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Corporate wins this one.
Bill was defeated by a “voice” vote. No measure of accountability was taken….
Fellow parents. We lost a big one.
I would like every concerned parent to send a big heartfelt “thank you’” to Paul Baumbach for his efforts…
paul.baumbach@state.de.us
Any future parental issues with the upcoming Common core and student testing, please contact him. We the Parents, of the state of Delaware, have a new friend in the General Assembly.
SB 51 now has an amendment. In the House! This amendment corrects a lot of wrong with just a few words.
Here are the changes….
AMEND Senate Bill No. 51, as amended by Senate Amendment No. 1, by striking lines 94 through 105 in their entirety and substituting in lieu thereof the following:
(d) Each teacher preparation program approved by the Department shall establish rigorous exit requirements, which shall include but not be limited to achievement of passing scores on both a content-readiness exam and a performance assessment.
(e) The Department shall promulgate rules and regulations governing educator preparation programs pursuant to this subchapter in collaboration with Delaware educators.
If this is done, we can all have the best of both worlds. One, we as parents of Delaware’s children, now have oversight. We have someone we can go to when we see issues that are not right. Before, we had to take whatever… If that whatever was bad, we were all simply screwed… Parental oversight is important. Not just in the creation or planning of great policies, but in their implementation. Parents are the front line in education. They are the first to know if their child is thriving, or failing… Long before the child or teachers even have a clue.
Two, this policy allows for necessary changes which will improve teaching to be allowed to go forward. The testing is a good tool. but not one we should be using as our sole criteria to evaluate ourselves and our educational process. Put in proper perspective, it is like rating a carpenter on the quality of hammer he uses… Not his output, not his accuracy, not his speed, but on whether he sprang for a ‘highly rated’ hammer or not…
With this amendment, we can proceed. The tests can continue, and we can do what we were told they would be properly used for…. to find the weaknesses in our children’s learning and work to repair them…
As long as a teacher does not have to worry over her job by my child taking a test, I as a parent don’t have to worry whether all my child is learning is… how to take that test…. I would much rather know the she doesn’t understand indirect objects, or can’t tell the difference between a preposition and an adverb. That is useful, and the tests can continue, if they are used properly.
This amendment assures they will.
Can the House please vote unanimously on this Bill as did the Senate?
Paul Baumbach today is the hero of every parent of a school aged child……
Twas the night of mid May,
The clouds were long shed,
The stars were all out,
The moon was half dead.
I’d just closed my eyes
In dark deepest dread.
I had a forewarning
Of what was ahead.
The river was foggy
So full of thick mist,
My eyes played tricks.
A hand grabbed my wrist
“What is it ” I cried
As my wrist was entwined.
“Come Hither”, it hissed,
in a voice harsh and sublime.
“In your search of pure knowledge
Things are not as you know
Shapes shift, spin around.
Truth lies buried under snow
Down becomes up, and up, is then down”
“Plant only one seed
Something evil will grow”.
Something dark is afoot,
In spirit it has stalked,
If it wins out tomorrow,
Education is debauched….
Tomorrow at Two
It will take place in Bright Light.
What I feared from my heart,
In that deepest dark night.
The 147th House would vote,
Without any debate,
On something important
To all our children’s fate.
War would soon be declared
On all those teachers who were right.
They’d all have to leave
Or stand up and fight.
A Bill with nice thoughts
Will be laid on the dock.
But in the dark wording it shields,
A most powerful shock.
Instead of making better,
It tears down all the schools,
Putting up cheap imitations
That mock all the rules.
No more shall a teacher know
What her calling required?
She could only hope like her kids,
Her scores would help get her hired.
Instead of knowledge, proven and direct.
She’d be tested on simply how well she could bet.
Praxis One and Praxis Two
Those tests of the best.
Would now be retired.
By which test could “bid” best.
Instead of old classics,
New standards were wrought,
“Romeo and Juliette” now replaced
By “How To Properly Clean a Pot”.
Twas necessary to learn prose they said.
No matter if such a bore.
It left no brain cells still standing.
Well done, Common Core.
Delaware’s education is 35th best.
That Includes the Ivy Leagues,
And all those good schools out West
“Not Good Enough”!
The gauntlet was laid
We must tear it down quickly
Our consultant’s need paid.
We must start something new!
We don’t know what it is.
But without old constraints
We can create it like jizz.
Who will do this? Good question!
That we do not know.
But when it gets done,
Arne Duncun will be here to show.
So we’ll make it mysterious.
And hard to deduce.
Make the poor teachers sweat,
Think they’re all in the caboose.
We can brainwash them now,
Do it before they begin.
They will soon work for peanuts
Because that’s all we’ll send in.
We won’t let them pass
Till their eyes all have tears in,
We’ll switch things around
Like we do on kids with Pearson….
We’ll make them earn B’s
To get into our class.
Those who don’t earn them,
Can get in with a pass.
These new tough standards
Will make bad teaching stop.
Besides we will need them
In our Race To The Top.
It says right here on line 53
“Must redo college standards”
Let us buy them new teacher ID’s
Which they can hang from their lanyards.
It says “redo”, not “raise levels” I see
Let us make up our creed
Raise them higher or lower,
Or even sideways if we need.
So let’s scrap what we have,
Make new in our image.
Trash all classic standards,
We’ll make it a corporate scrimmage.
The tests we used to have,
Were so hard and so tough,
Lets’ sub them with easy ones,
Those scores will rise with fluff.
When the kids scream about testing
We’ll know we’ve done enough.
Let’s water the standards
But tell them they’re tough.
Do it with ed- gobblyspeak.
So those dummies in House
Without even a peek,
Vote YES like a mouse….
Since what you get out
Is What you put in,
We’ll have robots for teachers
Their union will end.
But we got to be careful,
We got to act fast,
If they catch what we’re doing,
This campaign can’t last.
Strike quickly, strike fast
Strike them hard like a flogger.
Can’t let them hear the truth,
Keep them far from that “blogger”.
Oh we’ll smile, we will praise,
We’ll do what we must.
What ever it takes
To turn those standards to dust.
Make Teachers in our image?
Yes, that’s what we’ll do.
We’ll count ourselves lucky
If they can count up to two.
The children? Don’t worry,
They’ll be fine as we speak.
We’ll teach them with tests,
So their knowledge will peak.
Then when it does,
We’ll know that we have won.
Common Core is in place.
Our work is now done.
Our friends in this Biz
Will now pay for our way.
When we meet our next challenger
Thinking he has something to say.
The Battle is ending
The war’s almost won.
We just need some dumb asses
To vote in S.B 51…..”
The specter was silent
It paused for a while
“Who are you? I said
I saw a faint smile.
It turned slowly towards me
And gave me a stare.
I could feel the electricity
From the bottom of each hair.
“Tell me” I inquired,
just one more time.
But the vision was fading
Into many fine lines
All that was left were the eyes,
And they gave me a shiver
It then grew transparent,
It was the Christina river.
So my friends, if you’re up,
If you read this in the morn.
It wasn’t a dream,
You must sound off your horn.
You must call down to Dover,
Let them know how you feel.
Hell copy and paste this.
Let them know this is for real.
We are being bamboozled
By clever and wit.
Our children won’t learn
Anything, not one little bit.
Teaching requires
Something you can’t test.
Requires a human you respect
Pushing to do your best.
We are moving away,
From what has worked well.
We are tearing down Rome
And burning it to hell.
This bill is too rash
Though it sounds pretty good.
It needs not to be rushed,
But debated as it should.
If anything is to change
It depends now on all of you.
Without your quick input,
Like in the Senate, it will pass too.
It’s tearing down what is good
And replacing it with “what-ever”
Gotta be bad for the kids,
No matter hard they endeavor.
This bill needs work.
Though it’s ideas are nice.
It will mess things up royally
Without changes concise.
A simple amendment
Is all it would take.
To undo all the damage
And terrible things soon at stake.
A little snip of a scissors will do
Component V and Evaluations…
Just separate the two.
Because the way this is written
If you teach and you fail.
It’s the blacks and the poor,
Who lose and wind up in jail.
Their great teachers got fired,
Because they worked in the city.
The teachers in rich schools.
Got good scores, just sitting pretty.
This is the damage this Bill will soon do.
For under this plan
If your kids don’t test well,
Your career is so through
Doesn’t matter if their poor,
Or if their homes are all broken.
When it comes down to corporate,
All excuses are token
“it’s your fault” they’ll say
“It can’t be the test.
You’re lazy and useless
You didn’t do your best”.
Meanwhile in Newark,
Where teaching’s a breeze.
Just wave a magic wand,
And there is no pay-freeze.
Scores roll in higher
Because the curriculum is dumbed down.
Kids do all the work.
You smile looking down.
So reader, what do you think…
As is, what will this bill do?
If you were a new teacher,
if it was you starting anew.
Would you go to the city?
Where opportunity lies?
Teach out your heart?
And stifle your cries?
Or would you choose
The easy way out.
A lifelong career
With no second doubt.
It is so important
That this bill get changed
Otherwise our system
Will split from the strain.
Decouple the evaluations
From component Five.
Let’s do what we can
To keep education alive.
This bill needs work
On quite a few levels
That will only happen,
If this vote gets disheveled.
If you love your kids,
And kids of all ages,
Make them retract their pledges.
They don’t know what’s in this bill.
Because they were told it’s ok.
Only the parents who vote
Can still save the day.
This is you I’m telling
Just so you know.
You need to go here,
And call all that you know.
Send them this poem,
It will get their attention,
Then give them the pitch,
Tell them they’ll go to detention.
What they’re about to do,
Is destroy our great state.
By Dismantling educational.quality
And by then it is too late.
This bill is on rush,
That i can tell you.
Vacation is coming.
But hopefully they’ll hear you.
Say “This Bill Cannot Pass”
Exactly as it is written.
“Change it, change it now
Before you get smitten”.
I hope these few words
Don’t fall on deaf ears.
I don’t want to see children
Through veils of thick tears….
It is you, it is me,
Who must carry this fight.
It is we who are parents.
We have the most right!.
.
This bill will allow an Alabama firm to build a hospital and staff it without getting a liscence or having to be part of a review process.
To put it to the extreme, it sanctions a hands-off policy towards this one health care facility. It is as if we allowed one restaurant an exemption to operate without a public health inspection or a business license….
But if you explore the detail, it allows this new facility coming into Middletown to work without a liscense or government oversight, but requires all existing Delaware facilities to continue getting inspected… It gives the Alabama corporation an unfair advantage over Delawarean ones. It is as if a locality wanted a restaurant so badly they guaranteed they would never question how it operated, (where do all our dogs keep disappearing to) yet all competitors had to undergo rigid and costly improvements…
Now the last person anyone should trust in this entire world, is a medical firm from Alabama. But that is exactly who we are giving away this carte-Blanche freedom to run as they wish.
I pity any patient whose children unknowingly put their mom or dad into this body-part mill….. Under this new law, they cannot be shut down and are immune from all oversight and inspection…. No one is looking out for the patients.
Who would agree to such a bill? We will soon know…
This Ennis sponsored bill in the Delaware Senate seem innocuous at first glance. After all, we are simply adding this line into the charges of a felony. ..
1447A Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Felony
This is in a list of felonies including some like Murder in the first degree, which if one is convicted upon having two prior offenses, one is deemed a habitual criminal and put away for life.
I question this because it put all those who carry guns as a normal recourse, in danger. If one is driving down Route 1, and through no fault of one’s own an accident occurs in which one is charged with two counts of manslaughter… then just simply having a firearm in your car, makes it the third count, and presto, you are in jail for life.
There are more important criminals who need to be in jail for life, than some farmer from Sussex or Kent County. There is not enough room for both of them.
If you like guns, and the 2nd Amendment, this bill is dangerous to all gun carriers and needs to be shot down.
Perhaps an amendment is in order.
My friends, we are gathered here today to celebrate one of life’s greatest moments, to give recognition to the worth and beauty of committed marital love, and to add our best wishes to the words which shall unite these two people in marriage. In the words of our Creator, what God hath brought together, let no one cut asunder.
The commitment that the two of you are about to make, is the most important commitment that two people can make; you are about to create something new, the marriage relationship, an entity that never ends.
As you stand here today, are you now prepared to begin this commitment to one another? (I am)
Have you come here freely and without reservation to give yourselves to each other in marriage? (I have)
I would ask that you both remember to treat yourself and each other with dignity and respect; to remind yourself often of what brought you together today. Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your marriage deserves. When frustration and difficulty assail your marriage – as these do to every relationship at one time or another – focus on what still seems right between you, not only the part that seems wrong. This way, when clouds of trouble hide the sun in your lives and you lose sight of it for a moment, you can remember that the sun is still there. And if each of you will take responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.
Will you have this person to be your wedded partner? (I will)
Will you love and comfort then, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto them as long as you both shall live? (I will)
Will you have this person to be your wedded partner? (I will)
Will you love and comfort them, honor and keep them, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, keep yourself only unto them as long as you both shall live? (I will)
Since it is your intention to enter into marriage, join your right-hands, and declare your consent (before these witnesses) by repeating after me:
I, take you to be my partner, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live. Take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you. …
I, take you to be my partner, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, as long as we both shall live. Take this ring as a sign of my commitment and fidelity to you.
In so much as the two of you have agreed to live together in Matrimony, have promised your commitment to each other by these vows, (and) the joining of your hands (and the giving of these rings), by the authority vested in me by the State of Delaware, I now pronounce you a married couple. Congratulations, you may now kiss as a married couple….
Ladies and Gentlemen here who are witnesses. May I present to you the world’s newest couple….
Awwwww. How can anyone vote against something as wonderful as that?
Steve is on top of this….Gov. Jack Markell is backing legislation that would allow Alabama-based HealthSouth Corp. to build a rehabilitation hospital in Middletown without a state review, despite a legal challenge and claims that the governor exerted improper political influence to move the deal forward. That would be excusable if HealthSouth Corp was a pristine company. One that truly benefited all those fortunate to come into its good graces… But it isn’t….
They were guilty of…” failing to make and keep books, records, and accounts,” Obviously there is a good reason this company does not want a regulatory body looking over its shoulder.
Fifteen former HealthSouth executives pleaded guilty in the fraud, and five finance chiefs who worked under their former CEO Scrushy testified that he directed the scheme. Obviously there is a good reason this company does not want a regulatory body looking over its shoulder.
Obviously there is a good reason this company does not want a regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
Just yesterday, April 30th, 2013, HealthSouth Corporation announced that the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama denied the Company’s motion to vacate the decision of the American Arbitration Association (the “AAA”) panel which, on December 18, 2012, dismissed the Company’s claims against Ernst & Young. This firm litigates like crazy. And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
It was sued by its very own employees who held that “the fiduciaries to the ESOP breached their duties to loyally and prudently manage and administer the ESOP and its assets in violation of sections 404 and 405 of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974, 29 U.S.C. § 1001 et seq. (“ERISA”), by failing to monitor the administration of the ESOP, failing to diversify the portfolio held by the ESOP, and failing to provide other fiduciaries with material information about the ESOP. HealthSouth Corp. and its insurers agreed to pay $25 million to settle lawsuits by workers over losses in their company retirement fund, .
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
Here are some of the wrongful death ruling decided against Health South Rehabilitation. The exact same firm coming into Delaware that Governor Markell, wants to change Delaware’s existing statutes so this company will have no regulatory body overseeing it…..
“Mr. Darling, the patient who is suing HealthSouth, said that practice caught him by surprise. “I was under the assumption that everybody in the building was licensed. “It turns out that the man who put the weights on my leg is called a technician. They were all wearing identical polo shirts with HealthSouth logos and the same ID badges.HealthSouth’s business plan at the time encouraged clinics to use unlicensed employees to perform physical therapy. That allowed their licensed therapists to perform more expensive tasks, bringing in more money at clinics.” Growing Concerns on the Health of HealthSouth New York Times September 19, 2002
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
Two months after falling and breaking his hip while a patient at Healthsouth Rehabilitation Center-Beaumont, Roland LeBoeuf died..“While a patient at Healthsouth, LeBoeuf sustained a fall during physical therapy and broke his hip,” the suit says. He never recovered. The suit also accuses the center of the following: • Failing to actively perform ongoing nursing assessments on the patient to be aware of potential problems • Failing to put care plans into place for the patient • Failing to put in bed and chair alarms
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
Meyers was reportedly moved to HealthSouth in June, where her symptoms progressed. Doctors at this institution also allegedly discussed neurological testing but never ordered any tests, the news provider reports. The lawsuit claims that a doctor finally ordered an MRI in July when Meyers began to lose movement in her legs. The MRI procedure allowed doctors to discover a tumor on the woman’s spinal cord, and she allegedly needed to have it removed through a surgery that left her paralyzed. There was a two month delay of failing to do what they recognized they needed to do all along,” Feller said. “It was just never ordered for her, despite the doctors attending to her saying, ‘We need to rule it out,’ they just never performed it.”
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
And we want to let this company come into Delaware and perform health work without any regulatory body looking over its shoulder…
So… can anyone out there tell me… WHY? we replaced the board that first disallowed them into Delaware, and who then later resigned in protest instead of allowing this same company to enter Delaware, and why Rep. Quinn Johnson is now filing a bill that exempts just this one company from every single rule and regulation that have been in place for ages to insure that those in medical treatment centers remain safe?
Really? Really?
So we are going to force our current rehabilitation homes to go out of business, because they have to compete with a company that does not have to play by ANY rules…
Really? That is what we call encouraging competition these days?
If the HealthSouth came in to abide by Delaware;s long term rules and regulations, and competed on a level playing field, … well, that’s just plain competition. I’d be good with that. But to hurt Delawarean patients by bringing and a company known for neglect, known for malefeasance, misfeasance, and nofeasance, so they can undercut those local firms doing medical care correctly, is nothing short of criminal.
In fact it IS criminal, until you change the law so it is no longer a crime…
When you discuss single sex marriage with Conservatives you discover early on that they really don’t have a problem with single sexes marrying and living together over a lifetime in a relationship of trust; they just don’t like gay sex.
For them, as soon as sodomy laws went off the books, society went to hell…
Not every one is going to enjoy gay sex. Just like everyone is not going to enjoy heterosexual sex. People are different. People want different things.
But Gay Marriage is not about gay sex. Just like heterosexual marriage is not all about vaginal sex. How do we know this? Because before Viagra, heterosexual marriages still lasted till the end of a partner’s lifetime, way long after sex was a distant memory.
Marriage has nothing to do with sex. Never has. Never will. Marriage is about the pursuit of happiness. It is a) about being wanted, b) about showing your love, and c) about taking care of the one you love after you’ve passed on.
Conservatives have big misconceptions when it comes to what marriage is… It is not about family. Large numbers of heterosexual couples do not have children. It is not about the particular God of their ancestors; marriage stretches across all religions. It is not about sharing lives together till the end; that doesn’t happen very often these days. Divorce does.
And Marriage is not about wholesomeness. I could meet someone of the opposite sex and walk into a courthouse somewhere, get married and that document would be honored anywhere in the world. It makes no difference to anyone if I just met a perfect stranger and tied the knot on a whim. All that matters to them is that I have a document…
For you see, because I’m heterosexual and because Conservatives even though they dispise women still don’t hate heterosexuals, as one, I can marry…. and so can you.
So in essence, the sole reason boiling down to having a sanction as to why gays cannot marry, is because if we do allow them to do so, then they are no longer subservient to us. They are not a “caste” beneath us. They are equal and can then heaven forbid, be free to climb up the status ladder to levels even above us. Yep. that is the only Conservative argument still standing as to why gays should not get married….
The way they say it when they’re stone-ass drunk? You can’t get married because I’m a bitter old fart and my life sucks so you are going to have to be more miserable than I am… , so suffer bitch….
I couldn’t have characterized conservatives any better myself….
Whereas that characterization may have been perfectly fine if we lived in Idi Amin’s Uganda all the way back in the 70′s, it doesn’t represent the values within our Declaration of Independence. Nor does it reflect the principles of our Constitution.
All men are created equal. It does say “all”, correct?
Granted. It took America too long to realize that people with melanin in their skin were people too. It took America too long to realize that people with estrogen and breasts, were people too. It has likewise taken too long for America to understand that people who like people who happen to be of the same gender as themselves, are people too….
It is simply time, ladies and gentlemen.
(And who says they have to have sex? You? Who probably haven’t gotten “the good stuff” in your marriage for… how long?)
It is simply time.
Two big hearings in Dover today. The first was on banning guns. The second was on banning the death penalty… The crazies couldn’t attend both. The Death Penality was civil, honest, and mostly (9 to 1) in favor of the ban..
Here were some of the reasons offered to abolish the death penalty.
First the moral: punishing someone by doing to them exactly what you are punishing them for, is convoluted logic. God is against killing, so how does one tell a child killing is wrong when ones government does it?
Then there is the practical… Killing a killer does not bring back the dead. In fact, it makes the family wait 25-35 years for a resolution. Every appeal, makes them relive it all over. Life imprisonment is so much easier on a victim’s family, one verdict; it is done forever… Time to heal.
Delaware spent $2.3 million legal costs on appeals. Just give that to the victims family. Not really, but get the point? That money is a waste and is only spent because we have the death penalty.and therefore must give every option to make sure we are not killing another when other options are available. That money can be better spent on other things.
Criminals who are only in for a year or two, are more dangerous to correctional officers than those in for life. Life imprisonment is a greater punishment than dying. Dying is the easy way out.
Now, for the reasons why we SHOULD keep Capital punishment…. There were two. One, it worked in the movie True Grit (seriously) and second…. there are some really sick Dexters out there who like to watch people die….
.
