Atlanta school teachers ‘stole the hopes and dreams of innocent kids’

OPINION - The Atlanta cheating scandal is about real life, a real 'wire' -- real children and all too real consequences...

Goldie Taylor

Apr 3, 2013

On Monday evening, I joined the inaugural edition of MSNBC’s All In with Chris Hayes to express my displeasure with the spectacle now known as The Atlanta Cheating Scandal. I did so with a profound love for my city and an ultimate concern for the families who live and work here. Frankly, I have been stunned by degree of blame-shifting.

Without a doubt “No Child Left Behind,” enacted by the George W. Bush administration, seeded the landscape for criminal behavior. And while I am telling the truth, “Race to the Top” fortified that minefield with explosive incentives that blew up on our children. Both were well-intentioned policies, to be sure. But Atlanta is not alone.

The student casualties number larger than the so-called “thousand points of light” — the shadow of impropriety casting a dark pall over a noble profession. An audit, reported by the Arizona Daily Star, labeled El Paso schools as “diploma mills.” In the wake of Michelle Rhee’s controversial tenure, many remain skeptical of Washington, DC’s academic test scores. “Waiting for Superman” was a great movie, but I am not buying it. According to a study reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, every quarter of this country has been impacted by these federal policies. There is a term for this: unindicted co-conspirators.

Fact: We over-test our children using superficial measures of accomplishment. There are better ways to gauge academic proficiency.

Fact: Pubic education policies that financially reward educators can and have led to disastrous outcomes.

But fact: This is about integrity.

“That is not how education should work,” current superintendant Errol Davis told the New York Times last February. “If you create the right kind of system, run by the right kind of people, tests scores will take care of themselves.”

My daughter will, hopefully, join Davis’ Atlanta teaching team one day. She has wanted to become a teacher nearly every day of her life, investing the full of herself in educational and in-class training. I am proud of her and remember fondly the countless Atlanta Public School teachers who inspired her. I ran into her elementary school librarian recently. “How’s my little girl?” the now elderly woman shouted. “Your little girl is graduating from Brown this spring, thanks to you. She wants to be a teacher.”

Her eyes welled with tears. And mine too. Nothing, but nothing can replace the value of a good teacher. Her name is Carolyn George.

I have heard a litany of excuses that range from blaming high stakes testing to intimidating work environments. Some lay the blame on the low teacher compensation, even asking me what I personally would do if my livelihood were on the line. Answer: I’ve been a soup line, homeless, my children cold and crying. Make no mistake this is not about “entrapment.” The indicted did not steal a bushel of oranges. They stole one of our most precious resources: the promise, hopes and dreams of innocent school children.

Thank heavens there are more people Carolyn George in the world than there are like Donald Bullock and Christopher Waller.

Goldie Taylor is the editor of The Goldie Taylor Project and an MSNBC contributor. Follow her on Twitter at @GoldieTaylor.