Liars and Teachers and Judges..oh my!

Cheaters.  Villains. Criminals.  Deceptors.  Terms you would not think would be synonymous with teachers and other educators huh?      Well now you can add FELON to the list of adjectives being thrown at the educators in the Atlanta Public School (APS) scandal.  This tawdry tale began almost four years ago because some reporters from the Atlanta Journal Constitution saw “odd patterns” on the CRCT.  After months of digging and researching, they found startling, almost statistically improbable increases in students’ scores, erasure marks on scantrons, etc.  Fast forward to 2015 and you have 11 of 12 indicted former educators on trial charged of racketeering and now CONVICTED and SENTENCED to JAIL!

 Racketeering?  Racketeering is defined basically as conspiring to organize and commit crime—to obtain money by an illegal enterprise.”  WOW.  While I definitely do not condone what was done in this instance….federal criminals? Really?  Racketeering makes them sound like mobsters….like purveyors of organized crime. 

When incentives, bonuses, supplies and pay are based on student performance, that can put a great deal of undue stress on an educator.  Especially if you are an educator in an already low performing school with limited resources and let’s face it under performing students.  

They say then Superintendent Dr. Beverly Hall (God rest her soul) was the ringmaster in this circus of cheating, but we’ll never get to hear her side as I believe the stress of the impending trial and facing jail time caused her to lose her battle with breast cancer.  Make no mistake, there were other high ranking administrators who were on trial and convicted…I believe to make an example out of them. 

 

Did anyone watch the sentencing? Judge Jerry Baxter appeared completely fed up with this whole situation. He was so cold and so callous and appeared to care less about what the defendants had to say….His harsh sentences of 20 years to serve 7 for several of the defendants proved he was D-O-N-E with this trial. 

Now I’ve read of other cases in Florida and Oklahoma that were very similar yet no one went to jail, teachers/educators simply lost their licenses. I think that the educators were DEAD wrong, but JAIL…I do not agree.  The whole trial was a waste of my tax payer dollars.  

You let me know who REALLY won here? Yes the students’ grades were changed and they may NOT have learned key material. YES the educators committed fraud. But the students are not only losing test scores and averages but they’re also losing quality teachers in these areas.  The educators are losing quality time in the classroom and with their families.  Who are the real winners and losers here?