MUST READ!!! PARENTS AND COMMUNITY PUSH BACK AGAINST KANSAS CITY STAR OVER FUTURE OF ACADÉMIE LAFAYETTE!!!

TKC NOTE: Tonight we feature a MUST READ COLUMN CHALLENGING MAINSTREAM MEDIA on a charter school controversy continuing within the Kansas City Public Schools. Checkit: 

KC Star Widens Racial Divide Over KC Schools

The Kansas City Star continues to deflect attention away from the core issues facing local public education by debasing minority families and leaders with inaccurate characterizations. What makes these families the target of several Star articles and editorials misrepresenting their positions and the whole cloth facts? These families bravely oppose the expensive and exclusionary school model known as the KCPS partnership.

At the last KCPS board meeting, stakeholders from Kansas City’s minority community addressed the board. The speakers followed board policy by applying and being approved to speak 5 days in advance of the meeting. The Reverend Dr. Wallace Hartsfield II spoke last. He appealed to the board to desist its clandestine negotiations with a local school management group. He urged transparency and accountability. At the conclusion of his remarks, the attendees, who actually have children in the district, rose quietly and waited for the board to respond to Dr. Hartfield’s request. The act appeared to borrow a page from Ghandi’s playbook on passive resistance.

This weekend a Star editorial writer categorized the group’s presence with these incendiary words: “Outbursts,” “opponents threatened,” “disrupt” and “handcuffs the district.” The Star accused the group of taking the district back to “painful days of adult bickering and infighting when no one seemed to care about what was best for the kids’ academic success.”

But wait!

The patronizing Star has a final accusation for these concerned constituents:

"If opponents would work with district and Académie Lafayette officials for the children, the district could overcome its awful, segregated history and find a solution to satisfy everyone."

So, now the families who were systematically shutout from the merger talks are the ones who won’t work with the district and, according to the Star, are the ones prohibiting the district from overcoming segregation.

Uh?

Convoluted reasoning aside, this is a clear attempt to “blame the victim.” Time and time again, stakeholders have sought transparent and open discussion regarding the merger. Each time, the district and merger supporters refused. While at the same time, several KCPS board members and administrators have spent over a year working out the details with potential backers.

It’s a shame to see highly-informed, minority leaders, like Dr. Hartsfeld, barred from the talks, but he has been. As has anyone who does not support the merger. District representatives have actually warned key supporters against speaking with anyone not aligned with the aspects of the merger. And so, the merger continues to be hashed out behind closed doors amongst a privileged few, none of them from east of Troost.
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