I have no doubt they are working together. But the sad part is no one else seems to be invited to the party…
Delaware Governor Jack Markell created a Delaware Pathways To Prosperity Steering Committee on August 11th of this year. On Friday, October 7th, the steering committee convened with no notice to the public. As well, there is no announcement of the membership of this committee. I was only able to find out about this non-transparent meeting by sheer luck in looking at Rodel’s tweets yesterday. What kind of steering committee, charged with decisions on how to help students become “career-ready”, operates in secret?
The road to this steering committee was controversial to begin with. Delaware Senator David Sokola created legislation to begin this committee in the form of Senate Bill 277, but it never made it to a full Senate vote. Governor Markell went ahead anyway and created this steering committee after objections from Delaware legislators. And now they are violating FOIA by holding back-door and closed to the public meetings. Even Governor Markell attended the first meeting but you won’t find notice of this on his public schedule. Why would he when the group didn’t seem to care if the public went.
I filed a FOIA complaint with the Department of Justice ten minutes ago. Why do these things happen whenever Rodel gets involved? The same thing happened with the Rodel initiated Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition which operated in secret two years ago. Can we expect this same type of secrecy with our next Governor? What gives this group the right to discuss student and education matters with no involvement from the public? What gives them the right to make decisions on what is best for children and teenagers without the ability for the public to view and give public comment about their ideas? This is not open government. This is a cabal of people with their own agendas, guiding society towards what they want, not the will of the people. This nonsense needs to stop immediately. People in this state actually wonder why I find it so hard to trust. This is a classic example of why I find it impossible to trust anything associated with Governor Markell and Rodel.
In the above picture, I see Dr. Paul Herdman with Rodel, State Board of Education President Dr. Teri Quinn Gray, Director of Career & Technical Education STEM Initiatives Luke Rhine, Del-Tech President Dr. Mark Brainard, and New Castle County Vo-Tech Superintendent Victoria Gehrt. I’ve seen some of the other faces before but if anyone else can fill in the blanks that would be most appreciated. Feel free to leave the names in the comments.
The Season Of Myths 