The Board of Trustees of the Meridian, Mississippi, public school district voted unanimously to terminate an agreement with Freedom Rock Christian Fellowship Church because the church planned to open a charter school.
“Freedom Rock is among a dozen groups statewide that have filed applications for the first charter schools in Mississippi. The Meridian church and its parent organization New Destiny Urban Community Development Corporation have submitted a petition for the New Destiny Charter Academy, also referred to as “The Academy.” The Academy is a two-phase project, which, in the first two years – SY2014-2014 and SY2015-2016 – will serve students from K-3, and beginning in SY2016-17 will begin additionally serving grades 4-5.
The school district and church entered into an agreement in October 2013 for operation of Freedom Rock’s Camp Destiny after school program, which was awarded a $1.7 million 21st Century Grant by the Mississippi Department of Education, with the money to be disbursed over 4.5 years.
“The Department of Education does provide those type of grants, and they are awarded to organizations that have significant relationships with school districts,” Taylor said.
Should Freedom Rock establish a charter school in the district, that would put them in competition with MPSD, Taylor said, adding that the establishment of a charter school in the local school district would mean a loss of state funding and educators for MPSD.
“For example, if a charter school came into our district and they were just mildly successful and were able to attract 100 of our students, the Meridian Public School District would lose 100 students, $1 million dollars, 15 teachers and we would have to close a school building. None of our expenses would go down, we would just lose that much money and teachers,” he said.
Common sense: The school board was not prepared to harm its public schools for the sake of a charter school run by the church.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Every victory counts
Good reporting on political alliances and horse-trading on ed reform, and how “liberal” ed reformers in Louisiana ended up backing vouchers in order to get the rest of the agenda through:
“Two years ago, the governor’s influence could be felt everywhere. He left absolutely no doubt as to where he stood, and having positioned true believers such as Carter and Sen. Conrad Appel in key leadership positions, he used every ounce of his influence to push lawmakers to adopt the far-reaching package his office developed intact, with little amending.
Thus, the Legislature adopted measures to limit teacher tenure, bolster parent choice among public schools and increase options such as online education. It also greatly expanded private school vouchers with limited accountability — a plank that some reformers privately admit they accepted in order to get their priorities through. That measure has run into serious legal troubles, but Jindal has trumpeted it as he’s tried to raise his national profile among conservatives.”
http://theadvocate.com/columnists/8807893-55/stephanie-grace-for-common-core
They accepted all of Jindal’s reforms with no pushback at all, because they got charters.
The far Right who seek to completely privatize public schools got everything they wanted in exchange for the “liberal” wish, which was charters. Jindal absolutely played liberal ed reformers.
Public schools, as usual, are the big losers in these intra-ed reform machinations and political trades.
You know what you won’t find in this agenda? Improving existing public schools. Those schools and kids weren’t even a concern, apparently, when all the adults were lining up to get their pet ed reform policies and programs from Bobby Jindal.
So should Catholic Charities stop providing mental health, drop out prevention, and nutrition services via collaborations with local school districts because the local school district competes with parish schools?
The parish is private. It is absurd to create another school in a district when the infrastructure already exists. It is an absolute waste of tax money to split schools apart in this way. It is just plain stupid to open another school funded by taxpayers when a district already exists.
“Academy”… how ironic. That’s what a lot of the whites only private schools – opened to avoid newly integrated public schools – were called. Same old story.
So if the district fired 15 teachers and closed one school building, none of the expenses would go down? That can’t possibly be true. Let’s have a wee bit of critical thinking here.
Fifteen teachers and one building after losing 100 kids?
Well, he can hardly close the school immediately. He’s the public school. He has to provide a space if and when the children return or move back and forth between the charter and the public school.
He has a duty and legal obligation the charter school doesn’t have.
What if he has 80 leave for the charter and 40 of those return the following year or even quarter or semester? I don’t even know how long he’d have to keep capacity. Five years? What if the charter school closes completely? Just no room at the public school, sorry, you won’t be getting your state-guaranteed education?
Yes, it shows how absolutely ridiculous it has become.
Why would any parent want to leave these schools? Keep up the good work Superintendent Dr. Alvin Taylor!
STATE – 2013
District School Letter Grade Growth 4 Year Graduation Rate
Meridian *District Level D NOT MET 61.7
Meridian Crestwood Elem F NOT MET
Meridian George W Carver Mid F NOT MET
Meridian Magnolia Middle D NOT MET
Meridian Meridian High C MET 61.7
Meridian Northwest Jr High D NOT MET
Meridian Oakland Hts Elem D NOT MET
Meridian Parkview Elem F NOT MET
Meridian Poplar Springs Elem B MET
Meridian T J Harris Elem D NOT MET
Meridian West Hills Elem D NOT MET
How is the student performance the super’s fault. I sent my children to school and never once considered their performance connected to the super. Who else should they blame? The Governor?
Here’s why they may need a charter school (not that i support it 100%) I’m Just interested…
Meridian *District Level D 138 NOT MET
Meridian Crestwood Elem F 127 NOT MET
Meridian George W Carver Mid F 123 NOT MET
Meridian Magnolia Middle D 138 NOT MET
Meridian Meridian High C 143 MET
Meridian Northwest Jr High D 147 NOT MET
Meridian Oakland Hts Elem D 137 NOT MET
Meridian Parkview Elem F 130 NOT MET
Meridian Poplar Springs Elem B 197 MET
Meridian T J Harris Elem D 134 NOT MET
Meridian West Hills Elem D 136 NOT MET
62% graduation rate.
When you are not meeting your growth goals, have a D and F average, shouldn’t you look for alternatives? Just asking… Looks like the current K-3 students are not getting what they need.
I ask sincerely – if no charter school, what is the alternative?
Thanks! I enjoy your posts..
It looks like they turned down THIS charter school, not all charter schools.
It also looks like the church itself has only been open since 2005, so perhaps they thought the church expanding into publicly-funded education was premature or ill-advised.
http://msbusiness.com/blog/2014/03/17/twelve-groups-petitioning-charter-school-authorization/
Yeah, open a phony charter that will fake graduation rates. I’ve worked in two and know exactly how they work. They do not provide a better education. That is laughable. But, they do provide a great deal of money to the CEO and family. The teachers aren’t any different. What is different? Nothing. A total scam.
You should look at Detroit. They opened a ton of charters and they have low test scores. So now, what is the alternative to the alternative? Hmmm? But hey, someone will get rich.
According to ed reformers, “the government” will move out of the education and sector and relinquish to “non profits”
Which is a flat-out lie, of course. They know damn well a lot of these schools aren’t “non profits”
The goal is to get rid of publicly-run schools. My school. Your school. In the business parlance they parrot (but don’t understand) they’re “winding public schools down”
Which NONE of them have the spine to RUN on, of course. If they ran on ending public ed they’d lose, so they simply don’t admit it.
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/next-for-neerav-nsno-and-nola
What are the demographics of Meridian? How are school grades determined? What are the demographics of individual schools? Why did Meridian Poplar Springs score so much higher that anyone else? How do you explain the higher performance in the high school?
Also from critical thinking: why would losing 100 students mean losing 15 teachers? Do they really have one teacher for every 7 kids?
If they have to close a school, they lose that staff.
I’m still learning about this.. If a charter school opens, I assume that the students that may go to that school won’t totally deplete a school causing it to close? I mean I could see a class of say 20-30 lose 3-5 students in each class, but would that cause a whole school to close and lose that many staff members? That doesn’t seem to make sense… Please help me understand.
Thanks!
The example was an oversimplification of a complex issue to make a point. If the district loses 100 students, it doesn’t matter if they are evenly distributed across grades (which they won’t be). The lost funding dictates consolidation and redrawing of attendance boundaries to create the savings equivalent to the lost funding. Perhaps a few teachers or staff members are redeployed, but class sizes will have to increase as much as possible to take in the remaining students before new classes are created. Bottom line is you have to cut your budget to cover the lost funding. Major cuts are going to come from staffing.
Could or would they apply this common sense. Then who would need charters?
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