Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting informed the State Board of Education yesterday she had lunch with State Senator David Sokola and State Rep. Earl Jaques. As heads of the Senate and House Education Committee, Bunting said it was to discuss upcoming legislation. Could this lead to state takeover of school districts in Delaware?
A few days ago, Kilroy’s Slower Delaware posited Jack Markell could run for U.S. Senator Tom Carper’s seat. I commented I thought he should stay out of politics altogether. I’ve always known he would hobnob around the corporate education arena. Today, an announcement came out that Ridge-Lane Limited Partners is going to expand their social-impact merchant bank. When I saw who else is a part of this, it made my head throb.
Last night the Christina Board of Education, in front of a packed house, passed the Memorandum of Understanding between the district, the Delaware Department of Education and Governor John Carney’s office with a 4-2-1 vote. Board members John Young and Elizabeth Paige voted no while member Angela Mitchell abstained. The tense meeting, which lasted over three hours, had Carney sitting in the audience the entire time. While the News Journal, WHYY, and WDEL all came to the meeting, many parts of the meeting were not covered in their articles.
This information JUST came out:
Delaware Governor John Carney
Governor Carney Nominates Cerron Cade as Secretary of Labor
Cade currently serves as Delaware’s Director of Small Business, Development, and Tourism
WILMINGTON, Del. – Governor John Carney on Tuesday announced his nomination of Cerron Cade – Director of the Delaware Division of Small Business, Development, and Tourism – to serve as the next Secretary of the Delaware Department of Labor.
Cade’s nomination must be approved by the Delaware Senate.
As Labor Secretary, Cade would lead a 420-employee department that oversees workforce development and training programs for the State of Delaware, unemployment insurance programs, labor law enforcement, and economic forecasting for the state.
“Cerron has a proven ability to lead, and the knowledge and experience necessary to take on this important role,” said Governor Carney. “The Department of Labor’s work connecting Delawareans with relevant job training and workforce development programs has never been more important. Cerron understands the needs of Delaware businesses from his time at the Small Business Division and, before that, at the Delaware Economic Development Office. I’m confident that Cerron’s experience will serve Delaware and Delaware workers well. I look forward to the Delaware Senate considering his nomination.”
Last year, as Acting Director of the Delaware Economic Development Office (DEDO), Cade managed the dissolution of DEDO and the creation of the new Division of Small Business, Development, and Tourism within the Delaware Department of State. Currently, he serves as the Division’s Director, leading a team responsible for providing key services to Delaware businesses, administration of the Delaware Strategic Fund, and marketing Delaware as a premier tourist destination.
During his time at DEDO and the newly-created division, Cade has led the state’s efforts to attract businesses and good-paying jobs to Delaware, keep them here, and ensure that Delaware remains a leading state for businesses to grow and thrive. If confirmed by members of the Delaware Senate, he will bring that experience to the Department of Labor, where he will lead state efforts to connect Delaware businesses with talented workers, and develop relevant workforce development and training programs.
“I am honored to be nominated by Governor Carney to lead the Department of Labor,” said Cade. “Connecting Delaware businesses with skilled employees has been a large part of my focus as DEDO has transitioned into the new Division. If confirmed by the Senate, I look forward to using that experience to help the state’s workforce thrive in this changing economy.”
Cade would replace Secretary Patrice Gilliam-Johnson, who will join Delaware State University as Dean of Graduate, Adult, and Continuing Studies next month. Gilliam-Johnson will leave office as Labor Secretary on February 2.
“Secretary Gilliam-Johnson has led the Department of Labor with distinction during a time where we have faced many challenges across state government and have been focused on the importance of building strong, inclusive environments where people feel valued and supported,” said Governor Carney. “I could not be more grateful for her service.”
Cade grew up in Washington D.C. and moved to Delaware to study Political Science and Law Studies at Delaware State University. Driven by a desire to make a positive impact and following his passion for public service, Cade has worked as a Legislative Aide for the Delaware State House of Representatives, New Castle County Deputy County Director for U.S. Senator Tom Carper and State Projects Director for then-Congressman John Carney.
Cade joined Governor Jack Markell’s staff as Legislative Liaison in 2015. Last summer, Governor Carney appointed Cade to serve as DEDO’s Acting Director to lead the office’s transition, where he previously served as Deputy Director.
Cade lives in Wilmington with his wife, Kasmira, and two daughters, Jonnie and Toni.
I’ve been looking for a common thread in everything I’ve written about what is taking place in Delaware education. One person, so deeply embedded in the forces that are privatizing public education before our very eyes. I believe I found it. A common link to the initiatives taking place. The Public/Private partnerships. Workforce Development. The Delaware Business Roundtable and the Delaware Chamber of Commerce. The Rodel/Vision Coalition. Personalized Learning. The philanthropic ventures into public education. Pathways to Prosperity. I believe I just found the most powerful person in Delaware who is calling ALL the shots. And most of you have probably never even heard the name.
Last Friday, the final report for Delaware House Resolution #20 came out. The General Assembly passed this resolution last July and ordered the Office of Management and Budget, the Department of Finance, and the Office of the Controller General to conduct a study on Pay For Success methodology and how it could work in Delaware. What did the report recommend? And who wrote it?
Delaware Governor John Carney is throwing Delaware’s public school system under the bus and he will begin this transition with the Christina School District. Yesterday, he sent an unannounced delegation to Springfield, Massachusetts that included far more than those on his public schedule. This group included Assistant Superintendent Noreen LaSorsa, Wilmington Education Improvement Commission Chair Tony Allen (who received his invite on September 23rd), Christina Education Association President Darren Tyson, and an unnamed member of the Delaware State Education Association (which was their legislative liason, Kristin Dwyer). I’m sure Carney’s Education Policy Advisor Jon Sheehan attended as well.
The News Journal covered the trip in an article by Jessica Bies:
Despite school board members asking to be equal partners in the effort, there were no members of that group on the trip.
Carney apparently seems to think Tony Allen is a better choice to bring on trips about Christina than the actual board members:
Tony Allen, chair of the Wilmington Education Improvement Commission, on the other hand, has known about the trip since at least Sept. 23, he confirmed Friday. He said he was invited sometime before that.
In the article, it said Board President George Evans received an invite “very recently” but was unable to attend. Board Vice President Fred Polaski said he didn’t even know about it until a reporter called him.
Christina Board member John Young had plenty to say about this trip on his Facebook account this evening:
Delaware officials touring a Massachusetts effort run by an unelected governing board under a 501(c)-3, just like DE charters for possible use in Christina. On its face it certainly appears that Governor John Carney does not intend to partner with Christina, but deploy untested, unproven ideas on us. I honestly took him at his word Tuesday, now it seems like I may have been wrong to do so. Google Springfield Empowerment Zone if you want the 411 on this ed reform trainwreck that’s seemingly on the way. I am disappointed that mere days after agreeing to engage us within the rules that govern public meetings and board actions, a delegation was sent out of state to “research” a model to insert into CSD and usurp local control, possibly placing millions and millions of dollars into the hands of an appointed board without any elected representation from Christina.
Carney is playing the exact same kind of education games Jack Markell played. I’m not sure which is worse at this point, but at the rate Carney is going I have to go with our latest corporate education reform Governor. What makes Carney so dangerous is his throw it in your face backdoor dealings. He doesn’t care who he pisses off. As long as he has his select cabal to go along with his plans. Transparency is a thing of the past with this Governor. He is initiating very scumbag moves.
There can never be public trust with John Carney. Never. He has proven that multiple times. He is getting our legislators to think his hocus-pocus public-private partnership scams are perfectly okay. There is no collaboration with Carney. If you don’t go along with his vision, he will go ahead and do it anyway. The very fact that Carney wants to emulate a flash-in-the-pan scam like this where the “partnership” creates a board to oversee these schools separate from the local education agency board of education where the state picks the four board members and the district the other three shows an immediate state control of Christina’s Wilmington schools. But his contempt for local authority was not missed by Young in the News Journal article:
It has become clear the trip was planned in advance of that meeting, school board member John Young said, which concerns him because if the Springfield model ends up being the basis for the Christina partnership, it would suggest the outcome was predetermined and the school board didn’t actually have any say in the matter.
That’s right Mr. Young. Carney doesn’t want the Christina board to have any say because he knows they would say no. This is priority schools all over again except this time Carney is very upfront about selling these schools off to a corporate entity. Call it a non-profit all you want. I’m sure the overlords of this non-profit would exact their pound of flesh from the district in the form of certain salaries and operating expenses.
Where is DSEA President Mike Matthew on this? He has been very quiet about all this since it came out in the past week. I would think, given his resistance to the priority schools fiasco, he would oppose this. But he has been silent and I would like to know why. Especially given what Bies said in the article:
Legislators in Massachusetts say the program is “compelling” and has made it possible for the state to effect educational change without seizing local control from school districts. Yet, teachers unions have complained that it removes control of schools from local officials and puts it more in the hands of the state.
What is to stop this from spreading out from Christina? I have no doubt Carney will push this on other districts as well. Especially when their Smarter Balanced Assessment scores don’t meet his fake standards. Once again, the Christina Board of Education will have to stand up against the evil empire (the state) to prevent further erosion in local control even though Carney’s crappy vision ridiculously suggests it would give more local control.
I have no doubt Carney will sell more of his public-private partnership encyclopedia salesman malarkey throughout his term as Governor (a one-term Governor I hope and pray). But what he is really doing is selling his state away. He is evaporating transparency with his Family Services Cabinet Council and the non-public board meetings of his public-private partnership board at a state level. The Delaware Department of Education seems to be okay with this and I have never been more annoyed with Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting for going along with this dog and pony show. But I suppose that’s why Carney picked her for this post. She has become Carney’s yes woman. But what should I expect from the Rodel-Vision circle of followers? This is not the change promised by Carney in terms of the Delaware DOE. They aren’t a support network for schools. He has found a way for them to micro-manage our schools more than ever with this nonsense. But he wraps it in his public-private partnership bow.
As for Tony Allen, he is being used in a big way for the second time by a Delaware Governor. Markell used him and threw him out with the whole WEIC plan. Now Carney is sucking him in with his big vision for Christina. I would think Allen would be too busy with his new Del State job, but I guess not. Not listed in the article is another attendee, Nnamdi Chukwuocha. This Wilmington City Councilman actually thought it was a good idea for corporations to take over public schools in the infamous Christina priority schools board meeting when he gave his public comment back in September, 2014. More of Carney surrounding himself with those who will suck up to him, allow themselves to be used, or whatever empty promise or vapor he whispered in their ears.
The Delaware DOE, State Board of Education, and our past two Governors have had a consistent hard-on for the Christina School District. Once they get their hooks into them it is only a matter of time until the infection spreads. Delaware is a small state so it would not come as a shock to me that we are a model state to completely destroy the word public in public education.
This whole thing stinks like hell and I hope Delawareans who do care about public education wise up and stand up fast to this fake Governor and his shallow followers. If Mike Matthews is the man I believe him to be, he will fight this tooth and nail. If he even entertains this notion, I will publicly shame him and my support for DSEA will be done. If he does not publicly go against this, it will prove he ran for President of DSEA for the power.
The Springfield model is a fake. It is just another way for Carney and other corporate education reform politicians to erode local control away and give power to states who in turn give out taxpayer money to idiotic companies who have taken more money away from the classroom than anything else since public education was first invented.
I am beginning to doubt any sincerity from John Carney. This whole district consolidation task force seems to be the big distraction. “Look here and pay attention to that while I spin my web of lies somewhere else in places you would never think to look.” The problem with Carney is his ego. He really is as transparent as Saran Wrap. I don’t look at him and think, “what a great politician I can trust”. I think, “That guy can’t be trusted at all. He’s up to something.” We all know the type. But that seems to be okay for over half of Delaware who put the guy in power with an empty campaign that essentially had no platform we hadn’t heard before. This is what happens when you reward a false sense of entitlement Delaware voters.
Pathways to Prosperity is the greatest invention Delaware ever had! If you believe that one, you stand to profit from what amounts to a cheap labor program designed to beef up corporate profit while using students to do so.
The Pathways Steering Committee recently recommended a Request for Proposal to make the Pathways To Prosperity initiative really shine. They want a huge marketing push on this. After all, this committee does include Del Tech, Rodel, and The Delaware Business Roundtable. What corporate CEO doesn’t want cheap labor? The best part is you don’t have to farm jobs out to foreign countries. You can do it right here in your own state. All you need are a bunch of students in high school or college and you can call them “paid internships”. Once students complete these internships, they can earn a secondary diploma or a “certificate”. How awesome! NOT!
To be clear, I am ALL IN for students to continue education. I am ALL IN for disengaged students becoming engaged. What I am NOT all in for is companies taking advantage of school instruction for their own advantage. This RFP from the Delaware Dept. of Education is a fascinating read. RFPs always have some key information about what an initiative is REALLY about. They have to sell it to a prospective vendor.
Delaware Pathways is an education and workforce partnership that creates a career pathways system for all youth.
Notice the word “all”. Does all mean all? Eventually. Wait until Blockchain really gets going in public education…
This effort is guided by the Delaware Pathways Steering Committee, which represents a cross-sector group of policy makers, educators, employers, and community leaders who developed the Delaware Pathways Strategic Plan.
No parents. No students. No parents. No students. Shall I go on?
Registered Apprenticeship is a proven method of training which involves on-the-job work experience coupled with related instruction, typically offered in a classroom setting.
Please show me the statistics showing this “proven method”. I am not against apprenticeships. I am against taking advantage of apprenticeships for cheap labor.
Registered apprentices work for their employer or sponsor and are paid while they learn their respective trade. Registered Apprenticeship, in simple terms, is a program of “learning while earning.”
Are they paid at the same levels regular employees are who would perform the same job function? Yeah, I didn’t think so. And how much goes toward other entities while students are “paid”? Who else gets a cut of this pay? “Learning while earning” is definitely earning. The companies earn a lot toward their bottom line. Disgusting…
Registered Apprenticeships are offered in a variety of occupations. The majority of Registered Apprenticeships are four years in length or 8000 hours of on-the-job training. For each year of training, a minimum of 144 hours of related instruction is required.
8,000 hours is a whole heck of a lot of hours. That is a lot of pay at a reduced scale that could be helping the average Delawarean. Companies don’t want to train regular employees. They LOVE this initiative. And they will use taxpayer dollars to provide that training. It is a win-win for companies. This is exactly WHY they care about education so much. I kind of thought education was about kids getting a well-rounded education in ALL subjects. But this will radically transform that so kids only get instruction in certain subjects on the way to their “career path”. Dumb them down, make sure kids don’t question authority, and then you own them for life. Big Brother is here, owned by Education Inc. Did you really think it was “for the kids”? Please…
Upon completion of the required on-the-job training and related instruction, the apprentice is eligible for Journey papers. A journeyperson is nationally recognized as having a well-rounded ability in all phases of their trade.
Note the words “required” and “nationally recognized”. Say goodbye to the days of applying for a job, getting hired, and then going through an orientation-training class. This is the new hiring process for companies. If you don’t get in on THEIR agenda, you are screwed. And if you are an older person, looking to change careers, you are doubly screwed.
The intersection of Delaware Pathways and Registered Apprenticeship programs is a result of Delaware’s career pathways system, which begins in the public education system (K-12) through Career and Technical Education (CTE) pathways offered in charter, comprehensive, and technical school districts.
What a well-timed intersection. Like it wasn’t planned for decades. This is what happens when you let a “non-profit” like the Rodel Foundation dictate education policy. This is what happens when you let corporations in education. They plant the seeds and take over.
These pathways continue through adult education, occupational training programs, as well as Registered Apprenticeship and postsecondary programs that are administered by partnering state agencies, institutions of higher education, and other service providers.
Thus, we have Governor Carney’s “public-private partnerships” in full swing. All hail the Chief!
As a result, Delaware’s career pathways system aligns secondary and postsecondary education and concurrently pairs rigorous academics and workforce education within the context of a specific occupation or occupational cluster.
“Rigorous academics” means the Common Core State Standards. Which was, ironically enough, a Department of Defense initiative designed to change the human mind. It was adopted by the Department of Education to actually change young minds to a digital technology environment. But those standards have to be tested, thus crap like the Smarter Balanced Assessment and PARCC. Make them once a year, get teachers and parents in a tizzy over them, and then institute a competency-based education environment. Then comes the “stealth tests”- same tests as before, but broken up into chunks, to be given at the end of each unit in each class. Impossible to opt out of those. This takes it a step further, tying in the education and corporate worlds into a marriage of game-changing high stakes.
Participants who complete a career pathway attain a secondary school diploma or its equivalent, earn an industry-recognized credential, certificate, or license that holds value in the labor market, and have the opportunity to complete an Associate or Bachelor’s degree program at a Delaware college or university.
Don’t kid yourself. This will be how it is done for ALL students in the future. Call it what you want, but this will be a “digital badge” created specifically for your personal share on the Blockchain ledger. The cradle to grave data tracking job creating machine is here!
Delaware Governor John Carney and Delaware Secretary of Education Dr. Susan Bunting will talk to educators, parents, and citizens tonight about education funding and the state budget tonight at 7:45pm. To be included on the call, you had to sign up yesterday by 2pm. I signed up on Tuesday. I will be reporting live from the Town Hall. What concerns me the most is not what Carney is saying. It is what he isn’t talking about…
I’ve heard from more than a few teachers in the past hour since I posted about the Rodel Teacher Council’s presentation to the State Board of Education. Many were unaware of what this very small group of Delaware teachers have been up to and how it could impact the future of their profession. I wanted to follow-up on that article with this set of “policy briefs” created by this teacher council. What could happen is this corporate education reform hocus-pocus is all of a sudden written into Delaware state code without anyone the wiser. This would be done by our General Assembly who Rodel has been making nicey-nice with in the past year. I would strongly urge all the local teacher unions and the Delaware State Education Association to get on top of this as soon as humanly possible and find out what the hell some of the teachers in their districts are doing with all this in the name of Rodel. I’ve been warning about these possibilities for a long time. But it will take much more than me to stop this from becoming the new reality.
For months, I’ve heard Delaware Governor John Carney talk about “public and private partnerships”. Funny how the Rodelians mention this very same thing in their policy briefs issued last November. If you think for one second John Carney is not under Rodel’s thumb, think again!
I’ve written about “Social Impact Bonds” before. Where companies come in and essentially make bets on student outcomes. Now we see “Innovation Funding”, also known as crowdsourcing, where communities “invest” in schools so someone can make a whole lot of money. As well, the state won’t have to pay for it. But all that comes with a price. The future generation of students who will be fully immersed in this nonsense will become nothing more than drones to the corporations as true local decision-making becomes a thing of the past. Meanwhile, all the “smart” and “wealthy” kids will be attending private schools paid for, in part, by school vouchers.
The below documents were created last November but they are making their rounds with the decision-makers in Delaware education. This is Paul Herdman’s ultimate vision folks. Everything else has just been a sideshow compared to this. They can come out with all the pretty and colorful presentations they want. But as long as people keep swallowing their pills, this will continue. It will never change until people demand our Department of Education, our legislators, and our schools stop adopting Rodel’s corporate greed-driven drivel. And for the love of all that is holy, will education stakeholders who really should know better please get off the Vision Coalition? All you are doing is prolonging the existence of Rodel. DSEA, DASA, and DSBA need to inform all those who pay dues to them of every single aspect of these policies and let their members decide how to deal with this. Decisions like this should not be brought forth by 22 Delaware teachers speaking for the entire teaching force in Delaware.
In February, Delaware Governor John Carney brought back the Family Services Cabinet Council through Executive Order #5. Many in Delaware thought this was a good thing. But apparently transparency took a backseat to this return. The group met on Wednesday, April 5th, 2017 in a meeting that was closed to the public and press. What is the point of this council if it is not able to be seen by the public?
I discovered this when I was looking at the Governor’s public schedule last week. I also view the Delaware Public Meetings Calendar and did not see this on there. I would have attended this meeting had it been made public but I never had the chance.
For a council that is responsible for recommendations for so many issues in Delaware, I am shocked they wouldn’t let the public in on it. To that end, I emailed Governor Carney’s staff about this gross oversight on April 6th. Over a week later and NO response.
This is the kind of crap I would expect from former Delaware Governor Jack Markell. I truly hoped Governor Carney would be different. But I am not seeing that marriage between the state and the public. Especially with a council as important as this one. So what are the areas this council covers that Carney doesn’t want the public to hear conversation about?
If this council isn’t open to the public will we ever see any minutes from their meetings? Attendance? Who else is invited? What they are even doing? I urge Governor Carney to answer these questions and make this council open to the public. Delaware got an F for transparency and came in 49th out of 50 states in an evaluation of public transparency at the end of 2015. That should have ended on January 17th, 2017, the day Governor Carney swore his oath of office and promised the citizens of Delaware he would listen to the people. I expect more from you Governor Carney!
For those who have been following this blog the past few years, I have written many articles about the eventual goals of the corporate education reformers and this council seems to be moving things along in that direction. Especially when it comes to strengthening the “public-private partnerships”.
The mission of the Council shall be to design and implement new service alternatives for school and community-based family-centered services, and otherwise act as a catalyst for public-private partnerships to reduce service fragmentation and make it easier for families to get supportive services.
In a nutshell, this is inviting non-profits into our schools. While some may see this as a step in the right direction, I am hesitant to think this is the cure for what ails the youth of Delaware. Every single time a company, whether it is for-profit or non-profit, comes into our schools, it is siphoning money away from students and into the more than welcoming hands of corporations. With that comes bad education policy because the corporations only make money off education if there is something to fix. The measurement of what needs to be “fixed” is the standardized test, currently the Smarter Balanced Assessment in Delaware. If there is one thing we have learned in Delaware it is the Smarter Balanced Assessment is very flawed and their consortium is extremely non-transparent and secretive.
Carney was also instrumental in getting the whole Blockchain thing going in Delaware. If you want your children to morph into drones in the Common Core/personalized learning/digital tech/stealth testing/digital badge environment than please ignore this article.
As citizens of Delaware, we need to demand transparency from Governor Carney. Please call the Governor’s office today. The Dover office phone number is (302) 744-4101 and the Wilmington office phone number is (302) 577-3210. Or you can email him here: Email Governor Carney
The Season Of Myths 