{"id":1462,"date":"2011-09-30T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/results-of-pefs-plans-for-chattanoogahamilton-co-schools.html"},"modified":"2011-09-30T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-30T13:00:00","slug":"results-of-pefs-plans-for-chattanoogahamilton-co-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/2011\/09\/results-of-pefs-plans-for-chattanoogahamilton-co-schools.html","title":{"rendered":"Results of PEF’s plans for Chattanooga\/Hamilton Co. schools?"},"content":{"rendered":"The partnership between\nPublic Education Foundation<\/a>, headed by Steven H. Prigohzy, and\nthe consolidated public schools in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Tennessee\ncontinues.\nSo, how have all those great plans for improving education worked out?\n

\nFirst, let’s look at PEF’s own\n\nHistory webpage<\/a>,\n

\n\n<\/a>\nIn 1994 Chattanooga city voters voted to turn responsibility for education\nover to the county, requiring the two systems to merge. At the request\nof the Hamilton County School Board, PEF surveyed 3,300 area residents\nand convened 135 community members \u2013 educators, civic and government\nleaders, residents, parents and students \u2013 to help shape the vision\nfor the new school system. When the newly consolidated system emerged\nin 1997, the partnership with PEF continued.\n<\/blockquote>\nInterestingly, Prigohzy is no longer listed as board or staff with PEF.\nMaybe we should ask them why….\n

\nSo, what came of all this consolidation in Chattanooga?\nIt must be great, considering PEF’s Board Approved\n\n2005-2010 Strategic Plan for Great Public Schools<\/a>,\n

\nIn the years 2005 \u2013 2010, Hamilton County Public Schools will meet or\nexceed national benchmarks for excellence with continuous, measurable\nimprovement in reading, mathematics, and in the numbers of students who\nprogress smoothly from grade to grade, graduate from high school and go\non to college or career-path jobs. Because of this sustained progress,\nHamilton County will be recognized among the very best mid-sized public\nschool systems in America. The community will be justifiably proud\nand more and more people will understand and support the investment\nnecessary for great public schools. The Public Education Foundation\nwill be instrumental in these achievements as a champion of school\ntransformation and will devote its expertise and fundraising capabilities\nto the Hamilton County Public Schools as a catalyst for bold ideas that\ncreate real and positive change.\n<\/blockquote>\nSounds great!\n

\nBut an outside study shows a different result.\nKontji Anthony wrote for WMCTV, 23 January 2011,\n\nStudy offers glimpse at possible impact of school consolidation<\/a>,\n\n\n

\nA study led by Rhodes College professor Marcus Pohlmann, Ph.D. offers\na unique glimpse of the possible impacts of merging Memphis and Shelby\nCounty Schools.\n

\nThe July 2001 study, “School Consolidation: State of Tennessee,” looks\nat the impact of school mergers in Chattanooga, Knoxville, and Nashville.\n

\nEducational disruption appeared to happen outside the classroom in\nChattanooga and Knoxville, but the Nashville transition was smooth.\n

\nWhen it came to test scores, Chattanooga’s test scores caused lower\naverages in both school systems, but test scores improved in the other\nmergers.\n

\nAs far as flight is concerned, private school enrollment increased in\nall three scenarios.\n

\nAnd when it came to race, the Chattanooga merger left less whites,\nand more blacks in public schools.\n<\/blockquote>\nEducational disruption outside the classroom,\nlower test scores in the classroom,\nmore racial segregation in the public schools,\nand bright flight to private schools:\nthose were the actual results of PEF’s plans in Chattanooga and Hamilton County\nTennessee.\nIs that what we want in Valdosta and Lowndes County, Georgia?\n

\nIt gets better:\n

\nAccording to the study, in all three situations, teachers’ jobs, tenure,\npension, and benefits were protected and their salaries increased.\n<\/blockquote>\nWhich is good for the teachers, but means taxes went up, without\nimprovement in educational results.\n
\nEnrollment increased in the Chattanooga and Knoxville mergers, and\ndecreased in the Nashville consolidation.\n

\nSchool unification in Chattanooga and Nashville yielded more state and\nfederal dollars, but the Knoxville merger brought in less money.\n<\/blockquote>\nMore money won’t come from state or federal sources in the local case here.\n

\nMore about costs:\n

\nCosts increased in all three scenarios, but the study indicates the\nhigher layout would have happened with or without consolidation.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo consolidation didn’t save money.\n

\nWhere did the increaseed financial layouts come from?\n

\nAnd then there are taxes. The study shows taxes dropped for Chattanooga\nresidents, but increased in the county. The Knoxville increases were not\nall related to school consolidation. Meanwhile, Nashville and Davidson\nCounty taxes increased as a direct result of school consolidation.\n<\/blockquote>\nSo county residents here don’t get to vote, but taxes would go up.\n

\nTo summarize the results of the advice Steve Prigohzy’s PEF gave\nthe consolidated school system in Chattanooga and Hamilton County:\n

    \n
  • \nThere was educational disruption outside the classroom.\n
  • \nTest scores went down in the classroom.\n
  • \nThe schools overall became more racially segregated.\n
  • \nBright flight went to private schools.\n
  • \nPublic school teachers were better off,\nbut educational results did not improve accordingly.\n
  • \nPublic school costs went up.\n
  • \nState and federal funds paid part of the difference, but we can’t expect that.\n
  • \nTaxes went up for county residents, even though they didn’t get to vote\nfor or against consolidation.\n<\/ul>\nAnd the former president of PEF,\nthe president at the time of that consolidation,\nis the main paid expert hired by CUEE to advise them on their attempt\nto force school consolidation here.\n

    \nTo be continued….\n

    \n-jsq\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The partnership between Public Education Foundation, headed by Steven H. Prigohzy, and the consolidated public schools in Chattanooga and Hamilton County, Tennessee continues. So, how have all those great plans for improving education worked out? First, let’s look at PEF’s own History webpage, In 1994 Chattanooga city voters voted to turn responsibility for education over […]","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[97,40,1376,14,15,49,2,19,3,332],"tags":[598,1636,3734,8829,8705,1484,8701,368,7,3735,3733,3736,1486,3668,8789,1635,6],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activism","category-community","category-cuee","category-economy","category-education","category-elections","category-government","category-history","category-transparency","category-vlcoc","tag-chattanooga","tag-consolidation","tag-csas","tag-cuee","tag-education","tag-election","tag-georgia","tag-hamilton-county","tag-lowndes-county","tag-magnet-school","tag-paideia","tag-public-education-foundation","tag-referendum","tag-steve-prigohzy","tag-tennessee","tag-unification","tag-valdosta"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p585fK-nA","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.l-a-k-e.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}