Jan 29, 2013

New Leaders asked for a transcript of what Forum regular Ken Koontz said during the Forum about New Leaders and public schools and charter schools working together for all children.

A transcript follows. Below the transcript is a player for the audio.

Ken Koontz, Tuesday Morning Breakfast Forum Charlotte, Jan. 29, 2013

“My dad, who was a school principal and a classroom teacher for over 40 year, and then after he retired became a tutor until he was 84, when he realized that the new math and his math didn’t match up, always told me that ignorance isn’t really bad, unless you don’t try to learn. And then if you don’t try to fix ignorance, you tend to fall off as a student, and can’t be fixed.

“You guys have fixed a lot of ignorance here today for me. One of those has been:

“We do a lot of attacks on Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools for what they’re not doing. Here we have seen a lot of what they ARE doing, in the context of the students that we know are at-risk. Every one of you have mentioned the high poverty levels in your schools.

“The dynamic of the village changed. The best in our village left the least of us to fend for themselves. This is what we’re dealing with today. So I just want to commend you.

“But also I would like to caution you. Someone mentioned earlier a statistic about charter schools.

“From what I’ve learned today and what I’ve learned about charter schools, the last thing I would want to see is would be a “them” versus “they,” when all of it targets the kids and that’s US.

“So we can take numbers and statistics and and say and do about anything we wish. And generally what we do with them are to pit one against the other. And our students are the ones that actually are harmed most by it.

“So whatever goes out from today, I would hope that those new coalitions of charter schools and the public schools come together, collaborating on how each can be better, and what each might be able to take away from each other, and fix whatever ignorance there may exist between the two, because otherwise people are just going to end up stupid.”