Over the weekend, I spotted a nasty series of comments from the NC Public School Forum’s leader, Keith Poston, in an article by WBTV about a township charter school bill.

The Public School Forum is a 501(c)3 which receives public funds and Poston was paid close to $170k according to 2016 990 filings.

I took to Twitter, called Poston out on his vitriolic remarks and was treated to a response I’d have expected from my rising Second Grader. Poston showed his true colors and called me a “Troll.”

In the article at WBTV, Poston compared the bill permitting a Charlotte suburb to run its own charter schools to that of the ‘bathroom bill’ known as HB2.

Keith Poston, President of the Public School Forum of North Carolina, says NC is back in the news, but this time for lawmakers passing a bill that some say will re-segregate schools. The bill allows four predominately white towns to open their own charter schools that will be exclusively for the students who live in those towns.

“It’s going to look like that – we are embracing a return to segregation,” Poston said. “And that kind of image would be damaging, particularly at a time when we are successful right now trying to recruit some companies that have been looking the other way because of the HB2 debacle.”

There’s more. Poston is more worried about appearances to businesses, so what’s a little pre-emptive smearing of an entire town between friends, eh?

Poston worries North Carolina doesn’t need another controversial item to chase business away.

“When you are in a competitive economic development situation, everything matters,” Poston said.

First, WBTV gets it wrong. This bill doesn’t mean these schools are exclusively for kids in that town. The kids of that town get priority, but these schools would be open to anyone. That’s kind of a big difference.

Second, nowhere in the article is noted that the kids in this township attend a Charlotte public school as assigned by their address.  What that means is, you live in one given area, so your base schools are the ones nearest your address.

So now ask the question: How is opening a set of charter schools in that area and giving kids who live there priority any different than the public school assignment scenario?

The racial makeup would be pretty similar. How is that ‘bringing back segregation’?
Hint: IT’S NOT.

Third, here’s where I laid into Keith Poston:

Here comes the sad part. Poston replied to me. He did not respond to the questions I posed such as asking why an entire township would want to get away from Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Schools (CMS).

He could have acknowledged maybe parents want more control over their child’s academic options and the environment they learn in.

CMS has gone off the deep end of the Social Justice Warrior pool in the last few years when Ann Clark was Superintendent. Mr. Poston, so pleased with himself for his HB2 comparison, might be happy to know Supt. Clark had every intention of breaking the law and letting boys shower and pee next to girls.

Supt. Clark was also keen on letting illegal aliens volunteer in her district.  Clark was chosen to fill in temporarily after her predecessor, Heath Morrison, was accused of creating a hostile work environment and “culture of fear” in the district.

CMS has a history of safety concerns and issues such the level of violence and crime on school property have been consistent over time in the teacher working conditions surveys. When the media decided to dig into this, CMS refused to turn over details of crimes and related statistics.

The latest teacher working conditions survey is out and I already notice the low participation rate of CMS as a district. The highlights of the working conditions report include only 65% of teachers said kids follow the school rules and only 69% of teachers said that school administrators enforced school rules.

Then there’s wondering if your child will be raped while at school due to sexual predators in CMS classrooms like Anthony Gonzalez or Henry Dillard.

I doubt any of these things crossed Poston’s echo chamber mind.

Instead of considering the actual well-being of the children in that township, Mr. Poston decided to respond with a tweet that underscored my point that he was a dismissive, partisan, arrogant demagogue.

Good thing I screen capture just about everything because Mr. Sensitivity deleted it.

I did reply to his tweet before it was deleted.

I wasn’t alone in my reaction.

Poston deleted this one too after another citizen called him out on his fake segregation claims.

Don’t you love that last line? “I made zero suggestion of anyone’s intent…”

Um, yeah you really did.

“It’s going to look like that – we are embracing a return to segregation,”

But then again, I’m the troll. Right, Mr. Poston?

Keith Poston and Roy Cooper at Eggs & Issues 2017 – Image: A.P. Dillon

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