Dear Candidates: The Minority Group You’ve Forgotten

Excellent article! I highly recommend reading this. Both of the candidates have forgotten about this often ignored group that is actually rising in numbers at rates unprecedented in history. One of the candidates even mocked those with disabilities… talking to you Mr. Trump!

Dreaming With Your Feet

Disclaimer: Except where otherwise noted (phrases appearing in blue are links to information that corroborates my statements), this post reflects my opinions. And we all know about opinions…

Dear Candidates:

You are presenting me with a huge dilemma. According to the polls, I’m not alone, as many of my fellow Americans are holding their noses at the thought of voting for either of you.

Mr. Trump, when you read from a prepared speech, you almost have me…but then you go off on a tangential rant or send tweets that make you sound like a school yard bully. You are definitely not a slick, teleprompter politician, which probably explains your appeal to millions of Americans.

Mrs. Clinton, you lost me back in 1992 with the “cookies and tea” comment and cemented my distaste when you “stood by your man” throughout his sexual exploits. You even went so…

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Chiefs For Change Try To Give Viagra To Vergara Appeal Decision

A group of current and former State Superintendents, Secretaries, and Chiefs, as well as district Superintendents, wrote an Amici Curiae in Support of Petition to Review letter to the Honorable Tani Cantil-Sakauye, the Chief Justice for the California Supreme Court regarding the overturning of the Vergara verdict in April of this year.  This is not the same letter Diane Ravitch wrote about here.  This group consists of the following:

Dr. John Deasy: former Superintendent of Los Angeles Unified School District

John White: Louisiana Superintendent of Education

Hanna Skandera: New Mexico Secretary of Education

Dr. Steve Canavero: Nevada Superintendent of Public Instruction

Mark Murphy: former Delaware Secretary of Education

Kevin Huffman: former Tennessee Commissioner of the Department of Education

Cami Anderson: former District Superintendent for Newark, New Jersey Public Schools

Jean-Claude Brizard: former Chief Executive for Chicago Public Schools

Dr. Randolph Ward: San Diego County Superintendent of Schools

Note that all the individuals in red are currently Chiefs in Chiefs for Change, the Jeb Bush run outfit.  Does anyone really see that as a coincidence?  As Diane Ravitch pointed out earlier this year,

which was established by Jeb Bush to promote school choice, charters, vouchers, online charter schools, the Common Core, and high-stakes testing

There are very good reasons why so many of these people are “former” education leaders.  Cami Anderson resigned after students occupied her office as a result of her unprecedented charter school empire/public education destruction in Newark, NJ.  Mark Murphy resigned after he royally botched a priority school initiative and was given multiple votes of no confidence by union organizations and the state administrator organization in Delaware.  Kevin Huffman resigned in Tennessee as the Achievement School District continues to be a model of failure to be spread to other states.  Jean-Claude Brizard admitted he didn’t know how to do his job so he threw the Chicago public schools to the charter wolves with Bill Gates money.  Deasy, who resigned from the L.A. Unified School District, with lavish financial scandals and was last seen training district superintendents under the Broad fellowship training.

Should the courts listen to those who twist numbers for their own benefits in what they deem as a success while skewing words to label teachers as failures?  Who help to create the very conditions that have and do lead to pressure cookers for teachers in public education?  Who believe that corporate interference is the only viable solution to fix the problems in education?  Who believe that one size fits all high-stakes tests are okay but scream about civil rights and what happens to low-income children the next?  Who sign off on state accountability plans where children with disabilities have to “grow” three times more than their regular peers in an allotted time?  Who disrespect the parents that see through their smoke and mirrors and push laws to take away their rights?

I urge this court to look at this letter as the conflict of interest it most assuredly is and give it the same weight they would of a con artist on its last legs.  To read the full letter, please go here.

 

 

Hillary Clinton’s Big Money Ties to Charter Schools

Is Mark Murphy Selling Skateboard Paraphernalia?

I was very confused when I saw the latest Mark Murphy update.  Apparently, he is selling Griptape.  When I did a Google search on Griptape, it shows many different kinds of images for the adhesive put on skateboards for a sturdier ride.

What in the world?  Does he have his own skateboard?  Nope.  Apparently, the ex Secretary of Education from Delaware is still with America Achieves, but he is now leading an initiative called “Griptape”.  I did some deep dives into more information on this youth empowerment magic, but I couldn’t find anything.  I guess if students put some extra grip on their studies, they will have a sturdier ride to college and career readiness?  Will Griptape be something like that Mark?  Please, tell us.  We are dying to know more about Griptape!

But I did find out Mark Murphy visited one of my old stomping grounds a few months ago, which just so happens to be one of the skateboarding empires of the world, San Diego.  He went out in March to a Deeper Learning convention.  The San Diego Convention Center is awesome by the way.  If you go up the road, to the Gaslamp Quarter, there is an awesome bar called Dick’s Last Resort.  If someone working there isn’t rude to you, they aren’t doing their job.  Seriously!  But this convention wasn’t held at the San Diego Convention Center.  It was at High Tech High Graduate School Of Education (really, I couldn’t make this stuff up if I tried).

As well, even though he is no longer a chief, that doesn’t stop him from being listed as a member of Chiefs For Change, one of those offshoots of Jeb Bush’s Excellence In Education outfit.  But he better watch out, cause nipping to become a Chief for Change is one of his former, now ex Delaware DOE employees, who is listed as a Chief In Residence.  And even though that person is no longer in Delaware, his rot still lingers…

A few weeks ago, Murphy and many of the other Chiefs at the Jeb cabal, like Hanna Skandera (New Mexico Secretary of Education) and John White (Louisiana’s Superintendent of Education), wrote a letter regarding the recent Vergara appeal decision, urging the appeals court to overturn their ruling because teachers in California are “grossly ineffective” (a term that pretty much sums up his tenure as Secretary of Education in Delaware).

So for those who were clamoring for Mark Murphy updates, this is it.  I couldn’t find anything more on him.  But if you miss him that much,  I would be remiss if I didn’t give a link to Murphy’s Greatest Hits.  He may not be causing direct trouble in Delaware, but it looks like he is one to watch out for at a national level, especially if Griptape takes off!  Maybe even Jack Markell will buy stock in it!