When you have family in the same fire company as Patrick Miller, the fraud/theft king of Delaware, your perspective might be a bit off. For State Representative Stephen Smyk, he might as well give up his seat in the House chamber to Patrick Miller after what he said on the radio this morning!
Thanks for State Rep. Kim Williams for getting the word out on this. Yes, this task force is meeting tonight. At Legislative Hall in the House Hearing Room on the 2nd floor. From 6:30 to 8:00pm. Come, give public comment.
I don’t know who the members are except for the following State Reps and Senators: State Reps. Earl Jaques and Joe Miro and Senator David Sokola and Brian Pettyjohn. I’m guessing since Dave is biking somewhere in Illinois or Ohio at this point, he won’t be there. That is an interesting group right there. I’m assuming Earl is the Chair of this cabal since he is the one funning the meeting. Come, or be square! We know the Delaware Charter Schools Network won’t have a membership because of Rep. Williams last minute amendment on the bill.
Seriously, whose idea was it to have meetings in the middle of the Summer? The Dept. of Education is the coordinator. So I just answered my own question, duh! Sorry for the late notice folks, but I literally just found out about this myself!
Legislative Hall was a very odd place this afternoon around 4pm. Usually the place is bustling on a Wednesday afternoon, but since yesterday’s announcement by party leadership that no “controversial” bills would be heard until the budget is passed, it was eerily quiet. Of course the lobbyists were milling around, but the tone was very subdued.
The Delaware Joint Finance Committee met today and added $51 million in cuts to education and healthcare for a total of $88 million cuts. Rumors were swirling that Democrats in the House were turning on their own because they won’t vote for the budget if it includes House Bill 240, State Rep. Val Longhurst’s very weak revenue bill. Turns out the Democrat leadership sent those legislators to the Principal’s office (aka Governor Carney) over the past couple of days. Way to turn on your own! And they even got a few of the Delaware labor organizations (including DSEA) to rattle those legislators cages.
The Republicans introduced a resolution to extend state services for 30 days during July if the budget doesn’t pass. I saw Mike Jackson who runs the Office of Management and Budget briefly and asked if we had a budget. His response… “For now.” Which doesn’t mean much given no one has voted on it yet. But the epilogue language is being written. Grant-in-aid got slashed from $51 million to $8 million so good luck to those non-profits!
Meanwhile, the House voted on House Joint Resolution #6, directing the DOE to come up with regulations surrounding gender identity issues in Delaware schools. Reps. Dukes and Smyk asked questions about it which basically meant they were opposed to the bills. As one observer put it, there was definitely some “transhomophobia” in the House chamber. The bill passed the House. Expect similar resistance in the Senate.
Two Senators were there today who hadn’t been in the latter part of last week. Senator Bryan Townsend’s wife had a baby boy last week. Meanwhile Senator Brian Pettyjohn had some other stuff to straighten out.
I had some good chats with some folks. Asked some pointed questions to a few so I am hoping to find out some answers on those in the next few days. One of them has to do with the series of articles I’ve been writing about Smyrna. It’s kind of putting a delay on Part 6. I am hoping the answer is positive.
Some of us talking were in agreement the State Board of Education isn’t going anywhere. The Delaware Dept. of Education will pick up the $213,000 tab for them. Today the Senate confirmed former Delaware Senator Liane Sorenson as an at-large member of the State Board of Education. I met her briefly and enjoyed our conversation. She did confirm she reads Exceptional Delaware so that is always a plus in my book!
The next two days are going to be absolutely crazy down there. If I’m not there tomorrow, I definitely will be on Friday. That is an education blogger MUST! I am hoping to get more of the Smyrna series up tomorrow. But it depends on that one answer on how I move forward with this.
Oh yeah, the Blockchain legislation, House Bill #226, passed the Delaware Senate. I anticipate Governor Carney will sign that faster than the Flash. And so it begins…
I can’t for the life of me figure out why they aren’t moving forward with State Rep. John Kowalko’s franchise tax for companies incorporated in Delaware. It would raise the fee from $300 to $325.00 and would raise $43 million in revenue. Sounds like a no-brainer, right? The last time that happened, there were 500,000 companies incorporated in Delaware when they raised it from $275 to $300. Opponents feared it would cause companies to leave Delaware. Now we have around 800,000 companies incorporated in Delaware. Bills that make common sense should sail through, but we aren’t dealing with common sense in leadership at Legislative Hall these days, so once again, I digress…
It is late June in Dover, Delaware. 62 elected officials will attempt to decide how our state is run. I trust a handful of them. Pray for us, rest of the United States of America. We need your prayers more than ever!
Updated with essential article from Delaware Public Media: http://delawarepublic.org/post/jfc-eliminates-grants-nonprofits-fire-companies-senior-centers-balance-budget
Updated again, 3:29pm, 6/29/2017: This article has been corrected to reflect that there were zero no votes for Liane Sorenson’s confirmation on the State Board of Education.
Tomorrow is the biggest day in Delaware history since Washington crossed the Delaware! Not really, and that crossing was between New Jersey and Pennsylvania. But voters in the 10th Senate District will choose their new Senator: John Marino or Stephanie Hansen. I am really hoping they do the logical and sensible thing. First off, they need to get out and vote. Second, they need to vote for John Marino.
I won’t even play Pacman with all the crazy spending going on in this election. Both sides have spent gobs of cash on this election. The Dems are fighting for their triumvirate of state government control while the GOP is hoping for a slice of the pie. Caught in the crossfire are the actual candidates, Marino and Hansen. It comes down to choice, pure and simple. But this is NOT just a vote for John Marino, it is also a vote for Delaware. Eight long Markellian years have brought our economy down, our education to a standstill, and disenfranchised citizens up and down the state. Dem control led to Governor John Carney telling people in a virtual town hall the other night that we don’t have money to help low-income schools. We have a $350-$400 million deficit heading into the Fiscal Year 2018 budget. That’s nearly 10% of our budget. Can you afford a 10% reduction in your paycheck? I know I can’t. Delaware can’t either.
When one party has control, the other side doesn’t really matter. Majority rules, so they say. This gives us bad legislation and slush funds inserted into the state budget. This gives our schools less while they pay more. The Dems should be nervous. They realize their reign of power is coming to an end. They will use fear mongering about Right To Work as an excuse to vote for Hansen. God forbid we actually get compromise in Delaware! God forbid the two parties are forced to work together for the betterment of the state. Please, let’s keep one party in control so my quality of life suffers. One party control does NOT work. We are seeing this more than ever with our federal government. I am not a one party guy, but as Senator Brian Pettyjohn stated in a letter to the editor in the Delaware State News, it is about balance. We need to get the balance right. So tomorrow, if you live in the 10th, vote for John Marino. He’s a good guy who will stick by his principles no matter what. Don’t lump him in with all the rhetoric coming from the Hansen side.
For the first time in nearly a decade, a select group of people in the state can determine the future of Delaware. Will they choose the status quo which has put us in the very precarious situation we are in now, or will they vote for change and compromise and a shot at a better tomorrow for all and not the few? Delaware teachers: what has one-party control brought you? Delaware parents: do you like all the aggressive testing in our schools? Delaware citizens: Has the massive loss of businesses in our state helped you or your property values? If I lived in the 10th, I would vote for Marino. But I don’t. I can only endorse him. Again and again if need be. Delaware without one-party control can be a frightening thought. It is unknown what could happen. Our unions will shrivel up and die. That’s what the Dems campaigning for Hansen would have you believe. But what is very known is what one-party control has wrought, and it is not good. Get the balance right.
*Please see below for a statement from Delaware Senator Brian Pettyjohn in regards to this letter.
This morning, Delaware State Rep. Kim Williams published a letter from several state legislators around the country supporting Betsy DeVos in her nomination for the United States Secretary of Education. Senators Anthony DelCollo, Greg Lavelle, Ernie Lopez, Brian Pettyjohn, and Gary Simpson represented the Delaware contingent of these signatures. I am publicly asking these five Delaware Republican Senators to withdraw their support for Mrs. DeVos.
Last week, DeVos had her Senate Confirmation hearing. She did not know the difference between growth and proficiency. She supported guns in schools to prevent grizzly bear attacks. She stated when she was first nominated that she supported dismantling Common Core, but history with the DeVos Foundation suggests otherwise. She is a fervent supporter of school vouchers which have the strong potential to further issues of discrimination and segregation in American schools the way they are currently set up in many states. She supports charter schools which have not shown to be a greater success unless the pull smarter students in through selective enrollment preferences despite the legality of those preferences in many states. But most disappointing was DeVos inability to understand that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, known as IDEA, is a federal law, not a state and local law.
As a father of a student with disabilities, I was appalled when Betsy DeVos said this. The U.S. Secretary of Education is a person who leads all American students in public education. The last thing we need is someone who does not understand special education going into the job. DeVos is a billionaire but her ability to lead education in America is disturbing on many levels.
I have found myself in alignment with many bills that Pettyjohn and Lopez supported. They stood with parents during the opt out saga. They did not support the Smarter Balanced Assessment. Which is why I find their support of DeVos puzzling. Education has become synonymous with standardized testing. Students with disabilities do the poorest on these tests. But they are expected to show the most “growth” in state accountability systems. As a result, in my opinion, special education has become a gigantic mess. It is now geared more towards the student outcomes on these tests than accommodating the true needs of each individual student. If DeVos has her way, students with disabilities could be shuffled around different private schools through a very flawed school voucher system. Private schools are not obligated to follow federal special education law unless they receive federal education funds. Special education in public schools can be challenging enough, adding private schools to that mix with federal dollars could become a recipe for disaster for a population that is already marginalized to a great extent.
Once again, I urge these five Delaware Republican Senators to withdraw their support for Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. Our children deserve better. Students with disabilities deserve better. And my son deserves better.
**UPDATED**5:16pm: I spoke with Senator Pettyjohn about this issue shortly after I posted this article. He echoed the statement he made on Facebook, which said:
Kevin, I agreed to support Betsy DeVos for her nomination to lead the US Department of Education based on my belief that an outsider view of the US DOE is necessary. In previous statements, Ms. DeVos had indicated her disdain for the Department and it’s overburdensome policies and regulations toward states and local districts. I have, for some time, been critical of the federal intrusion into our classrooms, and prior to Ms. DeVos’ confirmation hearings, those were concerns that she had also viewed with a critical eye.
That being said, I do have concerns that have been brought to light since her confirmation hearings; especially concerning her stance on special education. While this is an issue that our United States Senators will be faced with in the coming days, I believe that the letter that was sent, which I agreed to sign before the confirmation hearings took place, will have relatively little impact on the decision that will ultimately be made on Capitol Hill.
That Senate Confirmation hearing took a lot of folks by surprise. In my eyes, it just proved that vast amounts of wealth does not always equal knowledge. DeVos will face a vote for her nomination next Tuesday, January 31st.
Delaware Governor-Elect John Carney and State Senator Brian Pettyjohn held a question and answer session at J.D. Shuckers in Georgetown this morning. The packed restaurant submitted many questions. A few of them dealt with Delaware education. Carney’s answers provided some insight to one of his recent decisions.
The Delaware Department of Education continues their self-righteous Rodel led agendas. In their latest corporate education reform press release, Godowsky and the gang announced the nineteen members of the Delaware Teacher Leader Pilot program kicking off this year. I find it more than a coincidence that most of the districts who got these positions are very tight with the “Leader In Me” program. The only districts selected were Capital and Appoquinimink. Three charters are joining the bandwagon which are MOT, Kuumba Academy and Odyssey.
At their April board meeting, the Capital Board of Education tentatively approved going forward with this program. But they had deep concerns about setting up competitions in schools. They cited the very controversial Delaware Talent Co-op Program from a few years ago and how it caused many problems among teachers. As well, the board was concerned with the amount of time the selected Teacher Leaders would spend out of the classroom and how additional substitute teachers would need to take their place. The principals of these schools were very enthusiastic about the program. Both are “focus” schools, one of the latest “turnaround” labels thrown at schools over low state assessment scores. In a sense, I don’t blame these principals for doing what they can to get their schools out of these false labels put on them by the Delaware DOE. If you go to the Capital board audio recording from their April 20th board meeting, click on the second audio recording link, and the discussion begins around the 1:22:03 mark. When asked how much the program would cost, Superintendent Dan Shelton mentioned the stipend teachers would get but also that the training would take up the bulk of the costs. A figure of $50,000 was thrown around.
The only schools in Capital who are instituting this pilot program are Towne Point and East Dover Elementary. Towne Point is a huge advocate of the “Leader In Me” program. Fairview Elementary in Capital also has this program. Appoquinimink School District brought Leader In Me to Delaware. Payments for this program are made to a company called Franklin Covey. Many of the teachers at Towne Point who advocate for this program are also members of this Teacher Leader pilot program. One of them is also very involved with the Rodel Teacher Council. I have no doubt this teacher is an excellent teacher, but when you see one name associated with so many things I can not support, it is hard to draw the line between saying nothing and pointing it out. I fully welcome any discussion with this teacher about anything written in this article, especially the part I write about later on.
The Delaware General Assembly passed their budget bill in late June with an appropriation of $800,000 in state funds going to the recipient districts and charters towards the Teacher Leader program.
What I don’t understand is how the DOE can move forward with a program that is contingent on approval in the State Budget. The funds for this state grant weren’t approved until late June. But here we have the DOE sending out invitations to apply after Spring Break. For Capital school district, students came back after Spring Break on April 4th. They gave schools a very short time to apply for this program, a matter of 25 days. What was the insane rush behind this? I will touch on this later, but for now check out the press release from Alison May at the DOE:
How does a member of the Selection Committee manage to get selected for this program? Can you answer that for me Michele Johnson? Why do I constantly see the names of the aforementioned Michele Johnson, Robyn Howton and Jennifer Nauman attached to so much Rodel/Vision stuff and now this selection committee? Under whose authority did you allow schools to apply for this before any decision was made granting the authority by legislative decree to a public committee or before the funds were even appropriated for this program? Can you answer that for me Angeline Rivello? Or do you answer to Donna Johnson? Because there is a crystal clear reason she was cc’ed on this email. Who chose the selection committee for a program that, once again, wasn’t even approved? Your email said there was a chance to get a “wide diversity” of schools but we have only one Kent Country district, one New Castle County district, and three New Castle charters. How did that work out? What was the rubric for scoring applications? How many applications were received? Did the selection committee read every single application or what it divvied up among the selection committee?
I think it is past time the DOE fessed up on their sneakiness and manipulation. Secretary Godowsky PROMISED a greater degree of transparency and open communication coming from this Department, and all I see are more lies, secret agendas, emails to select individuals with no public awareness, funds committed to things before they are even approved, focus groups or special meetings with no public notice, no minutes provided for certain things, or even links to certain groups (hello Competency-Based Learning Guiding Coalition). Meanwhile, you allow charters and districts to allocate money wherever they want with no true oversight, browbeat the auditor’s office until a good woman is put on leave while charters get away with financial murder, manipulate the ESSA regulatory process by claiming to have true stakeholder input when it is really just school administrators and lobbyists, force a school report card scheme on our schools without any regulatory authority to impose it, and have our students take a test that judges everything and the students don’t even take the test. Secretary Godowsky, I don’t care what anyone says, you are a HORRIBLE Secretary of Education. This kind of crap makes even Mark Murphy look okay in comparison. The rot in YOUR Department still exists, more than ever. This happened under YOUR watch. I hope the pieces of silver from Rodel and Markell were worth it…
Angeline Rivello, when I announced Chris Ruszkowski was leaving the DOE, a lot of teachers in this state reached out to me and they expressed how they wanted to give you a chance and hoped the stink from the TLEU would disappear. It is stronger then ever.
Donna Johnson, this just once again proves what I have always known: you don’t believe in transparency and you are well aware of everything that goes on in the Townsend Building. Does your beloved State Board know what you know? How the hell are you even still employed there? All of you are liars, plain and simple. There is no other justification for your actions.
Governor Markell, you tricked us again. You are a mastermind at turning something that looks good on the surface into a tangled web of lies and deception. If I had my way, I would impeach you even though you have less than five months in office.
If those in Delaware thought maybe I would temper things down eventually, my commitment to exposure in this state has NEVER been stronger. Every single day I see the corruption and fraud going on in our state. This isn’t a democracy. We have the most corrupt and vile state government in the country. None of this is about our kids. It is about power, position, and money. You all need to start coming clean before I find out about it. Because if you think only a few Delaware teachers and parents read this blog, you are VERY wrong. You have no idea, no one does, who is watching all of you. Recording every single thing I come out with, just building a very large and thick file.
And I do have a final item to throw out there. How can three contracts, which I can only assume may play into the total of $800,000 for Section 362is program which answers some of my questions for the funds involved in this sham, be signed on the following dates: 4/19/16, 4/21/16, 4/26/16, 5/2/16, 5/4/16, 5/10/16, 5/11/16, and 5/23/16? If these are for this program, and the General Assembly had not approved the funds for this program, how can you have contracts starting before the Joint Finance Committee even released their budget? Or should I assume the Rodel Foundation will be the one training these teacher leaders? With funds from the Vision Coalition? Or should I say Schools That Lead? Because when I look up Schools That Lead’s IRS 990 tax forms, it comes up with 990s for 2012, 2013, and 2014. Since Schools That Lead wasn’t really around then, care to take a guess what company comes up? The Vision Network. And if this description of their purpose doesn’t fit the bill for this Teacher Leader Pilot, I don’t know what does:
Care to take a close look at who Schools That Lead’s “partners” are? Just look at this. And if you aren’t aware of the backbone behind the Vision Coalition’s Student Success 2025, you need to take a look at this. The Vision Coalition wants us to be “rethinking roles and responsibilities” and that includes teacher leaders and their compensation levels. Take a look at the contracts above with Teach For America, University of Delaware and Supporting School Success. Sound familiar based on all this? Even more fascinating, even though Delaware has paid millions of dollars to the Rodel/Vision education incorporated enterprise, we never see any contracts with them listed on the awarded vendors portion of the state contracts website. I would have to imagine this contract could land them anywhere from $500,000-$600,000. Would that be a good guess Dr. Paul Herdman? With an address at 100 W. 10th St. in Wilmington, DE, it stands to reason Rodel is somehow going to profit off this.
When I first started digging into education stuff in Delaware, I remember reading an article on Kilroy’s where he wrote about talking with Jack Markell in 2008. Kilroy wanted to support him, and he asked Markell flat-out if he was going to stop the spread of Rodel into Delaware education to which Markell said he would. Jack lied Kilroy. He lied to all of us. Rodel runs the education show in Delaware. They have for 12 years. Every single decision made in Delaware education has been at the behest of the Rodel Foundation since Jack Markell took office. Together with their order-takers at the Delaware DOE, the State Board of Education, the Delaware Charter Schools Network, the Delaware Business Roundtable, the Christina Cultural Arts Center, Governor Markell’s office, and the Wilmington Metropolitan Urban League, they have single-handedly turned Delaware education into a billion dollar corporation. And our kids lose more and more every single day. Because their minions have infiltrated every charter, every district, every state agency, and even our General Assembly. We gave them this power. Now, it is time to take it all back.
The Delaware State Board of Education will be under review by the Delaware Sunset Committee in Fiscal Year 2017. At the meeting today in Legislative Hall, Delaware Senator Brian Pettyjohn brought up the nomination for the State Board of Education. Citing concerns with fiscal transparency, Pettyjohn felt the State Board (who has never come up for a review by the Sunset Committee) should get a review.
For those who may not remember, on January 1st I wrote an article about why I wasn’t going to file complaints in regards to this mess and the other train wrecks happening in the State Board of Education. I’ve known this nomination was going to come up for a long time now. I’ve been biding my time waiting for today, and it is finally here. I could have filed complaints, but sorry, I don’t trust the system in Delaware with complaints. Instead, I will submit any information to the Sunset Committee for their review.
In determining their review, the State Board of Education’s budget for this fiscal year is $223,100. Executive Director Donna Johnson’s salary is a little over $90,000 and the administrative assistant’s salary is nearly $54,000. Each board member gets paid $100 per State Board meeting but they can’t attend more than 24 meetings in a year. It is very hard to track their expenses from a citizen’s perspective because they do not have their own section or tab under the Department of Education on Delaware Online Checkbook.
The State Board of Education has been a lightning rod of controversy in the past year. Between the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission redistricting plan vote, the inability to give public comment on action items, the situations I wrote about in the above links, and the fact that Donna Johnson serves as a State Board rep on most education activities without actual board member representation. These are just some of the things that annoy the citizens of Delaware who are involved in education. Most feel the State Board of Education should be publicly elected and not appointed by the Governor of Delaware. For all of their arrogance and hubris, it looks like they are the next stop on the karma bus! More details to come on this monumental nomination!
While the membership of the Sunset Committee could certainly change next year due to the upcoming elections, the following legislators serve on the committee: State Rep. Gerald Brady (Chair), Senator Nicole Poore (Vice-Chair), State Representatives Andrea Bennett, Stephanie Bolden, Tim Dukes, Jeff Spiegelman, and Senators Brian Pettyjohn, Bryant Richardson, David Sokola, and Bryan Townsend.
This is the process for review by the Joint Sunset Committee, from their website:
I read about this group before, but I didn’t pay it much mind. For some reason though, it stayed with me and gnawed at the back of my mind. Yesterday, I decided to look into them, and found out more about them. The Southern Regional Education Board (SREB) is a group of southern states, stretching from Delaware to Texas. Each state has a board and an advisory council. Here is Delaware’s group:
A lot of these names make sense, and some make no sense at all! I’m not sure why a former state representative would serve on a council like this. Darryl Scott has been somewhat quiet since he decided not to run again for State Rep but I am hearing his name spoken more than usual these days. With all due respect to Robert Rescigno, I have never heard his name before. Markell, Sokola and Jaques are the peanut butter & jelly (including the bread) of all things education in Delaware, so that fits. Senator Brian Pettyjohn serves on the Senate Education Committee so I get that. But Senator F. Gary Simpson? I found that to be an odd choice. So what does this group do? And who funds it? Some of the names of the “non-profits” and “foundations” below are the usual suspects when it comes to this kind of thing. Which tells me this group is not an official political group but rather another corporate education reform group…
From what I could from this document on the SREB website, this is all just more of the same. More groups, more connections, and more taxpayer money that produces the same results…not a whole heck of a lot! But what is interesting is some of the names that don’t serve on the Delaware SREB Board or the SREB Legislative Advisory Council and some of the other activities that go on with this group…
By what benchmarks is Delaware stating they are a leading state for standards and assessments?
I would love to see one of these newsletters! Can anyone send them to me?
State Rep. Joe Miro is involved! He is also on the House Education Committee.
Senator Sokola hanging out with Dr. Gray! When it comes to the tech side of things in education, you can always count on Senator David Sokola to be in the thick of it!
More Sokola!
Can someone tell me what an “Academic Common Market” is? Never mind, I looked it up. It allows Delaware students to pay the same as in-state tuition rates at other colleges and universities if they are in the SREB. Only 88 college students in Delaware are participating.
This all sounds like some regional thing, and I’m sure there are other boards like this in other sections of the country. This is just more corporate education reform, but on the legislative side of things. I always wonder where some of our legislators get all their nifty ideas for the destruction of public education…
Delaware Senator Brian Pettyjohn is a good guy. I met him a few times down at Legislative Hall, and he supported House Bill 50, so he’s alright in my book! Tomorrow he is going beyond the usual parade appearance and reading to a live audience!
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Sen. Brian Pettyjohn will be joined by a group of local elected officials on Saturday, July 4 at noon on the Circle in Georgetown for the third annual live reading of the Declaration of Independence. Sen. Pettyjohn, the event’s host, wishes to invite the general public to come and enjoy the spirit of the holiday, and to watch this tribute to our nation’s Founding Fathers. “The Declaration of Independence is probably our most important founding document,” he said. “We severed the ties to a tyrannical government and started the great experiment which is now the republic that we’ve had for over 200 years.” |
Some would say life under Governor Jack Markell is tyrannical, but we don’t have it that bad!
The Season Of Myths 