The Ultimate Delaware’s Voter Guide For the 2016 General Election….

No… I’m not going to tell you how to vote.. You will have to do that on your own.  I’m just going to make it easier for you to discover who you think will represent your best interests when 2017 opens up the beyond…  But I did do one thing:  I highlighted those who support Donald Trump for President, a choice I use as the first test of character, in red.  If you are in a hurry, that alone tells you all you need to know…

I.   Find Your Polling Place:  (most of you know this but it can’t hurt)….

II.  Look Up Who Will Be On Your Ballot:  (changes depending on your location).

III.  Use the list below to search for everything the internet has to offer on what Google knows about them… I mean:  everything… Just one click… on their name. Try it.

IV,  Check their finances courtesy of Delaware Agenda (look for menu on the left)

REP IN CONGRESS	DEMOCRATIC	LISA BLUNT ROCHESTER
REP IN CONGRESS	REPUBLICAN	HANS REIGLE
REP IN CONGRESS	GREEN	MARK J PERRI
REP IN CONGRESS	LIBERTARIN	SCOTT A GESTY
GOVERNOR	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN C CARNEY JR
GOVERNOR	REPUBLICAN	COLIN BONINI
GOVERNOR	GREEN	ANDREW R GROFF
GOVERNOR	LIBERTARIN	SEAN L GOWARD
LT GOVERNOR	DEMOCRATIC	BETHANY HALL LONG
LT GOVERNOR	REPUBLICAN	LA MAR T GUNN
INSURANCE COMM	DEMOCRATIC	TRINIDAD NAVARRO
INSURANCE COMM	REPUBLICAN	JEFFREY E CRAGG
STATE SEN DIS 1	DEMOCRATIC	HARRIS B  MCDOWELL III
STATE SEN DIS 1	REPUBLICAN	JAMES SPADOLA
STATE SEN DIS 5	DEMOCRATIC	DENISE BOWERS
STATE SEN DIS 5	REPUBLICAN	CATHERINE CLOUTIER
STATE SEN DIS 7	DEMOCRATIC	PATRICIA BLEVINS
STATE SEN DIS 7	REPUBLICAN	ANTHONY  DELCOLLO
STATE SEN DIS 8	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID P  SOKOLA
STATE SEN DIS 8	REPUBLICAN	MEREDITH CHAPMAN
STATE SEN DIS 8	GREEN	DAVID B CHANDLER
STATE SEN DIS 9	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN  WALSH
STATE SEN DIS 12	DEMOCRATIC	NICOLE  POORE
STATE SEN DIS 13	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID B  MCBRIDE
STATE SEN DIS 14	DEMOCRATIC	BRUCE C  ENNIS
STATE SEN DIS 14	REPUBLICAN	CARL  PACE
STATE SEN DIS 15	REPUBLICAN	DAVID G LAWSON
STATE SEN DIS 19	REPUBLICAN	BRIAN G PETTYJOHN
STATE SEN DIS 20	DEMOCRATIC	PERRY J  MITCHELL
STATE SEN DIS 20	REPUBLICAN	GERALD W  HOCKER
STATE REP DIS 1	DEMOCRATIC	CHARLES POTTER JR
STATE REP DIS 2	DEMOCRATIC	STEPHANIE T BOLDEN
STATE REP DIS 3	DEMOCRATIC	HELENE M  KEELEY
STATE REP DIS 4	DEMOCRATIC	GERALD L  BRADY
STATE REP DIS 5	DEMOCRATIC	MELANIE GEORGE SMITH
STATE REP DIS 6	DEMOCRATIC	DEBRA  HEFFERNAN
STATE REP DIS 7	DEMOCRATIC	BRYON  SHORT
STATE REP DIS 7	LIBERTARIN	C ROBERT  WILSON
STATE REP DIS 8	DEMOCRATIC	S QUINTON JOHNSON
STATE REP DIS 9	DEMOCRATIC	MONIQUE JOHNS
STATE REP DIS 9	REPUBLICAN	KEVIN S  HENSLEY
STATE REP DIS 10	DEMOCRATIC	SEAN MATTHEWS
STATE REP DIS 10	REPUBLICAN	JUDITH M  TRAVIS
STATE REP DIS 11	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID L NEILSON
STATE REP DIS 11	REPUBLICAN	JEFFREY N  SPIEGELMAN
STATE REP DIS 12	REPUBLICAN	DEBORAH D  HUDSON
STATE REP DIS 13	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN L  MITCHELL JR
STATE REP DIS 14	DEMOCRATIC	PETER C SCHWARTZKOPF
STATE REP DIS 14	REPUBLICAN	JAMES LOUIS  DEMARTINO
STATE REP DIS 15	DEMOCRATIC	VALERIE LONGHURST
STATE REP DIS 16	DEMOCRATIC	JAMES  JOHNSON
STATE REP DIS 17	DEMOCRATIC	MICHAEL MULROONEY
STATE REP DIS 18	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID  BENTZ
STATE REP DIS 19	DEMOCRATIC	KIMBERLY WILLIAMS
STATE REP DIS 19	REPUBLICAN	JAMES R STARTZMAN JR
STATE REP DIS 20	DEMOCRATIC	BARBARA W  VAUGHAN
STATE REP DIS 20	REPUBLICAN	STEPHEN T  SMYK
STATE REP DIS 20	IND OF DEL	DONALD R  AYOTTE
STATE REP DIS 21	REPUBLICAN	MICHAEL RAMONE
STATE REP DIS 21	GREEN	DAVID  MCCORQUODALE
STATE REP DIS 22	DEMOCRATIC	LANETTE R  EDWARDS
STATE REP DIS 22	REPUBLICAN	JOSEPH E MIRO
STATE REP DIS 22	GREEN	BERNARD  AUGUST
STATE REP DIS 23	DEMOCRATIC	PAUL S  BAUMBACH
STATE REP DIS 24	DEMOCRATIC	EDWARD  OSIENSKI
STATE REP DIS 24	REPUBLICAN	TIMOTHY S  CONRAD
STATE REP DIS 25	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN A KOWALKO JR
STATE REP DIS 25	REPUBLICAN	MICHAEL NAGORSKI
STATE REP DIS 26	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN VIOLA
STATE REP DIS 27	DEMOCRATIC	EARL G  JAQUES JR
STATE REP DIS 28	DEMOCRATIC	WILLIAM CARSON
STATE REP DIS 29	DEMOCRATIC	W CHARLES  PARADEE III
STATE REP DIS 29	REPUBLICAN	JANICE GALLAGHER
STATE REP DIS 29	GREEN	RUTH A  JAMES
STATE REP DIS 30	DEMOCRATIC	CHARLES GROCE
STATE REP DIS 30	REPUBLICAN	WILLIAM R  OUTTEN
STATE REP DIS 31	DEMOCRATIC	SEAN M  LYNN
STATE REP DIS 31	REPUBLICAN	M JEAN DOWDING
STATE REP DIS 32	DEMOCRATIC	ANDRIA L BENNETT
STATE REP DIS 32	REPUBLICAN	PATRICIA MCDANIEL  FOLTZ
STATE REP DIS 33	DEMOCRATIC	KAREN D  WILLIAMS
STATE REP DIS 33	REPUBLICAN	CHARLES S  POSTLES JR
STATE REP DIS 34	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID  HENDERSON
STATE REP DIS	REPUBLICAN	LYNDON D  YEARICK
STATE REP DIS 35	DEMOCRATIC	GARY M WOLFE
STATE REP DIS 35	REPUBLICAN	DAVID L  WILSON
STATE REP DIS 36	REPUBLICAN	HARVEY R  KENTON JR
STATE REP DIS 37	DEMOCRATIC	PAULETTE A  RAPPA
STATE REP DIS 37	REPUBLICAN	RUTH BRIGGS  KING
STATE REP DIS 38	REPUBLICAN	RONALD E  GRAY
STATE REP DIS 39	REPUBLICAN	DANIEL B SHORT
STATE REP DIS 39	LIBERTARIN	JAMES  BRITTINGHAM
STATE REP DIS 40	REPUBLICAN	TIMOTHY DALE DUKES
STATE REP DIS 41	DEMOCRATIC	S BRADLEY  CONNOR
STATE REP DIS 41	REPUBLICAN	RICHARD G COLLINS
CLERK OF PEACE	DEMOCRATIC	KENNETH W BOULDEN JR
COUNTY EXECUTIVE	DEMOCRATIC	MATTHEW  MEYER
COUNTY EXECUTIVE	REPUBLICAN	MARK  BLAKE
PRES COUNTY CNCL	DEMOCRATIC	KAREN HARTLEY NAGLE
CNTY CNCL DIS 7	DEMOCRATIC	GEORGE SMILEY
CNTY CNCL DIS 8	DEMOCRATIC	JOHN  CARTIER
CNTY CNCL DIS 9	DEMOCRATIC	TIMOTHY P  SHELDON
CNTY CNCL DIS 10	DEMOCRATIC	JEA P  STREET
CNTY CNCL DIS 10	GREEN	ALEXANDER DURNAN
CNTY CNCL DIS 11	DEMOCRATIC	DAVID L TACKETT
CNTY CNCL DIS 12	DEMOCRATIC	WILLIAM  BELL
MAYOR	DEMOCRATIC	MICHAEL S  PURZYCKI
MAYOR	REPUBLICAN	ROBERT F MARTIN
MAYOR	IND OF DEL	STEVEN WASHINGTON
CITY TREASURER	DEMOCRATIC	VELDA JONES POTTER
PRES CITY CNCL	DEMOCRATIC	HANIFA SHABAZZ
CITY CNCL DIS 1	DEMOCRATIC	NNAMDI O CHUKWUOCHA
CITY CNCL DIS 2	DEMOCRATIC	ERNEST  CONGO II
CITY CNCL DIS 2	REPUBLICAN	SCOTT  SPENCER
CITY CNCL DIS 3	DEMOCRATIC	ZANTHIA  OLIVER
CITY CNCL DIS 4	DEMOCRATIC	MICHELLE  HARLEE
CITY CNCL DIS 5	DEMOCRATIC	VASHUN TURNER
CITY CNCL DIS 5	LIBERTARIN	NADINE M  FROST
CITY CNCL DIS 6	DEMOCRATIC	YOLANDA  MCCOY
CITY CNCL DIS 7	DEMOCRATIC	ROBERT A WILLIAMS
CITY CNCL DIS 8	DEMOCRATIC	CHARLES M  FREEL
CITY CNCL AT LRG	DEMOCRATIC	RYSHEEMA  DIXON
CITY CNCL AT LRG	DEMOCRATIC	SAMUEL L  GUY
CITY CNCL AT LRG	DEMOCRATIC	LORETTA  WALSH
CITY CNCL AT LRG	REPUBLICAN	CIRO ADAMS
CITY CNCL AT LRG	REPUBLICAN	BENJAMIN  COHEN
CITY CNCL AT LRG	REPUBLICAN	ROBERT KEESLER
CITY CNCL AT LRG	IND OF DEL	K EMMANUEL MAGRUDER
CLK PEACE	DEMOCRATIC	BRENDA A WOOTTEN
CLK PEACE	REPUBLICAN	DJ  SILICATO
REG WILLS	DEMOCRATIC	HAROLD K BRODE
REG WILLS	REPUBLICAN	MICHAEL A ROUTH
1ST LC DIST	DEMOCRATIC	P BROOKS BANTA
1ST LC DIST	REPUBLICAN	CHARLOTTE MIDDLETON
3RD LC DIST	DEMOCRATIC	ALLAN  ANGEL
5TH LC DIST	DEMOCRATIC	GEORGE SWEENEY
5TH LC DIST	REPUBLICAN	JOHN C SIGLER
CLERK OF PEACE	DEMOCRATIC	CHARLES  KOSKEY
CLERK OF PEACE	REPUBLICAN	NORMAN A  JONES JR
CNTY CNCL DIS 1	REPUBLICAN	MICHAEL H VINCENT
CNTY CNCL DIS 2	REPUBLICAN	SAMUEL R WILSON JR
CNTY CNCL DIS 3	DEMOCRATIC	LESLIE W  LEDOGAR
CNTY CNCL DIS 3	REPUBLICAN	IRWIN G BURTON III

I Think I’ve Found It And It’s A Her……..

 

As a historian, one tends always to live in two worlds simultaneously. The present and the past and one is always comparing them….

It has always been my hope to have someone like Roosevelt who could ride a tidal wave of good luck into office along with earning a majority in both houses, and who could return to using logic and science to rebuild an America beneficial to the Middle Class….

It would involve curtailing the power currently possessed by the upper class, and forcing them to become actively involved in improving our nation, instead of  having them run our nation for whatever they considered was best for them…

Since Reagan, most of all that has happened in America has been to the benefit of the upper crust of the upper establishment.

Roosevelt grew up and came to us from that same upper crust, and knowing their lies and arguments, was able to demolish them and call their bluffs.  Once called a traitor to his class, FDR changed existing policy across all of government so we could limit corporate profits, increase public wages, establish a comfortably adequate retirement plan, and then, run the world’s biggest war. and taxing those profiting from it, at rates of 100%…

In the past week’s debate, I glimpsed some steel and fire that only comes from believing one is divinely supporting oppressed common people, coupled with the ability to manipulate the upper class into willingly accept their own smiling heads on a platter as a gift and be grateful they too got a present.

Trump, may be cartooned by the media into a potential threat again… but the debate which was seen by perhaps one third of the country,  proved once and for all, that no matter what his handlers may present to us in the next 40 days, he flat out is flawed and not capable of running a nation… Any nation, period.  No “ifs”… no “ands”.. and no “butts”…. (especially fatty ones)… (ha, ha, see what I just did there?)..

Roosevelt also had threats to which he had to contend, but they were as bizarre as what has lately come out of Trump’s mouth. Bottom line was a whole nation dug in to support him and together we dug ourselves out of a Depression, then we went to war to preserve Good from being overrun by Evil in Europe and the Pacific….. .

Bad health was not a liability for FDR.  He was in a wheelchair.   He actually died in office. But he also constructed the stage for America to play on for the next 60 years… Only when we foolishly demolished the protections which his time had built, did our own stage start crashing underneath our feet in the middle of our ACT III….

Although we don’t currently have a dictator intent on world domination (Roosevelt had 2 1/2), we do have global warming intent on making our planet inhospitable.  This issue  is now past benign and now is very scary. We could wake up one morning and have no atmosphere like Mars.. (No one knows what happened to the Martian atmosphere, nor does anyone know what may happen when the methane buried in our arctic seeps out and gains a high enough concentration to ignite…) Or we could face a gigantic cost of relocating civilization 60 feet higher…. Or we could face a smaller minor cost of shifting over to a carbon free energy system globally, boasting the entire economy in the process.

In any regard, the planet on which we live, is not the same one in which many of grew up. Parts of it have physically changed; we now need someone who can make the solid political changes necessary for humans and other species to continue living on this planet. This means we not only need a change of direction, but we also need a change of global priorities and a new environmental permanent structure similar to the economic one put in by Roosevelt, to ingrain these changes into the new status quo…

That means we need someone who can understand complexities, and explain it in ways we can understand.

As for leadership, any person who says, “this is what I say,  do it or YOU’RE FIRED”…. is a very ineffective person.  No one ever  wholeheartedly does what they get told to do if it goes against what they believe and consequently, nothing gets done.  A person who says, here, let me show you why you need to do this,  it is because all of these millions of people are counting on you to make this happen, … is a very effective person… Everyone wants to work for them and particularly everyone wants to make sure they do not fail in their pursuit of what these people asked of them…..

FDR had that charismatic characteristic.  When he heard Communists were in control of the shipyards of Seattle, instead of arresting them, he sought their  leader’s endorsement, and by getting it, rendered them no longer a threat… Sure they remained Communists in name but they were solidly behind America. As a result of that bargain he played a strong union card against the elite during his first 100 days, and he never had to worry about his back. Hillary though tepid against Bernie’s very progressive ideas during the early part of her campaign,  likewise absorbed all of them and made them her own after seeing how they excited great parts of the electorate… Those Sander Policies now have a greater chance of being enacted than ever.  Because… Hillary is probably going to win.

This is what excellent leaders do… They go up against great competitors and then after beating them, they absorb them and together they become an even stronger team pursuing the same agenda…  One could say Obama did the same with Clinton by asking her to be his Secretary of State..

The Greatest Presidents are those who listen to a higher powers first, and political advisors second.  They are those who work well with people.  There are those who feel at home talking over the fence with their friend’s neighbor, or sitting at a table of leaders from around the globe… Hillary Clinton has miles and miles of stories behind her of real people she has helped either as an Attorney General’s wife, a Governor’s wife, the President’s wife, as a junior Senator from New York, as the Secretary of State, or as the first female major party candidate for the highest office in the world…   Her current opponent’s record with “real” people is much less stellar… lol.

For as all these great human beings know , their real measure of success over time will be if they helped millions of people calling themselves Americans…  Trying to stop someone who is this good for our nation, someone who is as good if not better than Roosevelt, should be a treasonable offense.  (The Constitution never imagined someone this competent running for President, so such a clause was never put in the definition of treason)… For a second, just imagine history if FDR had not become president in 1932?  No Social Security. Immediate carte-blanche capitulation to  Japan and Hitler. No unions. Class inequality rivaling that of Communist Russia… We can never know what might have been for Americans today if back then Americans didn’t have good sense to know Hoover was a clown, that capitalism couldn’t be trusted with anything other than making their owners wealthier, and that we needed someone seriously minded and smart who could run things well and really didn’t care too much if capitalists weren’t rolling around in money….

I’m sure there is no one out there who still undecided for whom they will vote for President .. I believe at this point, all of us know. Therefore this is is not an attempt to persuade anyone to change their vote…
Instead, this is an eye opening piece to allow you to see that we really can’t gamble on incompetence like we did in 2000…Some of you thought you’d give Bush a try for reasons other than who was really the more qualified to run the country.  Today after that mistake, you really need to choose  once and for all whether we are going to run America into the ground through sheer ineptitude, allowing the rich to squeeze all of  us out of our last dollar, or …are we going to choose the highest quality of leadership ever available across our history, in front of us, now, today… Never in the history of the United States has there been a more qualified Candidate entering the White House… We’ve had former Secretary of States, We’ve had former Senators. But we’ve never had someone who was both plus who has already lived in the White House for 8 years.

If America passes on this moment to “make ourselves great again”…  then we deserve what we do to ourselves.. One has only to look at the incompetence of Republican controlled Congress, or the Republican running of Kansas and Wisconsin, to see how real human lives quickly deteriorate under Republican incompetence and inadequacy … (of course provided all those lives are earning less then $1 million a year…  Only the rich do well under Republican administrations….)   This is not political pandering; the solid evidence is there to see if you are willing to look.

Which is why, you not only need Hillary in the White House but you need a slate of Democratic candidates to back here up…. Again, this post is not a politically scribed piece. This is a solid factual human-resource analysis for filling a job opening titled: “President of the United States…. ”

For America’s sake, not only should all Americans come to realize that Hillary should get your vote, but far more importantly, one should make sure she is given the tools in Congress, in state legislatures and across governorships, and that she will have them waiting for her, available for when she needs to make things jump her first 100 days in office….  Putting someone to work on a job without necessary tools, has always been pointless.

Race To The Top Review

Kevin at Exceptional Delaware has already done a review of the 76 page report released today…. It is the official US Department of Education’s own assessment of its own program:  Race To The Top.

One should expect a glowing endorsement.  But even though that would be the normal expectation, that  is not what was gotten… Of course, omissions were there as well.

Let’s begin with the total Race To The Top number..   $4.3 billion….

That stretched out is $4,300,000,000 or roughly 1% of the USA’s non military discretionary budget for one year.

Of that, Delaware got $119,000,000 of that wicked amount of money or in percent….. 2.7% . What did we get?

Delaware got the largest percentage of new students entering college…

Graph courtesy of US Dept of Ed.

Delaware also got an increase in AP scores….

Graph courtesy of US Dept of Ed.

“Delaware, Massachusetts, and Tennessee also get shout-outs for relying on teams of teachers and administrators to provide ongoing feedback. Delaware teachers and state leaders allegedly teamed up to create “rigorous and comparable” measures of growth in non-tested subjects…”

Isn’t this a lie?  We know that some task forces were created but we also know they were handpicked so only those who previously registered support of Common Core (long before its details were made public) were allowed to be on those panels and even then, their recommendations were completely ignored.  If anyone can prove this is not so, please respond in the comments below.

Whether inclusive or exclusive of RTTT funding, independent sources outside the US Dept of Education has reported that spending per child increased in our state by $475 during the RTTT window…. This is in comparison to 4 other states which had not brought per student spending even up to pre-recession levels.  Of those RTTT state increasing, Delaware was at the top.

Courtesy of CBPP

But the report leaves out, or only touches on briefly, several controversial issues where states stumbled or backtracked. That’s especially true with respect to teacher evaluations and policies linked to the Common Core State Standards, especially assessments.

The report seemed to focus less on measurable improvement and more on the new relationships the grants have helped to create between teachers, administrators, and others, and how the grants have refined and enhanced their energy.  Translated into corporate speak that is the equivalent of a CEO requesting down the pipeline if we had achieved his goals for the quarter, only to receive the answer that  “no we haven’t but  we have good news!  Nadine in insurance is dating Jonathan in Finance, which means they are talking to each other a lot,” and expecting that to assuage the expected bosses ire.

Essentially we spent $4.3 billion just to create more urgency and more cooperation…

Today, Arne Duncun admitted as much in his speech on Race To The Top… “My administration, recognizing the urgency of change for today’s students, pushed a lot, fast. We haven’t gotten everything right, and we’ve seen unintended consequences that have posed challenges for educators and students.” 

BUT WHAT WERE THOSE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES AND HOW SERIOUSLY HAVE THEY DAMAGED AMERICAN EDUCATION?

All of the Race to the Top states struggled with  teacher evaluations that took into account student outcomes. Many experienced serious political blowback to the standards, in some cases causing major consequences for state leaders. Plus, indicators of student achievement in the report don’t paint a uniformly glowing portrait. Duncan himself acknowledged in his remarks that declining scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress aren’t encouraging…..

Here is how that $4.3 Billion was divvied up. (all graphs can be clicked on to enlarge)…

Courtesy of Ed Week.

Shifting to new tests to measure students’ grasp of the common core has been difficult. That huge issue is ignored in this report…  Instead  highlights of cooperation between teachers in different states are expounded.  It is like praising the recruitment and training of little boys to fight Russian tanks while ignoring the total collapse of Berlin and the Third Reich.  The newest NAEP results represent Berlin in that scenario.

“The Education Department sunk $360 million into two testing consortia, funded by a second RTTT grant. But four of the states that received the grants the report focuses on (Florida, Georgia, Ohio, and Tennessee) decided to ditch the PARCC exam for either 2014-15 or 2015-16, while Massachusetts is still undecided about whether to officially adopted PARCC as its state exam. New York has no plans to use that test and  it’s no longer listed as a consortium’s member on PARCC’s website. North Carolina, meanwhile, is still a member of Smarter Balanced, but has so far held off on using the exam.” EdWeek

Today three Race to the Top states—New York, North Carolina, and Tennessee—are formally reviewing the standards as required by their General Assemblies.  Florida and Georgia also made changes to their common core, (Plus a large number of non-RTTT states have ditched or drastically modified Common Core from its original perception.)  No mention in the report, of course.

Unmentioned as well, was the damage RTTT did to top state chiefs… The exalted “chiefs for change” got changed out… It might have gotten hottest for former Tennessee chief Kevin Huffman, who left his post nearly a year ago. But it also made life difficult for John Barge, who is no longer Georgia’s chief.  Delaware’s Mark Murphy mysteriously resigned in the middle of a gigantic all-encompassing state-wide controversy over the right of parents to opt out and not have their schools punished by doing so, and Rhode Island’s former head, Debbie Gist, has downshifted to being in charge of a single district of Tulsa’s school system. Only two Race to the Top states (Massachusetts and North Carolina) and the District of Columbia have the same chief as they did when the program began, by all accounts, a failure…..

The report almost ignores the turmoil surrounding tying teachers performances to the test.  Instead as mentioned above, it applauds areas of cooperation and ongoing feedback, including Delaware’s infamous TELL survey…  Imagine if that was the only true accomplishment of $4.3 billion and Common Core?

Three cheers for RTTT!  We got  teachers to take a survey on their phones…

It’s worth stressing outside this report that it was evaluations  which was perhaps the toughest hurdle many states have faced both internally and with the Education Department. Almost all have argued that tying student test scores to teacher evaluations at the same time that states were shifting to new standards and assessments was misguided. The Department has recently acknowledged this through giving its waivers postponing the implementation of the Accountability piece 2,3,4 years into the future.

Most  astute people can deduce that by having the US Department of Education ignore the problems of Common Core and Race To The Top in its analogy of how their pet project was doing, it becomes obvious by its omission  that in achieving its aims, this program is not working.  This proves once again that you can’t throw money and snap your fingers and make problems go away…

It takes trained people.  And forcing them through constant irrational change-ups to move out of education into other fields, …is something that is not good for America’ s education, …… period.

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Dave Bentz Beats Off Challenger

Winning by 211 votes Dave Bentz beats off his challenger….

But the big news, is that 1505 people  of that district actually made an effort to go to the polls on a freaking Saturday and vote for who would be their first line of defense in our State Legislature.  72 even went to more trouble and voted absentee. Since there are very close to 15,000 registered voters living within the confines of the 18th, turnout was at 10%…..  on a Saturday…. in September…. when no one else was running on any ticket anywhere….

In the last off election year(2014), the top ticket got 4280 votes (Coons-Wade-Groff); In the last presidential year (2012), 9293 votes in the 18th were cast for the top ticket….

A better comparison would be to the last local special election… which would be for president of County Council in 2011 between Sheldon/Kovach/ and two splitters.  In that election, the 18th mustered a more average number of 740 votes. For this election twice as many people came out, and as should be expected in local elections, the local neighborhoods of each candidate were the ones with the largest numbers voting.

I think it is safe to say that the real number of actual voters is closer to 9293 than to the 15,000 allegedly on the books… and we politicos should start using this number to report turnout among ourselves and hope others catch on and follow this good trend. If we accept this from just a practical standpoint then the turnout in this election in real terms was higher at 16.9%…. For a special election that is rather high.

Some people still decry the low voter turnout.. I know I used to…  I thought it said bad things about America.

But after studying the effects of school board elections which have even lower turnouts, I have come to the conclusion that the reason most people don’t vote in special elections is because they do not know anything about them.  if they vote they are voting for a sign, or worse, a party. In local elections, party is less an issue.  They are more afraid of voting in someone bad by just walking in, eeney, meeney, miney mo-ing, and would rather leave that decision to someone else..

Therefore Democracy is best served where only those who are knowledgeable about their government, are the only ones who vote…  In this case the 17 percenters…

Because even if you got more people to the polls on a freakin’ Saturday in September,  if they don’t know who to vote for, what good are they?  Most of our bad elected officials get elected by people who have no idea what they are doing…. and the last thing we need, the very last thing we need, are more people like Evans on the Christina School Board… who have no clue what they are doing…

And with special elections, getting people to know you beforehand, is very difficult.  You can walk through neighborhoods, hand out pamphlets, but that says nothing…  A dogcatcher walks through neighborhoods and hands out pamphlets too… “Spay your pet”…

Of course… it would be better if everyone were as knowledgeable about politics as us… Our circle would widen and we’d have a wider audience to talk to. But alas, if everyone was on top of politics as us… who then would play baseball?

So bottom line out of all this is….

Dave Bentz Beats Off Challenger….

Referendum? Vote Yes or Don’t Vote At All

Today there is a referendum to increase funding for all schools in the two priority districts that have been hit by Markell’s cuts. It is just  for 16 cents. It is necessary to keep schools open, so go vote. You have till 8:00, when polls close… You just go to a Christina or Red Clay school nearby with your ID… and they will look you up, certify you, (and make sure you didn’t vote elsewhere already) and then vote yes for both options…

It is way too cold to go through all that effort just to vote “no” which changes nothing.  So if you are not inclined to vote “yes”, just stay at home.