Recent editorials from Mississippi newspapers:
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Aug. 20
The Greenwood Commonwealth on the Mississippi Department of Education’s school ratings:
Clearly, the Mississippi Department of Education can’t be trusted to rate how its own schools are doing. There’s just too much incentive to inflate the academic performance to make officials look good.
That’s evident in the latest problem related to testing. Last year, the state graded schools and school districts on a curve based on how many points they scored on a formula based mainly on test scores and growth in test scores:
10 percent made As
26 percent made Bs
26 percent made Cs
25 percent made Ds
13 percent made Fs
When MDE applied the same curve this year, the result was fewer A schools. So last week, it convinced its oversight board to change the curve, but with a caveat. If a school or district does worse under the new curve than the old curve, it will be assigned whichever grade is higher - supposedly for this one year only. We’ll see.
Although MDE officials provide a statistical explanation of why a new curve is necessary, the discussion misses the whole point. There shouldn’t be a curve at all because it prevents parents and taxpayers from knowing which districts are truly failing or excelling. There needs to be an objective standard.
With Mississippi repeatedly ranking last in the nation in education, it’s clear that many public school districts are failing their students. Certainly there are many factors as to why that’s happening, including inadequate funding, poor and troubled family backgrounds, and a culture that often values practical trade skills more than book learning.
The state should own up to that rather than hide it. Yet state Superintendent Carey Wright has proven adept at manipulating the numbers to make things appear rosier than they are. For example, she has repeatedly touted improved graduation rates statewide while leaving out a pertinent fact: The state dropped the objective requirement that students pass certain subject-area tests to graduate. So in truth Mississippi lowered the graduation standard, with the predictable result of more students graduating. That’s hardly real improvement.
What can be done?
The Legislature needs to step in and set an objective standard for school ratings rather than letting the education people do it.
The current grading setup shows the wisdom in that approach. For years, MDE used obscure systems - remember “Level III” schools and such? - that no one knew what they meant. The Legislature did the people of this state a great favor by switching to a simple A-to-F system.
Now legislators need to step in to ensure the integrity of that system they established.
Online: https://www.gwcommonwealth.com/
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Aug. 18
The Picayune Item says voters should decide if Mississippi’s flag should be changed:
In the wake of the events in Virginia last weekend, the Magnolia state is being asked yet again to change its flag.
A vote was held on that same proposal 16 years ago, and was voted down with 456,113 voters choosing to keep the flag and 246,220 electing to change it. More voters participated in that referendum than voted in the 1999 governor’s election, according to the Jackson Free Press. That article states the reason the vote failed was due to the state being predominantly white.
This time, some of our state’s lawmakers are suggesting skipping the voting process, and just changing the flag, according to Associated Press coverage.
But our state’s governor and lieutenant governor have a different perspective.
“Hatred resides in a person’s heart, and I doubt the presence of an altered flag makes someone more hateful than they would have been,” Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves told the AP this week. “Mississippians voted to keep the state flag in 2001. If voters want to revisit the issue, they can, but a Legislature or governor should not unilaterally override the vote of the people.”
Rep. David Baria has a different view.
“My proposal is that the Legislature just man up and do it,” Baria said in the AP story. “I think that the tide is changing.”
What our state’s residents need to decide is if it is time to change our flag to remove the symbol. Regardless how you view the state flag, we need to take into consideration that white supremacist groups have adopted the battle flag contained in our state’s banner as a symbol for their separatist messages, and that draws a negative light on our state.
But, ultimately, if the flag is to be changed, it should not be done at the behest of the government, it should be done by a vote from the people.
Online: https://www.picayuneitem.com/
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Aug. 16
The Sun Herald on hot school buses and appropriate responses:
They are not cargo. They are not passengers. They are our children.
And if the buses they ride to and from school are too hot, that’s a problem.
We don’t know the temperatures inside the Hancock County School District buses. Some of the children say that even with air conditioning, even if the buses aren’t too hot, the lack of circulation is stifling.
The appropriate response to the children should have been to find out just how hot the buses are. School officials should have found out whether the buses are merely uncomfortable or downright dangerous.
But that’s not the response that Hancock County Middle School students got.
Instead, they got Director of Transportation Mike Ladner on the bus yelling at them, threatening to put them on an even hotter bus.
We know Ladner has a tough job just keeping drivers behind the wheel and the buses running on time. But that’s no excuse for the kind of outburst we saw on the video. Heat can be dangerous. Ladner should have been calmly explaining that he was doing everything he could to ensure the students’ safety. Instead, he flew off the handle.
No wonder the parents of those children are upset.
They say on at least one bus, the air conditioning is overwhelmed and doesn’t adequately cool the back of the bus. They say the problem isn’t so much the heat but the lack of circulation. They want the children to be able to open windows in the back of the bus to allow the air to flow through that part of the bus.
But, they say, when the children put the windows down, the driver pulls over and refuses to drive until the windows are back up. Yet, the driver has her window open and a fan on.
Now, after the Sun Herald ran a story on that particular bus and driver, we learn the parents complained about the bus last year.
That was after Hancock County School Superintendent Alan Dedeaux says he’s trying to work out the problem. We have to wonder why it hasn’t been resolved if he has known about it for years.
A bus that’s too hot is dangerous for the drivers and the students. Drivers have enough to deal with, given the traffic and the thought of being responsible for dozens of young people. They don’t need the added stress of heat, either.
This isn’t the first hot summer in Mississippi. We would expect school officials to have a better idea how to handle children, whether overheated, hot or pulling the bus driver’s leg. But standing in front of a bus full of middle school children and losing your cool helps no one.
Those who make the decisions in Hancock County School District should keep in the front of their minds these lines from the state’s Pupil Transportation Handbook:
“School administrators and school bus drivers must do everything possible to ensure safe operation of the school buses. Good attitudes, skills and judgment are necessary for the safety and welfare of the children.”
Online: https://www.sunherald.com/
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