Everybody is for progress but nobody wants to change.
Schools across Coahoma County are quick to call your Clarksdale Press Register when they have a new program, activity or offering for their students – and we never want that to stop.
This community wants to see the new and improved school tools that our school districts are using to educate our children.
But that desire for innovation and adapting to a changing world seems to stop when it comes to adults employed by these districts.
Your Clarksdale Press Register has watched for several years as Coahoma County, Clarksdale and the Charter School grapple with the “Third Grade Reading Gate” that seeks to make sure third-graders can read at a third grade level before sending them on to the fourth grade. The goal is to make sure no child ever graduates from local schools unable to read and that is a goal that must be met.
So when this community sees a news story in last week’s paper that says 67-percent of third graders in city schools are unable to read at a third grade level it realizes something is very wrong with the system.
Education is too important to this community for us to get mired down in providing something close to a government jobs program for people who can’t seem to get the job done. Teachers who are not producing should be shown the door.
Our schools are getting failing grades, our students are getting failing grades and Clarksdale and Coahoma County are suffering for it.
And let’s not blame it on our students. It is teachers, staff and administrators who have failed.
We urge Clarksdale Municipal School District Trustees to let Superintendent Toya Mathews make those hard choices. We urge Clarksdale Collegiate Public Charter School leaders to get behind Superintendent Amanda Johnson. We urge Coahoma County Trustees to stay vigilant and let Superintendent Virginia Young keep the momentum.
Failing schools are the elephant in the room in this community. We must find new ways, and new people who can do the work and address our failing school systems.
It’s not about adults and jobs. It’s about children – our children – and the future of Clarksdale and Coahoma County.
