Yesterday Georgians voted for state superintendent of schools. The Network for Public Education endosed Valarie Wilson, a former school board member from Decatur. After surveying all the candidates, NPE concluded that Wilson would be a strong leader for public schools and children.
In a crowded field, Wilson finished first with 32%, and will be in a runoff with the runner-up, who received 26% and supports the choice-loving conservative establishment. Choice in the South promotes segregation.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Choice in the North promotes segregation as well.
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When I checked last night, it appeared that the Republican candidates (with 9 running) had far more total votes than the Democrats (6 running). I think we really need Hunt to lose in his GOP run-off.
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Wilson is a full-throated supporter of Common Core.
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Pretty much everything education related in the South promotes segregation…public or private. My experience living there…city demographics were 68% African-American…public schools were nearly 100% African-American…private schools were all established in the late ’60’s and 100% Caucasian…
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Wow, where did you live? I have lived in numerous places in the South, and that is not my experience at all.
The idea that Southern whites will do anything to keep their kids from sitting next to brown-skinned kids is a nefarious myth. As with anywhere else in the country, middle-class Southerners want their children in safe, high-quality school environments and are willing to pay higher taxes to get that. Thus, you have places like Cullman County, AL (almost all-white) where you have a relatively affluent, high-performing Cullman City school system, and a relatively poor, low-performing county school system. The city folks segregated themselves, not from black people, but rather from lower-class, uneducated white people who don’t care much about school quality and are unwilling to pay for it. It’s just that when this happens elsewhere and the poor folks happen to be black, intellectually lazy people come along and slap the “racism” label on it.
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While you certainly can find highly segregated schools and districts in the South, segregation is not noticeably worse than in other parts of the country. In fact the suburban Atlanta schools and districts are on average considerably less segregated than in other places I’ve lived previously such as suburban Boston and Philadelphia. Having county-wide districts makes it more difficult for people to segregate themselves along very narrow lines of race and income than is the case in places that have very geographically small districts like the ones in suburban Philly for example.
As for Valerie Wilson, she may not win the run-off and has no chance of winning in the general election if she does make it that far. I voted in the Republican primary entirely because of the State Super election. Fortunately none of the worst of the R candidates made it to the run-off.
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Ms. Ravitch:
Yesterday’s election involving Wilson was the Democratic primary. If she prevails against Alisha Morgan in the runoff (which I hope she does…Alisha Morgan is a so-called “choice” advocate and needs to be defeated), Wilson will then go against the Republican nominee.
Georgia is still a fairly red statewide. The November election will be the real challenge for Wilson. But let’s hope she beats Morgan first.
Some helpful information:
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/may/20/going-bed-dreams-runoffs-running-my-head-appears-b/
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/get-schooled/2014/may/21/repubican-race-school-chief-experience-mattered/
*The good thing is that Georgia voters rejected a bunch of non-educators and voted instead for candidates with extensive education experience.
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Diane: Will there be an endorse for Superintendent for Public Instruction for CA? Definitely not Marshall Tuck, but I like Lydia Gutierrez. What do you think?
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David,
I don’t make endorsements without listening to the board of the Network for Public Education.
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