HISD's stinky skunk of a school

When I was in Brownies a million years ago, we used to sing a little ditty about a skunk under a bunk as we hiked our way through the woods on day camping trips. The song went like this:

"I'm a little striped skunk
Sleeping under someone's bunk.
No one likes to sleep with me,
'Cause I'm as smelly as can be."

Then we'd holler out in unison: "Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse!"

And the song would start up again.

Houston Independent School District apparently knows this routine well now, too. The state has ordered the district to shut down Sam Houston High School after, get ready now, SIX YEARS OF POOR PERFORMANCE.

Yes, you read that right. SIX years of failing to meet minimum academic standards.

For SIX (I'm sorry, folks, but I cannot get past that incredible number as it relates to the hundreds of unsuspecting students who surely passed through that school's hallowed halls) years, the district has been trying to improve test scores and academic performance only to fail time and again.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, the school is tops in the state for the worst overall performance. Now there's a dubious honor!

As an aside, I am curious to know exactly why it takes six years for the state to demand a school be closed and/or a district to figure out there is definitely something bad wrong. Couldn't they have agreed after two or three or even four years that things just weren't getting better?

Anyway, the district has to close the school BUT, and this is a HUGE BUT, it can reopen the school under a new name and with at least 75 percent new teachers and staff.

Essentially, the more it all changes, the more it will likely stay the same. Second verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse.

What was the problem, specifically, that brought about the order to close? The Chronicle reports that the math portion of the state-mandated TAKS test is to blame. For the past FIVE years, the passing rates of black students have remained consistently below 30 percent.

The school is predominately Hispanic. This past year 59 black students attempted the test.

What happened to all those black students who didn't pass the math portion of the TAKS? The article doesn't say and that's a pity. Those are the real victims here, but the way HISD is whining about the situation you wouldn't know it.

Here's where the fun begins. According to current law, if a school closes and then reopens itself with a new name and new game plan, it essentially starts with a clean slate. This means that all previous screw-ups are as good as erased.

For HISD, this means that the district could conceivably waste another generation or two of students' lives and time before anything would be done to stop the madness.

Do I hear a "third verse, same as the first, a little bit louder and a little bit worse"? C'mon people, you know the song. Let's sing it together as our tax dollars float leisurely in the toilet bowl before being flushed down the drain.