Governor Jack Markell’s House Bill 50 Veto Message

The following is Delaware Governor Jack Markell’s no respect and no honor for Delaware parents House Bill 50 Veto Message.

Parents, you know what we need to do.  Legislators, you know what you need to do.  Pat Heffernan with the State Board of Education just said “It’s a good thing.”  More wisdom from the unelected State Board…

Now all of them are chiming in.  President Dr. Teri Quinn Gray knows this bill has been contentious, but this test is needed for our 135,000 students.  She said as a parent, she understands.  However, her child is not in school anymore.

Governor Markell Is Lying To The People Of Delaware, He Needs To Apologize To Those Who Have More Honor Than Him

On WHYY last Friday, July 10th, Governor Markell talked about many topics but House Bill 50 was the big topic.  When asked what he would do with the bill, he said it had not been sent to him yet.  He is lying.  The official protocol is his office requests it.  He flat-out lied to the people of Delaware.  Sure, he can squirm out of it by saying they didn’t send it and he forgot to say he hasn’t requested it, but that would be a coward’s way out.  He intentionally misled parents.  The legislators I have spoken with on this issue said the Governor always requests bills.

With all the disgusting and reprehensible behavior from schools, administrators, the DOE, Secretary Mark Murphy, State Rep. Earl Jaques, State Rep. Michael Barbieri (the one who is resigning), Senator Dave Sokola, Rodel, the Delaware Business Roundtable, and the State Board of Education, you would think the Governor would at least be honest with the people of Delaware, but I suppose that was too much to ask for from the highest elected official in our state.  It’s one thing if he doesn’t like the bill, but he could at least respect and honor parents by doing something with it.  We deserve that much, but I guess we aren’t important to Jack Markell…

House Bill 50 would become law August 1st if Markell signs it.  That would give schools the time to prepare and make arrangements to notify parents and actually plan something academic for those students who are opted out.  But no, now we have the Governor playing games with the bill.  But nobody should be shocked.  He’s been doing this since February.  And now he doesn’t like it because of all the “black kids”.  Give me a break!  His Smarter Balanced, which he said is “the best test we ever made”, will move minorities, special needs students and low-income students further away from their peers.  But he and his precious DOE will use that to their advantage to make more priority schools and make them charters.  The war is coming, and we know what Markell wants: the City of Wilmington to be all charter schools.  And this is the guy that won an overwhelming amount of the vote when he was re-elected in 2012?  What a joke…