Group Claims School Official Is Letting Their Children Get Left Behind
by Jim Brown
February 6, 2004
(AgapePress) - A Mississippi school superintendent is encountering the challenges that come with meeting the requirements of President George W. Bush's federal education law.Although the so-called achievement gap between black and white students in the Hinds County School District has steadily narrowed since the enactment of Bush's No Child Left Behind plan, some angry residents are calling for the district's chief administrator to resign.
Members of a group called "Concerned Citizens of Hinds County for Better Education" are unhappy with Superintendent Phyfa Eiland's performance and have organized a boycott, pulling their children from district classrooms. The boycotters have employed such tactics as sending students home from bus stops and telling them that school is cancelled.
The protesters charge the district's superintendent of schools with failing to hire enough black teachers as well as failing to eliminate the racial disparity in student test scores. However, Eiland says such accusations are unfounded, and she contends that boycotting classes only harms the children.
"I've taught in predominantly minority schools, predominantly white schools -- I've worked with children of all races," Eiland says, "and I don't see children racially."
Eiland says that she, like many parents, is dissatisfied with the student-teacher ratio in Hinds County schools. But she insists that the district will continue to hire only the most qualified person for each teaching position, regardless of his or her skin color.
The Hinds County schools administrator contends that most local residents do not support the boycott, and she says they respect her high standards for hiring employees. In fact, she says she has received messages of support from job applicants that she turned down for positions in the district, several expressing appreciation for the fact that she had based her employment decisions on policy and had treated them with respect.
"That has given me added affirmation that when you do what is right then you, in the long run, are appreciated," Eiland says.
According to the Clarion-Ledger newspaper, Concerned Citizens of Hinds County for Better Education consists of about a dozen parents and community activists, who want the chance to air their grievances before the school board. In addition to taking issue with Eiland and teacher diversity, group members say they are also concerned about class size and alleged inequities in educational opportunity for white and black students in the district.
