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 Manning to State: Take Over Halifax Schools
by Tom Campbell
March 26, 2009
History will be made in a Wake County courtroom on April 29th. Unless something unexpected takes place between now and then, Superior Court Judge Howard Manning will order the state to take command of the Halifax County School system.
When the N.C. Supreme Court ruled in 2004 that every child is entitled to equal opportunity for a sound basic education, they remanded the case to Judge Manning to monitor results and ensure the law was followed. Anyone who knows Howdy Manning knows that once on the job he is relentless. Manning says the court not only has the mandate, but also the authority and responsibility to take whatever steps are necessary to ensure each child receives that sound basic education, even to the point of requiring the state to take over failing school systems.
Manning ordered the April hearing after assembling and reviewing end-of-grade test scores from all the state’s school systems. In Halifax, 60 percent of students were not proficient in math and 70 percent were not proficient in reading in grades 3-8. “This is irrefutable evidence of a complete breakdown in academics in Halifax County Public Schools,” Manning stated, calling the failure “academic genocide.” If students cannot read or do math at grade level in elementary and middle school they don’t stand a chance in high school and will likely drop out, as one-third of our ninth graders currently do, prior to graduating.
The fault is not the children’s, Manning told us. It’s the adults who have failed these children by not ensuring there was a competent, certified, well-trained teacher in every classroom teaching the standard course of study. Neither is there a well-trained and competent principal in every school. Those two factors, regardless of the economics or demographics of the county, are more important than most any other and, in the instance of Halifax Schools, they are painfully absent, which is why the judge ordered the hearing.
Manning is right to be angry that more than half the Halifax elementary and middle school students are not proficient in reading or math. What is mystifying is why we heard this outrage from a Superior Court Judge and not the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the State Board of Education, the school board association, the principals’ association, or NCAE? Even worse why aren’t parents screaming from the rooftops?
The upcoming hearing promises all the drama of a showdown at the O.K. corral. Never before has the state taken over a local school system, but this is exactly what is expected. We don’t want the courts running our schools, but even if we often ask too much of our educators the minimum and most essential requirement is that they provide that sound basic education. There are too many examples where they have failed to uphold rigor and accountability within their own ranks.
The education community should consider this a shot fired across the bow. There are other school systems with similar problems that should follow this hearing closely. The message is clear: If the education community can’t ensure every child has equal educational opportunities, Judge Manning will step into the breach. |
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