Today at the Delaware Senate Education Committee meeting, House Bill 50, the parent opt-out bill was NOT HEARD. There were five bills on the agenda, and the chair, Senator David Sokola, came strolling in very late. As well, there were numerous public speakers, and he made NO effort to limit their speaking time. In fact, he let them talk as long as they wanted to. But he did get to have his Senate Joint Resolution #2 heard, which has now been amended to give the General Assembly more authority in the process of the State conducting an assessment inventory.
Sokola did say House Bill 50 will be heard first at next week’s Senate Education Committee meeting, but this was purposely done, make NO mistake about that. The Senate was requested at 4pm to come downstairs for their session. The most disgusting part of the whole thing was Delaware Secretary of Education Mark Murphy smiling and giggling on his way out, like some demented freak. This is a disturbing man, and he should not be around any children whatsoever, much less leading education in our state.
Senator Sokola obviously is at the beck and call of the DOE and Governor Markell. He is not fit to lead any matters in education. He is in the back pocket of the Governor, who is in the back pocket of all the corporate interests.
Contradicting what the DOE said in April at the State Board meeting, the Smarter Balanced Assessment is now included in the statewide assessment inventory but DO NOT BE FOOLED for one second this is to be taken seriously, despite what Governor Markell’s education policy advisor, Lindsey O’Mara said at the meeting, because that is also up to “state and federal regulations” as she said.
This is an obvious stall on the Governor’s part. I could feel it in the air. There were too many smug faces in that room. No consideration whatsoever was given to members of the public who showed up for the meeting to hear House Bill 50. Far too much time was allotted for public comment, and that was done with one goal in mind: to keep pushing this off. In the meantime, we will see more useless editorials coming out and more ridiculous links and commentaries on the DOE’s Facebook page.
This is the Delaware Way at it’s finest and most appalling. Parents, this is WAR! Our Governor and DOE does not give a rats ass about any of us. We are just little bugs to them. It’s time to swarm.
The Season Of Myths 