Kids Pay The Price?

The article below tells of a most absurd situation.
The actions of a small group of school administrators
may jeopardize the future of 53,000 mostly African
American students. But then how can students be
discredited because of the mismanagement of the
school district. Punish the managers not the children!


Kyanda Daniels, a junior, ran for miles with the Jonesboro High School track team the other day. When she was done, she stood above the stadium, gasping for air, and wondering what on Earth she was striving for.

"We're in school for nothing, basically," said Daniels, 17. "When I get out my homework, I think to myself, 'Man, why am I doing this?' What college is going to accept us? Who would give us a scholarship?"

Anxiety has engulfed students across Clayton County, a predominantly black area south of Atlanta, ever since they learned their school district could become the first in the nation since the 1960s to lose its accreditation.

Last month, the Southern Assn. of Colleges and Schools recommended that the district's accreditation be revoked Sept. 1 because of ethical violations by its board. The national accreditation commission will vote Saturday.

For the county's nearly 53,000 public school students, loss of accreditation would mean they would not be eligible for state scholarships or be accepted at many universities. They also would have difficulty transferring to other high schools.

Such a devastating scenario would also have symbolic significance for this once mostly white, rural county, where Margaret Mitchell set her 1936 novel, "Gone With The Wind," and where large numbers of blacks have settled as Atlanta has grown in recent years. The population is now 62% African American.

For many, the accreditation problem puts an embarrassing spin on the county's transition from white to black.

"It makes me mad," said Garrett Anderson, 36, a forklift operator who came to Jonesboro High the other afternoon to pick up his 14-year-old son, Garrius, after weight training. "How can nine adults rob so many kids of their dreams?" According to the report, Clayton County Public Schools' nine-member school board is so "dysfunctional" that it has had difficulty recruiting a superintendent, teachers and bus drivers. It accuses board members of nepotism, conflicts of interest, micromanagement, lax fiscal responsibility and failure to audit school attendance.

This Article Continues Here





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