Jimmy can't read, and John don't care...he's a poor kid anyway (sung to the tune of Jimmy Crack Corn)

One of the biggest areas of debate in D11 is whether there should be reform or whether the District should maintain the status quo. The 4 of us who were elected in 2003 contend that the District needs to change to improve. The 3 board members elected in 2005 claim that the status quo is good enough.

The 2 charts below illustrate the schools in D11 that did not make their performance goals for the 2004-2005 school year.

Out of 41 elementary schools, 22 did not meet their performance goals for the 04-05 school year. Of the 13 D11 middle schools, 10 did not make their goals. Of the 10 tested high schools, none made their goals for that school year. The 04-05 statistics are relevant here because John Gudvangen, Tami Hasling, and Sandra Mann were elected in the fall of 2005. Their campaign began during the 04-05 school year. At a campaign debate in October 2005, the candidates were asked what they would change in D11. Gudvangen's answer was very simple and to the point: " I can't think of anything that I would change." 42 of 64 schools did not meet their performance targets, and Gudvangen could not think of a single area that needed to improve in D11; not one.

Gudvangen's 2 running mates did not offer much more than did Gudvangen. Hasling thought that it would be helpful to have Hispanic translators at Board meetings. The obvious follow-up question should have been, "How will that help student achievement?" Sadly, that question was never asked nor answered. All 3 agreed that D11 needs more parental involvement. None of the 3 ever offered any ideas on how to make that happen.

A search of D11 Board meeting minutes since the 2005 elections will indicate that the 2005 candidates have offered exactly 2 ideas between the 3 of them since they were seated. Hasling offered up the idea to cap student enrollment at Doherty, her son's high school. Gudvangen has asked for a pay raise for D11 support employees. As for the statistics above, none of the 3 feel that anything needs to change to address that issue.

It is fairly easy to guess which candidates Gudvangen and his cronies will support for the recall election in December. Gudvangen and Hasling both participated in a liberal group called Alliance for Quality Public Schools. The group supports candidates Jan Tanner and Albert Gonzales. Tanner stated in the Colorado Springs Gazette that she wants to move slow if she is elected. She believes that big decisions need to be decided with 7-0 votes of the board. She never defined "big decisions." This "unanimous vote" requirement puts Tanner squarely in the Gudvangen/Hasling camp of doing exactly nothing to improve D11. Gonzales was quoted in the Independent as claiming that he wanted "reform," but then stated that he saw no reason to change anything in D11. Gonzales said that he wanted to be a voice for minority students in D11 because Willie Breazell, who is black, is not qualified to speak for minority students because he received campaign funds from local businessman Steve Schuck. Schuck, ironically, gives tens of thousands of dollars annually to minority students in the Pikes Peak region who need help with tutoring, computers, and general educational needs. Gonzales apparently believes that talk is more effective than action. Gonzales's wife happens to be the supervisor of math for D11. She has been in her current role as D11 math proficiencies lingered around 6% for black students and 11% for Hispanic students in 10th grade. It is not clear if Gonzales believes that this is the type of voice he wants for minority students in D11.

As a reminder of where D11 was when we were elected in 2003, the following charts speak volumes:

Again, Gudvangen and his voting buddies cannot think of a single thing in D11 that needs to be changed or improved, with one exception: they believe that the Board makeup needs to change because the 2003 Board members have had the guts to highlight this dismal performance. Gudvangen and Hasling have actively supported the recall effort against 2 of their colleagues, and they and Mann have publicly called for Eric Christen and Sandy Shakes to resign. They are desperate to fill the Board with 2 more status quo colleagues.

Gudvangen served for 8 years on the Harrison District 2 school board. He was legend for blaming the low performance of that district on the income and color of the students. Gudvangen and his ilk believe that the color of a child's skin and the income level of a child's parents determine the ability of that child to learn how to read or perform math. The following charts show the disparity in ACT and SAT scores between white students and minority students in D11.

People like Gudvangen and Hasling look at these statistics and claim the statistics prove that minority kids cannot learn. Therefore, they conclude that there is nothing that school districts can do to improve the test scores. Their strategy is to simply do nothing to help these students improve their lot in the world. Although Gudvangen and Hasling spout the typical school board mantra that we should "educate all kids," that mantra comes to a dead stop when it comes to actually doing something to educate all kids. Gudvangen, Hasling, and Mann are staunchly opposed to school choice. They vehemently object to allowing the parents of these minority students to take their kids to another school outside of D11 to attempt to give their children a fighting chance. Although liberals agree that minority students cannot be educated like white students, they certainly understand the economics of school financing. They want to keep those minority students in the district to get the thousands of state dollars that go along with those students.

The fact is, minority students can learn to read and write and perform math. Schools around the country have proven that to be true. The problem in D11 is low expectations and zero accountability. As long as there are weak board members such as Gudvangen and Hasling, accountability in school districts will never be a reality. As long as administrators worry more about covering for fellow administrators than they do about educating kids, there will never be true accountability.