 |
Libbey High School; When Is Race Not A Factor At A Majority Black School? PT 1
Written By Jayi Kemp
Being that I am not a graduate of Libbey High School you would think that seeing a hated basketball rival (Go Rams!) such as the Libbey Cowboy’s cease to exist anymore would be a good thing, right? Wrong, what happen to Libbey High School is wrong on so many levels that I know Edward Drummond Libbey (Google Him) is turning over in his grave. TPS is saying that the closing of Libbey was not racially motivated but anybody who can read between the lines sees the closing otherwise.
Former Mayor of Toledo, Jack Ford, said it best (in my opinion) “There has not been any real sacrifice to balance the budget, that's the honest assessment that we have made around this panel. And so we are doing what we normally do, doing it on the black community.” And those are my sentiments exactly, why would TPS build these new lavish schools (which are amazing, still jealous) in the most prosperous areas about town first, instead of repairing, and remodeling the schools that needed it more?
Think about it, what school went under construction first? It was Rogers, then Start arguably the best looking school TPS had to showcase and Bowsher. TPS took care of 3 areas in Toledo where one could make the notion that TPS was in need of showing some love to or risk losing enrollment!
If a student’s parents decide they wanted their child to have a better education and they are in the Rogers area, usually they could send their child to Springfield or Southview, and for Start you have Whittmer and Bowsher you have Maumee as well as some very nice private schools such as Toledo Christian. Bottom line TPS not only made a decision based on keeping and enhancing their enrollment, but they also sought to finally closed down a cherish school in the black community.
Being that Libbey is perhaps the only school in the TPS without any threat of losing enrollment due to a parochial school being a couple miles away, it makes you really ask yourself, how was this not racially motivated? No doubt Libbey under performed in educating the children according to the states findings, but they were not alone.
Every schooled failed, but because of these mega – schools as I refer to them as, TPS had a major budget deficit and poor grades in Ohio equate to losing funding. So instead of doing a little reconstruction and hiring the additional help needed as well as being inventive, we expand certain schools and close down the black schools, Scott students praise Ms. Dixons and Mr. Ben Williams for fighting for you guys so aggressively, because it could have been you …
No comments:
Post a Comment