Delaware Senator David Sokola openly lied in a debate with his opponent for the 8th Senate District, Republican Meredith Chapman. WDEL covered the event which included a lot of talk about opt out and districts vs. charters. When confronted with the question of opt out, WDEL reported the following:
Longtime incumbent state Senator David Sokola does not fully support an opt-out provision.
“If it said opt-out of Smarter Balanced, I’d probably support it,” said Sokola. “But if just said opt-out of the state tests–then I’d have a problem because I think we will be moving to a different assessment within a couple of years anyway.”
As Senator Sokola knows, House Bill 50 in its original incarnation was for all state assessments. However, prior to the House voting on the bill, State Rep. Sean Matthews added an amendment limiting the legislation to just the Smarter Balanced Assessment. It overwhelmingly passed the House and went to the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Senator Sokola. When it was released from that committee, it went to the floor for a full Senate vote. Sokola added an amendment to the bill to include all district assessments. The amendment passed but Sokola voted no on House Bill 50. After another Senator put on an amendment which was taken off by the House, it went back to the Senate for a second vote and Sokola voted no a second time.
David Sokola is a flat-out liar. Some have attempted to sway me into supporting Sokola because of his track record on other issues, but I see him for what he is. He is no longer fit to represent the people of his district, much less any child in the State of Delaware. He can’t even own up to his own decisions and be honest about it. Vote for Meredith Chapman in the 8th Senate District. A quarter of a century of this liar is far too long…
The Season Of Myths 
He also said–if I heard correctly (I was the moderator)–that he believes there should be diversity targets for all choice-in schools (charters, magnets), even if admission is by lottery; and there should be some response if schools aren’t meeting those targets.
As someone who has been railing for several years about re-segregation of Newark-area public schools (and many people were doing that before I joined in), this is news to me. I am not aware that Sen. Sokola has ever supported or promoted enrollment diversity targets for charter schools. I think I recall him being sympathetic to the need for greater diversity at Cab magnet school, at least its MS level, during the Enrollment Prefs Task Force meetings two years ago.
Happy to be corrected on this; will write to him sometime soon.
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If he openly lied about the opt out bill (which he 100% did), then how can we believe anything he has to say? It was a bitter defeat when HB50 died after the failed override. But I got over it. But to sit there and openly lie about his intentions with that bill when he knows damn well exactly what he was doing once again dishonors every single Delaware parent who supported that bill on behalf of their children.
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Who is so fucked up they would sway you to support Sokola on other issues? No names, it’s a general question… Are there really human beings out there who are so fucked up they would sway another human being to support Sokola?
Well, not in my universe. But then I don’t know anyone on meth.. so I guess it could be possible…
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It must be so peaceful in your little universe.
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It is. You should join us… 🙂
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@ Eve
He represented the opposing side of Lowery during that debate.
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NCS has flat ignored the “Lowery” Doctrine
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Yes–and they have come under no pressure to abide by Lowery’s conditions, with Sokola as chair of senate ed. Neither has any other public school that demonstrably enrolls few students from high-needs or underrepresented minority categories, as recorded by the state DOE. So in what sense does Sokola “support” demographic targets, & repercussions for missing those? (rhetorical question–he doesn’t)
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Please tell me more about the Lowery Doctrine. I seem to have missed that in my terabytes of information .
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Lowery Doctrine: https://www.scribd.com/document/89106796/Newark-Charter-Expansion-Recommendation
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So to be clear, you want NCS to hand pick students instead of doing a lottery, right?
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