posted December 21, 2004
Dear Commissioner Seivers:
During my forty (40) year career with the Chattanooga Times/Free Press and almost eighteen (18) years serving as a Commissioner for Hamilton County it has been my good fortune to know many talented and genuine persons. Some of those have been friends in education.
On the other side, many educators want to take the position of “fake it till we make it.” In my opinion taking the position of not ranking school systems is wrong. Remember in Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” the advice Polonius gave to Laertes; “This above all, to thine own self be true, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Simply said, you can’t hide the facts.
Business is gauged on goals, performance, and productivity. With millions spent on education there must be accountability and ranking for schools. We are proud in Tennessee when the “Volunteers” are ranked in the top ‘10’. If they dropped out of the top ‘20’ for two or three years, the coach would be gone. High school football teams are selected for the playoffs on ranking. Students are selected for the National Honor Society because of ranking grades. Valedictorians are selected with the highest scholastic standing. And wouldn’t it be great to have the Governor of Tennessee honoring the top 10 school systems in the State? It would give all the other counties something to shoot for.
It would also be a good idea to have school systems over the State visit and find out what the top schools are doing.
Now to reply to your letter of December 14, 2004, not to me, but to Mayor Claude Ramsey. You used words like, misleading, inaccurate, misuse, manipulation. This is an insult to my intelligence and yours as well. If the figures I requested from your department was a matter of National Security you should not have sent them out. I will pay you $1,000 for each number that has been changed. Your department sent the figures; we placed them in numerical order. If I gave these figures to 10 different Certified Public Accountants and asked them to rank the schools they would do it the same way.
Commissioner Seivers, I haven’t had the opportunity to meet you, but I do know and have high regard for the Governor. He made the appointment because you are highly qualified. When you leave that office, let your legacy be one that removed the doubts, the smoke screens, and the poor perception of schools. Work to make the process of funding schools easier for those in my position by being frank, above board, and honest so we can pass this knowledge along to those taxpayers that generate the taxes.
I am sending you a photograph and newspaper article about me so you won’t get the opinion that I am a wild-eyed, anti-education politician. This story ran only eight (8) months ago. For years I have been their strongest supporter. All I’ve heard from our superintendent and school board was about progress. Last July the Chattanooga Times/Free Press ran a 28 page tabloid giving the grades of each school. I was shocked! None of this had been told to me. As a result of this study by the newspaper I compiled my study (enclosed). For years I was so concerned with the financial problems, the trouble we were in was not part of my concern.
I wish you well. Sometime in the future I would welcome the opportunity to meet you and discuss many of my concerns. Quite frankly, I am disappointed that it seems all my efforts in the past have been in vain.
Sincerely yours,
Curtis D. Adams
Senior Commissioner
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