The JPEF is a local organization dedicated to the
improvement of local education, a pretty laudable goal. To help facilitate this
they have galvanized many of the city’s most influential citizens and held a
series of one on one conversation with locals that culminated in a congress of
sorts held earlier this month where they outlined what they believe the city’s
education priorities should be. Superintendent Vitti and several school board
members were there as well. They crafted a community agreement and have been
working towards a goal of 2000 ratifications ever since. Mayor Brown among
others even signed it.
One of their goals is a quality teacher in charge of every
class and where that sounds great it plays into the narrative that our
classrooms are staffed with substandard teachers just marking time until they
can retire or collecting an easy pay check. I vehemently disagree with this notion,
but okay lets move along.
So here we have this organization apparently supported by
the superintendent, the mayor and a whole host of influential citizens, in a
city of nearly a million people and some three weeks after they had their
meeting attended by around 200 people they still haven’t reached their goal of
2000 signers. How is that? Do people in Jacksonville not care about education?
The answer to that is a partial yes, we do have too many
absentee citizens that either can’t be bothered or who really don’t care and
that’s a shame because the better our education system is, the better the city
is and the better their lives will be but I think it is more than that too. I
think there is some guilt by association, that turns people off, involved as
well.
I have not signed the community agreement and have no plans
to and it’s not because of their slight to teachers. It is because of their
association with Gary Chartrand. Mr. Chartrand is the chair of the state board
of education and one of the biggest foes to public education around. He went
from top fifty in grocery store news to running our schools and is not swayed
by evidence or facts and prefers instead to go with his gut. He doesn’t think
teachers are professionals, he believes in race-based goals and is on record
saying there is no evidence smaller classes work, when there is tons of
evidence that says it does. Oh and he’s on the JPEF board as well.
Mr. Chartrand is not interested in improving our public
schools, no he is interested in blowing our public school system up and I can’t
help but think in this city of almost a million there are a lot of people like
me who disagree and since he is associated with the JPEF struggle with
supporting them and their goals as laudable as some might be.
To find out more about the JPEF, here is a link to their
site. http://jaxpef.org/
Chris -- Thanks so much for the comments. I wanted to make sure that you and your readers knew that we set the goal of obtaining 2,000 ratifications by March 1. We’re now nearly 1,500 ratifications in, and feeling very confident that we’ll blow past the goal over the next month.
ReplyDeleteAs to your other points, I would encourage your readers to check out the Community Agreement themselves at links.jaxpef.org/ratify and decide for themselves if they can support its provisions. It represents the collective work of thousands of hours of citizen input and deliberation, and I think does a very good job of capturing the views of the community about what needs to improve in our public schools.
For those that want more information, I’d encourage them to take a look at our most recent policy brief at www.jaxpef.org/media/758135/jpef_policy_brief_4_web_optimized.pdf. It provides a thorough and comprehensive look at the process and feedback from the community. Another great way to learn more is to tune in Thursday night at 8 p.m., when WJCT will air “The Power of One,” a documentary about the ONE by ONE campaign and the students who inspired the effort.
Finally, as to your concerns about our Board of Directors, I’d ask that members of our community take a look at the entire list at www.jaxpef.org/about-us/board-of-directors.aspx. They are a tremendous group of 18 talented individuals, diverse in perspective, race and occupation, and provide immeasurable hours to ensuring that all students in Duval County have access to universally high-quality public schools. You could not ask for a group of more passionate advocates for public education.
While I do not agree with your analysis of the campaign, I appreciate our past conversations and your passion. I look forward to a great many debates in the future and hope you reconsider supporting the Community Agreement, which has the potential to do so much good for our community. As always, if you or your readers ever have questions, I’m always available at trey@jaxpef.org.