Governor Markell Is Lying To The People Of Delaware, He Needs To Apologize To Those Who Have More Honor Than Him

On WHYY last Friday, July 10th, Governor Markell talked about many topics but House Bill 50 was the big topic.  When asked what he would do with the bill, he said it had not been sent to him yet.  He is lying.  The official protocol is his office requests it.  He flat-out lied to the people of Delaware.  Sure, he can squirm out of it by saying they didn’t send it and he forgot to say he hasn’t requested it, but that would be a coward’s way out.  He intentionally misled parents.  The legislators I have spoken with on this issue said the Governor always requests bills.

With all the disgusting and reprehensible behavior from schools, administrators, the DOE, Secretary Mark Murphy, State Rep. Earl Jaques, State Rep. Michael Barbieri (the one who is resigning), Senator Dave Sokola, Rodel, the Delaware Business Roundtable, and the State Board of Education, you would think the Governor would at least be honest with the people of Delaware, but I suppose that was too much to ask for from the highest elected official in our state.  It’s one thing if he doesn’t like the bill, but he could at least respect and honor parents by doing something with it.  We deserve that much, but I guess we aren’t important to Jack Markell…

House Bill 50 would become law August 1st if Markell signs it.  That would give schools the time to prepare and make arrangements to notify parents and actually plan something academic for those students who are opted out.  But no, now we have the Governor playing games with the bill.  But nobody should be shocked.  He’s been doing this since February.  And now he doesn’t like it because of all the “black kids”.  Give me a break!  His Smarter Balanced, which he said is “the best test we ever made”, will move minorities, special needs students and low-income students further away from their peers.  But he and his precious DOE will use that to their advantage to make more priority schools and make them charters.  The war is coming, and we know what Markell wants: the City of Wilmington to be all charter schools.  And this is the guy that won an overwhelming amount of the vote when he was re-elected in 2012?  What a joke…

The U2 Moment That Changed Everything: Live Aid 30th Anniversary

I remember watching U2 perform at Live Aid thirty years ago today.  I saw their concert in Hartford, CT a few months earlier but I was a new fan then.  When I saw them perform “Bad” at Live Aid it catapulted them in my mind to a new level.  This was a band that was going to last for the ages.  When Bono reached out to the crowd, it was like nothing I had ever seen before.  This is a singer who doesn’t just touch an audience, they become one.

Delaware DOJ Finds Numerous FOIA Violations With DOE In Request For Standardized Testing Contracts

Yes, the GoFundMe is still alive for this FOIA request from the DOE! We are 1/3rd of the way there, but help is still needed! Please consider donating in the spirit of transparency. House Bill 50 has NOT been signed yet, Smarter Balanced is STILL happening next year, and the DOE has not contacted me about this FOIA at all. We need answers, especially about how Delaware even entered the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium and what the basis was for American Institutes for Research going from DCAS to SBAC.

The Season Of Myths

The Delaware Department of Justice recently answered a complaint surrounding a FOIA I submitted to the Delaware Department of Education on March 6th, 2015.  This FOIA asked for the following:

“– the Delaware Department of Education’s contracts (whether they are awarded contracts, cooperative contracts, set aside contracts, sole source contracts, or recently closed contracts, including any and all RFPs, addendums, award letters, and change orders) agreements, pacts, communications (whether in email or written correspondence, email should be in To: formats and cc: formats between any DOE employee with the below companies or consortiums) with the following companies or consortiums: American Institutes for Research (or if they are listed under AIR or Amer Institutes for Research), Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (or if they are listed under SBAC, SB, Smarter, Smarter Balanced, or Smarter Balanced Assessment), and Data Recognition Corporation. If available, I ask that this information be provided in a PDF…

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