Does It Make Them Any Smarter? Does It Make Them More Balanced?

They were 39 days late… but we got them… The preliminary Smarter Balanced Assessments….

The big takeaway was:  is that all there is to it?

We’ve been arguing over this for 4 years.  (I’ve been doing it for 3). We’ve spent $119 million dollars of Race To The Top Money to bring this to fruition. And we’ve been promised so much good would come from this test that we had no choice BUT to go forward with it…

But looking at the scores, it is the same as it ever was….  Nothing changed.  Kids didn’t learn more. Kids may have learned less. If one takes the word of students and teachers, each student spent 8 hours taking this test spread over an average of 3.25 days…

At 70,000 Delawarean students taking the test, a total of 560,000 learning hours were spent on this actual test… One has to ask if that is worth the cost…

Over half a million hours were spent on this test…  just so we can fire teachers.  Is that the best use of our students time?  Or should every parent be concerned with this, and insist that we return to the DCAS, one which took far less time and unlike this test, gave teachers feedback they could give students immediately afterwards.

Because we all know.

If experts say 8 years olds should be able to jump over a 3 foot high bar and you raise it to 5 feet, you are going to have fewer successful jumps… So anyone who says “see, how terrible education is today?: by looking at these scores, needs to be laughed out, ridiculed, and then ignored….  Because they don’t mean anything… Nothing at all.

The real question that needs to be asked is this…  By raising the bar to 5 feet, did more people jump over the 3 foot bar then before…  That data would tell us if this program was a success or failure…

But we don’t have that data… All we know is that fewer people “passed” because we made “passing” beyond the capabilities of all but our most developed and well trained….

So.. parents… is this truly worth $119 million dollars?  So teachers…. is this truly worth $119 million dollars… So administrators… is this truly worth $119 million dollars?

Money that was taken from reading coaches that the Minner administration placed in every school.  Money that was taken from math coaches that the Minner administration placed in every school.  Money that was taken from having a policeman in every school…  Money that was taken from supplying classrooms.  Money that was taken from extra curricular activities.  Money that was taken from the libraries.  Money that was taken away from field trips. Money that was taken away…  .. from you… After all, it is your money now being spent on this…

Did you get all the worth over what you paid?   Are your kids Smarter?  Do they seem more balanced?

If yes, we can’t knock the program … It appears to have worked… But if no, then as many of us have pointed out, this is a boondoggle of epic proportions….

So, when you looked over the preliminaries… did you too say…. “Is that all there is?

Someone is getting rich… somewhere…

OH NO! MS LONGHURST!!! IT’S THE END OF THE WORLD!!!

Last Monday, i bought gas for $1.85… Today, that same place sold it to me at $2.15….. Holy Crappo!… I’m paying 20 cents more for gas than I did a week ago….

People were still driving.

No one was declaring bankruptcy.

No one lost their home.

No one took public transportation.

All the doomsday scenarios put forth by Ms. Longhurst when she adamantly refused to put a bill on the floor that would save Delawareans $1000 a year in wear in tear on each of their vehicles by keeping our roads free of potholes for just half, half, half, only half of what just occurred at the pump in Delaware last week…

For just half of that jump that didn’t end the world. Delawareans could be fixing roads.  putting people to work, and saving big, big bucks by years end off of the non-existent wear and tear of their car… And still be saving $1.50 per gallon over what was being paid less than 6 months ago….

So instead of fixing our roads and saving $1.50 per gallon, we are paying the exact same amount we would have anyways, with oil companies keeping that ten cents instead of it going our highway system…

Sometimes people do stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid things… And when they do, they should get called out on it (ideally it keeps others from doing the same stupid thing next time)….  And not passing a measly 10 cent gas tax last session was as stupid as stupid comes….

Can we get it done now, please?    Or is the world going to end tomorrow?

WE NEED THAT GAS TAX!

And can someone hold he door for Valerie Longhurst then let go of it so it hits her on her way out?

If the gas tax had gone in place  January 1st,  Gas would have paused one week before dropping lower…  Instead of going:

• $2.69
• $2.59
• $2.49
• $2.39
• $2.29
• $2.19

it would have gone like this….

• $2.69
• $2.59
• $2.49
• $2.39
• $2.39
• $2. 29

Did you see the difference?  You would’t have if you weren’t paying attention at the pump…

Now, look at what we are losing…

• No construction projects to alleviate blockage on SR 1 south of the mall
• No construction projects to move traffic around Middletown.
• No money to fix pot holes causing $88 dollars of damage every time you hit one…
• Road construction companies idling their employees over lack of contracts.

And one major asset for having this gas tax passed?   40% of it will be paid from people just passing through who get gas.  There has never been a better tax.

And everyone is begging  for more taxes now; more taxes make for more prosperity… Schools need more taxes. inner Cities need more taxes, the County needs more taxes, all of which get spend and then go right into our pockets.

But due to some lack of wisdom in Valerie Longhurst. the time for a new tax came and went…  If we were paying $3.55 a gallon then, we’d be paying $1.99 a cheap gallon today.  No one will miss ten cents.

This should be the first bill put up in Both state houses.

Just 10 Cents A Gallon More

Today, instead of paying $2.84 for per gallon of gas, we’d be paying $2.94: the price of gas last Friday.

Now because we aren’t paying what we paid last Friday for gas, we can’t have improvements on any of our roads.  We won’t be able to fill pot holes.  We can’t properly plow the roads during snow time. Bottlenecks will remain bottlenecks with no plans to expand the highway system.

And there will be 7,700 fewer people working at high paying jobs in Delaware as a result…

Thanks Valerie Longhurst, for making Delaware a second tier state…… What on earth were you thinking?

Longhurst Absolutely Ridiculous!!! Call Today

Shout out to El Som who dutifully does what in the other 49 states would be the News Journal’s duty, just so we too can be an informed public…  Many thanks from those of us who use this valuable resource….

You probably know by now from the “other” sources that Valerie Longhurst is gutting $70 million from fixing our roads and bridges despite the disaster on 495!

You probably right now are smacking your forehead with your hand, and saying “What the fuck is she thinking?”  I have to sit in traffic an extra hour because of her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You would be right.  But, apparently she is not alone. The majority of the Legislature is still living in the 00’s and is too timid to increase revenues… any revenues…   There is very tiny fringe of people cheering that… and that tiny fringe are the only ones who have their ear…

So the rest of us have to suffer more gridlock because of Valerie Longhurst… and more, and more, and more, more, more, more, more, …,

Collectively in 2 years we will all scream!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   “Why doesn’t someone do something!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”….

Instead of passing a gas tax which will hurt only those speculators investing in gasoline….and will be 60% financed by out of state travelers….. she is cutting, (this is not about growing any bigger)  but she is “cutting” infrastructure improvements…..

Well, we gotta cut something……

NO!  YOU DON’T…….

There are unlimited resources for raising revenue… The gas tax is one… And taxing our wealthy is a goldmine… Recently it was determined that our wealthy could adquetely fund up to $1.3 billion yearly each single year…. to bring them up to the level counting for inflation to where they were taxed back in the 50’s… They survived then; they’ll survive now….  No billionaire has ever died impoverished…..

So with an untapped $1.3 billion at our disposal…. Valerie Longhurst is cutting back on rebuilding bridges and roads!… Just think… if that inspector who luckily got in his car that Monday morning to look under that bridge, … had been laid off.  Just think, if all of them had been laid off!   Exactly!  That is where Valerie is taking us….

We’d not have fixed the bridge in time… We still be pulling bodies out the river….

This is where Valerie Longhurst is leading us… This is just plain fucking stupid.   Anyone can see it is plain fucking stupid….

The problem is not really in the number of brain cells these legislators have…. They, I trust, have pretty close to the same number as the rest of us… The real problem….  IS  THAT  THEY…  DON’T….  HEAR…  YOU  !!!    (They hear the tiny few from ALEC 40 times a day)… You must make them HEAR you… You must…

Call or more effectively…. email….  today….

Say:  RAISE THE  GAS  TAX  AND   TAX  THE  TOP  ONE  PERCENT…..  BUT, whatever you do…. don’t EVER cut the transportation fund and make me wait in my car ONE MORE SINGLE MINUTE because you were too cheap to fix a bridge before it goes out!!!

• Email Your Delaware Rep
• Email Your Delaware Senator

And if you don’t know who they are…….

• Lookup Delaware’s Reps
• Lookup Delaware’s Senators

The problem with government these days is that they just don’t hear anymore from people with plain Common Sense….  Change that! Today!