MY TURN: Involvement in children's education - Action News 5 - Memphis, Tennessee

MY TURN: Involvement in children's education

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(WMC-TV) - Confidence in the quality of our public school teachers took a major hit this week when the U.S. Attorney announced the indictment of a former Memphis City School assistant principal.

Clarence Mumford is charged with helping dozens of teachers in Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas cheat in order to obtain their teaching licenses.

The indictment claims that Mumford arranged for stand-ins to take teaching exams for teachers who did not think they could pass the test. Mumford was a Memphis City Schools employee for most of the time when the alleged activity occurred and reportedly some of the stand-ins who took the tests are also current or former Memphis City School employees.

Even if all of the allegations in this case are true, it should be noted that this activity represents only a small percentage of our area's teachers.

Nonetheless, if I was the parent of a child in a public school, I would be pledging right now to be more involved in my child's education in the coming school year. That's something parents should be doing anyway.

That's my turn. Now it's your turn. To comment on this segment or anything else, email yourturn@wmctv.com or call 800-465-1210.