To the Editor:
Your front-page story of Wednesday, Oct. 10, 2018, concerning Clarksdale and Coahoma County Schools, leaves absolutely no doubt that a change in the way we do business in education is not only necessary, but imperative.
It is abundantly apparent that new leadership is needed and required to develop and implement more effective district policy and programs to encourage staff, teachers and students to take more meaningful advantage of existing educational opportunity, while planning for something better.
Have we reached the point where we need to ask our educational leaders, both county and city, to lock themselves in a classroom and remain there until a more effective plan for teaching our children is found and implemented?
While looking at the overall condition of education in Mississippi, certain questions arise that should be explored and corrected immediately.
(1) Too many black students in Mississippi public schools are graduating reading at seventh- and eighth-grade levels.
(2) Nepotism, the practice among those with power or influence, of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. While the term originated with the assignment of nephews to important positions by Catholic popes and bishops, the practice is still very much alive in our schools and political offices.
(3) The sad condition of educators basking in the non-existent rays of their own self-importance, while unknowingly having been reduced to floating ancillary apex status, by an educational system designed to fail.
(4) Too often do we forget that, as taxpayers, the community hires personnel to perform certain jobs of work -- this includes helping children to succeed in academics, to develop good character and to become good and productive citizens of the community.
Frankly, black students were more advanced academically prior to civil rights than they are now… what on earth happened?
Dr. King must be quite sad over our contemporary performance!
Thanks for your story!
Rory Tate
Ruleville
