Indiana

I?m The Bad Guy?

By Abdul Hakim-Shabazz

I was recently featured in a story in the Indianapolis Business Journal about what I do for a living, which I still can’t figure out.   As part of the story the reporter asked IPS Spokeswoman Mary Louise Bewley what she thought about some of my comments regarding the state’s largest school district.  Her response was as follows…

?IPS has no interest in comments made by Mr. Shabazz that unfairly attack the character of the superintendent, IPS administration, school board, teachers or district policies. Our focus is on ensuring the best quality education for our students, not the vitriolic rhetoric of naysayers who have nothing positive to contribute to our district or our city.?

Really?  Now this is not about getting into a public fight with Mary Louise, although I have fought heavyweights before.   But if we want to talk about having nothing positive to contribute to Indianapolis, let’s look at IPS’ track record as of late…

• The school district gives raises to administrators at failing schools to take over other failing schools, meanwhile hundreds of teachers are about to be laid off at the end of the school year.
• The Superintendent’s son gets a $14,000 raise.
• The State of Indiana is getting ready to takeover several IPS schools and its administrators accuse the state of racism.
• IPS brags about graduation rates that turn out to be “questionable” at best.
• During one of the worse ice storms in the city’s history when IPS couldn’t  even clear its own walkways at schools, its Superintendent was at the Super Bowl.*
• More than 170 administrators earn more than $100,000 annually in salary and benefits.
• The District accuses charter schools of taking away students, however any common sense analysis of the district’s population loss would show IPS loses more students to township schools than charters.

All that, and I’m the bad guy?  I think I hear a pot calling a kettle African-American.

* I wasn’t going to go down that road, but since other people went after the Mayor for the same thing, I figured Dr. White was fair game.

Full post as published by Indiana Barrister on February 15, 2011 (boomark / email).