Show me a person who supports Mike Miles and I will most likely be able to show you a person who stands to personally profit. There can be no other explanation, because all of the facts line up against Miles quite clearly.
The most damning facts are the 5th and 8th grade reading scores, which came back recently, and the truth is inescapable: Mike Miles’ methods and leadership are causing thousands of children to fall behind the rest of the children in the state. What parent could support a superintendent who causes scores to plummet? None. Unless they don’t have children in DISD (like Bill McKenzie) or they stand to personally make a buck if he sticks around.
For the kids, though, the consequence of the dismal scores is very real: STAAR boot camps. Of course, some campuses call it a STAAR Academy or SSI or Reading Intervention, but behind all of the euphemisms is this truth: Students who failed the test because of Mike Miles’ terrible mandates are now getting to miss many of their other classes EVERY DAY to be drilled-and-killed into submission for the second reading test. And make no mistake: the principals who are allowing this know exactly what they are doing to the kids in order to make themselves look better.
When did you decide this was ok, STAAR boot camp/SSI/Academy/Intervention principals? On which day did you decide to subject innocent children to more drill and kill to get your numbers up? Would you do this to your own children? To children in Highland Park? Of course not. For a Pearson reading test?
These same principals could also be accused of robbing the rest of the teachers financially because having a student miss 2 weeks of other classes will cause the other teachers’ ACP scores to suffer. This will cause their pay to suffer. Selfish much, principals? Not only will you lock kids down for 2 weeks, but you’ll run the risk that non-reading teachers might lose the chance for a raise?
If you want kids locked down on campuses, drilling and killing to make the failing principal look better, by all means support Mike Miles. I’m looking at you, Stacey Hodge of Stand for Children. Stacey, who is not a classroom teacher, wants people to support Miles. Stacey: Do you or do you not support children being locked down in STAAR boot camps? That’s a yes or no question, Stacey. And by the way, how many children do you have in DISD? If they don’t attend DISD, where do they attend school?
Meanwhile, the principals who DARE to support their students get fired or harassed into leaving. Ask the Rosemont principal. Ask the Franklin principal. Ask the North Dallas principal. I’d bet Hillcrest and Woodrow are next. Watch and learn, Hillcrest and Woodrow.
Rosemont parents have rallied and because of that, they might just win this battle—the battle of getting a say in who is their principal.
Franklin and Hillcrest parents better do the same or they will get to say goodbye to a man who genuinely cares about the kids he serves and isn’t using his job as a stepping stone to politics or business. On top of that, they will also give up any say-so in choosing the next principal. Anyone who tells the Franklin parents otherwise is a person who stands to gain financially. Don’t listen to them, Franklin and Hillcrest parents. Fight back or pay private school tuition.
And finally, know this: According to a DISD insider, DISD taxpayers can most likely look forward to a tax hike or the loss of the homestead exemption if Miles stays much longer. Who wants to pay more for a district with failing scores?
There are only 3 solutions to the Miles problem and their names are Dr. Kyle Renard, Bernadette Nutall and David Lewis.
It is imperative that we vote these candidates in. These candidates will put real children first. None of these candidates serve the status quo oligarchs who always have and always will make millions off of DISD children. It’s time to cut those people off and let them work for a living.
It is imperative that we vote against Mike Rawlings, poster boy for the oligarchs, too.
Support whomever you want in public, but in the voting booth, vote for Renard, Nutall and Lewis.
Student achievement is plunging, students are being drilled-and-killed, campus stability is being obliterated and CHILDREN are paying the price. This isn’t transformation; this is decimation on an educational plantation.
