Based on their 2015 tax filing, the Rodel Foundation of Delaware Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Paul Herdman, makes an astonishing $398,000. Keep in mind this was in 2015 so he is most likely well over that pesky $400,000 barrier. Good lord! I found lots of interesting stuff in this tax filing, signed off by Dr. Paul Herdman on May 12th, 2017. As well, I looked up some of Rodel’s best friends and found TONS of information on them as well!
The end times are nigh. I read an opinion piece by Paul Herdman on delawareonline and found myself agreeing with a lot of what the CEO of the Rodel Foundation of Delaware was saying. No, I don’t have food poisoning. I haven’t been drugged. I didn’t slip on a banana peel and pass out. But Dr. Paul Herdman and I both seem to agree on disagreeing with some of the cuts the Delaware Joint Finance Committee proposed a few weeks ago. I know, I couldn’t believe it myself!
What Doc Herdman is lamenting are cuts to early childhood education and college access. I believe every student, if they have the means and even if they can get help, should go to college. I also think early childhood education is very important. While the Doc and I disagree on the methods, I have to believe we both want kids to get the best education possible. While he may think Common Core, Smarter Balanced, Personalized Learning and Competency-Based Education are the best ways, I think true instruction in the classroom with teacher-created tests and assessments are the way to go. I don’t think kids need all this educational technology in the classroom. I don’t think we need all these leadership training classes. Leaders should come naturally, not some profit-induced seminar brought on by Education Inc. The best education leaders are those with advanced knowledge of education through advanced masters degrees and come up through years of teaching.
But any cuts to education aren’t good. I wish the Doc would go a step further and go after wasteful spending at the Delaware Dept. of Education and all that trickles down to our schools as a result of their continued corporate education reform shenanigans. I wish he would urge our General Assembly to fully fund our state auditor’s office so they can, you know, actually follow Delaware law and properly audit our school districts each year. I was really hoping he would recommend our General Assembly (finally) implements basic special education funding for students in Kindergarten to 3rd grade, especially with his background in special education. But I’ll take what I can get.
The final week of the 149th Delaware General Assembly’s 2017 session is going to be absolutely crazy. I’ve told others. It won’t be over by July 1st. The gap is just too big and I’ve heard several legislators say “I won’t vote for the budget if (insert this cut or this attempted revenue here).” I don’t blame them. But some pain will have to come in this budget. It is my fervent hope students won’t lose out. I do support district consolidation in Delaware and while there are those who think it won’t amount to much saving, we won’t know unless we really study it. It is my contention there would be considerable savings. I do support shared resources, like Herdman. Whether it is a traditional, charter, or vo-tech, why wouldn’t we come together as a state to make sure students have all the resources they need? I don’t think school boards should be given a one-time chance to raise the match tax without a referendum as I truly believe that will hurt school districts when they do need to go out for a referendum. If districts and charters can actually share, all students would win. It takes some pride swallowing on both ends. Get rid of the charter school transportation slush fund or any perks for charters out of the budget. It only aggravates the us vs. them mentality. Truth is, there should be no us vs. them. It should be education for all students. Get rid of old, antiquated laws that create any type of de facto segregation.
The truth is, the Doc and I probably agree on a lot of things but our differences cast us as polar opposites. I’m sure he is a good guy, and yes, I think he should be taxed at a higher tax bracket along with the rest of the $150,000 and over club. This does not mean, by any stretch, I will attempt to get on the Rodel Advisory Council.
For 2015, Dr. Paul Herdman was a busy Rodelian! Between the Vision Coalition, Student Success 2025, sponsoring the Imagine Delaware forum on education, fighting against House Bill 50, and potentially dealing with the fallout from his 2014 hissy fit, Herdman earned his exorbitantly high pay in 2015! He also helped the State Board of Education and the Delaware DOE with the Smarter Balanced toolkit!
Herdman’s most public appearance this year was at the Senate Education Committee hearing on House Bill 50. He told the committee he never spoke out on legislation at Legislative Hall but it was very important for him to do this. His public comment basically said we are stuck with the Smarter Balanced Assessment and there should be no opt-out. I was not impressed by what he had to say.
In September, the Rodel-backed Vision Coalition launched Student Success 2025. Broken record time… because Vision 2012 and Vision 2015 and Ed25 worked out so well…
In March, Rodel sponsored the Imagine Delaware Education forum at the Chase Waterfront Center in Wilmington. The forum was between Tony Allen, Senator David Sokola, Lamont Browne, Dr. Merv Daugherty and Mike Matthews. It came down to a WEIC infomercial and how great East Side charter is.
Rodel certainly did their fair amount of lobbying at Legislative Hall this year! It wasn’t just HB50 they opposed! With an election year on the horizon, I fully expect Rodel to plant themselves firmly in the election pool with their own candidates! But what in the world will Dr. Paul and his merry band of corporate education reformers at Rodel do once Jack Markell is no longer Governor?
Many years ago, ten years ago to be exact, a legend began. It was whispered to citizens of Delaware through the years but nobody ever knew if it was true. When people would try to find out the truth, they were met with half-truths or outright denials. This is the story, unverified with any credible source, and how I heard it from a stoned DOE employee at Firefly one summer.
One Christmas Eve, Delaware Treasurer Jack Markell and Rodel CEO Paul Herdman met at a tavern. Markell wanted more from his political career, and Herdman had just been given a lofty position at Rodel. They were both at a crossroads in their careers, and they decided to vent to each other. This is the conversation that has passed down from teachers to students, from hedge fund managers to investors, from Comcast ticket vendors to charter school superintendents.
Jack: I don’t know what to do Paul. I’ve been treasurer for years, and it’s all about the money.
Paul: Uh, yeah Jack, it kind of is.
Now Jack had arrived early at the tavern, and started drinking hours earlier. By the time Paul got there, Jack was already three sheets to the wind.
Jack: I want to make my mark on Delaware. I want to go down in history, like Santa.
Paul: I’m glad you mentioned that Jack, because I have a vision.
Jack: You’re from the future? You know what’s going to happen?
Paul thought about it, and realized he could take advantage of this.
Paul: Yes I am from the future, and yes, I know what will happen with you Jack. What if I told you me and some friends of mine have a 20 year plan to take over education, not only in Delaware, but across the whole country? We are meeting in a few weeks to get things going.
Jack: Just don’t make it on Minner’s inauguration. I have to go. Your friends, are they from the future too?
Paul: Yes, they are Jack. Say, do you want another drink?
Jack: Oh yes Paul, I would. Thank you Paul.
Paul shrugged and ordered another Zima for Jack.
Paul: You know this No Child Behind crap they’ve been peddling from D.C.?
Jack: Whose child got left behind? Was this at Safeway?
Paul: No Jack, all the kids. They deserve better in our schools. What if I told you we can all become rich? You, me, my buddies? What if I told you we can bust the teachers unions, get cheap teachers fresh out of college, make kids take tests that make absolutely no sense, and you could be Governor one day? All we have to do is make LOTS of charter schools.
Jack: But what happened to the kids at Safeway?
At this point, Paul realized Jack was incapable of fully understanding what the hell he was talking about. He decided to get Jack some dinner rolls to soak up some of the Zima that was poisoning his mind. Paul couldn’t figure out how much bread Jack would need to do the job.
Paul: Jack, you’re a numbers man. How much bread would it take to get you sober?
Jack: If you take a whole loaf, divide it by 20, but only in groups of 4 and then add 5, that should tell you what year it was made.
Paul snickered in his mind. This was exactly the kind of math his cabal wanted to get out there. It made no sense at all, but they could brainwash parents into thinking this was what kids need to know for college and to compete against kids from China. Paul ordered the bread, and after hours of talk about Safeway, and comparing it to Acme and Redners, Jack began to sober up a bit.
Jack: Did you say something about Governor Markell earlier?
Paul: Yes I did Jack. The 2008 election is a ways off, but we can plant the seeds now. Like I said earlier, I have a vision…
Jack: Cause you’re from the future, right?
Obviously Jack was still on the tipsy side, but not fully immersed in complete drunken foolery. His mind was like play dough now, and Paul knew he had him.
Paul: Yes Jack, I’m from 2025. All you have to do is do everything I tell you to do, and you will become a very important man.
Jack: Woah, you’re the vision man! Like the Avenger. But from the future. No matter what year we get to, you’ll know what’s going to happen. Vision 2012 Man, Vision 2015 Man! The education man! Future boy! Ed25 man!
Paul: Those are great names Jack, but you are the public face. You will lead the charge for education reform in this state. We’ve been playing around with names for this new “reform”. We’ve come up with Common Standards, Core Basics, and Education Vision. What do you think of those?
Jack: You said core. And when I think of education, I think of an apple. And since I will be leading this, why don’t we call it Apple Jacks?
Paul: That’s a great idea Jack, but Apple Jacks is already trademarked.
Jack: Dammit! Let’s get back to the core idea. We need something common, like a common core all kids can get to.
Paul: That’s it Jack! You did it. We’ll call it Common Core! Let’s get a drink!
As Jack got another Zima, Paul sucked down his mimosas. The two were laughing and joking through the night. As the two bonded and hatched their plans, the dynamic duo began slurring words. Meanwhile, Santa Claus was delivering all the presents to the little boys and girls around the world.
Paul: You know what Jack, if you do my bidding, I will make sure you are WELL compensated. I’m going to give you a piece of Rodel. The prize will be yours!
Jack: A piece of what Paul? What did you say?
Paul: A piece of Rodel. A prize.
Jack: Did you say pizza? Chicago has the best pizzas.
Paul: No Jack. I said Rodel. Piece. Prize.
Jack: The Nobel Peace Prize?
Now Paul knew Jack loved to have his ego inflated. So he knew giving Jack something he would never actually get would help his cause. There had to be an end point to Jack’s wild imagination, and what would feed the ego more than the Nobel Peace Prize?
Paul: Yes Jack, you will get the Nobel Peace Prize! It will take a while, and you will need to be very patient. Many will oppose this, but if we get all the right people in the exact positions, we can make sure no one can stop us. We have to present our ideas to the people, make them think it’s the only way to improve schools. When we give these horrible tests to kids, we will use the scores to close down the poorest schools and we’re going to make them charter schools.
Jack: Did you say I have to make charts?
Paul: Yes Jack, lots of charts. Lots of data. You’re good with money, you can handle this.
The two wandered off into the snowy night, and they saw a huge mound of snow the plow had just made.
Paul: I’ve been trying to figure out how to get all the states in on my plan. We have to coerce them into it, and then they have to trick all the school districts. Make them think this plan is their only option.
Jack: Why don’t we just tell them I won’t give them any money if they don’t listen? I can do that you know. I control all the money. My friend Barack from Chicago told me the way Wall Street is going, there might a be a big recession in a few years. His buddy Arne is a master at making people do things. What if we do it then?
Paul: Yes, you’re absolutely right Jack. You are a Zima drinking genius!
Paul got distracted. He thought he saw someone he knew down the street but he couldn’t see too well. He needed a better vantage point.
Paul: Do you see that lady down the street Jack? I know her. We should tell her about my plans. Kendall, is that you down there?
Kendall: Paul, is that you, I can’t see you? Where are you?
Paul and Jack realized the mound was blocking her view.
Jack: How are we going to get over that big pile of snow? We would have to use a lot of rigor to figure out how to get up there. Come on Paul, let’s race to the top!
As Paul ran, he smiled, and thought to himself, “Common Core” “Rigor” “Race To The Top”…
And this was the genesis of the Common Core. Two drunken fools in Delaware, talking out of their arses about something that was so mind-boggling and confusing, with so many layers and levels, it had to work. And the legend was born. In the years since, Jack Markell is still waiting to be picked for the Nobel Peace Prize. He calls his friend Paul every Christmas Eve, and asks him when. Their friendship almost fell apart when Barack Obama received the prize, but Paul assured him it would happen. One day…
Dr. Paul Herdman with the Rodel Foundation of Delaware recently made a Top 50 list for a company called Getting Smart. The list is like a who’s who of corporate education reformers. Released on September 28th, the list also includes a “Chiefs Making A Difference” category. None other than former Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy got a nod, along with nine other state chiefs of education. I guess they didn’t get the memo that Murphy “resigned”.
The list Herdman was in was called “More Relevant Than Ever In K-12”. He joins other “reformers” such as Andy Rotherham and Sir Michael Barber. The website also featured a top 50 Advocacy Organizations list of which Rodel made the list. Other “prominent” companies included Achieve, Aspen Institute (of which Herdman is a “fellow”), Council of Chief State School Officers, Education Trust, Fordham Institute, New America Foundation, and numerous other companies. I wonder how many of the CEO’s of these companies get over $343,000 a year for destroying public education like our very own Doc Herdman?
Getting Smart is some type of education technology company that is obviously in bed with all the destroyers reformers of public education. It would stand to reason Herdman would make this list the way he pimps “personalized learning” and “blended learning”. Can anyone tell me the difference between the two? I swear, every day these companies come crawling out of the woodwork…
This article will disgust you. It disgusted me when I read their latest tax form, filed in July of this year. The Rodel Foundation and all their education propaganda. I have a new take on this. We need to boycott anything associated with Rodel. That means the Vision Coalition, the Delaware Business Roundtable, and yes, I’m going to go there. The Wilmington Education Improvement Commission. Why? Because after the Budingers, who owned Rodel Inc. back in the day, Tony Allen is listed on the board of Rodel. Dan Rich, the University of Delaware employee who is involved in all things WEIC, also sits very comfortably on the board of the Vision Coalition.
$343,000 a year. For one man. That is twice what Mark Murphy made as Secretary of Education. It’s $126,000 more than the highest paid State of Delaware employee in education (who just so happens to be enjoying his obsession with the Vision Coalition these days). How many starting teachers could we get with that? Ten? How about we take his salary and give every student in Delaware an extra $100 in funding. I know, they are a “non-profit” company. Of course they are. How could they ever make a profit with just over $900,000 going to four people’s salary?
So who benefited from Rodel’s “expertise” in education on this tax form?
Parthenon Group: $700,000 (listed as consultants Rodel pays to do consulting work)
Aspen Institute: $175,000
Delaware Business Roundtable Education Committee $53,600
Delaware Charter Schools Network $30,000
Delaware Public Policy Institute $50,000
First State Military Academy $75,000
Great Oaks Foundation $75,000
Hope Street Group $10,000
Innovative Network For Communities $7,500
Innovative Schools Development Corporation $741,688
Latin American Community Center $15,000
Leadership Delaware Inc. $10,000
Music Associates of Aspen Inc. $30,000
National Public Education Support Fund $10,000
New Castle County Vo-Tech School District $13,451
Sustainable Settings $7,500
Teach For America Inc. $100,300
Teach Plus Inc. $7,500
The Delaware Met $75,000
The Partnership Inc. $7,500
Third Way Foundation $10,000
Vision Network $95,000
The ones in bold are the ones that really stand out for me. That is an awful lot of money going to Innovative Schools. But what puzzles me the most is the New Castle County Vo-Tech School District. Looking back at their prior year tax forms, they have frequently given money to that district or schools within the district.
In terms of hedge fund activity, this tax form does NOT have the Rodel-Pebbles AA Multi-Strategy Hedge Fund, which I wrote in great detail about last year. In that article, for their Tax Form 990, the amount in the fund was $158,071. For the other two hedge funds they invest in, Hirtle Multi-Strategy Hedge Funds and Hirtle- Private Equity Funds, those amounts were $2,590,421 and $1,725,911. A year later, those amounts are $2,710,070 and $1,636,033. So if they cashed out the Rodel-Pebbles Hedge Fund, it looks like they invested $30,000 more in hedge funds for this tax year. Like last year, their hedge fund activity is in “off-shore accounts” in the Caribbean or Central America. For this tax year they invested over $6.9 million in these off-shore accounts, an increase of $2.9 million more than in their tax form filed last year. Their net assets by the end of the year were $27,700,235 which was an almost $1 million dollar loss compared to the previous year, in which their assets went down $1.45 million compared to the year before. Yet Dr. Herdman’s salary keeps going up each year because they do a “survey” to see how other similar non-profits pay their CEOs. This is corporate education reform. Where traditional public schools lose money each year while the 1% get infinitely richer. And our state allows this by continuing this charade.
Now when Dr. Paul Herdman first started with The Rodel Foundation of Delaware back at the end of 2004, he was making a little over $168,000 a year with benefits and travel expenses. Now that has mushroomed to $343,000. A $175,000 increase. And this is for their 2013 tax year! I’m sure it is even more now.
Delaware, this is Rodel. A company that is a non-profit that invests in off-shore hedge funds and their CEO receives more income than anyone in education in Delaware. Remember, they sell a product, like any company does. The product is designed to make them rich. It’s a business. They could care less how your individual child is doing. They care about their bottom line. So every time you go to the latest annual Vision party, every time you let them take your personal information so you can go to one of their events, or you attend an Imagine Delaware Forum on education that they sponsor, remember it is a big advertisement. Rodel owns Delaware. They own the Governor, they own the DOE, they own the Delaware Charter School Network, Innovative Schools, and it looks like the two main people on the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission.
If Rodel really cared about education in Delaware, they would be donating money to the school districts that need funds the most, to help out with classroom sizes. This is a company that has $27 million in assets. And it sits there, every year, going through investments and hedge funds and even though it slowly loses a little bit each year, it’s not enough. I don’t see Rodel donating funds to Red Clay or Christina. I see a hell of a lot of charter schools, and companies that support them. And that one school district where a certain Interim Secretary of Education comes from. Where a soon to be ex-US Secretary of Education visited one of the “most improved” high schools in the state twice which just happens to be in the same district.
When Rodel offers these “grants” to charters, think tanks, and charter friendly organizations, it isn’t out of the kindness of their heart. It is an investment. It is saying, if the amount is high enough, we now own you. Do as we say. Don’t rock the boat. Oppose all legislation we don’t like. We know Rodel and the Delaware Charter Schools Network are two of the biggest lobbyists in Delaware. It’s not for the kids. It’s for money. So Paul Herdman can get an increase in his salary every year. Don’t get me wrong, he works hard. Destroying public education doesn’t happen overnight. It happens over a long period of time, and he has been very proficient at it for over ten years now.
Boycott Rodel. These are the things I would like to see happen. DSEA and Delaware PTA get the hell out of anything Rodel/Vision Coalition related. Tony Allen resigns from the Rodel board. Dan Rich resigns from Vision. The Delaware Department of Education immediately ends any contracts with Rodel that are not listed for public viewing. They end any business relationship with Rodel. For citizens of Delaware, please do not support this organization. They have been selling a line of crap for over ten years and it needs to stop. The only way to do that is to stop listening. Do not legitimize their money-making agendas. If they put an ad in the paper or a letter to the editor, write a complaint to the News Journal. If you are worried about the Delaware Business Roundtable and how that could effect Delaware, don’t worry, Rodel does the books for their Education Committee.
If the leaders of organizations who work with Rodel and the Vision Coalition don’t want to leave, that’s okay. Elections can change that with certain organizations. And do not buy for one second that “Personalized Learning” is the wave of the future. That’s what Rodel wants you to think. Back in 2006, they predicted state standards and tests designed around those. They envisioned a future, with the able assistance of then Treasurer of Delaware Jack Markell, where all children would be able to compete with their brethren in China and Japan and India and Singapore. Millions upon millions of dollars filling the pockets of folks like Dr. Paul Herdman and Fred Sears III. For what? Have we learned nothing?
This article is going to tick off a lot of people. Good. It wasn’t meant to put a smile on anyone’s face. It was meant to piss off those who would sacrifice our children’s future so companies like Rodel can live high off the hog. You know exactly who you are, and the charade has to end. Either you support public education or you don’t. There is no middle ground. Not anymore.
For the average citizen, remember this. You hold immense power in your hands and voice. Your hands can write a Refuse The Test letter. Your voice can tell other parents to do the same. Paul Herdman was scared out of his mind with the opt-out movement. He had no idea how much power he does not have over people. This is why he spoke at the Senate Education Committee meeting against House Bill 50, the parent opt-out legislation. He knows that if parents don’t let their kids take the Smarter Balanced Assessment, his empire falls apart. Very fast. Let’s do it. Let’s say screw the CEO and take back education. Because if you think for one second it is your child’s education, you are dead wrong. This is Rodel’s education, sold to them with your taxpayer money and the more than willing voice of your Governor.
Dr. Paul Herdman with the Rodel Foundation of Delaware gave a very long oppositional speech to parent opt-out and House Bill 50 the other day at the Senate Education Committee. I’m going to post his full comment, and then I will react to it. I will be posting various public comments over the next two to three days, and I will include the time stamps from my recording of the meeting to show how much time each speaker was allotted.
Paul Herdman, Rodel Foundation of Delaware, 32:49-38:28
So, my name is Paul Herdman, I’m with the Rodel Foundation. I’ve got three kids in Delaware schools. I was a teacher myself for seven years. I’ve worked for two governors in Massachusetts on education policy and I’ve been here for the past eleven years trying to actually bring public and private players together on accommodation around education. And frankly, this is the first time I’ve actually come and spoken in front of this in eleven years. And I oppose HB50. I support the resolution. What I want to try and to do is two things. One, clarify the issue. And then speak to some unintended consequences. So to touch the issue, I think there is a lot of frustration around testing. And I think this has become the focal point for a lot of different issues. You have some folks who just don’t like Common Core, and they are supportive of this because it seems like it’s against Common Core. You have some who see this as truly a parent’s rights issue. That’s true, but I think one of the challenges is that some people are concerned about the Smarter Balanced test itself, but there are some who looking at this as a way to invalidate the test overall. Senator Matthews, who was a sponsor, I mean Representative Matthews, who was a sponsor of the bill in the House, said to the News Journal a couple of different times, one, a teacher, legislator and a member of the House Education committee encouraged all parents to consider exercising their right to opt out of the Smarter Balanced test, and he says further, in a subsequent article, “Kowalko and I are hoping that enough parents are getting out of the Smarter Balanced test, that the data becomes invalid.” (at this point Rep Kowalko interrupts at 34:30)
State Rep. John Kowalko: Excuse me Mr. Chairman, I never made that quote and I never made that statement and I find it unfair that you’re going to quote out of a paper what I said I never said.
Herdman: No, I, Senator…
Kowalko: You said it…
Herdman: Yes, and I’m saying that’s inaccurate.
(little bit of back and forth between Herdman and Kowalko, Senator Sokola steps in, ends at 35:02)
Herdman: Representative Matthews said, I’m just quoting what was in the paper, but, so Representative Matthews, who was a sponsor of this, let’s leave Representative Kowalko out of this issue, Matthews says, that he hopes enough parents are getting out of the test that the data becomes invalid. Now, the concern with that is that what do you do next? Right? So maybe we don’t like this particular test, who’s going to pay for and design the new test? It takes, right, so how would that play out, because it costs millions of dollars to actually design a test, it takes year to actually do the pilot testing, etcetera etcetera, what’s next? And the other piece is maybe you don’t want a test at all in terms of math and reading, but that doesn’t seem to work either. The three unintended consequences that I would just like to point out are 1) virtually every civil rights group in the country and in Delaware have come out to say they oppose opt-out. So you’ve got everybody in the United Negro College Fund (someone in the audience is heard saying “That’s not true.”), You’ve got the NAACP, you’ve got the Urban League, Latin Community Center, have said they do not support opt-out, and the reasons for that are if you make the test invalid for some students, it makes it invalid for all students. And the concern is that, for civil rights groups on particular, they’ve been working a long time to make sure those students are counted, and there have been dark days when kids were encouraged to opt out to raise overall test scores. So they don’t want to return to those days. The second thing that is an unintended consequence is that if the test becomes invalid, that you undermine the trust in the public school system. Now we spend a fill third of our budget on education, that’s over a billion dollars. So the concern is that, that particularly in the business community, that if we do not have a valid test, you’re going to lose trusts amongst them. In particular, there are folks who are concerned that they just may walk away, that they may not have enough confidence in the system, that in terms of passing referendums and things like that, it’s going to become more and more difficult. We don’t have a valid test. Trust in the system is the second piece. The third pieces that I’ll just leave you with is that we get $90 million a year, in federal funds, for Title I students. We get those dollars, with the commitment, that we will show how those kids are doing. These are for low-income kids. Now, the U.S. Department of Education has written letters to say that those dollars could be at risk. And when we are facing a $100 million dollar deficit this year, it’s going to be worse next year, we can’t afford to risk losing any of those dollars going into the next year and there’s no, I guess my concern is that the current bill is more than a parents rights issue. They could have broad implications for our most vulnerable students and could undermine the thing they trust in the public education system if we don’t have a consistent and comparable assessment over time. So that’s my concern, and I do believe that the resolution could be a more thoughtful way to look at all of our tests and how they are used, cause I believe there needs to be some course corrections but I don’t believe House Bill 50 is the right way to go. Thank you.
The first thing I want to say is Dr. Herdman is a very good public speaker in the respect that he can be very persuasive with an audience. I have seem him speak on YouTube, and he masters the use of his hands in luring an audience to effectively listen to him. During this speech, he used the word “Right?” after several of his points, as if to reaffirm his statements to which most people would say “Yes” in their head. I didn’t because I have super powers to render myself immune to that sort of thing, but many people could fall under that spell.
I disagree with most of Dr. Herdman’s comments. I don’t believe trying to link public and private players has provided a good outcome for education in general. It has brought more inequity than not. Dr. Herdman is paid very handsomely to promote the Rodel Foundation’s agendas for education, more than any state, district, or charter employee in Delaware, and by a very wide margin.
The very same civil rights groups Herdman talks about are the same ones that represent vulnerable students the Rodel Foundation of Delaware has helped to put in a position of segregation in Delaware with their constant advocating for more charter schools.
I’ve already gone through the financial funding threats so many times, but for the record, one more time, that’s if the schools opt kids out, not parents. But let’s bring that old chestnut out one more time. In regards to returning to those “dark days”, Rodel’s actions have brought much more of the actions of those days than anything parent opt-out (not school opt-out) could ever do.
I have no qualms with Rep. Matthews quote in the News Journal, which he did say. If a parent is going to go to all the trouble of opting their child out of a three day test, it would stand to reason it is because they don’t like the test. If someone doesn’t like a test, of course they would want it to go away. It is also very logical to assume if enough students are opted out the data the Rodel Foundation and the DOE want so badly would be rendered inert. This isn’t a leap in science, and I fail to understand why Herdman would paint Rep. Matthews as the bad guy here. I guess every side needs a villain, right Paul?
“Virtually every civil rights group in the country…” This is completely false Dr. Herdman, and you know it. 28 national groups wrote a letter to the U.S. Congress in regards to the ESEA reauthorization in January and touched very briefly on the importance of these tests for the minorities, special needs, and low-income children they represent. But in the beginning of April, only 12 remained to voice opposition of parent opt-out. And as Kilroy pointed out so brilliantly, how many of those very same organizations are at the exact same physical address where your office is?
“If the test becomes invalid, you will undermine the trust in the public school system.” If the test becomes invalid, this would validate the complete lack of trust we have in the test-makers, the DOE, and Governor Markell in terms of education. And yes, it would invalidate your 11 years of work in Delaware as well, and that is your biggest fear in my opinion. If Rodel and the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce are so concerned about potential deficits in Delaware, perhaps they could cash in their numerous hedge funds and actually fully support education, not just the ones they support for their own financial benefit.
The Season Of Myths 