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I’d never thought I’d write that. How could anyone in their right mind be against raising teacher’s standards… After all it is our kids we are talking about who will suffer….
Exactly, Passing SB 51 with S/A 1 Amendment attached, will cause our kids to suffer. That’s how I can write that. Otherwise I’d be full force behind this bill just as was every senator who voted for it….
You ask, how can raising standards on teachers, hurt our children?
I will ask you back; ”How would you like to take your brand new car you just purchased to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop and have him work it over? How could that possibly hurt your car?”
Basically that’s what this law does for education. It is as if we passed a law for cars that said every new car purchased had to be re-certified by Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop. The entire premise on this auto legislation lies in this one single question: gee, who is Joe?
If Joe is someone who is the world’s best mechanic, factory trained by every car manufactured, a man or woman who can analyze myriads of problems by just with listening with a fine-tuned ear, then maybe this bill could possibly be ok. But if Joe has no knowledge of electronic computers, but learned his mechanics back in the days of steel and oil, and is a complete loss when he sees a car with no distributer cap, then taking your car that runs perfectly to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop, can damage your car pretty darn bad.
And THAT is the problem with SB 51… We don’t know who Joe is….
What we do know, is that our car is purring perfectly, heck we just bought it, everything was tuned at the factory. Since it is straight from the factory, it is running very well, no play in the wheel, clean car smell, all items are working, and even our factory tells us to make sure we take it back to a “factory approved shop” for all repairs in order not to void the warranty…. But our government is making us take it to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop.… And we still don’t know who Joe is?
And we are not too enthralled by all the junk cars piled up in its back lot…….
That is what is wrong with SB 51….
Our great educational training program that is functioning very well, is going to be tested and inspected by someone who doesn’t know crap…
That should scare the hell out of every single parent….
The educational system of America over the last 13 years has been disrupted. Good teachers have been fired, to be replaced with bad ones. Students used to read literature, and now they are handed “packets” and read test questions. Schools that have been opened for a century, have been closed…. The educational system is in disarray; a disarry that appears to have been forced down from the top.
We’ve all been there… The new boss walks in, and yells “things are going to be different now”. Some are excited, some are afraid, but this boss is out of control… He arbitrarily fires, can’t hire fast enough, and the business breaks down. It becomes broken. He came into fix, and it got put… into a fix. So he storms out, blaming all those left for his need to make an exit. And then everyone is asked to put it back together, and they do, then the next boss is hired… If you work in America, you’re guaranteed to have been through this scenario.
We are going to do that with teachers? Who’s this guy, Joe again? Is this test going to be made by the same ones that lowered Delaware’s results? Is this test going to be like those 5th grader tests loaded with 7th grade questions using letters a,b,c in algebraic math?
As that car owner, we have the best educational system bar none. Delaware educators have among toughest standards in the country. Counting every school, even the most stringent Ivy League schools, the University of Delaware is ranked 37th in the nation. That’s ahead of Rutgers, Temple, and even Boston University. Delaware State University is solid Tier 2 school.
Currently in Delaware’s educational programs, only one third make it through the tough gauntlet into teaching. All students graduating from UD, DSU, and WU have passed Praxis I and II; have logged hundreds of hours of observation and additional hundreds more hours of supervised teaching under the watchful eye of master teachers in our public schools. Compared to the standards even 10 years ago, new Delaware teachers graduated by these universities are the best prepared to enter the classroom in our history.
Delaware should be pretty damn proud. Instead we appear to be on the verge of committing a rash act full of unintended consequences. Our head is in the sand. Ok, the argument may go…. “If we’re so good, what possiblE harm can befall us if we take our new baby to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop?
Apart from the fact that we do not know who “Joe” is or will be when we get there, there are these reasons. The changes in SB 51/SA-1 actually lower some credentialing standards rather than raise them [see the section on now accepting Composite Scores].
Currently all Delaware student teachers take the Praxis One and the Praxis Two. No pass, no teach. These are the factory cars in the educational equation. There are composed by NCATE, National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education. This is a very solid organization. If you go to their website right now, you will see that they pre-published their accreditation standards for public view and comments. They also dropped Wesley College’s accreditation for not living up to the standards.
This bill would replace these standards with ones created by the Delaware Department of Education. Returning to the Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop analogy, one has to wonder how a 3 year Phys Ed elementary teacher, can do better than a national organization that accredits schools.
Delaware has the 37th BEST teacher school ranked in the nation. And after this bill is passed, we are going to completely gut our entire program out of all we do so well, and have a 3 year elementary Physical Education Teacher rebuild our entire program from scratch….. One who has never gone through the RTTT testing he inflicts on others? One who quite questionably doesn’t meet the minimum 5 year requirement necessary to be a DOE?
It’s in the bill. that is what it says.
Would we let someone who has never been a doctor create the state’s medical certification program? Would we let a non-lawyer create the state’s Bar exam? Would we let a manager of McDonalds create our state’s nutritional guidelines?
With this administration and this Senate, I really don’t know. We just might, based on what I’m seeing right before me!
So, you are saying you would really take your BMW, Rolls, or Cadillac to Joe The Mechanic’s Auto Shop to be certified to drive it in Delaware? Wouldn’t you be afraid he’d mess it up, especially since it is working rather well right now? Ranked 37th!..
I can hear “Joe” now… “What are all these damn stupid wires for. (Rip,rip,rip) My old Model T never had this crap”…
It’s our kids. We can’t rush this, and this bill has been rushed far too fast through the Senate. The House needs to slow down and debate this one…
We can’t afford to lose our 37th top spot in the nation for which we worked so hard and so long to get….. We got to stop this bill that will make our cars all go to “Joe’s” .
Said Senator Hocker yesterday. …
“I don’t think you can redefine marriage when God is the one who defined marriage, as between one man and one woman. Some people say well I don’t believe that! You might as believe nothing, not to believe that! I believe God’s word is infallible; it was inspired by God. You believe everything in it or believe nothing! Why take those pages and tear them out,because you don’t believe them? God defined marriage. Man is now saying we don’t believe what God has defined and we want to change it. For man to redefine something that God was very clear defining.. God will win.
“I have gay/lesbians working for me, family members, close family members, my wife has them as close family members, I don’t hold anything against them, but don’t ask me to go against God for something that they feel is equality….. “
Which reminded me of someone else:
“You believe everything in the Bible or believe nothing!” said Hocker.
“You may well ask: “Why direct action? Why sit-ins, marches and so forth? Isn’t negotiation a better path?” You are quite right in calling for negotiation. Indeed, this is the very purpose of direct action. Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue. It seeks to so dramatize the issue that it can no longer be ignored. …”
Martin Luther King Letter from a Birmingham Jail April 16, 1963….
I’m not going to embarrass the pants off Jea Street by pointing him out… If you know him, or of him, you’ll know whom I’m talking about. If you don’t, he could be anyone, sitting in the audience of your districts Board of Education Meeting…
But, Jea Street just did a very dumb thing. He fires off a public letter calling for the firing of three Christina School Board members calling them super “obstructionists”…
Really. Super obstructionists? Is that like Superman? Wouldn’t it have been smarter to call them Spider obstructionists? Like Spiderman? Or Bat obstructionists? Like Batman? or Under obstructionists, “like little olde me,…….. Underdog”.
Look, Jea Street!…. It’s a frog….. A F-R-O-G?
This isn’t a “new” or “confused” Jea Street. This is the Jea Street from decades ago hammered Red Clay and who so concerned the Red Clay Board that they had rent-a-cops attend board meetings. This is the Jea street who hammered everyone within earshot about achieving racial equality. This is the Jea Street who never opened his mouth when the shining lights of state and district politics (were any minorities of note involved in this?) went for and obtained Charter, Choice, and Neighborhood Schools. This is the Jea Street I always considered racist and have not seen any change in his position on that. This is the Jea Street who had to be aware of what was happening to Warner and all the kids there in recent years – and said nothing. This is the Jea Street who watched as Red Clay designed and implemented a racially divided district – and said nothing. So, the only conclusion I can draw from this is: What’s in it for Jea Street? — Adam Smith, aka Batman.
Did the councilman really just invite any whack job in Delaware to seek out school board members and deal with them as if they were weapons of mass destruction? Line crossing? (Translated: show up at your efffin board of education with an AR 15 and whack the m–fu–ers.) Django aka Django.
I used to simply feel sorry for this guy until I saw him act in person worse than he acts with pen in hand at the GABMAAFWF govt School (not education) Choice event at Woodlawn Library a few months ago. Now I have a tremendous and somewhat fearful distaste for his self serving rants and sanctimonious rage. His is the most dangerous of several common actions of the all too common race pimp class of citizens. Peter Parker aka Spiderman.
And to think some thought The Jea Street was the latest dance. It’s the “Hustle” all over again. Clark Kent aka Superman.
This is the jea who watched high ranking 100K admins in RC and CSD help keep it quiet for years. some were paid directly by the districts, others had companies with contracts! it is disgusting at every level. What has happened in education in DE is comparable to the robbery the banks and defense contractors have done to the public. Alfred…. (Butler to Adam Smith.)
(If you don’t now know who jea street is, he is the little guy driving the tank in the video linked above…….) Now, I don’t know Jea Street or care to really, after the ringing endorsements his actions have resonated, but since I have a hard time remembering faces, I use cartoons… In this case, Jea Street is close to “J Street” which as most know, is right beside “K Street” in Washington DC.
This is fitting. ”J Street” (which I will call him/her for the rest of this highly educational and scientific article) is carrying water for the Lobbyists of Pure-Profit Management of Public Schools (PMS)….. When “J Street” slips under the influence of PMS he gets wild and loose with facts. He gets emotional; PMS will do that to a person…..
(Note to Reader: ”J Street” has forgotten with his temporary amnesia the two African American superintendents who PRECEEDED Dr. Williams and were in place during the OCR fiasco…one of whom is Maryland’s current State Superintendent of Education, Lillian Lowery.) PMS does make you forget important things…..
(Note to Reader: Mr. Evans had run for that position the previous election and had been thumped, repudiated, and badly beaten like a chump if I remember correctly, by a 10 to 1 margin. Upon hearing that his opponent had resigned, Mr Evans made himself the only person available for that position. The board felt that someone so rejected by parents of students in that district, could only do harm by being allowed to sit in that position for if he were allowed on as a voting member, it could set up court challenges in the future for everything the board did from that point onward..) PMS seems to have made “J Street” forgetful here as well.
(Note to Reader: Across this nation, many districts are opting out of RTTT because it simply costs more to achieve, than the funds one is given. Of all the districts in this state, Christina first recognized this, and in order not to be forced to spend far more than they get, they are negotiating with the Department of Education for leeway in using the funding in ways that wouldn’t cost the district more to use the money. Meaning it is actually cheaper, NOT to accept RTTT funding, and therefore NOT implement all the costly purchases required by RTTT, This frees up money which can be used on things like educating children inside the inner city, something which has been put on hold, since RTTT began.) This of course cannot be comprehended when one as PMS.
Apparently, “J Street” is being manipulated by “K Street” to intimidate the board of Christina. ”K Street” feels that refusing to buy products from only certain firms sanctioned by the state as official suppliers, and using that money to actually help children learn, instead of line their pockets, is an outrage. Unfortunately. For a rich man to scream… “I’m not wealthy enough! Buy my ‘effin’ product” turns people off. But that is no problem for them, as long as their neighbor “j street” will do it for them and …yes… blame it on race, even though those guilty, were all Afro-Americans…..
In case you missed it above…. “J Street” is the guy driving the tank..
By coincidence, two articles came up side by side. One involved the verdict of the Steubanville case and the other a very racist incident at a CPAC forum in DC yesterday.
In both, the perpetrators were southern white males who think they world owes them everything, who felt they were entitled to do whatever they wished simply because they were southern and white.
In one a woman was raped and left for dead.. In another, a shouting match occurred between white supremacists and very conservative Afro Americans, right inside the CPAC forum itself…..
The Steubenville verdict went against the males, but the whole town had rallied around the football star who performed the rape, bragged about his conquest, and painted the woman as one causing the crime. Her crime he said? She went to a party… Implication?. If you don’t stay at home, you are legally allowed to be raped…
This is the typical thought process among conservatives, even here in Delaware… To them the law exists only to protect the rights of the most powerful. The law protects wealth. It matters little what the law actually says on paper. If you know a sheriff (even if he is only a paper pusher) you can get out of any crime you want… BAM! Case dismissed.
Likewise. in the CPAC discussion, in trying to “teach” conservatives how to talk about “those people” the example of Frederick Douglas, a former Republican, was brought up as the proper example..
“Frederick Douglas forgave his slave masters.” The reply was: What!! For giving them food? For giving them shelter?”
The conversation then turned vicious on all those Conservative Afro Americans in the presence of that group…
“I don’t care how much the KKK improved,” one said. “I’m not going to join the KKK because the Democratic Party founded the KKK.” (If it was founded by Republicans, he’d join; just like he was against Republican healthcare only because Democrats borrowed it and ran with it).
When one conservative who took offense at the suggestion modern Democrats were descendants of the KKK, tried to ask a question later once things finally calmed down. She was booed and screamed at by audience members.
“Let someone else speak!” one asshole in Revolutionary War garb shouted.
“You’re not welcome!” a white-haired older woman named Eileen, yelled.
Many of the conservatives interviewed said they enjoyed the event. ”Bout time the truth ’bout us whites got out there..” ”They were just telling the truth,” another said.
As the media swarmed around the white supremest, a woman wearing a Tea Party Patriots CPAC credential who had shouted down Brown earlier urged him not to give his name to the press. When asked, she wouldn’t give her name either..”.There’s no doubt the white males are getting really beat up right now cause they’re stupid! , It’s unfair,” she said. “I agree with that!. My husband’s one of them. “
Another said…” if you let Blacks cast a fraudulent vote you are depriving someone else of the right to vote, because you are canceling a vote that was legitimately cast by White people.,” he said ” white culture was being denigrated” “I’m not going to make a general statement about that, but obviously whatever culture you come from there’s somebody who is opposed to it,” he stammered.
CPAC later sent a white washed email to TPM that blamed the entire disruption upon a black woman who supposedly worked for the government of Russia…..
And despite the prayers of the townspeople of Steubanville, all three males were guilty as charged of multiple rape…..
So what does this have to do with you?
If you give up. If you relax and stop fighting. If you turn your attention elsewhere for a brief moment, this ugly undercurrent which is very strong, will surge, rise up, overrun and ruin your lives….
We can’t have that. The last election is not over. There is another one coming up in less than 20 months… One has to hold the Republican Party accountable for sanctioning and allowing these people to represent them. The Republican Party needs to cut these awful people off. It needs to say, “you are not my child; from now on, you do not exist…”
The slime will then, without attention or support, crawl back into their holes and go away….. There will always big, fat, ugly earthworms… Fortunately they always remain underground and we never see them…. Only when the Republican Party cultures them and brings them out into the open… ….. Only when it rains.
Point is. If the Republicans don’t call these horrible people out, and excomminicate them entirely from the party, no one! no one! should vote for any Republican until they are gone!..
Btw, things are going very well in Delaware with an all Democratic government top to bottom. Perhaps the rest of the nation would like to have things work out well too?
At least, have a party that doesn’t promote the rape of women and racist violence against anyone who is not a dumb white male?
Yep, the Paul Ryan budget was released today. As expected it is a budget designed to protect the top 1% from any bad thing that could possibly occur to them. As was poetically so well put by Romney during the past campaign…. ” ha, ha, ha, ha, ha…. The rest of us don’t matter….”
Today prominent theologians of all religions universally excommunicated the Republican Party of the United States of America from any pretension of anything corresponding to organized religion.
“They’re a cult, I tell you!!!”
Republicans in congress. God is watching you. And if you Fundamentalists would read your Bibles, you’d already know whose side He is on.
The rest of us… If you thought Republicans would come to their senses and start reinvesting in America, the joke is on you.
Nothing will ever change until America gets mad enough to rid ourselves of this pestilence forever…. You don’t have to vote for a Democrat. Most of you won’t… But you do… have to not vote for a Republican….
Unless you no longer consider yourself a moral individual, change your Registration…. TODAY!!!!!!!
Most of you missed this, but Alan Levin and Senator Bob Marshall stopped by coincidentally at the same time to visit Rick Jensen of WDEL, and smooth as he was, Rick convinced both to sit down for an hour and go head to head over the topic of privatizing the Port of Wilmington….
First Alan Levin; Delaware Economic Development Office….
a. Delaware river will be dredged to 45 feet.
b. Panama canal will open to new big ships from the Pacific, which will be coming up the Delaware River.
c.. Ships if not coming here, may go to ports north to Philly, Paulsboro, Newark NJ, Norfolk.
d. If we don’t accommodate these larger ships, jobs will go elsewhere taking 3000 jobs. By 2016 we should start seeing them.
e. Was not a sweetheart deal. Competing bids were proffered. Local ILA (International Longshoreman) even asked the state to search out new private/public partnership bids back in Sept 09
f. Turns out that the Bank of Montreal was advisor for port transactions, the division was located in San Francisco. It’s job is to just finance ports. Sent out 70 inquiries 17 expressed inquiries for further information, 4 actually made bids. 2 were called non responsive. leaving 2 good. Kinder Morgan and one private equity group financed by local individuals.
g. Of the two bids received, the Kinder Morgan bid secured workforce. The other group said they would rob workforce pension and union bust to squeeze their profit out of efficiencies.
h. Kinder Morgan bid grants a three year guaranteed security, to the ILA, to the teamsters, to the businesses outside.. What other business gives you a three year guarantee?
i. Kinder Morgan would grow profits by increasing tonnage. They want to add 3 additional warehouses 200,000 square feet each, and 28 additional jobs. The other bidder, made up of local cutthroats, would cut the workforce to squeeze out its profit.
j. Kinder has the ability to bring in additional volume, to negotiate and bring other companies in. The other bid doesn’t. Improvement costs are substantial. $12 million per crane. It costs between $60-70 million to replace berth 5 and 6, just the repair of which will cost $8-10 million. We need the long term lease. Companies want return over time. they won’t do it for 5, they won’t do it for 10. That’s why it is a 50 year lease. The people of Delaware want commitment as well. They don’t want someone saying “we’re outta here” after 5 years.
k. BDO did an independent audit. As does the State Senate they also show a $ 3 million yearly loss. Reports are posted in their auditor’s office. BDO is independent and won’t jeopardize their reputation by lying about the port of Wilmington. It is bottom line business. Net profit in the end, is minus $3 million dollars. The General Assembly is putting in $10 million a year for improvements. That $10 million doesn’t get us past where we are. It doesn’t get us out to the large ships. We need to get out into the Delaware and that will cost $100′s of millions of dollars. Kinder Morgan has considered expanding the Delaware River auto berth, built 20 years ago to accommodate Volkswagon. The berth goes southward. Kinder would go northbound, and put two berths, with two cranes which will service the 3 warehouses being built.l.
l. LNG is off the table, that has been committed to in the General Assembly and will also be in the lease. Can Wilmington accommodate LNG tankers? No! The port of Wilmington is not big enough to do LNG. And two, they will not increase coal over today’s level; our same level of 100,000 tons of coal is stipulated for the next 50 years.
m. Protests against the port are having negative effect. Both Mr. Kinder and Mr. Foster came with the understanding we were the ones seeking and they were not expecting negativity. They understand the ebb and flow, but were not prepared for this huge outcry. it was us. We invited them to the party. Had they come to us as a hostle takeover, the outcry could be right and proper… So far we’ve done what we thought was right. We got to find a way to stop the annual spending of the $10 million because the $10 million won’t get us out to the river. Kinder proposed and promised and has done it elsewhere.
n. Kinder Morgan if they have a customer who needs to get to the river, they then will build to go to the river; they can make the extension at that time. But Kinder (like any successful business) does not promise or commit to anything except what it is prepared to do today.
o. If deal falters, the future of port will be tenuous. It will continue to have great management, and a great workforce, but won’t have the proper resources to go to river.
p. If deal collapses, no, the port won’t go bankrupt. but collapsing the deal is not responsible. Being responsible is doing something to stop the $10 million bleeding.
Now… state senator Bobbie Marshall…author of Senate Bill 3 signed by Jack Markell, overseeing the lease of port….
a. Big problem is… we do not have details of Kinder Morgan. No written proposal,
b.Expansion is something we all favor. but deal receded into one of ” no expansion”, but we will now have to turn over the entire port. including the 300 acres owned by Delaware citizens, managed by Diamond State Port Authority to someone we don’t know.
c. Port is actually a profit making entity if you remove the depreciation yearly. Actual operation is profitable.
d. Port could grow jobs within the interior 250 acres if port grows and expands, and with new money, more employment opportunity exists if expansion occurs…
e. Point out that Julius Cephus (ILA) has rallied people, businesses, and elected officials, and has pointed out that this may not be beneficial in long term.
f. Preliminary proposal at this time, the due diligence will be present by end of month which will allow presentation to bond bill and bond bill will hold hearings on the proposal… Senate Bill 3 requires review by bond committee.
g. Members of legislature representing the state of Delaware, passed bill in 1994 to allow Diamond State to operate the day to day operations, but never was it place in the code, to give either Diamond State or the governor sale and total control of 300 acres of port property. General Assembly and its citizens are the tenant. Diamond State Port is the renter.
h. Port of Wilmington Directors are responsible to exercise “all function” of port….including the leasing of lands to companies…. That is different from” selling” the land of the taxpayers out from under them. The state taxpayer keeps ownership but leases to Kinder Morgan.
i. All interested parties, need to read Miami Herald and how expansion of Panama Canal will affect the ports of the east coast. We need to invest the Delaware river side of the port and that is not happening with Kinder Morgan.
j. This is a lease, this is not a sale to Kinder Morgan. The Diamond State board can do leases…. Alan’s understanding is if the bond bill committee approves Kinder Morgan deal, it goes to the House and Senate for up or down vote with no debate. But Marshall say debate will be impossible to quench.
k. Any one can appear before the bond bill committee… Alan will appear. Senators can appear. Kinder Morgan will be given total control of port. Diamond State Board will still be in place, will still have oversight, but not its running on a day to day basis. They make sure agreement is in force, and if not, they will take appropriate action.
l. Worried about control People getting laid off? Kinder Morgan will automate and cut employees down to one. Low skilled people will get shut out, Has happened all over the country. Failed private ports run by Kinder Morgan, cut people. (Which ones ask Jensen.)
m. Kinder Morgan is interested in the fruit business, Kinder Morgan is paying premium for fruit; they want to build three warehouses. Already they are seeking long term contracts with Dole, Chiquita, and the Chilean Pacific Seaways in order to get their fruit. They have to have to be given the chance.
n. (Jensen) Depreciation needs to be on the form to comply with IRS. Depreciation is where the loss of the port is coming from. Without it, the port is profitable according to Marshall.
o. Kinder Morgan is a bulk and liquid bulk company. (John Vitale): Concerned this deal will cost him money; his business is on the outside of the port. Container experience is limited to one 10 acre container port in Florida. Taht is all the experience they have. Products generating most jobs in ports are containers, breakable containers as in fruit, and automobiles. Handling bulk products are the least job creators. The outside area around the port has grown because the conscious decision not to handle bulk, because they didn’t mix with fruit and automobiles… .
p. Ok, (John Vitale) With Kinder Morgan switching to bulk, we could end up out on the river, but we still would have 20 percent of today’s jobs.
q. Flat out,(John Vitale) bulk products are far more profitable and will drive out costlier containers which are labor intensive, forcing the outside businesses to go out of business. High number of jobs at the port are there because of fruit, these will be lost by not sticking to containers…. A for-profit company will not be in the best interest of the existing port.
r. Ferrous alloys, fertilizer, liquids are not competitive with the outside businesses. (Alan). We can promise this: employees will last three years, we will get an income stream to the people of Delaware, and that capital improvements will happen. Check out Vancouver where Kinder Morgan has spent in last two years, $140 million spent on improvements for cargo bulk containers, something they didn’t anticipate when they leased it two years ago. …They are willing to pay a premium for our expertise. They think fruit is good business.
s. Concern that we are putting too much faith in hope. Kinder Morgan is a Wall Street for-profit stockholder company. Delaware’s General Assembly’s support is contingent on growing business to the river. Legislators are very worried about the external businesses existing outside the port. i
t. Bonds $7 million owed to the city (Roger Roy) .. In 1994, we made two deals with Wilmington: one to pay them over time, and the other was to take over the bonds they owed, which is to pay off their bonds which they currently have. State still owes city close to$7 million..
u. (Kowalko). We will debate the bill on the floor. … Alan is saying the Bond Bill Committee will debate the pre proposal proposal… not the proposal because at this time, there is no proposal. Issue is not about Kinder. … The bond bill was to discuss t he ethics of privatization of the port, not the deal itself. Therefore when it goes on the floors, that will be the only time to debate the actual Kinder Morgan proposal.
v. (Liz Allen) Vancouver contract shows Kinder Morgan is not liable or loss for any cargo, not liable for any delay, strikes, fires explosions, or acts of god, and Kinder Morgan is indemnified from all losses…. Both (Alan and Rick) spoke up that sounded like a standard hold-harmless contract, one required for all business. So who is responsible if there is an explosion (Liz)? Responsibility goes to Kinder Morgan, they have the liability(Alan), their insurance covers that, and we are not absolving them of liability. All obligations go to the person leasing the deal, not the lessor…
w. (Rick) Emotion doesn’t make sense. Why so much negative emotion?. (Bob Marshall) Those interested and raising concerns are those who work in the port, work in businesses around the port. Kinder Morgan is a profit making company, former operator working as Enron officials, that raised a red flag. Rick asks: is everyone at Enron a criminal? No.
x. (Alan) Trepidation is about change to what we know. We have tried to mitigate that concern on everyones issue. Bottom line is people of Delaware can no longer afford putting $10 million a year to upgrade the port.
y. (Alan)we take money away from everyone else in the state to bolster the port. We have an obligation to the port of Wilmington, but we can’t take anything away from Seaford, and Laural, and education and public safety….
In case you didn’t see a previous post, I stumbled into this controversy by accident. Since then, I have found that common core is striking a lot of nerves. In fact there is a divide splitting America’s educational system in two. I’m being blunt and non political. It is split between those who love children, and those who love a cause….
What I’ve found is that those who love children, primarily teachers, parents, and some administrators, are finding the new Common Core Standards are confusing, dumbing down, and making our kids hate learning. Those who are lost in this cause, call these damages collateral, and point to the theoretical good that could occur if this trend is pursued more harshly…. To this those who love children are saying “stop”; you are hurting them. Those in love with the cause, are saying, “hurt is good; no pain, no gain.”
And that is the overview of the common core controversy as I see it right now. That pretty well sums it up, right?
In no order here is stuff going on right now. Keep in mind, what you here is between those who love children, and those who love a cause.
Aspen Colorado, a Gate’s supported school written in the WSJ, can’t keep teacher more than 4 years, and scores once touted as rising, are now falling.
Alabama last week announced it was withdrawing from the two consortia developing tests aligned with the common core.
Utah withdrew from the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium last year,
In Indiana, a Republican member of the Senate education committee, introduced legislation that would require the state to drop the common standards. Mr. Schneider said that the standards are inferior to Indiana’s prior academic-content standards, and that the common core has frustrated legislators because it was adopted behind a “veil of secrecy” and without good estimates of its financial costs.
Legislators previously desperate for federal cash attached to the standards, he said, are “just becoming alerted to what’s going on.
Seattle Teachers boycott the state testing.
And in Texas was recently formed. The Mothers Against Drunk Testing.
There you go. Just some. As you can see, it is not overpaid union teachers who are the only ones up in arms against Common Core…. It is parents, mostly leading the charge….
So why are these parents getting in the way of the cause to make our education world class? What is wrong with them?
Perhaps they love their kids a little more than they love the cause?
The administrative office in the Delaware Department of Education is trying to keep up with all the paperwork it is being fed. It is failing. If the Delaware Department of Education were to receive a grade, it would not be a passing one…..
The state of Delaware administered state “pretested” in math and ELA late Nov & early Dec…. then in a surprise delivery FedEx’d to the schools, they finally received bubble sheets! (Bubble sheets are the answer forms where you fill in the circles for answers A<B<C<D<E..) They arrived Monday this week, two weeks after testing. Students were then given the tests they had previously taken and told to bubble in their responses. These bubble sheets are dated 9/01/2012. Students then bubbled in their Nov 30 responses today. These tests will be part of each teachers component V evaluation.
Obviously the DOE purchaser/controller thought the answers came with the test packets… “I didn’t know they’d charge for the tests and then charge extra for the bubble packs? They never used to before we went with this (use this one only) corporate supplier….”
(Of course they’d be separate! What part of “We Profit Off Of Education” don’t you understand?)
Now pretend you are a student. You actually like learning. You get pulled out of instruction to take a test. Ok, you live with that. Then you get pulled out again, to fill in the answers because you were not given the proper tools the first time. Put yourself back 20,30,40,50 years. How many of you, since obviously the entire test was a joke anyways, would fill in all “A”s” to get it over with?
I would.
So, was this entire thing arranged to force test scores to be low, enabling the DOE to fire anyone who doesn’t support them fully? It actually is a good idea if they thought or it. What a brilliant way to get rid of the DSEA. “Sorry, your scores are a zero. You’re fired….”
I doubt that. But, either way, the signal sent to every student who had to retake the test, was that our schools are incompetent.
Anyone familiar with corporate philosophy readily understands what is happening. In corporate takeovers, you destroy, then you build up. Often, you go bankrupt.
So Jack. some advice: here is what you need to do..
Have every teacher drop a line to the DSEA expressing their frustration and recommendation.
In Dover Downs, a one day meeting with every teacher in the state. Special holiday for kids. Early February at the latest.
“Teachers: We are here because the corporate system is not working. There are good elements that we want to keep. How can we form a union between teachers and corporate sponsors, so everyone is covering the backs of the other? We need this fixed. We need you to do it”.
Let the top ten best responses to the questionnaire each give a 5 minute talk…
Then let the discussion begin and sit back and try to find a broad solution that accomplishes the mission. Which is? To teach kids.
Be prepared to scrap excessive testing. Be prepared to scrap evaluations. From what I hear that is sucking time away from teaching. Be prepared to incarcerate bully students, without parental approval.
Just some ideas.
But if you don’t bring on the teachers in your race to the top, it won’t fly.
“The events in Egypt and Libya show the failure of the Egyptian and Libyan governments to uphold their obligations to keep our diplomatic missions safe and secure and the regard in which the United States is held under President Obama in these two countries,” he told Foreign Policy’s Josh Rogin. “It’s all part of a broader scheme of the president’s failure to be an effective leader for U.S. interests in the Middle East.”
Wrong… Wrong… Wrong
It was because of a movie. A really bad movie… in fact. I was offended by it. Deeply so.
If someone made a similar movie about Jesus, the American Tea Party would have done exactly the same as did those Muslims. They would have attacked a black church, killed the preacher and burned it to the ground.
The problem is the movie., not Obama. A movie that was incidentally funded by groups also providing support to the Romney Campaign, and to the Republican Party. The same benefactors. As soon as the New Century Club’s name come up, it begs for a comparison to using public events to mold and formulate policy. It now appears that the riots were staged as a cover up for the murder.
Delaware Liberal provided a list of those advising Romney on foreign policy. Many of those names give credence to the unthinkable, that this event was staged by supporters of the Romney campaign, to make Obama look bad…….
It is obvious Romney is being advised by nuts. People who are just nuts. They are nuts on foreign policy. They are nuts on economic policy. They are nuts on women. They are nuts on religion. Simply put, they are nuts.
How can anyone who is a real Christian, support these nuts?
Today’s joke: Why did Romney’s staff scatter when the convention was over? They thought they saw a squirrel…..
