State takeover will not save "failing" schools
By Warner M. Montgomery
Warner@TheColumbiaStar.com

The S.C. State Department of Education recently declared that Eau Claire High School, C.A. Johnson Preparatory Academy, and their feeder schools are failing and might be taken over by the state. This judgment comes from three years of bad test scores by the students in those schools.

It is easy to brand a school "failing," but is not easy to change it into a "succeeding" school. The Allendale fiasco is an example. Inez Tenenbaum and her band of test- happy buddies took over the Allendale schools when the students failed the tests. After five years, they left Allendale with their tails between their legs. Nothing much has changed in Allendale despite tons of taxpayer dollars.

Let's take a look at Eau Claire and C.A. Johnson. The Eau Claire schools changed when the Eau Claire community changed from middle income white to low income black in the 1970s. Despite pockets of prosperity in the community (Columbia College, Lutheran Seminary, Earlewood), most of the families are stereotypically black, single parent, poor, and fearful of authority.

C.A. Johnson, once the flagship of Columbia's elite black community during the 1950s and 1960s, fell into complete disarray during the desegregation of the 1970s. Children from the projects who never before went to school were forced into the classrooms aimed at C.A. Johnson High School. The middle class families fled their once- proud schools.

During the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, all of the program fads and politically correct nametags were applied to Eau Claire and C.A. Johnson schools. Eau Claire was named an art center. Johnson became a preparatory academy. Teachers were lashed by the administration when the "new" curriculum failed to lead to higher test scores. Principals were shuffled out of town when discipline problems hit the press.

All the parents, teachers, students, and administrators who couldn't take the absurdity of the situation fled the ship, and it continued to sink even further. Race, religion, city politics, neighborhood frustrations, and even gang warfare entered the classrooms. Discipline and preaching took precedence over learning. Morale sank even after fits of athletic success. And test scores continued to drop.

In a word, the schools represent their community. If the State Department wants to take over the schools, they should also take over the communities. Rid the neighborhoods of children having children, mothers on crack, fathers in gangs, no one fully employed, poverty run rampant, parenting non- existent, health problems galore, houses without heat, homes falling down, and children without food.

Don't blame the teachers! Don't blame the administrators! Don't even blame the school board. These good people inherited a situation they did not create.

The education "experts" say Eau Claire High School is too large and C.A. Johnson Preparatory Academy is too small. But size changes will not change test scores. Neither will a new program out of Chicago (or Las Vegas) raise test scores. Certainly, a state takeover will not make Eau Claire and Johnson successful schools.

The problem is larger than that. Is it even possible for a government school system to take poor, unhealthy, unhappy, hopeless children and turn them into healthy, happy, successful, productive citizens in just 12 years?

The solution does not involve raising the test standards or putting more pressure on the teachers. Neither does it involve preaching "All Students Can Learn" while it's obvious most don't learn.

The shackles of poverty and instability can be broken. Everyday someone breaks out of their chains and creates a new life for themselves. The tests only tell us who is free and who is not. They don't tell us what to do. We must look beyond the tests and the blame and find out how the shackles are being made.