MEEKS: Will it really be an Opportunity School District?

Recently I became a member of the board of directors for the Interfaith Children's Network, an organization whose mission is to make life safer and better for all children. At a recent meeting I learned about the Opportunity School District Bill. "This bill (Senate Bill 133) authorizes the governor to appoint a superintendent who would be confirmed by the Senate to run the Opportunity School District after it assumes the supervision, management and operation of public elementary and secondary schools that are failing. There can be up to 20 schools a year added to the district, but it cannot have more than 100 schools under its supervision at a given time.

"The OSD superintendent will have the authority to waive certain State Board of Education rules, regulations, policies and procedures as it deems necessary. An opportunity school will remain under the supervision of the OSD for a minimum of five consecutive years. But if a school receives a grade above F for three years, it will be removed from the District."

This will be on the ballot for all of us to vote to approve or disapprove in November 2016. It has a bit of a deceptive name in that it is being called an Opportunity School District and the schools are going to be called opportunity schools. But, actually all of us should be asking the question, "opportunity for whom?" Thus far I have failed to see how children who are in so-called failing schools will benefit by a takeover of their public school by private educational corporations, which is a part of the plan that is not being widely discussed.

A bit of insight can be gained from looking at a similar measure in the New Orleans school system, which is in a basic state of shambles at the present time. Parents are not happy about the quality of education their children are receiving and the lottery system that was put in place has caused considerable problems.

Many of the former teachers were fired when the school system was privatized, and in too many cases they were replaced by untrained teachers, some of whom came through the Teach for America Program. Children with special needs were not provided the necessary services, and when parents fought to get those services they were often quite dissatisfied with the quality.

Public schools need to remain in the hands of the public and not in the hands of a governor-appointed superintendent and private educational corporations that usually are not a part of the community and have no stake in what happens beyond the lucrative contracts that can be obtained from states like ours.

At some point all of us who believe in public education are going to have to take whatever stands are necessary to ensure that our schools become more successful in educating our children. In order to have the quality of education that our children deserve, we do need resources, but those needed resources have to extend beyond money.

While teachers need to be better compensated, there has to be more commitment on the part of parents, churches and teachers. It can no longer be acceptable for children to pass from one grade to another without having the basic skills that are required to be successful at the next level of their education.

All of us who care about public education and the children whom it serves always need to pay close attention to what is on the ballot, and we need to be clear about the way in which this bill and any other legislation that concerns the welfare of our children is crafted.

It is smart to use language that obscures the intention as this bill does, and we need to make sure that everyone understands what SB 133 is really about well before November 2016.

This column by Catherine Meeks, Ph.D., appears twice monthly. Meeks is also a contributing writer for the Huffington Post. Email her at kayma53@att.net.

This story was originally published December 15, 2015 at 5:47 PM with the headline "MEEKS: Will it really be an Opportunity School District? ."