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13 MAY 04: FUMBLED RECOVERY?

Uh-oh - Muscogee County Superintendent John Phillips is stirring up trouble again. He told grade school principals about plans to cut a reading program before he told the school board. Once again, it appears Dr. Phillips is getting so far "ahead of the curve" that he might fall off.

The program Dr. John Phillips wants to cut is "Reading Recovery," a program to help children who have problems in elementary schools. I confess I don't know exactly how this program works. At first I thought "Reading Recovery" was what you did after your book bag ripped open.

Muscogee County School Board member Fife Whiteside said Wednesday he only learned about a proposal to "terminate Reading Recovery" after parents called him to complain. This is especially strange, since the Superintendent apparently leaked the news to everyone EXCEPT the reporters.

(Which reminds me -- has anyone bothered to ask David Ebron why he decided NOT to run for re-election to the School Board? Is he fed up with the Superintendent? Or is he someone's back-up candidate, if Gray Conger is disqualified from running for District Attorney?)

A teacher at Key Elementary School warned Wednesday without the Reading Recovery program's individualized instruction, some children will have trouble passing the C.R.C.T. tests in third grade. But does it have to be that bad? Last time I checked, library cards were free for everyone.

Superintendent John Phillips says a reduction in Reading Recovery can save Muscogee County Schools $2.5 million. Let's see - it would easily pay for that proposed executive assistant. How many more aides does he want to hire?

To be fair: the Muscogee County Superintendent says the district is losing $7.5 million in state money -- so he has to trim the budget somewhere. In fact, he'll probably have to trim in the $10 million range. It's either that, or park the buses with their expensive fuel and have everyone walk to school.

Perhaps Dr. John Phillips is throwing down a hidden challenge here - looking for someone to come up with private money to keep this instruction going. I wouldn't object to it being called the "Books-A-Million Recovery" program.

Anonymous donors have come to the rescue of Muscogee County schools before, to keep certain programs funded. But it may be asking a lot for a well-off individual to keep "Reading Recovery" going. After all, we tried that with the Cottonmouths....

It turns out private schools have their quarrels over priorities, too. Have you heard about the debate over the Waverly Hall Baptist Academy? Some parents are talking about leaving, because they disagree with what the new pastor preaches. Is he applying the trinity in math class, and saying 3 = 1?

WRBL reported the other night the new pastor at Waverly Hall Baptist Church and Academy is controversial, because he teaches elements of "Calvinism." So? I used to work with people who were big on "Calvin and Hobbes- isms," and we got along fine.

Some parents in Waverly Hall say the new pastor's teachings don't sound very Southern Baptist. So they may pull their children out of the Baptist Academy, and perhaps even start a new Christian school. They'd better not put the more Southern Baptist school on the north side of town....

(So what would they call this new school - "Waverly Hall REALLY, REALLY Baptist Academy?")

COMING SOON: A "spam-a-rama" offer in which I'm expected to be a failure....

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