1988. The year I graduated high school! In this look back at thirty years ago, I cover my life and the world we lived in. You may see some familiar faces. For the younger crowd looking at this, I have no doubt you will crack up at the society we called our own! But my generation owned the 1980s!
If there was one name I heard every single day, it was Donald Trump. To the point of exhaustion. No President in my lifetime has met with so much scorn and scrutiny. Between his Tweets and his painful decisions, the guy was constantly in the news. And on social media, folks weighed the pros and cons of his every move.
I grew up in New York in the 1980s. The guy was in the news a lot then as well. It usually wasn’t good. How this guy managed to finagle himself into the Oval Office still shocks and bewilders me. The fact that so many Republicans think he is the return of the Messiah does not give me hope in America. It scares the crap out of me. I don’t think Hilary would have been any better. She would have been more overt and wouldn’t have shot her mouth off the way Donald has.
I shudder to think what America will be like by the end of his term (if he lasts that long). We are already the laughingstock of the world these days because of him. It’s like a cartoon character come to life. And the cartoon never ends. I can’t even put his picture up in this article because I can’t bear to see his face one more time.
Kendall Massett, the Executive Director of the Delaware Charter Schools Network, will soon be standing at a crossroads. As someone who preaches district and charter collaboration on one hand, the other hand is busy trying to find ways to get more district money to follow students at Delaware charters. This dichotomy is going to define the future of charter schools in Delaware.
As anyone breathing in Delaware is well aware, fifteen charter schools sued the Delaware Dept. of Education and the Christina School District over funds they felt should have been going to charter schools. The defining moment in the lawsuit: when Secretary of Education Dr. Steven Godowsky reversed changes to the local funding formula for school choice payments after September 1st. They could have been patient and allowed Godowsky or the next Delaware Secretary of Education and the General Assembly the opportunity to figure it out. But instead, they took the legal route which was championed by Kendall Massett. As a result, the law firm of Saul Ewing will get $300,000. How many teachers could be hired with that kind of money? How many students could have received a paraprofessional in a school room bursting with over 25 kids?
If the collaboration Massett truly desires took place, this lawsuit wouldn’t have happened in the first place. If there is blame to be thrown around regarding who was at fault with the local funding formula, that blame lands solely at the feet of the Delaware Dept. of Education. They should have been the ones answering the questions for the charters. Christina performed their due diligence and submitted their exclusions to the Delaware DOE. This originated last Winter, with Newark Charter School calling in the DOE who apparently “confessed” to the powers that be about the exclusions submitted by Christina. The DOE had an opportunity right then and there to make good on this. The charter schools could have gone public with this information and forced the DOE to do something about it. And if that didn’t work, they could have brought in the General Assembly. But instead, they kept this a secret for many months. They had to know when the public found out about this they would be understandably upset. These were huge funding changes with charter payments. This was not a wise move for the charters involved. By alleging that Christina was purposely withholding funds from these charters when the district did the same thing they had been doing for 12-13 years, which I might add was completely legal since the DOE approved them, the charters started a war. It is not that difficult to see this was the original intent. It boils down to Greg Meece having a hissy fit because his school wanted more money and if Christina wouldn’t willfully give it up, he was going to punish them and cast blame.
In an article on Delaware First Media, written by Meg Pauly on December 1st, Massett weighed in on the Christina Board of Education signing the settlement with the fifteen charters. Massett, as the go-to spokeswoman for Delaware charter schools, seemed to have some very big misunderstandings about what this settlement really is.
She said the decision most likely won’t require a vote from each schools’ entire board of directors, which could make it easier to approve.
“Because there would not be any money going out – they’re not paying out a settlement, it would be money coming in – there’s not really a fiduciary responsibility that the board would have to approve,” Massett said.
There is certainly a fiduciary responsibility stemming from this settlement. The charters, according to the settlement, would have to make sure the funds were allocated to certain functions similar to what those funds were used for in the Christina School District. As well, the Pandora’s box called tuition tax funds were brought up in the settlement. It states:
In the CSD settlement agreement, CSD has agreed to catalogue and describe, for DOE and CSD Charter Schools, those services provided by CSD to children with special needs (“Special Needs Services”) that are funded in whole, in whole or in part, with revenues generated by the levy of the so-called Tuition Tax by CSD. The objective of this undertaking is to determine whether CSD shall be financially responsible under Section 509(f) for funding the same or similar Special Needs Services provided by CSD Charter Schools to their CSD resident students. If requested, DOE will participate in the discussions and inquiry described in this subsection, and, where necessary, shall enforce this provision.
So what does Section 509(f) of Delaware State Code say?
For any student, who because of educational need requires services that are appropriately financed pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 6 of this title, either at the outset or subsequent to a decision to enroll in a charter school, the student’s district of residence shall remain financially responsible for such student and the charter school shall receive from such district a payment determined in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 6 of this title.
Which brings us back to Chapter 6 of Title 14:
§ 604 Special programs.
(a) If any pupil is counted in the preschool, intensive or complex unit and attends school in a program operated by a district other than that in which the pupil resides, by an agency of the Department of Education or is in an approved private placement pursuant to § 3124 of this title, the receiving district or the Department of Education shall collect a tuition charge for the nonresident pupil, provided approval for attendance has been granted by the sending district. Such tuition charge shall be paid by the school board of the reorganized school district in which the pupil is a resident from the proceeds of a local tax levied for this specific purpose, except that in the case of a district assigned by the Department with the approval of the State Board of Education to administer a school or program for children with disabilities, or special programs approved by the Department of Education for persons without disabilities such as programs for bilingual students or programs for pregnant students, the district so assigned shall be both the sending and receiving district in regard to that school or program and is authorized to collect tuition charges accordingly.
(b) In determining the tuition to be charged for a pupil counted in the preschool, intensive or complex units or for a person without disabilities attending approved special programs, such as bilingual programs or programs for pregnant students operated by a district other than that in which the student resides or by an agency of the State Department of Education, the receiving district or the State Department of Education shall compute the tuition by adding such receiving district’s share of educational related expenses as allowed by the Department of Education regulations. The sum so obtained shall be divided by the total number of pupils in the special program as of September 30 of the current school year. The resulting figure shall represent the amount of the “tuition charge” per pupil.
(c) In determining the tuition charged to the sending district in the case of private placement for children with disabilities, tuition will be defined as in § 3124 of this title and the sending district will be charged 30 percent of the total tuition cost. The remaining 70 percent will be covered through funding provided by the State Department of Education from the annual appropriation for this purpose.
The charter schools get IDEA Part B funding from the federal government. They receive special education funding from the state for Basic Special Education for students in pre-school (if they have those programs) and students in 4th-12th grade. They get intensive and complex funding for students in all grades. Where the tuition tax gets very complex is how it is determined. The local school board votes to set the current year’s tuition tax rate for taxpayers. It is not something the district can change on a whim. And state code is very specific about what those funds can be used for. What makes Christina very unique is that they are the management district for several special needs programs. Those are not funds the charter schools could touch based on this settlement unless they are providing comparable services. Then we get into the definition of a comparable service. Would Gateway Lab School be considered the same school as the special schools within Christina?
Where Kendall, as well as the entire settlement, performs a massive overreach is in this particular section. It is tampering with state code in unbelievable ways. State code does not legally have to honor a settlement stemming from a lawsuit between a school district and a group of charters. As well, it can not, and should not, dictate what a state agency has to do. That is what we have our General Assembly for, to create and amend laws. We can certainly discuss the merit of some of those laws, but that is the very essence of the Constitution of Delaware. A settlement should not create new contradictions that try to negate existing law. Which is why Secretary Godowsky wanted the General Assembly to intervene in this entire funding process. I am assuming the Delaware DOE signed their settlement agreement with the fifteen charters. Which is even more concerning in my eyes. The fact they would allow changes in Delaware law without approval of the legislative body charged with performing that task. A settlement cannot create laws or regulations.
What this section does is change the duty of charter schools in regards to their adherence of special education law which they should already be doing to the best of their ability. This settlement is much more than a “fiduciary responsibility” in nature, as Massett put it. Something that magnanimous in scope should be approved by a charter school board, not a Head of School or even an interim principal in one case. It is fiduciary in a sense that the charters would receive more money from a tuition tax, but it would require an oversight of the special education services within each of those charter schools to make sure they are performing at a comparable level to Christina. That could involve extra resources and staff those charters may not have. Could a charter hire that staff and pay for those resources and then submit for those tuition tax funds? Or would those services and staff have to already be in place to be eligible for those funds? The settlement does not define that.
If, for some odd reason, legislation is created out of this part of the settlement, it would require districts to collect even more tuition tax from taxpaying citizens within their district. They would have to because more would be required to go out to charter schools for those students. They should not be tasked with divvying up the existing tuition tax they receive for the students within their own district with those needs or funds they are already sending to special education schools outside of their district. That would take away from those students. But here is the major problem with this: the local boards have to determine the tuition tax rate in the summer before the school year starts. They base this on projections within their own district. How can they determine the needs of special education students who reside in their district but attend charter schools before the school year even starts? For some they can, but special education can be very fluid, evolving from year to year. It is hard enough for the districts to do this for their own students.
If Kendall Massett wants more collaboration between districts and charters going forward, she needs to stop drawing this line in the sand when it comes to money. She is going to continue to piss off the districts and they will not want to collaborate with the charters who keep demanding more and more from them. Districts can’t always get performance funds or donations from foundations. They can’t always have silent auctions like many charter schools do. All Delaware public schools have the capability of applying for grants from the state or the federal government, including charters. Districts don’t get to keep their excess transportation spending if they set their budget higher than what they actually spend. And charters are free to use this money as they please. So please, tell me Kendall, if the charters are getting what you view as their “fair share“, will you promote removing those extra perks for the charters that districts don’t get? When it comes to education funding, there is a crystal-clear difference between what a charter school needs and what an entire district needs. In some ways, it is like comparing apples to oranges. You can’t complain about charters not receiving capital funding. That was the way the law for charters was set up. It was the price of admission into Delaware public education. So by default, on paper, it would appear charters get less than districts for that very reason.
Some could argue that this latest misstep by the charters is just more of an ongoing agenda to privatize public education. Just one more chunk taken from school districts and flowing into the hands of charter schools which are actually non-profit corporations. By state law, those corporations are required to file IRS tax returns. But because of loopholes in IRS guidance, the one charter school who actually started this whole charter payment mess is the one school that does not file those tax returns. The guiding force behind the lawsuit was Greg Meece and Newark Charter School. They created the very conditions that led to the lawsuit. The settlement promises severe disruption to all Delaware schools involving special education and funding. But Newark Charter School is not transparent with their own finances the same way the rest of Delaware charters are. I have grave issues with that. And I have no doubt in my mind Kendall is aware of this.
In a News Journal article from December 5th discussing the settlement details, written by Adam Duvernay, Kendall states the following:
“I’m glad everyone will have a seat at the table, and that the process will be transparent, so we don’t find ourselves in this situation again where charter schools go for years without answers and feel like they need to resort to legal action to make their voices heard,” Massett said.
What about the questions many Delawareans have been asking the charter schools for years without any real answers? Like how certain Delaware charter schools can cherry-pick students in defiance of state and federal law? When does Newark Charter School, which created this whole mess, finally implement their plan to balance their demographics at their school? When does Newark Charter School become fully transparent with their own money the way every other Delaware charter school is required by law to do? Massett cherry-picks her statements. She wants districts to answer any questions charters have, but when those answers are needed by others, she either deflects or states it just isn’t true. And when people do take legal actions surrounding charter demographics? Like when the Office of Civil Rights asked for all charter school applications a couple of years ago going back the two years before that request? The Delaware Charter Schools Network became the organization tasked with collecting that information. And what happened? Massett informed the Office of Civil Rights the charters did not know they needed to keep that information. And then there is the matter of the now two-year-old complaint from the Delaware ACLU against the State of Delaware and Red Clay regarding practices of segregation and discrimination from some Delaware charter schools. Kendall called that “a myth.” Two years later and that complaint has gone nowhere. Forcing someone to sit at the table with a menu where there are two choices, our way or no way, is not collaboration. It is not legal action. It is manipulation that doesn’t belong in education. With education, every decision eventually affects students in a good way or a bad way. For far too long, those decisions have existed for the benefit of charter school students.
Getting real here, Kendall’s job is to promote charter schools and to serve as a buffer between them and the state in certain areas. At heart, Kendall is a lobbyist, seeking to influence the General Assembly and the Delaware DOE in ways that will benefit charter schools in the state. Charter schools pay dues to the Delaware Charter Schools Network. In a sense, they are very similar to some of the roles the Delaware State Education Association plays in education politics. But the difference is that DSEA represents the teachers in district schools. They promote or oppose legislation that will benefit the teachers within their organization. I have no doubt DSEA would love to have charter school teachers unionize. But the Delaware Charter School Network exists for a niche within public education that almost serves as a parasite on the districts they feed from. It takes from the host body and sucks the energy out of it. That is the price of school choice that Kendall cannot seem to fathom.
In 2017, education will once again be front and center in Delaware. The corporate education reform movement, led by the Rodel Foundation in Delaware, will become more pronounced with the implementation of the Every Student Succeeds Act. But in some ways, it almost seems like the charter movement in Delaware and those who advocate for them, seem to have become more emboldened with the election of Donald Trump as President of the USA. He promised billions of dollars to charter schools. To add salt to that wound, he appointed Betsy DeVos as the next U.S. Secretary of Education. A charter school lover if there ever was one. I have no doubt charter advocates across the country are feeling almost empowered by these events. Supporters of public education are very worried about what will happen to further erode an education system that has been in place long before the very idea of a charter school was introduced.
In Delaware, Kendall Massett will continue to have great relationships with the Dept. of Education and the State Board of Education. She will exert her influence on the General Assembly. If any bill is introduced that will negatively impact charter schools, she will wield her power and influence to put a stop to it. She is backed by some very powerful forces in Delaware that will not be trifled with in any way. But none of these forces see what their choices and decisions make to education as a whole. If charters and districts were funded the same way as the vo-tech schools in Delaware, I don’t think the issues with charter schools in the state would be as big. But this parasitic relationship between districts and charters is paralyzing to education in Delaware. There are other things that perform the same damaging results, but we can control how this particular relationship evolves. Districts and charters aren’t going anywhere. If charters want to co-exist with districts and have true and meaningful collaboration, they have to stop these games. And Kendall Massett, as the spokeswoman for the charters, will have to take on a different mantra. It isn’t a question of choice at this point, it is an answer that demands immediate implementation. Fair goes both ways.
If I were Kendall Massett, I would actually recommend the Christina Board of Education rescinds their vote on the settlement. Funding is important, but shaking down a district like this which will only tick off the other districts in the state, is not something to be proud of. It is not a victory when students continue to pay the price.
Last night, I posted a series of memes on Facebook. I also put them on Twitter. I do recognize that some folks don’t participate in social media, so for those 21st Century hold-outs, here they are.
Every once in a while, Kilroy posts something about me. It is usually in regards to some comment someone made over on his blog. But lately, especially on social media, I see Kilroy taking potshots at DSEA and a couple of members in particular. This led to a dust-up on Kilroy’s Facebook page tonight, over all things, social justice.
It appears Kilroy didn’t understand the context and went into a tirade over it. This led to other commenters talking about the validity of unions and how the dues work. Steve Newton completely evaporated the opposition and proved conclusively that union dues come with the application for a teaching job in Delaware school districts. It isn’t a question of right or wrong, it is just the way it is.
Kilroy needs to stop trying to poke holes into DSEA and their upcoming elections and really focus on the things that are happening outside of teacher unions. Like the complete and utter privatization of public education if certain parties get their way. Like the Rodel-led hijacking of Delaware’s Every Student Succeeds Act state plan. Like the Christina-charter school settlement that will take away funds from every single school district in the state for things that are rightfully excluded from charter payments. Like an incoming Governor who has not announced any leadership positions for Delaware education with a little over a month before his inauguration. Like the swarm of education technology in our classrooms that is collecting a plethora of private student information with algorithms we will never know about. Like how it doesn’t matter who won President of the country, that march to privatization continues. Like the “Bad News Betsy” that will make Arne Duncan and John King look like rank amateurs. Like the stealth tests coming our way sooner than we think in Rodel’s when you wish upon a star personalized learning and competency-based education environment.
For someone who claims to support teacher unions, he sure does talk about them a lot. Especially their role in Race To The Top. Six years ago. Which, I might add, all nineteen school districts signed up for, along with the Delaware PTA and every other education organization in the state. To say DSEA was the only party that led RTTT into Delaware is very misleading. Being real here, I wasn’t involved in all of this when RTTT came out. So my window on this is seen in perceptions of that time from others after the fact in the past few years. But there comes a time when beating it over us is not productive. Who is still in DSEA leadership from that time? I don’t think anyone running for DSEA leadership was instrumental in the decisions from six years ago. But if Kilroy has a grandchild in Red Clay, he needs to get up to speed with what is going on in education. Cause it is not pretty and he needs to be on the right side of things. I admire the hell out of Kilroy. He got me my start in the Delaware blogosphere. And I want him to focus on more because he has a great deal of influence on education.
In terms of social justice, I’m not sure what context Kilroy took it in, but as a result of Kilroy’s post, Mike Matthews updated his status to show what his definition of social justice is:
Social justice means to me…
…standing at a school board meeting begging for more supports for special needs students.
…going to Dover and speaking in support of the Opt Out movement before the House education committee.
…reading a book to kindergarteners on why sharing and respect are key values.
…protesting the State’s attempts to shut down community schools because of test scores.
…letting a Black student know that when all around them they feel like the world hates them, that their life DOES matter.
…demanding that Delaware get off the list of four states that doesn’t fund ELL students.
…ensuring that ALL students know that a classroom is a place where they can be themselves — no matter how different — and be accepted.
…organizing educators to make sure they understand their rights to speak up and ADVOCATE for their students when the time comes.
Social Justice, to me, is about education and NEVER indoctrination. Social justice is about respect. Kindness. Acceptance. Organizing. Advocating. Speaking up. Believing in who you are as a human being and being able to take action to fight for the most vulnerable.
That’s what social justice is. While that phrase may be dangerous to some, I will always wear it like a badge of honor.
Besides, it’s too much fun being an outspoken pain in the ass sometimes.
Well said Mr. Matthews. That is some social justice I can get behind. While I have been critical of DSEA leadership in the past, I have always seen the potential of what a united and strong DSEA could become in this state. A DSEA that will have to align with parents in the coming years if they want to save public education. Perhaps that is why I have been critical of DSEA at times because I have high expectations for them to be the voice that has the power to influence public education in this state, not be an observer while others feast on the scraps.
We ALL need to be concerned about Donald Trump and his very poor selection of Betsy DeVos as U.S. Secretary of Education. Trump really doesn’t have a clue about education. But he will surround himself with people who do. And what they know and what they have planned is not good.
It’s real easy to play Monday morning quarterback after your team just took a huge hit. Donald Trump promised (and fooled) many citizens into thinking he could get rid of Common Core. So much so that his pick for Secretary of Education is now backtracking on her years of actions financially supporting Common Core. She sits on Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education. This foundation LOVES Common Core and all that comes with it. DeVos, through the Betsy and Steve DeVos Foundation, poured millions of dollars into pro-Common Core candidates.
On some Betsy DeVos Question and Answer website that sprung out of nowhere, she denounces Common Core. This website was created on 8/16/16, but her picture was just added this month. This isn’t some long-time website that shows the DeVos denunciation of Common Core. This website was created specifically for the possibility of a Trump win. Why would anyone put up a q and a website unless they knew what the opposition would immediately come out with? This is what she has to say about Common Core. Items in red are my response to that.
Q: There’s been a lot of talk about Common Core. Can you provide some straight talk on this topic?
Certainly. I am not a supporter—period.
Financial support into candidates and states that support it IS supporting it.
I do support high standards, strong accountability, and local control. When Governors such as John Engler, Mike Huckabee, and Mike Pence were driving the conversation on voluntary high standards driven by local voices, it all made sense.
State standards, as written in the Every Student Succeeds Act, are now state decisions. Trump couldn’t dump them if he tried. There is a big difference between state and local decisions. The states now call the shots on education. The locals are just along for the ride. Local control of education is a thing of the past.
Have organizations that I have been a part of supported Common Core? Of course. But that’s not my position. Sometimes it’s not just students who need to do their homework.
I don’t even know what that means Betsy DeVos. Common Core wasn’t created because kids weren’t doing their homework. It was set up for a VERY specific reason which I will get to soon.
However, along the way, it got turned into a federalized boondoggle.
A very intentional federalized boondoggle where states gave up ALL control to the feds. Once the states adopted the standards, it didn’t end there. In came the standardized testing, the accountability game that judges failing schools based on those same tests, as well as the longitudinal data (which was the real purpose which I will also get to later) creation in every state to allow student data to go out. Once everything was set up in the states through Federal funds (most of which did not go to local schools but to state Departments of Education who paid education reform companies billions of dollars), then the reauthorization of ESEA came about. ESSA is the shift towards this future. Giving the illusion of state control based on federal mandates and snake-oil deals from the Obama administration.
Above all, I believe every child, no matter their zip code or their parents’ jobs, deserves access to a quality education.
Every single corporate education reformer says this, but being pro-school choice has not equated to greater educational improvement for children overall. Especially children that are minorities, low-income, English Language learners, and students with disabilities.
Betsy DeVos, through her foundation work for her own foundation as well as others, has been on of the biggest driving forces for the privatization of American public education. But why? Where is all of this going?
As I put up my post about DeVos selection for the U.S. Secretary of Education, I was met with an onslaught of comments stating she doesn’t support Common Core. Actions speak louder than words. I immediately directed readers to this excellent post showing how she DOES support Common Core and how. And then I wrote this:
To put this in a very easy way to understand, Common Core was created to train young minds for constant all-the-time digital learning. State assessments (based on Common Core) will become stealth assessments embedded in personalized learning/competency-based education environments. Once they bust the unions, traditional school districts will fall. Charters will go online. Our young kids will go to local non-profits to learn online while older kids learn online in a pay to earn environment through Charter Online Inc. Meanwhile, all this data from ed tech is tracking every student and whoring out their personal data and gearing them towards pre-determined professions that corporations want, not the kids. Who do you think will profit from this? Charters. Teachers will become glorified moderators while parents watch their rights slowly disappear. Their kids will go to community health-based centers for everything. This is the grand agenda. There is nothing Trump can do to stop it. Complete control over the future by corporations. Read into plans for Blockchain technology to see where all of this is going…. This has NEVER been about kids. It has always been about corporate profit.
We are now at a huge tipping point with public education. I’ve actually seen parents today, on anti-Common Core Facebook pages, actually trying to convince me DeVos is a good pick and to give her a chance. This is what the corporate education reformers do best. They pit people against each other. While everyone is arguing about this and that, they are getting things done. Planting seeds to get the whole thing done. They are the masters of distraction. Bill Gates is just one of them. Today, we saw another billionaire get the top education job in the country. With no background of ever being an educator. Do you really think it is a coincidence that the past three Secretaries of Education have been fervent supporters of school choice, charter schools, and “higher standards”? You can call Common Core whatever you want. But it is the same everywhere, in every state. It is just a vessel to much bigger plans, a complete and utter transformation of society where the top will always be on the top, but true choice and upward mobility for the rest will be on the bottom. It is central to destroying who we are as a nation. A nation of freedom and free will. That will be stripped from us, forever. We will become the cradle to grave workforce with the rich and elite overlords looking down upon us. The future generations of today’s rich and elite who use their money and influence to reshape society to their mold.
This was going to happen no matter who won the Presidency. Clinton, Trump, Johnson, Stein… it didn’t matter. Who do you really think is running the show? Politicians? No. It is corporations. Follow the money. Read the stuff that is coming out right now through ESSA. Sift through the smoke and open your eyes America. And act. Do something. They have you fooled. Everyone is going nuts about Trump, both sides. Love or hate. Meanwhile, no one is talking about the WOIA bills in every state. Or the ed tech invasion happening in your schools. Or the shift towards getting rid of number grades towards the same type of scores on standardized tests. How many states are developing “Pathways” programs which shift education towards a pre-determined career rather than moving on to college? Trump doesn’t matter. Not in the long run. Neither did Clinton. This was going to happen before your very eyes.
Do you hear anyone, aside from student privacy groups, demanding Trump restore FERPA to pre-2008 and 2011 levels? No. Do you hear anyone making a big deal about the Bill Gates driven work group that is deciding data sharing at ALL levels? No. Do you know why? Because they are distracting you. And they are succeeding.
Someone wrote to me on Facebook today that to change things would require a rebellion. That person wasn’t promoting it. I am. It is what we need. And it has to happen now. Please share this article. Spread it. Make sure people see it and see the truth about what is happening. The reformers will say I am a conspiracy theorist. I will gladly take that. Because this is a vast conspiracy that has been playing out for decades. And they aren’t done yet. Time for a rebellion.
Who is the benefactor to the 15 charter schools suing the Christina School District and the Delaware Department of Education? You know, the one where the almighty (or are they?) charter schools want more money? Led and initiated by Newark Charter School who got fourteen other charters to follow suit. Literally. As in a lawsuit. But they had a little problem they had to take care of first. The damn attorney fees.
I imagine taking a case like this would involve a lot of prep work and discovery. Saul Ewing, LLP is the law firm representing the fifteen charter schools in their lawsuit against the Christina School District and the Delaware Department of Education. As the named parties are represented by their own counsel, the charters would have to be able to definitively prove their case. Or at least a perception of their case. That’s what attorneys do. Make a jury or judge believe their side of the story, whether it is right or wrong. It is always about the belief. But who is paying Saul Ewing for this lawsuit?
I see so many endorsements these days based on nothing but vapor. I thought I would do the opposite. An anti-endorsement. Those who I wouldn’t vote for even if they were in my district and they were the only ones running. These are candidates who have either done some really dumb things or are very clueless about what is going on. And then there are the elite candidates who think their name is sufficient enough to stay in office. Sorry, but I see right through you on many issues. As for my Presidential anti-endorsements, it is a matter of choosing evil either way. While we can certainly argue all day long about who is more evil, evil is as evil does…
David Sokola, 8th Senate District, incumbent, Democrat: If ever there were someone I would want to disappear from Legislative Hall, it would be Sokola. It seems like every day I find out more about the damage Sokola has done over the past 25 years. Enough. If the 8th Senate District votes this guy in again, they are making a very big mistake. I will be coming out with something in the next few days that will even cause Newark Charter School parents to rethink any support they may have for him.
Melanie George Smith, 5th Rep District, incumbent, unopposed, Democrat: She is a slippery one, this co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee. Using that kind of pulpit for dubious allocations of state funds is a big no-no in my book. She has power down at Legislative Hall… too much. Her recent home purchase in the Newark Charter School 5 mile radius is an transparent as Saran wrap. I have to wonder what else she has done in the past couple of months in regards to that 5 mile radius…
John Carney, Delaware Governor, Democrat: I’ve heard John is a really nice guy. He speaks from the heart, but what I worry about is his mind. In a come from behind primary victory in 2008, Jack Markell beat John Carney. I believe Carney remembers that very well. Instead of looking at how bad Markell has been for Delaware over the past eight years, Carney is embracing the Markell mindset and forming the very same allegiances Jack had. Carney’s “we all have to get along” doesn’t work for me. It is easy to say that AFTER things have been set in place. Stacking the deck with certain people and then saying “Let’s get together and talk” is pure politics and that is NOT the change I’m looking for.
Donald Trump, U.S. President, Republican: I lived in New York growing up. Trump has been around a long time. I still remember the controversy and shenanigans this guy has pulled going back to the 1980’s. How he got this far is something I will always wonder about. He is a bully, pure and simple. A clown in a suit. I firmly believe, should he win, he won’t sit long in the Oval Office. And that will give us a President Mike Pence. Another corporate education reform lover. No thanks!
Hillary Clinton, U.S. President, Democrat: When Hillary was running for the New York Senate, an incident happened at Westchester County Airport. It was covered up. Someone died. I wasn’t a big fan of her before that, and I’m not now. She is the embodiment of all that is wrong with this country. Corporate interests rule the day for her. The will of the people will be sapped and broken if she wins. Not right away. But it will happen. She knows damn well exactly what she is doing. While not as transparent an evil as Donald Trump, it is the snake that is coiled up and hissing behind a rock you have to watch out for.
Colin Bonini, Delaware Governor, Republican: He ran for Governor but every time I hear him talk it sounds like a concession speech to John Carney. He pretends to hate standardized test scores, but he blasts traditional school districts while thinking charter schools are a worthy replacement. He forgets that test scores are the apparatus that damages high-need schools in Delaware. And Colin, slavery apologies don’t change history, but it is a gesture of good faith. It is not a crutch.
Harris McDowell, 1st Senate District, incumbent: You have long outlived your purpose in Legislative Hall Senator. I wasn’t a big fan of McDowell before I saw this old post on Delaware Liberal the other night. He was one of the four flippers on House Bill #334 which made the wretched Smarter Balanced Assessment the law of the land in Delaware. He also voted no not once, but twice on House Bill 50, the parent opt out bill. As the Senate co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, it is more than obvious he has used that pulpit for his own purposes. Shady as shady gets…
Anthony Delcollo, 7th Senate District, candidate, Republican: This candidate did one thing to earn an anti-endorsement. I attended a fund-raiser for State Rep. Kim Williams and Senator Patti Blevins a couple of weeks ago. Kim Williams will always have my support. That is a no-brainer. But Delcollo actually thought it was a good idea to ride around the restaurant where the fundraiser was being held with smears against Blevins on his truck. This is extremely bad taste and gave me a gross feeling about him. No thanks…
Pete Schwartzkopf, 14th Rep. District, incumbent, Democrat: A Jack Markell water carrier thick and thin. It wasn’t just his appalling tactics with his desk-drawer veto of House Bill 50. It was the disrespect he showed to members of the House. As Speaker of the House, he has abused that role to further certain interests while using the big chair as a bully pulpit. But all that pales to his behavior in caucus… There is a very good reason many in Delaware refer to him as “Sneaky Pete”.
Joe Miro, 22nd Rep. District, incumbent, Republican: The one who brought the VERY WEAK opt out legislation forward when the House could have suspended the rules and overturned Jack Markell’s veto of House Bill 50. Nothing happened with that legislation and it was a way for Miro and other House Republicans make it look like they supported parental rights but instead brought it a crushing defeat that actually made parents feel like legislators don’t care about their rights.
Mike Ramone, 21st Rep. District, incumbent, Republican: See above. But add to that, his telling me he can’t support the override because of John Kowalko… not a good thing to tell me at all. Add in his fervent support of charter school legislation that would have benefited charters for nothing but pleasing the charter crowd.
Bethany Hall-Long, Lieutenant Governor, Democrat: When I saw Hall-Long at the Del. State debate the other night, I saw someone who was pandering to a crowd. I know, that’s what politicians do in many cases. But it was thick as mud. She was overdoing it. She talks and talks and I don’t know if she truly understand what is coming out. Her very quick plug for Teach For America the other night, after getting an endorsement from DSEA, spoke volumes.
Lisa Blunt-Rochester, U.S. Congress, Democrat: Her refusal to support parental rights in regards to standardized testing is a big reason I can’t support her. But her Delaware Way of thinking, where everyone has to hash it out, hasn’t worked for Delaware. And it is not going to work in Congress. None of our Delaware reps in Congress have done anything really good for Delaware the past few years. All of them voted no on an opt out amendment prior to the ESEA reauthorization. I don’t see her supporting public education the way I would expect her to. She seems far too connected with the Rodel crowd. Those connections have been very bad for Delaware education. While I think it would be great to have a female African-American Delaware Representative in Congress, I don’t think it should be her.
There are a few others who, a year ago, would have easily made this list. But they earned some points for me in the last year. It doesn’t mean I’m not watching them like a hawk though. Some who I easily supported a year ago actually took a turn for the worse but they haven’t completely fallen into the pit. Their conduct in the 149th General Assembly will tell the tale. Not every anti-endorsement means I am 100% behind their challenger if they have one. But my real endorsements are coming soon.
At a League of Women Voter’s candidate forum tonight at Delaware State University, Delaware candidates for Congress and Insurance Commissioner debated about many topics. Delaware State Senator Colin Bonini was unable to make it, so John Carney didn’t come, even though the Green candidate for Governor showed up. La Mar Gunn wasn’t able to make it, to Bethany Hall-Long left shortly after the debate began.
But Lisa Blunt Rochester… she still can’t say the words: “I support a parent’s right to opt out.” A question came up about abolishing Common Core and the Smarter Balanced Assessment (and it, surprisingly, didn’t come from me). I will be (no pun intended) blunt and admit my question was “Yes or No, do you support a parent’s right to opt out of standardized testing.” But the Common Core/SBAC one had Republican candidate Hans Reigle and Libertarian candidate Scott Gesty both openly admit their loathing of Common Core and Smarter Balanced and that they support a parent’s right to opt out. She snuck in towards the end that she supports parental rights, but it’s not the same thing and she knows it.
I have no doubt the Insurance Commissioner candidates, Republican Jeff Cragg and Democrat Trinidad Navarro thought to themselves, “I’m an insurance guy, I’m not answering that political hot potato.” Can’t say I blame them, but Blunt-Rochester knows it is a big topic in Delaware. And she either insults parents who do opt their kids out or just ignores it. But I don’t think she understands what Markell and the Delaware DOE have done to students in this state.
“For me, as I look at the whole issue of testing, I don’t think we should be teaching to a test. We should be looking at measuring growth for that additional child so that teachers are empowered to really help that child…one of the issues in terms of tests and opting out is the fact that what we would hope is our education system would be equal and equitable and high quality so that no one would want to opt out.”
So in the meantime, we keep the crappy test that will lead to stealth tests in a personalized learning/competency-based education arena. And this growth she wants us to measure? What does she think the feds and the Delaware DOE measure that growth by? The standardized test. Hello! And equal and equitable aren’t the same thing. High quality based on what? Common Core and SBAC? Or do you have a better idea that we haven’t heard. The other candidates recommended bringing this back to the local level. I didn’t hear that from you tonight.
They did ask one of my questions about restoring FERPA to pre-2008 levels. In 2008 and 2011, the US DOE had FERPA changed which allowed student data to go out to third-party companies, sometimes without any parental consent for the data collecting procedures to begin with. Once again, Gesty and Reigle nailed it and said they would support those changes. Blunt-Rochester (if she even knows what FERPA is), talked about HIPAA and cell phone tracking apps. Her response to changing FERPA?
“I would want to know more about why that exchange happens.”
Uhm, it happens so private student information can go out to companies and massive troves of data are collected on our kids. That was the whole point of the question. Gesty and Reigle got it. Not sure why you can’t. Blunt-Rochester talked about her time as the Delaware Secretary of Labor and constituents complained about filling out multiple forms to different state agencies. She did say privacy is a concern, but she missed the point of the question. There is a BIG difference.
She is well aware I blasted her in August for calling opt out a “leisure for some parents” at a Congressional debate in Wilmington. Afterwards, I asked her point blank on her Facebook page if she supports a parent’s right to opt their child out of the state assessment. She said nothing. Didn’t respond. And I’ve seen her a few times since (along with John Carney), and they treat me as if I were a ghost. You can think it is okay to be completely rude and not respond if I smile at you or say hi, but don’t think for one minute that I’m not hip to the Rodel influence on both of you. I have no doubt I will be writing more about both of them the next four years, and it won’t be pleasant at this rate. My take when this happens: you are drinking someone else’s Kool-Aid and really don’t know enough about the issue. You are told what to say and what not to say. And I’m sure one of the cardinal rules is don’t engage with the blogger. Which just makes me jump all over you. Funny how that works out. Some may say I attack first and ask questions later. I will own that. But as most who bother to take the time to actually talk to me know, I am willing to listen. I may not agree, but if you treat me like a leper, you reap what you sow. I’m not in it this for politicians or administrators or for whatever state association you have. I’m in this for the kids. For my own son. And for this entire generation of students who have been subjected to pure and utter crap from adults who should REALLY know better than to think it is okay to profit off kids.
I will say I endorsed Scott Gesty for Congress last month. Ideologically, we agree on many issues. With that being said, if he wasn’t in the race, I would support Hans Reigle. Blunt-Rochester is just spend, spend, spend, and economy this and economy that with the same script we’ve read for the past eight years under Governor Rodel, er, uhm, Markell. And Carney is the same thing. Enough. I can say Blunt-Rochester will not be getting a vote from my household as my wife supports Hans. We are a divided household, what can I say. I am a firm believer you get what you vote for. And the way this state votes “blue or die”, we will get the same. And all those who preach doom and gloom every single political season, those of the same party who can’t stand each other but will support their peer because of a political label, they will be the first ones complaining over the next four years and public education will continue to go down a dark path as we try to spend our way to prosperity. Many see me as a Democrat, while others see me as a Republican or Libertarian. I’m just a dad. Concerned about my son’s future as a citizen of Delaware and America. I see between the lines of all the crap being slung at us. The lies, the manipulation, the fraud. It is not red or blue or any other party. It’s greed, pure and simple. People who are so used to hanging out with people who are, at heart, glorified salespeople, who promise great things as they spin their shit into gold.
I can’t support Hillary or Donald either for those same reasons. Hillary is the godmother of corporate education reform. Trump is just Trump, all bark and no bite. But when he gets impeached (which I can easily see happening), we will be left with Mike Pence who is a big corporate education reform kind of guy. So either way we are screwed. I think Hillary’s plans are exactly what we see happening in education. Don’t be fooled by her. She will stab all students, teachers, and parents in the back. And her minions in each state, including Delaware, will make damn sure it happens at the state level. The wheels are already in motion. We call this the Every Student Succeeds Act. Don’t think for one minute she isn’t banking on winning and has been planning accordingly. And just in case, we have Mike Pence waiting in the wings. And Delaware will automatically cave if we keep the current power structure and say “Yes, we have to do this.” And the cycle goes on and on and on…
As for Lisa Blunt-Rochester and her need to have us find “common ground” as she put it tonight, we will never find that common ground until some candidates and existing legislators don’t return to the ground. I don’t vote on smiles. I vote on words. And the words I was looking for tonight did come out. Just not from you.
Dear Lily Eskelsen Garcia,
As President of the National Education Association, I am very curious why the NEA Foundation accepts money from the Gates Foundation. While that foundation does have some very noble projects going on with health issues in Africa, they also have some very disturbing things that have caused serious disruption in public education. I can’t remotely fathom how anything even associated with the largest teachers union in the country would want anything to do with the Gates Foundation.
Gates and all the other foundations that support corporate education reform want to bust the teachers unions. They want to privatize education and make schools 21st Century community learning centers. Everything the NEA stands for will eventually crumble to dust. Gone will be a teacher instructing a class. Instead, they will get training on how to guide students on their 1:1 devices.
I am not a teacher. I’m a parent. I understand NEA is about teachers. But lately, at least in terms of leadership, it seems like those leaders are all about themselves and their personal quest for power. It isn’t even about the teachers anymore. If I were a teacher, I would consider it a slap in the face knowing NEA actually collaborates with these entities.
I can only assume you are well-connected with these organizations and know exactly what they are planning. As an education blogger, I’ve written about it as have many others. The writing is on the wall but you seem to be worried about that one tiny corner in the room with a tiny cobweb. At least that’s what you tell your membership. I find it abhorrent you would sell out those who elected you.
But what I find even more bizarre is the buzzwords coming out of NEA and all these education organizations pretending they know what is best for children. If you are following the corporate mantras then you lost touch with what is best for kids a long time ago. This makes you, NEA leadership, and the NEA Foundation a part of the problem, not a hope for a solution.
When I first began blogging over two years ago, I soon find myself rooting for teachers. I joined the Badass Teachers Facebook page and began to see how all of this affected teachers. But I find myself wondering why the supposed leadership of teachers is getting in bed with companies that want to destroy you and your membership.
I would like you to explain this. Not for me, but for the hundreds of thousands of teachers who elected you as President of the NEA. Also for the students who are under the care of teachers for 1/3rd of their life until they graduate high school.
I understand many will take offense to this very open and public letter to you. But I also know what is coming up in the very near future, based on the seeds planted by the privatizers of education. You keep watering those plants and they will weed out what is left of public education. I warned you and AFT about jumping on the Every Student Succeeds Act and begging your membership to support it before the final legislation came out. That law will destroy NEA and the American Federation of Teachers.
You seem more concerned with Donald Trump lately than the very real danger facing teachers as every state in the country submits their ESSA state plans. It doesn’t matter who the next President of this country is. Our national government sold their souls to corporations and foundations a long time ago. This is all just distraction so they can get their final pieces in play. I suppose that is why the NEA Foundation is actually helping to fund all these ed tech conferences and global future forums. It is complete nonsense and they are taking teachers money and investing it in what will replace them. Doesn’t that bother you in the slightest?
In my viewpoint, this is like the snake giving you the apple. But you don’t just take a bite out of it, you start taking tons of apples, begin making apple pies, and sell them for the snake. It is just wrong. If you can’t look out for teachers and their future, please step down. And for those who are also subscribed to these viewpoints in NEA and AFT, you should step down as well. The price for teachers and students is too big to have power brokers dancing with the devil. I’m sure the viewpoint of parents is the last thing on your mind, but we are sick and tired of those who think they know what is best for our children but are selling them out behind the scenes. You seem to forget that today’s students are tomorrow’s teachers. What you do to them now will make sure NEA will become an archived post on Wikipedia that gets less readers by the year.
If you want our schools to become personalized learning competency-based career tracking community schools of the future, where students have no privacy and everything is catalogued while they earn to learn, then please, go work for a cyber charter school. If not, then please detach from any corporation that wants to destroy what you lead. Only then will I truly believe you have teachers best interests in mind. Your job should be leading teachers away from this madness, not embracing it.
Sincerely,
Kevin Ohlandt
Dover, DE
For years, I’ve been telling Delaware parents they should choose to opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment. I was wrong. Here is why…
We are entering a new era in education. The promised era of digital personalized learning is here. It is on the cusp of coming into every single public school in the country. New national broadband laws are coming out of the woodwork to allow this. We won’t need to opt out of the Smarter Balanced Assessment. It will be gone soon. They listened to us. They heard us. They will get rid of this test. We gave them exactly what they wanted. It was a trap.
On July 15th, several Republican members of Congress wrote a letter to the Directors of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service about questions of potential fraud with the Clinton Foundation. Last night, Hillary Clinton accepted the Democrat nomination for President of the United States. She gave a stirring speech with more about slamming Donald Trump than what she would actually do as President. But underneath the surface of that speech lies unanswered questions about the Clinton Foundation and their illegal use of funding based on IRS regulations.
As Americans on the left and right continue to poke and jab at the opposite sides, it is more than obvious that neither candidate is worthy of becoming President. Both candidates have been subject to numerous investigations that never seem to hold either of them accountable for their actions. This is, by far, the worst selection of candidates the two major political parties in our country have ever picked. This is a choice no American should have to face. I am loathe to pick either of them in November. The pressure both sides are putting on the other parties hasn’t even reached a fever pitch. I think both candidate will not help public education. One is more blatant and arrogant with their public persona while the other smiles but her actions behind the scenes speak in volumes about her pompous boasting. I fear for the future of America with these two very greedy people at the helm. They both claim they want to help the average American as they sit in the upper echelon of the 1%. I cannot, and will not, support either Clinton or Trump. I am ashamed to be an American facing these two choices. I will not vote for either of them. Their actions regarding persons with disabilities, through downright vocal discrimination or behind the scenes corporate actions in regards to the privatization of public education show they are not fit to lead our country’s future. As I have been telling people, if you can’t do the right thing for children, how can you be expected to lead a country. Children are the foundation and future of this country.
You can deal me out of voting for either candidate. I pray America will come to its senses and do the right thing for our country. No matter who wins, the controversy surrounding both of them will overshadow anything they do. Both parties will become a lynch mob towards the other from 2017 to 2020. This is not America. This is not the country that Hillary Clinton talked about in her speech last night. It is a very ugly political arena of the very worst America has to offer. Hillary may have the political experience, but look at the many incidents she has escaped unscathed from. Donald may have the corporate experience, but he has represented the 1% his entire life.
As a Delawarean, I see my own state divided into three parts: Hillary, Donald, and neither. I fear Hillary the most because of rumors surrounding our own Governor, Jack Markell, vying for the US Secretary of Education spot under a second President Clinton. I fear Donald because he is a racist maniac playing on the fear of Americans. I fear Hillary because she caters to big corporations and has been paid handsomely for those efforts through the Clinton foundation or campaign contributions. I fear Donald because he will land us into a bad war (if not nuclear) if he continues his rhetoric. I support neither and there is no other viable choice that could get enough votes so neither of them become President. What this country needs, right now, is a revolution. We need to overturn both parties and do something. I don’t know if that is even possible at this point, but if we want to save America, we really have no choice. If the only thing we have to fear is fear itself, we need to rise above the fears of the supporters of both candidates and do the right thing for America and openly revolt against the two-party system that is killing our country.
Delaware Governor Jack Markell had an embarrassing display of asskissery when he did an interview with WMDT earlier this week and talked about Hillary Clinton’s integrity. Jack wants a slot in Hillary’s cabinet. Vice-President is out since Joe Biden is the current VP and it would seem biased for Hillary to pick the next VP from Delaware. Jack wants the Secretary of Education slot.
Can you imagine the damage Jack could do as Hillary’s Ed Secretary? Look what he did to Delaware the past eight years. Common Core, teacher evaluations, Smarter Balanced, Rodel… just imagine all of that at a national level. Hell, I wouldn’t be shocked if he made Paul Herdman his Deputy Secretary. It’s what Arne Duncan did when he became Secretary. He stacked the US DOE with his buddies.
Jack Markell is a very smart man. However, he is also very transparent when he wants something. I would go so far as to say he is as transparent as Saran Wrap when it comes to Hillary Clinton. But what happens if Trump wins? What would Jack do then? Has he even planned for that alternative? Sure, Jack could go to any corporate education reform company and get a top spot. But that wouldn’t be a step up in his ladder, or even a lateral move. Could Jack handle that kind of thing? For Jack, it is all about power.
If you may have noticed, I haven’t been writing as much lately. I’ve been on an intermission of sorts. Life stuff. And fun stuff (for me at least). I’ve been catching up on some reading and listening to a lot of music. Things I used to do a lot before I started blogging. I just need to wind down at times. I’ve pretty much been on the go for over two years with education and I really don’t want to burn out. So I’m taking some time off. I’ll still try to get some stuff up everyday, but nothing to in-depth. Unless something big comes my way. Then I will get that up fast!
My wife and I cleaned out our garage today. My car was filled with stuff we donated to Good Will. I had to clean out my gutters when I saw weeds growing out of them in a couple of areas. While I was doing that, a wicked wind blew green leaves all over the place. I thought I might lose some trees on the edge of our property, but walnuts are very sturdy.
TV winds down for me in the summer. Only a few shows I’m watching now: Game of Thrones, Preacher and Outcast. The season finale of The Americans is on tonight. I will definitely be watching that! Like those who watch it, I think it is one of the best shows on TV now. Having lived through the 1980s it is very spot-on with the rendition of the early part of that decade. They even had a bunch of characters watching “The Day After” in one episode this season. Kids today don’t live with nuclear threats like I did when I was a kid/teenager. That movie scared the crap out of millions of Americans. It came out in 1983 on a Sunday night. I’ve watched it a few times since.
I was listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons earlier today. The Summer trio are my favorite. Highs and lows, with a crashing crescendo at the end! Then I vegged out to some Imagine Dragons and later a band you’ve most likely forgotten about or never heard of called Gene Loves Jezebel.
I’m just blabbing here, about nothing specific. My son has been watching Arrow and telling me all about it. I’m a huge Flash fan, but I’ve been stuck on the first season of Arrow for a couple of years. If you haven’t guessed, I’m a huge comic book fan. In terms of shows and movies, Marvel gets the movies right and DC does really well with the tv shows. I still haven’t seen Captain America: Civil War yet. It is on my soon-to-do list. Along with a million other things.
I’m kind of at a transition point. My son is exactly where he needs to be with education. His battles are a thing of the past for the most part so much my anger is fading. That doesn’t mean I don’t care about education overall, I just don’t have that immediate connection to it I used to have. I’ll still do the research and the digging and the listening. But I am really trying to leave emotion out of it. If anything, I’ve gotten more sarcastic with my writing. I’ve been involved with this mess in Delaware so long and so intensely, nothing really shocks me much anymore. But we are entering unchartered territory with Jack leaving next year and the upcoming elections. At the time of this writing, Hillary is the Democrat nominee and Donald is the Republican. I really can’t stand them both. I was really rooting for Bernie, but his age concerned me a lot. I don’t like the fact that both the frontrunners are two people who I’ve heard about for over twenty years and neither of them ever impressed me. It’s kind of depressing actually. I will fully admit it is very hard for me to not want to blast certain people involved in education. I see them doing some of the same things over and over. But it’s the everyday people I’m sometimes hard on, and I’m starting to feel bad about that. My intention isn’t to hurt anyone. I’ve always figured if you are going to attend meetings about education you are most likely a public person. Even if they are “secret” or non-public meetings. I know I upset a couple of people two weeks ago and I feel bad about that. I’m going to try to be nicer to people on here. I know, I’ve said that before and then two weeks later I was cussing out some folks. When I have posts like that, I’m not going to publish them right away. Sometimes the best thing to do is sleep on it and not go by the moment.
Alright, enough out of me. For those reading this, I’m sure this was not the kind of post you wanted to read. Everyone always loves the scoop (or the supposed scoop). But even bloggers need a time out once in a while!
Donald Trump’s unfathomable success has been due to playing on the fears and worries of disenfranchised voters. I see the same thing with First State Liberty’s overzealous attacks on the Christina School District referendum taking place on March 23rd. It is becoming more than obvious there is more than meets the eye with First State Liberty. Meanwhile, none other than Governor Jack Alan Markell did a video for the district which supports the referendum and urges voters to say yes on Wednesday.
There are a multitude of things I don’t agree with Governor Markell about on education. But there are two things I think we can draw agreement on: support for the Christina referendum and we both oppose school vouchers. I think most can agree the whole referendum process stinks. But until there is another method or funding mechanism for our schools in Delaware, voting no on a referendum hurts children most of all. As I just said to someone on Facebook in regards to the mindset of First State Liberty: “We know the ship is going to sink. Instead of plugging the hole, we’re going to shoot a cannonball into it so it sinks faster.” If a district doesn’t pass a referendum when they really need the funds, it will have a downward spiral that comes down to each and every student in the district.
The referendum opposers are getting robo-calls and emails from a right-wing group called First State Liberty. I wrote an article about them the other day. Who is supporting them? The Delaware blogger Kavips did some digging last week and found out who was backing the robo-calls. Many of the leaders of these organizations put their children in private schools. They resent the fact they pay tuition for their children and pay school taxes. They seem to forget that all citizens pay this. They want voucher programs which have failed miserably in many states. In Delaware, State Rep. Deb Hudson has tried to get voucher legislation through, but it doesn’t get past the bill filing.
When pushed to respond to requests to come to Citizens Budget Oversight Committee meetings in Christina, the front people behind First State Liberty don’t even respond to the invitation. They come out once a year before these referendums and act like it is The Day After Tomorrow if a referendum passes. They forget children are involved in their schemes and agendas and don’t care if students are affected the most by the damage they do. They like to tout the Revolutionary War as their greatest inspiration. They don’t realize the differences between the people from 240 years ago and what is going on in the present. They will say and do anything to advance their agenda. They lure people into their fold and they spout lies and untruths. Then they get their followers to do the same. It is a sad and pathetic situation.
Do I think our school districts could do a better job? Absolutely. They all play the absurd “Delaware Way” game where parties must compromise. They just want a seat at the table without realizing they are on the table. The compromises result in districts being forced to shell out more money for services to properly educate children based on state mandates. What First State Liberty should take a more active role in is this conundrum. Instead, they want to target children and their classrooms. Forget everything they say about “administrative costs” and “spending per pupil”. Their theories are debunked on a daily basis anymore.
I’ve said it before, when children lose, we all lose. Even Governor Markell understands this simple fact. Why can’t First State Liberty, who could be doing so much more in Delaware, get this concept? Why do they target school districts but do absolutely nothing about the even bigger problem? Do they have the political muscle to do more than bully referendum voters? Of course, no one from their outfit will respond with intelligent answers on these issues. When challenged, they delete information from supporters or just ignore it. Why are they so hell-bent on destroying school districts? Is it because their kids aren’t in public education and they don’t care what happens to other families kids? I will fully admit, my son is in private school but I would still vote yes for this referendum if I lived in the Christina School District. It’s about the kids, not your wallets. Playing on the fears of unsuspecting citizens and giving false information while doing so is not only disingenuous, but bad form.
Lest we forget, this is the same outfit that thought it was okay to bring guns to Newark City Council meetings. This is the same outfit that some right-wing groups really don’t want to be associated with. But when it comes to referendums, it is okay for their hate and fear mongering? Wake up Delaware citizens. Don’t buy their hate-filled propaganda and smear campaigns. They aren’t in it for you, they are in it for themselves. I have some conservative ideals myself, but there is an ocean of difference between conservative ideals and this. Shame on you First State Liberty…
The Associated Press did an article entitled “How open record laws are applied in state legislatures” on March 13th. Delaware did not fare well in this report. The AP sent Freedom of Information (FOIA) requests to all fifty states asking for the public schedules for the state Governor and members of their legislatures for the week of February 1st to 7th of this year. In Delaware, our General Assembly is exempt from FOIA requests. Delaware Governor Jack Markell, who promoted “sunshine is the best disinfectant” regarding public transparency of Governmental records, seems to be having a very hard time with FOIA requests lately, between the FOIA request from his former State Treasurer Chip Flowers and the one he received from the AP for their article. The article gave Markell’s response to the FOIA:
Delaware legislative leaders refused to provide their emails. The Legislature has specifically exempted emails of lawmakers and their staffs from the state’s Freedom of Information law, as well as any communications between lawmakers, or between lawmakers and their constituents. A bill to remove those exemptions was introduced earlier this month but has yet to be heard in committee. An attorney for the lawmakers also said many activities on their daily schedules are exempt from disclosure, asserting that exemptions allowed by statute or common law extend to the concept of “legislative privilege” based on the Delaware Constitution and common law. The attorney nevertheless released portions of the lawmakers’ schedules while asserting that doing so was not a concession that the information is subject to the FOI law. The activities mostly involved appearances at community meetings and charitable events. The deputy legal counsel for Democratic Gov. Jack Markell said the governor’s office is working diligently to respond to the AP’s request, but that more time is needed because review of the records requires legal advice. Markell’s office has previously denied formal records requests for his emails.
I guess I should count myself lucky for the FOIA I received from Markell’s office back in early 2014. But the Chip Flowers FOIA denial is certainly interesting because Markell’s office used Exemption 16 to deny the FOIA request. Exemption 16 is when a General Assembly member or the comptroller is part of an email chain. I find it very ironic the Governor’s counsel would use that as a reason to decline a FOIA. Especially since they seem to cherry-pick when they want to use this exemption. In fact, the Governor’s office has actually shown legislators emails in earlier FOIA requests. Something I recollected right away as I was reading the Chip Flowers petition from the Delaware Attorney General’s office. I felt it was my civic obligation to let them know about this memory of mine.
From: Kevin Ohlandt <kevino3670@yahoo.com>
To: Gibbs Danielle (DOJ) <danielle.gibbs@state.de.us>
Cc: Denn Matthew (DOJ) <matthew.denn@state.de.us>
Sent: Tuesday, March 15, 2016 10:04 AM
Subject: The Chip Flowers FOIA Legal Opinion
Good morning Danielle,
I read, with great interest yesterday, the FOIA petition from Chip Flowers. I found it very interesting the Governor’s office would cite Exemption 16 for not releasing the information Chip Flowers requested.
In December 2014, State Rep. John Kowalko received a FOIA from the Governor’s office regarding the priority schools in Wilmington. He gave them to me to publish on my blog. In several of the emails, General Assembly emails were used and not redacted, and in some of them they gave the actual email from State Reps.
Here is the link to the FOIAs:
I find it very interesting the Governor’s office would cherry-pick who this information is released to. There is absolutely no consistency and I would strongly question the use of this Exemption 16 when it is convenient. Please feel free to use this information for any ongoing matters regarding Chip Flowers FOIA. If you need any other clarification on this matter, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Thank you,
Kevin Ohlandt
With something that took up so much media interest, I would think the Delaware Attorney General’s office would respond, but so far I have yet to receive a response. I can only surmise based on the behavior surrounding the Chip Flowers FOIA request and the fact the Governor would need legal advice for the AP FOIA request, the Governor is hiding things. Could there be something in his daily schedule he doesn’t want people to know about? Or in his emails? Did they include his “Alan Jackson” email address? I’ll be flat-out honest: I don’t trust Jack Markell. At all. He is dishonest and sneaky. He seems to have the General Assembly under his thrall this legislative session. They are suspending rules and passing bills in record time. Just today, Governor Markell signed the Commitment to Innovation Act, otherwise known as Senate Bill 200, mere hours after it passed in the House of Representatives and 31 state representatives agreed to suspend the rules. Including some who have gone on record as saying they never suspend the rules. This tax-break bill, in conjunction with House Bill 235, are seen as great boons to companies in Delaware as the state faces potential deficits in their state budget.
I have no doubt Markell will have instituted all of his education policies and agendas in Delaware by the time he leaves office next January. Judging by the mad rush of legislation which will allow tech companies to swarm into Delaware with our generous tax breaks, Social Impact Bonds, Personalized Learning and Competency-Based Education. Kids will be earning their number of the beast data badges in the not-too-distant future. Parents won’t be able to notice, because all of our little screen-time kids will be staying after school in the SAIL program. And Jack’s buddy over at the Rodel Foundation, Paul Herdman… he actually uses LEGOs to lure unsuspecting parents and children into his personalized learning paradise. If you think Kindergarten grit is bad, wait until you get a load of the money pouring into toddler grit. Of course, we must determine what children are going to do when they are older before they even know how to tie their shoes. But we call this Pathways To Prosperity. We have Jamie Merisotis and the good folks at the Lumina Foundation to thank for all of this nonsense! And if you think Delaware has issues with FOIA, wait until you hear more about WOIA! Under the recently confirmed US DOE leadership of John King, these things are going on in just about every single state in the country.
The one thing our non-transparent Governor is good at is the art of distraction. He gets us all riled up over charter schools, opt out, and teacher evaluations while he paves the road to hell for John Carney who doesn’t seem to have the good sense to come up with his own thoughts. And in case we get too close to his overall plan, Jack throws things like the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission vs. State Board of Education battle in our faces but there are questions about the legality of that secret meeting. Hard to tell since no one aside from Tony Allen has responded about that one. Tony made it very clear to me the whole thing was the Governor’s idea.
This is Delaware. A state filled with sinister plotting and backroom deals. Legislators who get the “Jack call” and make miracles happen before our very eyes while telling us it’s all about the DuPont/Dow merger. Markell is the master of spin. He can turn crap into gold! And the state legislators, DOE employees, State Board of Education members, and business leaders watch in amazement as they hold onto their illusions of power and wealth. We call these people “stakeholders”. But guess what doesn’t change? Bullying, teacher dissatisfaction, high-stakes testing, a severe lack of funding and resources for our schools, and more segregation and discrimination for every single at-risk student than you can even fathom. All under the guise of student success. The stuff going on behind the scenes? We will never get that cold, hard, tangible proof to bust these children destroyers. They write the laws to protect themselves and the citizens of Delaware pay for it. And we keep electing so many of them! We are a state that is immune to true and radical change. We act as if holding onto a political party’s belief is what we must do. I hate to tell you Delaware, but greed is bi-partisan. The love we need to have for our children, our unconditional love, that should be enough to make the necessary changes. But we aren’t doing it. We are holding onto the dreams of yesterday and think it really matters who becomes the next President or Governor. We get sucked into the 24 hour news cycle about Trump, Clinton and Sanders while the distracters spin their webs and suck us in. It doesn’t matter who wins the Presidency because corporate America bought our government while we blinked. Our kids don’t have a chance.
Bernie Sanders, one of two Democrat contenders for the next President of the United States of America, is officially on the Delaware Primary ballot. While Delaware only awards 16 delegates, every single one counts. Hillary Clinton took a very big lead yesterday on “Super Tuesday”, but as some have said, she won in states where she was expected to win. It is now the 2nd quarter in this high-stakes political presidential primary season, and anything could happen. Donald Trump does appear to be on the fast track towards a Republican nomination with Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio trailing behind in the primaries. Delaware’s presidential primary is April 26th.
I am hereby endorsing Bernie Sanders as the Democrat candidate for the 45th President of the United States of America. I do not support Hillary Clinton as I believe she is far too embedded in the Educational-Industrial-Military Complex and we would see more of the same with education under a Hillary presidency. Donald Trump as President just scares the hell out of me.
According to the Times Union in Albany, NY, President Obama is expected to nominate John King to be the official successor to Arne Duncan as the US Secretary of Education. Had Obama done this back in October when Duncan resigned, many felt King would not have been confirmed by the Republican majority US Senate.
What changed? The Every Student Succeeds Act. Deals were made, things were thrown in at the last minute, and votes changed. Such is the way of politics in Washington D.C. It happens in every state. What does this mean to those who were horrified at the mention of John King and Secretary of Education? It really depends on how much power King is allowed to have. The ESSA strictly forbids the Secretary of Education from forcing Common Core down state throats as well as issuing waivers to states that are essentially “comply or die” memos. On the flip side, a lot of what was written in the legislation merely brings controversial aspects of the waivers into law. The law is a matter of interpretation in some cases, and in the next six months we will see mass attempts at trying to figure it all out. ESSA, on the surface, gives states more control. But which states will exert their own individual power, and which will play along to get along?
Most Presidents, when newly elected, tend to pick their own Cabinet members. The key to King’s reign will be if Hillary Clinton manages to become President. I could easily picture a scenario where King is allowed to stay on as Secretary under a President Clinton. If Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump win, no way! As for Delaware, it looks like King and Governor Markell have already bonded so we can look forward to more capitulation from Delaware and the US Department of Education…
It was brought to my attention today that I blasted the National Education Association President Lily Eskelsen Garcia over some recent comments she made in regards to students with disabilities while remaining completely mum on Donald Trump’s mockery of a New York Times reporter with a disability. This is very true. As I explained to my friend, I expected more out of the leader of the largest teachers union in the country than Donald Trump. I expect Donald Trump to say and do stupid things at times that don’t make any logical sense. But both actions offended not only the disability community but many in America as well. I was very offended about Trump’s actions. I also found out about his actions on Thanksgiving Day. Had it been any other day, I most likely would have written about it, but it was a holiday and the only post I put up was things to be thankful for. A few days later, I found out about the NEA President’s comments. This was also immediately after I saw her urging all the teachers in the NEA to contact members of Congress to pass the “Every Student Succeeds Act”, which I do not support.
In the interest of fairness, I do not condone Trump’s actions by any stretch of the imagination. Even more insulting was the fact that he did not apologize for his actions but rather insisted he doesn’t mock those with disabilities. Today, The Daily Beast wrote an article about Trump’s history with the Americans With Disabilities Act and it is a very long and egregious list.
In terms of Lily Eskelsen Garcia’s comments, I truly believed along with many others that she used the term “chronically tarded” in a speech, along with the words “medically annoying” in describing things teachers in America have to deal with on a daily basis. She has since issued a formal apology, via Youtube, explaining she was saying “chronically tardy” and why she used the term “medically annoying”. She recognized her choice of words in the speech was not the best decision and I respect that immensely.
The difference between two similar actions could not have been more distinct and clear. One apologized, the other made excuses. One is redeemed in my eyes, the other is not. In this very odd and peculiar battle of Lily Eskelsen Garcia vs. Donald Trump, she wins by a landslide!
As it was announced everywhere a couple hours ago, Vice-President Joe Biden will not run for President in 2016. Had Joe run, and won, it would not shock me to see Delaware Governor Jack Markell given a big seat in the Cabinet. More specifically, the Secretary of Education role. With Jeb Bush faltering in the polls, that is one more Jack Markell elimination as well. Does anyone know if Hillary Clinton and Jack Markell are close? In August, Markell endorsed Biden for President if he ran. Hopefully this caused a feeling of resentment on Hillary’s part. Should Bernie Sanders win, there is no way in hell he would pick Markell. And Trump? Let’s pray we don’t have to worry about that. Maybe Jack will just retire and spend his millions he got during the net-com boom in the late 1990’s…
The Season Of Myths 