism, going so far as to say he's glad he has no children in the school system. Besides disregarding African-American children, Brown said, the district has failed to monitor programs intended to improve student achievement and has not provided sufficient resources to teachers at struggling schools. When asked what he would do to keep Pinellas schools from becoming resegregated in an era when districts are prohibited from using race ratios when making student assignments, Brown said he would consider zoning the county vertically rather than horizontally, creating east, central and west zones. He added he would get the business community involved in brainstorming ideas. "We need to stop thinking about what we did last year, 10 years ago," Brown said, "and start thinking about how education has changed."
[Last modified October 12, 2007, 03:20:58]
Share your thoughts on this story
Comments on this article
|
by Pat
|
11/01/07 09:34 PM
|
|
It's important to end bussing! This will help end Global Warming ... you libs should be happy about this!
|
|
by Leroy
|
10/13/07 01:21 AM
|
|
Talk about segregation and look no further than FAMU.
|
|
by Shalya T.
|
10/12/07 08:29 PM
|
|
Mr. Brown should be taking community action to stop all the killings going on instead of picking on the education system. The NAACP needs to stop pointing fingers and blaming others. The LORD helps those whom help themselves!
|
|
by Suzy
|
10/12/07 06:33 PM
|
|
Oh, Ms. Brown. Clayton Wilcox was instrumental in getting you elected and now you can't wait until you aren't chairwoman any longer. You don't think he's doing a good job. I wonder if he's sorry he went out on a limb for you?
|
|
by Mike
|
10/12/07 03:14 PM
|
|
The problem is not the schools its the students incentive to learn. We as parents need to be resposible for seeing that are children want to learn and take advantage of the resources the schools provide.
|
|
by Bob
|
10/12/07 07:34 AM
|
|
Maybe mr Brown with his vastness in runing the NAACP will step forward and show how this can be done. Or is he all talk and no action. If he wants to have it changed for the better than show us how to do that Mr Brown or go back to doing your job
|
|
by Kathy
|
10/12/07 07:03 AM
|
|
Ask not what your school can do for you but what YOU can do for YOUR school.Where is involvement to work with kids afterschool or before?Volunteer,make effort to get kids there,stop blaming schools,we have them for 35 hrs/wk, the rest is all you!
|
|
News
Fifty years ago, they were screwed-up kids sent to the Florida School for Boys to be straightened out. But now they are screwed-up men, scarred by the whippings they endured. Read the story and see a video and portrait gallery.
Print
Email story
Comment
Letter to the editor
