Aug. 12, 2010
Tuesday night, the Board of Education hired a new CMS employee.
No matter that hundreds of teachers and teacher assistants and psychologists and media specialists and skilled tradesmen had been laid off in the last few months. This employee was welcomed.
This new CMS employee came on staff right after board members rededicated themselves to their mission statement to “maximize academic achievement by every student in every school.”
And the new employee got on the payroll right after board members committed themselves to creating a student assignment plan that will “contribute to positive, supportive learning environments.”
Truth is, this employee was let go with some fanfare some decades ago. Charlotte-Mecklenburg took pride for many years that the board had rid this employee from its schools and classrooms.
But Tuesday night’s 5-3 vote recalled an 8-1 vote in 2001 that signaled that board members might reconsider, might let bygones be bygones and allow this employee back. That vote in 2001 cost CMS its board chairman, who resigned rather than be associated with a school system that would rehire this employee.
By Tuesday night, CMS’s new employee sported a brand new suit, a different way of speaking and lots and lots of supporters. But the employee still has the same old fear-mongering, divisive, disruptive, inhumane, evil agenda.
The new employee’s name: Jim Crow.