Madison public schools pursue the same old same old!

Did you do a Danny Thomas coffee spit-spray over your breakfast newspaper this morning? “Anti-racism is among public’s top priorities.” So reads the Wisconsin State Journal headline over the Madison school district’s search for yet another superintendent. 

Not improving declining test scores. Not addressing the exodus of students in Wisconsin’s fastest-growing city. Not keeping schools safe from fist fights between rival sets of kids and their parents. Not arresting spiraling tax increases or reducing spending to avoid a projected $30 million budget deficit. Not being more transparent instead of a place where accountability goes to die. Not ending the preoccupation with diversity, equity, and inclusion in place of actual education. Especially not that! No, just the opposite!

There are more schools that need renaming! Send black educators to re-education camp for not being sufficiently anti-racist!

Where are ‘families for education’?

How does the newspaper’s education reporter know that anti-racism is among the public’s top priorities when choosing a new super? Because that’s who shows up at school board meetings. That’s who showed up at Tuesday’s 10-03-23 listening session. Who gets quoted? A Freedom Inc. social justice warrior. Someone from Families for Justice.

“Families for Justice … work[s] to disrupt and dismantle racism and white privilege in our school systems and communities.”

Who is conducting the superintendent search? A Chicago-based consultancy that describes itself as “a woman-of-color-led consulting services organization.” Would it surprise that its CEO, who describes herself first and foremost as “a black Latina,” would tell the Madison’s finest daily newspaper that (in the reporter’s words) “hiring a superintendent with an anti-racism focus has been a consistent theme in the firm’s listening sessions so far.” (BTW: Not one white man on her management team. H/T Cieslewicz)

Which is why the Head Groundskeeper, against his better judgment, is attending tonight’s listening season at 6 p.m. today 10-04-23 at the Memorial high school that used to be named after a Founding Father but now is named after a Woman of Color. (If I’m not back by tomorrow morning tell the Lovely Lisa I love her.) We’re also taking its on-line survey, and (wouldn’t you know!) among its multiple choices, you can choose to identify yourself from:

• nine categories of race,
• six of gender, and
• seven of sexual orientation! 

Blaska’s Cheat Sheet: To how important is “maintaining a focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion?” we checked “Not at all important.”

How important are Madison’s public schools to YOU?