Charter school leader spurs controversyBy Diette Courrégé (Contact)
The Post and Courier
Sunday, July 20, 2008
The Charleston Charter School for Math & Science has been one of the most divisive issues to come before the county school board this past year, and it looks as if it will be a critical and debated subject in the upcoming school board election. The discussion involving the school has been less about whether it should be allowed to open and more about the money and resources the school district should give to it, and potentially other charter schools. Some also have been concerned about whether the school will have a racially diverse student body; as of now, at least 51 percent of the school’s population is a racial minority. The latest dust up tied to the school are accusations that one of the charter school’s organizers, Park Dougherty, has misrepresented the truth about incumbent school board member, Toya Hampton Green, in an effort to rally support for two other candidates, Robert Russell and Marvin Stewart. Some also say Dougherty has resorted to “low down, dirty politics” and “playing the race card” by pushing two candidates for one seat. Dougherty says his motivation in soliciting support for two candidates was to see a robust debate for the downtown school board seat. He described Green as “an enemy of charter schools” and says he didn’t know who was going to be in the school board race until the filing deadline this week. Race wasn’t a factor in his decision to help two candidates, he said. “I live downtown and the Charleston Charter School for Math & Science is downtown, and (Green) has fought against it,” he said. “We’re hoping that future Charleston County School Boards will be more friendly to charter schools.” Read more in tomorrow's editions of The Post and Courier. |
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Comments
This article has 2 comment(s)
Posted by belovedbliff on July 20, 2008 at 11:57 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Would somebody explain to me what is meant by racial minority? Asian students, biracial kids? I want to know how many black students are going?
Posted by mlm on July 20, 2008 at 2:17 p.m. (Suggest removal)
In answer to a previous question, at least 43 percent of the charter school for math and science would be described as African-American. For your information, less than 18 percent of Buist Academy students would meet that description. Toya Green appears quite satisfied with that, but the Post and Courier has chosen to overlook that fact.
The author of this piece, Diette Courrege, appears to be doing a lot of misrepresenting herself. The teaser said a charter school official lied. To the best of my knowledge I can see from these reports that no one from the charter school has been found to have lied to anyone. It would appear that the people who really lied in this case are Diette Courrege, Barbara Williams and Toya Green. Ms. Courrege lies when she gives selective and misleading information in her reports about downtown education issues. She more often than not dutifully reprints CCSD news releases as if they where her own reports. Ms. Williams lied when she gave her ringing endorsement of Ms. Green because Ms. Green was said to support charter schools in her lead up to the last election. Ms. Green lied when she said she would be available to District 20...after the election...and would support the charter school for math and science. Ms. Green lied on both counts.
If Ms. Courrege is going to do a hatchet job on those in favor of school choices, she should act her age. She should know that race card politics have become passé, but then again her employer isn't exactly known for being up with the times either. I believe she was told this isn't even a story anymore by at least one of the persons mentioned in her hack job of a report.
Come on Ms. Courrege, this is 2008, not 1961. Is the newspaper staff that hard up looking for something to balance the flag controversy? The truth is that in this day and age, neither issue has any relevance. The fact remains, almost anyone could be a better than Toya Green. She's not only the enemy of charter schools, she's the enemy of any one wanting access to quality public education among those living downtown...Black, White and everyone in between.