Submitted by Kate Lenox, Sep 26, 2008 18:20

When is someone going to look beyond Johnson's relentless PR machine and stop taking all his claims at face value? As long as people are dazzled by his former NBA star status,he can continue to make all the claims he wants about his succeses without anyone bothering to see if they're true. Yes, he redevoloped a project in his old neighborhood of Oak Park, but he used taxpayer dollars, and didn't have to pay them back. The loans were forgiven. All his other properties he acquired are neglected buildings and overgrown empty lots. Then he turned to education, helping bust the teachers union at Sacramento High and putting a charter school in place. (By the way he has only opened two charter schools in Sacramento). He claims to have raised test scores and send 84% of graduates to four year colleges. As long as St. HOPE Sac High gets to cherry pick the kids, the test scores are meaningless. The school's failures turn up at nearby district high schools McClatchy and Hiram Johnson, unable to pass the exit exam and credit deficient. They are counseled out and told to go to public school. As for getting a better education, Sac High no longer as music, art, drama, or anything else besides sports. Those are a success because a charter school can recruit from anywhere in the state because it has no attendace boundaries. Again, it's comparing apples and oranges. The main point it that St. HIPE is not succeeding at what it promised to do when it took over Sac High, help the lowest performing kids succeed. Those kids are at other schools because it chooses to cut its academics loses. Self reported success rates don't tell the truth. Now he's taking on politics, pretending to be a local version of Obama and claiming to be a Democrat. He's anti-choice and anti-marriage equality and his biggest backers are also McCain supporters. With two exceptions, every local Sacramento politician has endorsed Mayor Heather Fargo. New York needs to stay out of Sacramento business and stop giving this poser money to buy himself an election and run our city into the ground.

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