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“Damn! Here Comes Trump Into The Dressing Room Again”
There really is no greater issue in this campaign. Men just don’t get it.
But by voting Democratic from top to bottom (exception in 8th and 1st Delaware Senatorial) you elect and send Trump and his supporters packing; for good. The bigger the margin of the loss, the longer they stay away and under cover..
There is no greater issue in this campaign… If you are a woman, and vote for Trump, heaven help you. One day you will awake and realize just how ugly your soul is.
There is no greater issue in this campaign. Again… men just don’t get it… But you can put that ogre and the ogre of every man who’s violated you or made you feel uncomfortable, in its grave for good.
There is no greater issue in this campaign… and only by voting up or down Democratic can you make the point that we are done with this issue; we are finished; this issue is forever behind us…
“Reproductive rights and justice has always been about a fundamental respect – or in this case, disrespect – of women’s bodily integrity and autonomy”.
Either our bodies are our own, or they’re not...
“We are witnessing a moment where our country could move backwards – either back to a place where “boys will be boys” and men will make decisions for women. Or towards a future where our culture and politics understand and respect women as autonomous full human beings.”
Those are the two paths.
All of America heard Trump deny he’s ever sexually assaulted women, even though he himself has publicly described having habitually done just that.
What Trump doesn’t realize in his denials, was how many of his listeners are thinking about all the times men have done the exact same things to them.
And then you have his Republican women defenders: Party over human rights……..
They still vigorously defended their candidate as the one that will be best for women, and ultimately the country. They are unconcerned about his comments on women and weight or Alicia Machado.
They say they don’t think it matters. They really don’t care about Miss Universe. That’s not what politics are about to them.
But for everyone wearing larger than a size 12, Trump’s comments have affirmed that due to ones size, they would be invalid in a world where Trump leads.
When it comes to the plate set before women, there is a graphically clear choice…..
We are choosing between
- A candidate who has spent her political career fighting for reproductive rights, and a candidate who says that women who have abortions need to be punished.
- A candidate who said this week in the final debate unequivocally that she will defend Planned Parenthood, and a candidate who has promised to defund it.
- A choice between a person who has spent her life in public service, and a braggadocious businessman who rips off his workers.
And, perhaps most tellingly: we’re making a decision between a woman who has said that “women’s rights are human rights” and a man who says if you want to and can get away with it, you can just grab women “by the pussy”.
Polls tell us that on November 8, pussy will grab back…..
But it does not end with just a presidential choice. Across this nation, in every voting district are hundreds of people lined up to be chosen by the voters carrying Trump’s philosophy forward… which is to put the brakes on a women’s right to control her destiny, which is to promise to continue the culture of letting men be boys and boys be men, which is to minimize the individuality that all women have. The issue does not go away with just electing the person at the top.
No. Everyone down ballot who still supports Trump, needs to go as well… You really need to know who is still supporting the back-room deals of keeping women under men’s control, whether they voice it or not… You will be able to tell by their actions…. Are they upset enough to denounce probably that presidential candidate most disrespectable of women in the history of the USA?
The following ….. are not….
Charlie Copeland
Colin Bonini
Hans Reigle
La Mar T. Gunn
State Senate Candidates
- Cathy Cloutier: District 5
- Anthony Delcollo: District 7
- Carl Pace: District 14
- David Lawson: District 15
- Brian Pettyjohn: District 19
- Gerald Hocker: District 20
State House Candidates
Kevin Hensley: District 9
Judith Travis: District 10
Jeff Spiegleman: District 11
Debbie Hudson: District 12
James Louis DeMartino: District 14
James R. Startzman, Jr: District 19
Stephan Smyk: District 20
Mike Ramone: District 21
Joesph E. Miro: District 22
Timothy Conrad: District 24
Michael Nagorski: District 25
Janice Gallagher: District 29
William Outten: District 30
Jean Dowding: District 31
Patricia Foltz: District 32
Charles Postles: District 33
Lyndon Yearick: District 34
David Wilson: District 35
Harvey Kenton, Jr: District 36
Ruth Briggs King: District 37
Ronald Gray: District 38
Daniel Short: District 39
Timothy Dale Dukes: District 40
Richard Collins: District 41
Lip service is one thing. Actions are something else. All of the above at this late date are still supportive of Donald Trump and what he stands for….
These are all the Republicans running for state office, but two… I must isolate and mention both of them and encourage you to vote them in over their democrat opponents (no loss there in both seats) to show the world that Delaware is not a satellite of Donald Trump….
These two very special people are:
I like to hold them when they are THIS BIG…..
Maybe you haven’t grasped it yet.. and you deny it to yourself… But you really do, deep down, hate women… What is wild is that some women hate women; how can that even be?
Rationalization… is how.
They rationalize that the abuse of women is less a problem than whatever problem it is they want Trump to fix…
Do they want all Blacks executed, bodies burned, and their property turned over to whites? Well, they like that more than they mind women getting molested…. is Charlie Copeland one of these? He hasn’t disavowed Trump yet, has he?
Do they want all Mexicans, Hondurans, Guatemalans, El Salvadorians, Nicaraguans, Panamanians rounded up, killed and have all their property also auctioned off to whites? Well, they like that more than they mind women getting molested…. is Colin Bolini one of these? He hasn’t disavowed Trump yet, has he?
Do they want to go to war with anyone and everyone at the same time because they refuse to bow down and accept us as their dungeon master? Well,.. they like that more than they mind women getting felt up the leg… is Hans Reigle one of these? He hasn’t disavowed Trump yet, has he?
Do the want an police state, which would be highly necessary if we are going to kill all blacks, Hispanics, and Asians in the new world order, leaving only old uneducated white men to carry on society… which would at that point, consist of nothing more productive than living off the possessions they confiscated in the process of culling out the minorities. is La Mar Gunn, one of these? He has’t disavowed Trump yet, has he? And he even will be one of the first killed due to his skin color? Is he showing signs of Alzheimers?
So if you ask them directly as like this: Charlie Copeland, do you hate women… you will get a response saying no. He loves women…
What the proper question should be … is? Do you love women enough to give up on Donald Trump and vote for Hillary?
It is the standard question men always ask themselves once they find themselves in a monogamous relationship… Exactly how much do I love this person? Would I run into a burning building to face certain death to save her? Yes or no, it is a level of ones adulation and respect. Would I stick with her if she had an affair that became public knowledge? Yes or no, it is a level of ones adulation and respect… Would I save her from a burning car that was certain to explode? Yes or no, it is a level of ones adulation and respect. Would I discontinue a casual female friendship that made my love uncomfortable and upset? Yes or no, it is level of ones adulation and respect…
So by choosing to stick with Trump, all these candidates are making a statement both public and private, about how they feel about women. Despite direct evidence from Trump that he considers women to be mere objects, that their feelings never matter even if little girls, that if someone is a star, they can do what they want, or extrapolated, that any man can do what he wants, whether on a bus, a train, at a crowded function, he can run his hand up a strangers leg without consent and get a free feel, because after all.. it is now.. “presidential” to do so…
That denigrates women. and therefore if you denigrate women, you must hate them, right? How can anyone denigrate that which they love?
Checkmate…
Here are the following in Delaware Republican candidates who hate women and show it by their actions if not their words….
State Senate Candidates
- Cathy Cloutier: District 5
- Anthony Delcollo: District 7
- Carl Pace: District 14
- David Lawson: District 15
- Brian Pettyjohn: District 19
- Gerald Hocker: District 20
State House Candidates
Kevin Hensley: District 9
Judith Travis: District 10
Jeff Spiegleman: District 11
Debbie Hudson: District 12
James Louis DeMartino: District 14
James R. Startzman, Jr: District 19
Stephan Smyk: District 20
Mike Ramone: District 21
Joesph E. Miro: District 22
Timothy Conrad: District 24
Michael Nagorski: District 25
Janice Gallagher: District 29
William Outten: District 30
Jean Dowding: District 31
Patricia Foltz: District 32
Charles Postles: District 33
Lyndon Yearick: District 34
David Wilson: District 35
Harvey Kenton, Jr: District 36
Ruth Briggs King: District 37
Ronald Gray: District 38
Daniel Short: District 39
Timothy Dale Dukes: District 40
Richard Collins: District 41
If you want some fun, click on any link and ask them why they support an unregistered sex offender for their parties’ top spot…..
…
Why yes….. they certainly can…..
We are a tired generation… We grew up with ‘Nam. Which ever side we were on during the battle here in America over that police action, or war, looking back after it was done, …. we all knew it was wrong….
After that we thought all war was wrong, and unfortunately took some of that angst out on those who least deserved it: those coming back from the steamy jungles of hell…..
Against our will a certain president soon sent Marines into Beirut; what happened then reinforced our belief that an American war was unjustifiable and that all other means must be utilized to prevent American war from ever happening again…. Against our will, we propped up a Nicaragua dictator against some rebels. Against our will, we sold arms to Iran to use for paying for our support for that Nicaragua dictator, since a Congress elected by the American people, flatly said no to supporting him in Nicaragua… We found a way to do it anyway….
I remember Senator Rudman, (R-NH) saying at the hearing while addressing Oliver North,… “The American people have the RIGHT to be wrong.”
Oliver North had been insisting that even when Americans flatly say NO, one still must do what one deems is necessary, that whatever one deems necessary, is the highest moral truth. “Sometimes one has to go above the law!” was actually said by the defense at this hearing. Only one good thing came out of those hearings: we all were introduced to Fawn Hall.
But then… The Brits quickly regained the Faulklands. Then came Grenada, which went off without a hitch. Then Panama, which was successful and almost painless. Then came General Schwartzkopf. The 4th largest army in the world, was routed in hours, and in days, had been completely mopped up. Then came the Balkans. We were on a roll. We’d finally nailed down the successful formula of how to win in battle.
Today we say Iraq is a failure. But that was so not so just after the invasion. Inside Baghdad, the pulling down of Saddam’s statue, the victory of capturing Saddam, the ability of us to hand out billions of American dollars, initially gave this campaign the luster of looking like another success story…
Until we tried to steal their oil. The standard global rate of dividing oil revenues is that the US gets a 20% cut for the development, and Iraq would get to keep 80% because it is after all, their resource. That is how we deal with Nigeria.
But Brenner announced that we’d flip that to pay for the war, and that Iraq would be allowed to keep 20% because we liked them so much, and we’d only, by our good graces, take 80% of the revenues. 24 hours after letting that cat out of the bag, the first IED went off under a US military vehicle… Before week was out, the total was in the hundreds.
The luster was gone. We were an invading army, something we have not called ourselves since WWII. We always saw ourselves as the policeman who leaves as soon as order is restored…
Afghanistan likewise, got worse. Then Pakistan. Then Yemen. On the diplomatic front instead of doing no harm, .. we could do no good. Then Libya costs us an ambassador who was running guns through Turkey. He shouldn’t have been there; it should have been a low level staffer with security clearance.
This baby boomer generation knows that war is wrong. We know from experience. The only time it can be employed successfully, is a) when the whole world is united behind you, b) you go in and get out, and c) you have a structure that stays in place long after you are gone.
The only time it goes badly… is every other scenario.
Which brings us to Syria. Syria has no importance to anyone. (They couldn’t even defend the militarily advantageous Golan Heights in ’67!) Which is why we let the Russians have them.
People are going to die in Syria if a): Assad wins, b): the rebels win, or c): no one wins. The only thing changing upon this wars outcome, is which side will be massacred at war’s end. Hence the battle for survival over there now.
So by having the US intervene or not, we are choosing which side gets to kill the other after the hostilities die down.
The weakest argument for going in still left with standing, is that they used chemical weapons. In WWI, the British, French, and Germans all used chemical weapons. Are chemical weapons really worse than being burned alive? Or asphyxiated as a bomb blast sucks all the oxygen out of your lungs and the room? Or a milk jug sized piece of jagged metal shrapnel ripping and leaving a hole through your body? Or a mine being stepped on? I’m trying to think why chemical weapons are so much worse, except for the fact that we’ve been told” they are so much worse”?
A causality is a causality.
We understand “why” some say we should go into Syria. Because if we do not respond to chemical weapons in a big way, someone else will become confident and use theirs. There is only one way to keep the genie inside the bottle, and that is to never leave a opening for it to escape….
We also understand “why” one of our beloved School districts had a policy that suspended, and expelled those who brought weapons to school! Not just guns, but knives too. After all, the argument for punishing Syria, applies to soon-to-become high school felons too.
But, there came a time when the response generated by a policy, actually became the crime, You remember the little boy expelled who brought a cake to school, and his grandmother thoughtfully sent a knife knowing teachers usually don’t have utensils in their classrooms. The teacher actually cut the cake, served it, thinking nothing of it.. it was someone higher up, reviewing the situation, who said, “wait, that can be interpreted as a breach of regulations. Let’s make an example out of this little boy”. He was suspended and could have been expelled, except it eventually became news and public outcry was solidly on his side. The policy makers were laughed out of town.
Which is why, if you are making this decision, you need to stall. Acting quickly and decisively is equivalent to acting on rumor and innuendo. So what if Syria lied and shot the gas cannisters off?
Does a military strike create enough excellent good will to neutralize this bad act?
Ironically what is best for the US in this situation, is for Assad to stay in power, to have a zealous change in heart, to work closely with the USA to get his economy working, to becoming a partner in that region with the US, and to signing a treaty with Israel, as did the Egyptians many, many years ago…
What is worse for us, is if the jihadists win, push out the moderates and take over the reform movement (they always do), then go to war with Israel, Jordan and Turkey. Making ourselves into the evil empire will only create more explosions everywhere, flare-ups which would not have occurred had we taken the Jedi way, and used the “Force” in our possession, to make events on the ground turn our way and happen in our favor….
Realistically such a rosy scenario probably can’t happen; but if it did, were this to come about, there would be no doubt: Obama would be lauded as the best president we’d ever see in our lifetimes. The cost of failure is so low that it just might be worth the try.
The second point… which all us Viet-namers will well remember, is that you may win every engagement you participate in Syria, but you won’t win the war at home, and that… will suck all your energy away from all the good you plan to do before 2016.
It broke LBJ. It broke Bush II. Don’t let it break you….
,,,says the irascible Mr. Potter in the movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” who then continues…. “you can come and borrow money. What does that get us? A discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty, working class.”
That seems to be exactly what is happening within the Markell administration in regards to Charter schools. For in normal loans, Mr. Potter implies, you have strict rules and guidelines to follow, unless one chooses, again as Mr. Potter is insinuating, to ignore them to assist ones friends…. Gee. What happens when you do that? …. (Wilmington Trust).
Charter Schools are given more leeway because they are “private” enterprises. Thanks to John Kowalko, we now know this ….
By law, public schools if they do not use the millions in their transportation budgets for that very cause, must give it back… Now with an few words of code inserted into Delaware Code, Charter Schools in the same framework, do not have to…
Why is this there? The obvious answer is that it is being put in as a way to s–l–i–d–e some extra money into the hands of charter schools.
It is like you have a family of five. You have to make appearances that your are treating all your children equally, but you really do like one better than the others… So you give all of them the same allowance but to your oldest who is driving, you give them a very large transportation budget to pay for their gas. They need $100 dollars. You give them $200… The other children don’t drive so they have no idea that $200 is too much to spend on gas for a weekend…. That is what is going on with this push for charters.
According to John Kowalko, here are the facts.
Charter Schools get (per pupil) in New Castle County -$908.75
Kent County——–$843.85
Sussex County—–$964.88
Traditional public schools get (per pupil) ——————$579.30… (Why are Kent County Charter Schools the Redheaded Stepchild?)
Now, if public schools can contract to run on $579 per pupil, who is to say Sussex County Charter schools cannot do the same? If they did, they would now get to keep $385 extra for every student they transport. That extra is 66.59% of another public school student….
It’s a gold mine I tell you. Scrooge McDuck would be proud.
Why the favoritism? Charter Schools are private entities who receive state money to stay in business. The state money comes into their doors, and they get rich off of that. Some of that richness goes back into the campaign funds of those on the JFC who allow this to happen as a matter of course…. In truth, that is why this is happening.
So let us take that total of the extra per each Sussex County students:… listing the one charter school in Sussex County, with 413 listed students, that amount over a public students cost is $159,000.
One school gets $159,000 for being business efficient, and the public schools have no incentive to do the same; for if anything is left over, they send it back with not even a thank you coming down from the DOE for their thriftiness.
It’s simply about “who you know.”
Why is this even important?
Granted. If we could tax the wealthy whatever it might cost to educate our children, this wouldn’t be an issue. However some members of legislature are still in dream world, and think austerity in public education will make all of us better. Therefore, with limited funding this misdirection of money, is important. Remember in the analogy above, that child who got the driving stipend? That extra money is less the other four will now have with which to meet their expenses. If they were to question why it was fair to give charters more money, they would have a valid point.
Second. It violates our goal to educate our worst students. That money would be better spent in a Wilmington District, where bang for buck, it could be used to actually educate a child who needs it, and not be spent on taking every Charter School student in Sussex County out for a movie.
Third. It takes away from public schools. Throwing the wealthy’s money at Charter Schools would not be a problem, IF THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS WERE FULLY FUNDED FIRST. But funds for public schooling is in disarray. Public schools are running budgets far less on what they used to be. This bill to slide more money into charter schools, takes that money away from those public schools hurting already. Again, we have to look at results. Which is better? To give public-school funds to millionaires to help cover their children’s schooling in a private school, or, to instead use them to educate our inner city children who already have two strikes against them and their only home run available is through a good education?
Obviously the latter. So why is Jea Street not screaming?
Point is. We are all human. We can scream, point fingers, call out prejudice, wail, gnash our teeth, and say giving Charters extra money at the expense of public schools is corrupt and immoral…
But all of us take care of those who take care of us. One can’t really fault the JFC for wanting to do this… even if it is wrong. These Charter School owners, or the people the schools will be renting from, are these legislator’s friends. We’re supposed to help a brother out?
The problem is not the money. It is the principle of fairness…. So let public educational entities keep their money too. Education? It is a good cause… let the public schools compete with charters (for that is what they do) on a level playing field, not one stacked against them. Let the public schools keep their funds too.. And let’s move on. There are many other important matters to attend to… Just let public schools, who are responsible for handling the education of all our society, not just the rich cream of the crop who can get into exclusive charters,… have the same rights and resources as we have bestowed upon our charters…
Then, send the bill to the wealthy. While everyone else suffered, they’ve done well. They deserve to pick up the tab for a change.
This is Common Core. Point is: we are determining a student’s future, a teacher’s future, a school’s future, and the entire future of the combined Educational Departments of the University of Delaware, Delaware State, and Wilmington University’s …. based on a race between a pineapple and a hare…
Please send more examples… Thank you.
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.
Remember Sweeney? That character who was lampooned across the nation for his nonfactual support of Kinder-Morgan’s taking over our port? Instead of being objective, his editorial board pieces are that of a pinch hitter for an administration again caught on the wrong side of an issue! Remember the jokes? The aside comments that he has lost his touch? Remember all the snide references that he must be on crack?
It is to those references (sincerely I doubt he does crack) and the acknowledgement that in popular culture today that phrase is often applied to everyone who tries to reform facts into a fairy tales, that I attached his name to it in the title…
In Sweeney’s defense through the manipulation of language, one can say anything. Granted. Romney certainly tried that tact. And the truth came out to hurt him. “Jeeps in China”, my ass. “Benghazi was all Obama’s fault”, my ass.
So as old as Sweeney is, (he seems to mean well ), the facts he uses are simply not true… If you put bad in, you get bad out. Now if I were an aged,old authority figure, and if you were deemed childlikely to accept what I say is true, … I can tell you about a jovial man living at the North Pole, who has nine reindeer that fly and travels the world in one night delivering presents to every boy and girl in the world,… and of course you are going to look up at me with wide big eyes and go “wow, so that is how its done…”.
Alas, poor Sweeney, he doesn’t have the same beguiling audience. Instead we have facts that show the opposite….
One of the facts WE the People have, is that the tests results coming from districts using this plan that show great results, were all obtained through cheating by high officials changing the answers over to correct ones after the students had taken them.
Two: teachers under this system are spending too much time explaining to their superiors everything they do in order to be evaluated, instead of teaching. More time is spent in evaluation, than on lesson plans. This hurts teacher. This hurts student.
Three: the curriculum being forced upon these classrooms is far inferior to what teachers themselves are able to dole out. Education only works when a student’s interest is held. These corporate templates are as interesting as your corporate financial meetings. Teachers do a much better job.
Four: low income students don’t have technology the rest of us take for granted. Broadband costs money. Computer power costs money. Software costs money. Laptops cost money. Notebooks cost money. The best way to raise low income students scores is to put them on par with students who have technology. You can’t just tell someone how to log in and expect them to remember it whenever they next see a computer. They have to do so to learn how.
Five. Testing at the beginning, the middle, and the end, is a great tool. It evaluates a student’s progress over time. BUT! Holding a teachers job accountable to results over which they have absolutely no control, means… a) all teaching by that teacher is geared to only what will be on that test… and b) since poor scores demand the loss of one’s livelihood, rampant cheating is bound to occur…. We saw this in Atlanta, Texas, and DC.
Six. The only proven and effective way to improve teaching, is to increase the number of teachers so there are 11 students per teacher. Teaching is a personal science, like counseling, psychology, and doctor’s visits. Without a personal relationship between teacher and student, there is no incentive to learn. Studies as well as our personal experience, show that if we aren’t psyched to learn, we don’t….
Seven. The students who do the poorest are the ones who have the largest social dishevel in their lives. A person from this background can learn from a teacher just as easily as anyone else, if he believes the teacher is pulling for them, and they don’t want to let that teacher or their peers down. That can and does happen with a 11-1 ratio…
Eight. Teachers DO NOT GO into teaching to get rich. They go to help children learn. If you don’t know this, you have no human right to ever write another editorial on education. That is just plain stupid not to know. If you want to motivate teachers, the best way is to give them MORE resources with which to teach…. More maps, more books, more software, anything to provide more excitement to their classrooms.
Nine. We all incorporate what we learn, into the categories we already have inside our heads. Being an inner city child with no mother (on crack), no father (never knew him), living with grandma (forgets who I am sometimes), dodging getting beaten up by the drug lords every time you walk home from the bus to porch (its safe in the morning; they’re still asleep), disappearing when the molesting uncles happen to drop by, … reading about Sally having to choose between buying a candy bar or putting all her cents into a piggy bank, doesn’t cut it. You’d think Goldman-Sachs created the curriculum (they paid for it)…
Enough background….. At least you know Sweeney is on metaphorical crack just like he was with Kinder Morgan. (Panama Canal ships sailing up the Delaware, Sheesh)….
The heart of the matter lies in the News Journal’s phrase….Teachers that have earned highly-qualified credentials..
One would think that having a master’s degree or a doctor’s degree in education would qualify… But no. Mr. Sweeney, it does not. Mind if WE, the People interrupt for a second to ask if you happen to have a masters degree? A doctor’s degree? Is it in education? No? So, tell us again, what makes you such an expert can we ask? We, the People are dying to know.
Now get this. To be one of these “teachers that have earned highly-qualified credentials” you have to first have attended a corporate seminar, one from a pandering company to which the state paid $180 dollars a person; you have to sit through 6 hours of power-point presentations; your know-it-all instructor was just hired out of college by this corporation, and they proceed to tell you everything ever known about teaching without ever having been in a classroom. After this, you then take a test, having been given the answers ahead of time by clues of where the instructor casually says “this will be on the test”, and then, if you passed, you get a certificate saying you are a teacher with highly-qualified credentials. Just like that. You are now a highly qualified credential teacher; so who needs a masters, who needs a doctorate, who needs to read a stinkin’ Gannett publication? You got all the knowledge anyone ever needs to know. You got a certificate that cost the state $180 dollars!…. You are now, eligible for a bonus… (if we (the DOE) like you enough we choose to give it to you…
So if there are 8640 public school teachers in Delaware, at a cost of $180 per teacher, over time this company that originated out of nowhere, helps itself to $1.5 million dollars of our annual budget… Now, not counting for the printing I can buy 8,000 sheets of 8 X 11 pieces of 24 lb. paper for around $71 dollars at Wal*Mart. It would only take 20 sheafs of printer paper. So to dole out $71-80 worth of pieces of paper printed with the words “Congratulations, You Are Certified“, our state is investing $1.5 million of your dollars… Why? Can you say umm … kickback? Personal favor? Thanks for all you did back then?
In case one hasn’t been paying attention to the educational field, one would know that in the Christina district primarily due to our economy there are very few vacancies open from year to year. One would also know, that in the Christina district we have really good teachers practically in every classroom, who do better than the job that is expected except when they have to pull themselves away to do RTTT paperwork and explain to their evaluators how they are reinventing the wheel of teaching, or are on a pilot program teaching the Common Core agenda and cannot deviate.
So the Christina Board says this is ridiculous. The Christina Board recognizes that teachers with a lifetime of experience, with masters and doctors degrees, know more about education then some punk out of college who passes the corporate litmus test. After all, one would think, right?
The DSEA representing ALL THE TEACHERS IN DELAWARE, and the Christina Education Association are fully backing the Christina Board on this. As stated, teachers primarily want to teach. This state program is very, very bad for teaching…. Although Mr. Sweeney might think otherwise, what teachers think, matters. Especially if they are the ones teaching our kids.
Teachers are our most valuable resource as a society. They are more important than our President. They are more important than our Governor. They are more important than any Mark Murphy or Lillian Lowery. They are more important than the head of Goldman Sachs. What? You scoff?
Tell me, Mr. Sweeney? When you look in the mirror in the morning… what president do you thank for making you who you are? “Aww… Richard Nixon… Thank you so much for your leadership which was soooo inspiring, it made want to be like you…. I’m eternally grateful for all you did to inspire me, coach me, teach me, and give the the building blocks to make me as I am” But sincerely, like all of us, I would damn well bet that somewhere in your growing up, there was one teacher or two, who is responsible for everything you’ve become.
In the book of We, the People … that teacher out ranks any governmental official…. any day…
I’ll close with an analogy to a story told long ago… A woman was brought before Jesus accused of adultery. They asked what should be done to her. Jesus asked who was condemning her… knowing they too would be guilty of adultery if they admitted. They left. Jesus asked her, “who has condemned you?” She looks around, and says ” no one Sir.” “Then neither will I condemn you. Arise, Go, and sin no more…”
It would be wise for Mr. Sweeney to remember this, before he goes writing his next editorial condemning the wrong people………..
The News Journal in an attempt to muddy the resolve of the few attending parents actively involved in their children’s education, is trying to roll out the case for RTTT sponsored by Jack Markell…
The overall primary question is who is best to run our schools? Corporate for profit entities? Or people who get voted in by members of their district?
Big question. Should we even trust these school board members who have been involved with education most of their lives? Shouldn’t we instead, trust companies who will make millions off the tests they forced upon us?
Hmmm……
The issue is simple. RTTT funding must have qualifiers attached. That was needed to make this not look like the stimulus it really was. One of those qualifiers is that teachers must be paid low, and if successful, receive a big bonus. However, all teachers get paid low, only a priveleged few who are well connected, get the big bonuses.
Recognizing this earlier than most other districts, probably due the the wisdom of having worked with Eli Broad candidates before, one who bankrupted the district by $19 million dollars, the Christina District wants to refuse that money. However they will take it if they can instead break that $20,000 dollar bonus and spread it out to twenty well deserving people, who will receive bonuses of $1000 dollars each. The Department of Education is balking at that, because it spolls their plan of giving $20,000 to a certain person…..
Now there is one more thing. It will cost the Christina District some of their own money to implement the things the DOE wants done. In otherwords, the DOE allots say $500 for a Career Fair, but, the actual cost is something like $2,500. That mean that to receive this RTTT money in question, … on this one event, it will cost the local board an additional $2000 they weren’t planning to spend. Does that make sense?
Bluntly, it is like a loan shark came to your door to give you $20 dollars, yep, $20 dollars just like that. Just for nothing… Just sign on the dotted line to say you got it… As you read you see this: Contractee must pay back money along with $30 borrowing fee. So, if you take that $20 dollars, … it’s going to cost you $50….
This is why the board is debating getting woo-hoo free money. It is not free.
This post is to see if the Board can get along without it? The information was created and publicized by the News Journal Opinion piece to make people upset money was being turned downed. Here is what that money would go to……
Let’s break it down, shall we?
college and career fairs at high schools and middle schools, … Put some tables up, invited people to come down and speak about their schools. That can be done without additional funding.
college and career centers in each high school,…. Just curious. If the focus is supposed to be on those “not graduating”. why is RTTT money being diverted towards people who will graduate? And, none of our schools growing up, had college and career centers. We had college catalogs on a shelf.
STEMs program focused on science, technology, engineering and mathematics – two high schools, one middle school and two elementary schools that struggle in those subjects; ok, this could use funding. More later.
revisions to career and technical pathways at high schools that are aligned with state and federal job market data. Career and technical pathways? Revisions? This can be done in the DOE office in one afternoon. Just look at the Federal Guidelines, and change the district to meet them…. (you go here, and you go there). Not necessary for any child. Perhaps it’s just me, but I can’t see how this helps one child who is otherwise happy to be doing what he is doing.?
expansion of Advanced Placement coursework and extra supports to help under-represented groups in those core areas; again, if we aren’t graduating enough, how does advance placement change that? This is money going to the top, and again, leaving Jea Street’s, Tom Gordan’s, and Dennis Williams’ constituents in the dirt. Expansion of Advanced Placement Coursework, sounds like a purchase, a buy in, perhaps allowing for the transfer of state money into one more private firm selling the us the untested course material. Not sure if that helps the problem we have in education. Not sure what the extra support mentioned would be, however, if it were teachers or tutor working with Advance Placement, that could be beneficial…
“graduation guides,” to help students meet graduation requirements – this is particularly important for ninth-graders, where state data shows the potential for leaving school begins. I am glad they focused on 9th grade. But here is my problem. We are giving “graduation guides” to explain how to navigate upwards to a graduation requirement, but the problem students are the ones having trouble with division and multiplication… Basics. A better utilization would be to pour the money into a tutor program, and all ninth graders have to pass through it. Once cleared, they don’t have to continue and can go on to something else. For what good is a graduation guide, if you don’t KNOW enough to graduate? Those passing their courses do not need guides. They are graduating anyways.
a series of professional development courses for teachers and school leaders, including a pilot project to allow teachers who have mastered their subject skills to boost the instructional deficiencies among their peers. Again? More courses? When are they ever going to get time to plan their lessons? (Oh, we didn’t think of that, we’ve never been teachers) Teachers have been taking courses ever since the 80’s. Every year a new program. Every year a new name, and they have to take a course and get a new certificate. Each year they get promised it is the best they are being taught, there will be no more, and then next summer, oh, we found this one, it’s the best there is…. One could argue what is wrong with education today, is that teachers are far too busy jumping through hoops, to teach… However, pairing old teachers with new teachers is good for both. The pilot program should be safe to fund, but the mentors should be picked by the mentoree. Having someone score high on a test, then picked to mentor when they have very little experience, shames the program. The mentoree should pick someone they respect, as a disciple picks his master.
project-based learning at four high-need schools and community forums for parent engagement. I can’t comment on this right now. I really don’t know what they are trying to say….
So should Christina fore go 2.3 million in fund for these items which will cost them roughly 1.1 million in additional funding? Probably, for based on the items above, that money is not going to where it is needed… These are mostly fluff programs. Programs that sound good enough, one can get General Assembly to fund them, because they sound good.
On the other hand, if Christina CAN spend the money better than the DOE, and can apply that money directly to programs that will serve their purpose, and steer children who are failing into successful lives, … should the state arbitrarily refuse to give it simply because the board is trying to do the right thing for its kids?
For you see, there ARE two sides to this argument. So far, all we’ve heard is that Christina should comply with the state. But why should the state withhold the money when Christina can do it better? Isn’t that the state’s fault, and not the Christina School Districts?
I hope this was enough to show you that the state money if put into programs they want, is just a waste of money. The money could instead go into programs where it is sorely needed.
kavips 