One group's mangled logic: How to reform our schools
Citizens for Better Schools, the unsuccessful plaintiff in a case against the newly hired Anniston City Schools superintendent, calls itself an education reform group.
Yeah, right.
The evidence thus far argues that it's a reform-minded group the way Union Gen. William Sherman's soldiers were a Southern architectural redesign outfit.
Last week, a circuit court judge tossed out a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Better Schools against Anniston's school district.
Circuit Court Judge John Thomason had little choice but to rule Anniston City Schools Superintendent Joan Frazier's hiring was legal. The law and the facts were on the board's side.
Last year, Citizens for Better Schools was in a rather awkward position of defending Oxford Middle School students who were punished for slapping and hitting fellow students with a belt.
During the ensuing controversy, Ronald Jackson, executive director for the Citizens for Better Schools, described Oxford City Schools as "racist." When asked for proof, Jackson said his proof was that the school district was still under a federal desegregation order.
When asked if by that standard Anniston City Schools, which is under the same late-1960s consent decree and with an enrollment that's more than 90 percent black, was a "racist" district, Jackson said that it was.
The same sort of mangled logic was on display as the outfit sued Anniston schools on the shakiest of legal premises.
Educational reform is serious business. The region's school districts need all the help they can get. It's best administered by reformers who can balance the steady support for ensuring top-rate schooling and a critical eye that calls attention to a district's deficiencies.
Educational reformers use the courts as a last resort, not a first impulse.
Educational reformers are critical allies. At the right time and in the appropriate measure, they apply pats on the back and kicks to the rear.
Educational reformers don't waste time. They know the clock is ticking on students. Improvements can't wait until low-performing students drop out of school and descend into a life of diminished opportunities.
Until it proves worthy, Citizens for Better Schools needs a new name and a more accurate description.
