I guess we're doing ok?

Count me among the confused.

One minute the State Education Dept. has 10 schools ready to be placed under the receivership of Superintendent Kriner Cash. He can void the union contract, move teachers around, extend the school day, and do whatever he “needs to do” in order to improve test scores and graduation rates.

The next minute, the schools are doing OK. Test scores are improving and graduation rates are going up, so here's some extra money and keep up the good work. Next year there won't be any extra money, but we'll give you some for now.

What?

So I have an appointment scheduled with a chiropractor to deal with a severe case of whiplash that I received.

And I'm evidently not the only one.

Assemblyman Mickey Kearns is just as confused as I am. And he's in government. He voted against the receivership law because he thought it was poorly thought out and too confusing. (He was correct on that.)

School board member Barbara Seals-Nevergold is a strong critic of the receivership law and appears to be equally as flummoxed. (Look it up in the dictionary.)

The Buffalo Teachers Federation is also a little in shock over this decision. They are going to press forward with their lawsuit to get the law stopped. Probably while scratching their heads.

Evidently, according to the law, schools need to be deemed persistently struggling for at least three years. For the next two years they receive extra funding from the state and have to submit turnaround plans and follow them and if improvement is not achieved quickly enough, the school can be privatized.

What about after the improvement is achieved? The money goes away and …. the programs that made the success possible get cut? And then achievement goes down and we begin the cycle all over again?

Something about this law screams “stupid” at the top of its lungs.

Was anyone paying attention the last three years to these schools?

Or were they flapping their gums about how poor the schools were doing without examining the evidence?

Superintendent Cash said that he has no plans to take his foot off the pedal of progress.

Perhaps he should take it out of his mouth first?