It Is One Thing To Fire A Teacher Over A Standardized Test. It Is A Completely Different Thing To Make Her Never Teach Again!

The same controversy surrounding Tennessee’s equivalent of SB51, has at least that state’s Democrats fighting for those educating our children .  Not like up here where Dave Sokola and Erica Jenner joined forces and sold the teaching profession out for a couple of pieces of silver.

Think for a second.

If your boss gave you a pop quiz at work, how well do you think you’d do? … Guesses?

The correct answer is: you would do only as well as he wanted you to do.  If he wanted you do do well, he’d quiz you on things you do every day enabling you to pass with high marks.  If he wants you doing poorly, he fills the test up irrelevant questions, that you haven’t thought about in decades (because they are irrelevant); at work you are constantly being bombarded with things that truly do matter..

So we are talking about taking a teacher’s license away because her students did poorly on a standardized test, not by how good or not good the teacher is!

Does the teacher make the test?  Of course not:  the test is made many states away by people who have never stepped foot in a classroom and get paid 6 digit salaries. The tests are untried at the time of taking. They are not last year’s test remade.  No one knows how relevant or non relevant these tests are.

Does the teacher get to know the material on the test so she can teach her students the relevant data?  No, that would be cheating.  The teacher has to guess before hand what will or will not be covered, and then has to teach her best guess.  What if those think tank “specialists” have different philosophies?  Bad scores.

Does the teacher get to interpret the test, to explain the questions in a way the child might better understand?  No, that is considered leading the child.  So if a child can’t understand the question, because they haven’t a Masters or Doctorate degree in education, they fail.

Does the teacher have any control over the test taking environment?  No, if every one stays up late to watch Breaking Bad, and then texts till two in the morning about what happened on the show, and what might happen on next week’s episode.,..  they will do poorly.  To them its some dumb test that doesn’t matter anyway.  They’ll still get promoted…  456 + 789… ah, my head hearts…  let me guess… umm  “{c}”

Imagine lining up all of Delawares School Board and Rodel Foundation officers around the Governor, as he signs SB 51, and taking one photo, then firing all those who blinked, grimace, moved, or otherwise “failed” to properly enhance the photo…..

As their cleaning out their office, you can here Hefferman mutter… “they didn’t even count down. They just took the picture.  If they’d counted down, I could have been ready.”

And speaking of FAILURES.  OH!  MY!  GOODNESS!!!  Rodel’s Vision 2015 has failed to meet its objectives (GOALS) it set for itself back in 2006.  They have had 7 of the 9 years they gave themselves to make it happen. Instead of  firing itself, it announces its name is now Rodel 2020….  But a teacher who’s students blink during 3 hours one day from watching Breaking Bad the night before?  YOU’RE A LOUSY TEACHER!   WHAT A FAILURE YOU ARE!  GET OUT OF OUR SCHOOL!  EVEN BETTER!  GET YOU OUT OF OUR ENTIRE PROFESSION!

That is why this is so stupid. SB51 is so stupid. Everyone who voted for it, without reading it, is so stupid.  Every blog except those who raised awareness against it, is so stupid.  Mr. Sweeney, is so stupid….

I won’t belabor the point anymore.  But firing a teacher for a photo moment, is ridiculous.  Taking away their license for the same should in a proper universe, damn you to an eternity in Hell.

If you yourself personally choose to go to Hell, you will find the following assorted people there to keep you company.

Blevins,  Hocker,  Peterson,
Bonini,  Lavelle,  Pettyjohn,
Bushweller, Lawson,  Poore,
Cloutier,  Lopez,  Simpson,
Ennis,  Marshall, Sokola,
Hall-Long, McBride, Townsend,
Henry, McDowell, Venables,

Atkins,  J. Johnson,  Ramone,
Barbieri,  Q. Johnson,  Scott,
Bennett,  Kenton,  B. Short,
Blakey,  M. Smith, D. Short,
Bolden,  Longhurst,  Smyk,
Brady,  Miro,  Spiegelman,
Briggs-King,  Mitchell,  Viola,
Carson,  Mulrooney,  Walker,
Dukes,  D.E. Williams, Keeley,
Gray,  Outten,  K. Williams,
Heffernan,  Paradee,  Wilson,
Hudson,  Peterman,  Schwartzkopf,
Jaques  Sweeney, Markell, Murphy, Jenner.

Just looking over that list, … I would bet that if this list ever got public, and people could see the likes of the company they’d be spending their eternity with, .. our churches would be overflowing this weekend!…

By the way, can anyone out there possibly tell me when was the last time a doctor lost his license for one case of malpractice judgment decided in court against him? Or one Secretary of Education fired for in his first year statewide test results, in what even the friendly News Journal headline lambasted as: “Disappointing Results”?

GO TO CHURCH!

Contact Your Delaware State Representative

This same information is on the House Website, but it had an annoying extra step for emailing Delegates. Now, as with my Senator’s Page, I just copy and post the email address for emails and if I need anything else I click the email to go to their individual state website…

Name   Email address
Paul S. Baumbach   paul.baumbach@state.de.us
Andria L. Bennett andria.bennett@state.de.us
David Bentz  David.Bentz@state.de.us
Stephanie T. Bolden StephanieT.Bolden@state.de.us
Gerald L. Brady gerald.brady@state.de.us
Ruth Briggs-King  Ruth.BriggsKing@state.de.us
William J. Carson william.carson@state.de.us
Richard G. Collins richard.collins @state.de.us
Timothy D. Dukes Timothy.Dukes@state.de.us
Ronald E. Gray Ronald.Gray@state.de.us
Debra J. Heffernan debra.heffernan@state.de.us
Kevin Hensley Kevin.Hensley@state.de.us
Deborah Hudson House Deborah.Hudson@state.de.us
Earl G. Jaques Jr Earl.Jaques@state.de.us
James Johnson jj.johnson@state.de.us
S. Quinton Johnson Quinton.Johnson@state.de.us
Helene M. Keeley helene.keeley@state.de.us
Harvey R. Kenton Harvey.Kenton@state.de.us
John A. Kowalko Jr. john.kowalko@state.de.us
Valerie Longhurst Valerie.Longhurst@state.de.us
Sean Lynn  Sean.Lynn@state.de.us
Sean Matthews Sean.Matthews@state.de.us
Joseph E. Miro joseph.miro@state.de.us
John L. Mitchell Jr. john.l.mitchell@state.de.us
Michael P. Mulrooney Michael.Mulrooney@state.de.us
Edward S. Osienski  Edward.Osienski@state.de.us
William R. “Bobby” Outten   bobby.outten@state.de.us
W. Charles Paradee trey.paradee@state.de.us
Harold J. Peterman jack.peterman@state.de.us
Charles Potter Jr. Charles.Potter@state.de.us
Michael Ramone Michael.Ramone@state.de.us
Peter C. Schwartzkopf Peter.Schwartzkopf@state.de.us
Bryon H. Short Bryon.Short@state.de.us
Daniel B. Short Daniel.Short@state.de.us
Melanie George Smith melanie.g.smith@state.de.us
Stephen T. Smyk Steve.Smyk@state.de.us
Jeffrey N. Spiegelman jeff.spiegelman@state.de.us
John J. Viola John.Viola@state.de.us
Kimberly Williams kimberly.williams@state.de.us
David L. Wilson David.L.Wilson@state.de.us
Lyndon Yearick  Lyndon.Yearick@state.de.us

Once Giant’s Roamed Here…

….. and now Steve Newton of Delaware Libertarian is bowing out….

Forgive me for getting some out of order, but his name now goes up on the wall next to those of Dana Garrett, Mike Matthews, Jason Scott, Shirley Vandever, Dave Burris.

All gone, leaving only these few greats are still left: Nancy, Tommywonk, Kilroy, LiberalGeek, Pandora, David Anderson, & Hube.

The era over which these giants roamed was between the elections of 06 and 08. Some started earlier, but these few individuals were the only source of information during that time stamp.

Today, the News Journal has lost its paternalistic viewpoint touting the union of construction labor and developers formerly known as the Delaware Way, and is actually reporting news ahead of bloggers for a change. Likewise today, WDEL has both on its morning show with Al Mascitti and afternoon show with Rick Jensen, steered discussion away from the likes of (who?) Sean Hannity… and Al Loudell has kept us abreast of local politics in ways unheard of before bloggers began typing in their briefs…

So in a way, since these bloggers were successful back then, today they are not as vital as they once were… Many saw their blogs as the only way to get the truth past the News Journal censors, those higher ups who would not publish any truth that showed an elected official in bad light….

Those studying this phenomena will see that there was much agreement between bloggers on both sides of the aisle… It was very rare for this group to be divisive over the prime issues of this state’s business.. All of them were for Atkins removal. All of them were for beginning offshore wind in Delaware, … All of them were for the slowdown of work force housing… all of them were for the betterment of Delaware’s educational opportunities…

Of course we quibbled on who would become the next president, but that is to be expected… No family lives without arguing at least once…

There were rises and falls among each giant’s influence… But at the core of each individual was the feeling that each had a unique insight into the current problem staring us down, and wrote about it with an urgency that turned out usually to be correct… And usually, if agreement was not forthcoming by the first comment, by the end of the comment thread, some form of agreement among the blogger’s roundtable, was visible…

As politicians came to realize the News Journal wasn’t changing, they began contributing to these giant’s pages, giving substance in ways unheard of among those writing for the Community Board of the News Journal… Reading the blogs gave us a real time insight into the workings of our state government in Dover……

But it was the wind controversy that elevated the giants to their current stature… Only the blogs could get the message out that Delmarva was incredibly concerned about losing control of their monopoly, and that wind power for Delaware would by offering competition, lower our energy prices. And they did, so well, that the entire legislature at the end of their 2007 session, voted unanimously to approve of the landmark agreement between Bluewater Wind and Delmarva Power….

Some of us think that they, shaking in their boots, didn’t dare vote otherwise… For bloggers have long memories as well as does the public….

But these giants among men, did more than just push wind. They publicized the eminent domain controversy. They scoured local politics. They broke the work force housing pact apart. They clamored against Atkins, forcing him to resign. They dogged the SEU. They picked apart candidates so much that those who had flaws, couldn’t win. Dana Garrett could be heard almost weekly on WVUD.. Tommy Noyes, for a while was a weekly guest on Al Loudell’s award winning newscast. They OOGAcised the fight for open government, forcing one flustered legislator to call out for a prayer dedicated to just for the bloggers, asking for their salvation of their souls… Apparently those prayers were answered; for by their souls we have open government today….

But amongst the best, the very concept of government was debated back and forth, no doubt as it once was during the beginning of this nation during its infancy… Torture, domestic spying, gun ownership, thieving Vice Presidents, all had their day in court upon these pages….

And today, there are new names who in the years ahead might be considered to be the giants of this contemporary time zone..

Deldem, RSmitty, El “S”, Donviti, Cassandra, all came into prominence after the defining moment of passing the wind act…. As well as Sussex Green, Red Water Lily, Mourning Constitution,… all of which became big as the 2008 election season came upon us….

And from the ranks of commentators came a Sussex County Councilwomen, a candidate for a House seat, as well as a last minute candidate who took on Mr. Pam Scott, and began nailing his shoes to the floor…. Miro had a contender for once; that commentator speaks up often…

Steve Newton will be missed.

With his passing is the last of the great thinkers… Today, we have bullets fed to us… But Steve took on all other blogs, all other commentators and wrote posts about them… Steve looked at everything with fresh eyes…. Giants can do that, since they see things from way up…….

I won’t go in to praising Steve… for I’m here to call attention to the passing of a era. Perhaps those times when benevolent giants roamed our state, will be considered by us dying men and women, to be the glory times we hark back to, the second we close our eyes for their last time…..

For when you look back as what we’ve done, the word “giants” is not really a bad moniker….

More Analysis on Pamela Thornburg’s “Snatch”

So what do we have here?… The error supposedly is in Paradee’s absentee voting totals…. Supposedly a “republican operative” noticed an anomaly….. Looking fresh here is what we see…in the original totals…

In the first and second, Paradee’s absentee totals are double those of special interest’s candidate Thornburg.

In the third, the fourth, and the sixth, the absentee totals are rather even, (reflecting the district race as a whole which was within 31 votes)… In the fifth and seventh, Thornburgs absentee totals are two to one over those of the people’s candidate, Paradee…

One would, based on the totals, expect some districts to be more Republican and some to be more Democratic… Since these totals balance out and since the numbers match the closeness of the race, one would not appear to believe an anomaly had occurred.

So how do these absentee’s stack up with other races in that district? Let’s take a normal row house seat that has no political significance and see how those absentees stacked up based on party? Eeny, meeny, miny, moe…. I’ll choose…..Kent County Register of Wills…..

Here is how they stack up:

===========Representative District ================ Register of Wills========

District 1……………….62/32 ………………………………………………65/8
District 2……………….82/44 ………………………………………………94/6
District 3……………….27/32 ………………………………………………33/12
District 4……………….10/7 ………………………………………………… 9/9
District 5……………….13/24 ………………………………………………19/18
District 6……………….28/26………………………………………………..26/28
District 7……………….35/50………………………………………………..39/47

Now if we look at districts one and two… we see an anomaly of a different sort… IT APPEARS THAT PAM THORNBURG’S TOTALS WERE INFLATED BY 28 VOTES IN #1, AND BY 38 VOTES IN # 2.

NOTICE VERY LITTLE INFLATION IN ANY OF THE DEMOCRATIC TOTALS BETWEEN THE TWO RACES…

Something stinks….

This attempt to snatch an election away from the choice of the people needs to be investigated very closely indeed. If the evidence is there, fine, so be it… but apparently… it’s not…(see above)

After all,…. we all know who we are dealing with here…. and it’s not the party of “WE, The People.”

Travesty in the Twenty Ninth?

You decide.

Pam Thornberg, Delaware’s special interest diva, has been reinstated to her seat by a recount that remains somewhat suspicious…

What is, is.

But many murky details surround this recount at this time… They must be cleared up quickly..

Questions?

Why were only Republican party officials notified and present at the recount?

Why was the recount actually done in her district, among only her supporters?

What systems were in place to insure that both parties agree the new total was the voters will?

For those who have not heard, the error was not one stemming from the voting machines… It supposedly came from imputing the absentee total into the official count…. The more information that leaks out, the more that excuse borders on the verge of fantasy. Supposedly 80 some Barack Obama absentee votes were given to “Trey” Paradee.

There are a lot of reasons to be suspicious… Mostly it stems from the “Big Picture”…With Pam gone, and in the New General Assembly that voters put together, there are now no water carriers for those special interests that have too much money to throw around, which is a good thing…. They need Pam to roadblock and thwart the much needed relief that a Markell administration and a Democratic mandate to our state government, will provide…

Pam has not supported any legislation for real people.. She has however always pushed Dover Downs agenda upon the General Assembly… She has always pushed Delmarva Power’s interest in raising your rates 60%, and again by trying to stifle Delmarva Power’s competition, Bluewater Wind, from ever getting a foothold… She has always voted against open container law, prohibiting open alcoholic beverages in moving moter vehicles.. She has always tried to dilute and diminish the smoking ban since its conception.. She has always tried to dilute and moderate any penalties levied against corporate polluters who freely dispense carcinogens upon our citizens. She always voted against a tax on alcohol, then voted to slash funding for remedial children…

Because of these, this recount is under a cloud of suspicion…. Because it was handled by friends of friends, of friends, all voters in Delaware have a vested interest in knowing whether this switch was on the up and up… (It’s an 80 vote flip)….. The story is suspicious..The press release sounds like spin… No one should be allowed to buy their way into office, no matter who there friends are…

Most particularly this decision affects the large contingent of the Amish living in her district… Above all, they as hard working citizens need to know whether or not they will be legally represented by someone who blatantly works for those interests which propagate those vices of excessive gambling, excessive smoking, and excessive alcoholic consumption….

Obviously the Amish are upset.

Someone other than the Republican Party of Delaware needs to verify those results…….