Gray. Melendez. Heffernan. Rutt. Coverdale. Whitaker. Bunting.

These are the names of the unelected Delaware State Board of Education.  In 12 hours they will begin a meeting that will place their mark on Delaware education history.  This will be a defining moment for each one of these board members.  Anything they have voted on before will pale in comparison to the vote they will take action on later today: the Delaware School Success Framework.  Specifically, the participation rate multiplier.  This is Governor Markell and the Delaware DOE’s attempt to kill opt-out.  But they already failed.  They just can’t accept it.  So they will continue this charade of test, label and punish.  And the State Board will go along with it, because the consequence the AFWG voted on was not “harsh enough”.  Somewhere down the line, one or more of these board members will want to do more in Delaware.  But we will remember their vote on November 19th, 2015.  We will remember this one for a long time.  And if anyone forgets, I will remind them.  The day the State Board of Education chose to punish schools for parental rights.  We already know the outcome.  We know Secretary Godowsky, who looked like a guilt-ridden Benedict Arnold of the education world yesterday but still plowed ahead with this opt-out punishment recommendation, will not betray the Governor.  Every student, teacher, parent, educator, school, board member, citizen, and legislator is okay to betray, but not the almighty and arrogant Jack Markell.   This is the time when we see if predetermined outcomes will clear the way for rational thought.  This is the State Board’s moment when we find out if do have their own mind or if they are just Jack Markell’s unelected lapdogs.