Charters Are CRUEL Only To Blacks

If you are looking for blatant racism anywhere in this country, you need look no further than our Charter School organization….

Pictures speak 1000s of words.

Although the Charter Schools are spinning the data shows they are close to Public Schools in their suspension rates, look at the categories…..

We’ve all heard that more Blacks are suspended than whites.  But did you know that more blacks are suspended in Charter Schools than are in public?… Ok, so is that is possibly due to zero tolerance?

But fewer whites are suspended in Charters than are suspended in public schools… And even FEWER Hispanics  are suspended in Charters than in our public school system….

How can that be?  Double standards?

Prejudice is alive and well in our charter schools.  Which is why, pro-charter by any Afro-American legislator, is becoming a political no-no, a contradiction in terms… You cannot be supportive of your race and vote pro-charter which ADDS to the amount of prejudice in this world and HURTS the public schools which is the most effective tool today we have to combat that…

ANY SUPPORT for charter schools by any Afro American, hits the youth of their race twice in the head with a baseball bat.

 

Why We Need An All-Black School In Wilmington

It is pretty simple.  It is how people learn…

The way our thoughts are gathered is like a crystal of sugar in a solution of sugar water.  A molecule touches another in close proximity and they join. Together they touch molecules closest, and they join too. Knowledge like sugar crystallization, forms from a center point outward.  One molecule on one side of the jar does not join with a molecule from the other side of the jar.

Often we can cause sugar to return to solidity in solution by putting an object into the solution which initiates this process. Several molecules adhere to the surface object and the crystallization begins.

We learn the same way.  We take what we know, and add to it.  We don’t learn foreign languages as our first language for example.  We learn objects in one language and that becomes our central core or language template… Then we can catalog another tongue by learning how their words and structure compare to our words and structure…

Across America, today’s learning process has become scattered.  We are required to put so many tiny pieces of a smörgåsbord’s item on a sampling plate, that it becomes very hard for the child to describe what the food would look like in its natural form… All he ever sees is tiny bite sized pieces… Describe a roast beef you ask them… It’s small, about a half inch square, it’s meat, and is chewy, and has juice that squirts out when you chomp down on it…  Is that big thing at the end of the table a Roast Beef?  Oh, no… they respond.

We learn incrementally on what we already know… which makes it hard to teach people who really don’t know anything, something.

When you take children from their environment and put them into someone else’s environment, they are going to take what they know and carry it to that environment, because it makes them comfortable and feels more like home..  They bring drugs, violence, more drugs, and more violence because in that environment, they control the dynamics and it is not as intimidating or scary anymore.

You break that by having children go to school in their own neighborhood. Now because they are “black” we have imposed legal restrictions on allowing them to be treated as children.  Restrictions that did not apply when Poles lived in that neighborhood.. Restrictions that did not apply when Italians lived in that neighborhood… Restrictions that did not apply when Irish lived in that neighborhood…. The only difference between the violence and crime then,… versus now?   Is that the NRA didn’t supply them with handguns back then.. Rifles were hard to get as well.  But you had switch blades.. brass knuckles… billy clubs…. baseball bats… and instead of heroin… you had boot-licker alcohol often made with methyl alcohol instead of ethyl..

But we taught those Poles in their Polish neighborhood… And Italians. And Irish..  Are they incapable of getting good jobs today?  No. They are highly capable today as White Anglo Saxon Protestants of filling in for an employer.  So will our blacks be if we let them go to school in their own neighborhood.

Because of their familiarity with the neighborhood, and close proximity to all they know, learning will process faster (as long as the disruptions are removed), just as were Polish, Italian, and Irish disruptions removed probably in the exact same percentages…

 

How it went wrong… Let us take Glasgow High School.  It once had a bad reputation.  All would agree that Glasgow’s problems were imported from the city.  All of Glasgow’s problems..were imported.. from the city.   The drug conduit was established.  Lots of money available in the suburbs led to a high demand for recreational drugs whose economy depended on individuals shuttling the contraband and payments up and down the 95 corridor.  The net result was violence which like Wilmington today, is 97% cause by fights over economic turf…..

The greater legal issues created inaction by administrators.  They could not be seen to have a mostly white staff discipline and suspend only blacks because flat out, that appeared racist… and so you did not effectively make positive change. You discussed, tried to look tough in case anyone was watching through the door, and then you let them go right back into their old environment with absolutely no real consequence….

Only after one time of showing the entire school you would back down to black thuggery, the entire control over discipline in that school broke down.

This would not happen in an all black school.  It does not happen in an all black school.  If a black principal in an all black school, suspends an person who is all black,,, it is not racist.  It is disciplining a thug so the rest of the children can learn…  Which we all agree is what needs to happen…  99% of our children enter the school system excited to learn…  when you let 1% stop that process, the entire school becomes disillusioned and soon, no one else wants to learn either.

We’ve always had reports of immigrant bashing…  gangs of one white subgroup would maraud against gangs of another white subgroup.  I’m sure it happened in the Roman Times as well.  But when you had Polish schools in Polish districts, you had Polish discipline in Polish districts, and for the most part, you had normal schools even though they were in impoverished neighborhoods just as are black schools now….

Imagine though, if you had Italians going to school with all Irish teachers, or Polish children going to school with Italian teachers… When one of those children misbehaved and were disciplined, would not wars erupt? Absolutely….

So we need to get over the idea that all black schools in black neighborhoods is a bad thing… It isn’t… Disrupting a child’s learning process by flipping the familiarity of their environment upside down, however is a bad thing….  I’m sure every parent of 30 to 24 year olds today remembers the trauma and learning problems that occurred when Christina District sent its suburban white children up the 95 corridor into the black neighborhoods surrounding Bancroft, Bayard, and Pyle, I believe…

Familiarity is necessary for learning.  And what we are most familiar with as young children is our home.  If we can count on that being unchanging, then as students we are free to have much more time to actually focus on what we are in school for… learning….

And when it becomes perfectly clear, that the sole reason blacks are in that all black school run by all black highly trained professionally trained educators….. is to learn… and that no unruly student is going to disrupt that process…. then we will have turned the corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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…

The Fix To Fix Deldoe Is Nixed By Fixdeldoe

Fixdeldoe should be daily reading for every Delawarean.  The daily time wasted on the News Journal could be better spent reading there.

The pilot “group” delineated and funded in last years budget is set to introduce a pilot “program” into this years budget… it will be, if approved, implemented in 5 of Delaware’s school districts. Here are some red flags. (as rightfully prescribed by Fixdeldoe, scroll down to the last three pages.)

Red Flag 1:

The Department of Education is authorized and directed to implement the pilot plan… (line 12;page 227)

Red Flag 2:

The pilot may include up to five school districts beginning July 1, 2015.  (Which ones?  To be determined by the above….) (line 14; page 227)

Red Flag 3:

The intent of such flexible funding plan shall be to provide participating school districts with the ability to better coordinate resource allocation decisions with strategic planning and community input, build a system focused on outcomes, foster a climate more conducive to innovation and creativity, increase student performance by allowing the focus of resources on identified student needs, enable staffing decisions to occur at the earliest possible time, promote collaborative procurement practices and allow decision making closest to the student. (worded  exactly like Charter schools; worrisome because charters fail rate is 83% whereas public education succeeds close to 100%.)  (Translated:  just like the priority schools, they want to fire highly rated teachers without cause. Can this be priority fiasco Act 2?  Why yes…. it can.)

Red Flag 4

The Department of Education shall establish written criteria for participation in the pilot program...(Again we are voting and funding something that is not even developed. It will be… coming later.  Just like Common Core.  Just like the Smarter Balanced Assessments! just like Charter Schools.(line 20; page 227)

Red Flag 5

All relevant salary schedules and supplemental compensation contained in 14 Del. C. c. 13 and the 5 Annual Appropriations Act shall continue to be used for purposes of salaries of employees.  (The word relevant opens the door to interpretation over what “is” relevant; it could be anything the DOE chief just happens to decide in this lame duck year.Anything!   You tenure is not relevant.  Your past-earned degrees are not relevant… Student/teacher ratios are not relevant.  Public schools are not relevant.  You need a “school leader for $160,000; principals are not relevant.  Janitors are not relevant. Mechanics are not relevant.  School bus maintenance is not relevant…)  (line 4; page 228)

Red Flag 6

The Department shall establish an index value that is relative to that of a 1.0 teaching unit, for each unit- generating, employee group earned according to 14 Del. C. c. 13. Participating school districts may utilize positions among entitlement areas within their total weighted, earned unit entitlement for the school year.  (Currently the units are set by code… Beginning July 2011, the units were set as follows:

Preschool — 12.8 (pupils per unit or ppu)

K-3 — 16.2 ppu

4-12 Regular Education — 20 ppu

4-12 Basic Special Education (Basic) — 8.4 ppu

Pre K-12 Intensive Special Education (Intensive) — 6 ppu

Pre K-12 Complex Special Education (Complex) — 2.6 ppu

(As explained in the new law, a school could soon move resources away from special education and over to mainstream students as long as the total of the units in that school remained the same…. )  Corporate bureaucrats including members of the Chamber of Commerce, think all money on special education is wasted since no exceptional kid will ever work for them; they see special education as throw-away kids spending lots of throw-away money.

Red Flag 7

All such units must be authorized by the Department of Education under rules and regulations promulgated by the Department. (Again, asking for the right to make up their own rules regardless of laws passed by General Assembly which were fostered in public forum… these decisions again will be made behind closed doors.)

Red Flag 8

Participating school districts are authorized to receive cash for up to percent of the total weighted, earned unit entitlement. This option shall only apply if the district has not filled the position at any time during the fiscal year in which it was earned, and if the district makes application to the Department of Education no later than January 31st of the current fiscal year. This cash option value shall be the corresponding amount of a master’s degree plus 10 years of experience, as calculated in accordance with 14 Del. C. § 1305, inclusive of the appropriate 19 other employment costs.  ( A lot to give up for a bribe of $41,388 dollars)  and that cash comes at the end of a year and only if the position was vacant for full term… So a teacher slot that remained vacant over 2015, would be rewarded to that school district sometime after July 1st, 2016.

If you have no 1st grade teacher and can’t get one for a full year, you can use on-call substitutes and get a bonus of $41,388 the following year…  But wait…. what about the kids?  (obviously they were ignored in this financial wheeling and dealing)…..

Red Flag 9

For a flexible funding management plan, State entitlement appropriations shall be consolidated into a 21 single appropriation line  (Just a reminder, when we tried that with Charters, they bought themselves a new Mercedes and took multiple vacations on the money given to them…)

Red Flag 10

No later than December 31st of each year, school districts participating in the pilot shall provide the Secretary of Education with a report identifying district expenditures and revenues, delineated by federal, state and local funds, and an identification of the number and type of positions supported with state funding during the school year as compared to the positions entitled for funding. (Meaning that by February the new incoming Secretary of Education will get around to looking at these reports and go.. WTF…. These are a mitigated disaster!)

So who came up with this plan?  Go back one year, look at the budget and you will find that it was ….

The Department of Education is authorized to establish a working group to develop a pilot plan for education funding flexibility for consideration to be implemented through the Fiscal Year 2016 budget process. Said working group shall consist of the Secretary of Education (or designee), Director of the Office of Management and Budget (or designee), the Controller General (or designee), two members of the Joint Finance Committee appointed by the Co-Chairs, a representative from the Delaware State Education Association, a representative from the Delaware Association of School Administrators, a member of the Delaware School Chiefs Officers Association, and three members of the school business managers in which one of these members must represent a vocational-technical school district.

That is:

• Secretary of Education
• Director of Office of Management and Budget
• Controller General
• Joint finance committee member 1
• Joint Finance Committee Member 2
• A rep from DSEA
• A rep from DASA
• A rep from the Chief Officer’s Association
• A member of school business administration 1
• A member of school business administration 2
• A member of one of the technical school business administrations.

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Eleven people…. of them, how many do you think are intimately in tune with what it takes to teach your kid?

If You Had A Medicine That Was Like Common Core….

Courtesy of chm.

In 1957 a new drug burst on the European market.  Marketed in 1957 in West Germany under the trade-name Contergan. The German drug company Chemie Grünenthal (now Grünenthal) developed and sold the drug. Primarily prescribed as a sedative or hypnotic, thalidomide also claimed to cure “anxiety, insomnia, gastritis, and tension”.^[3] Afterwards, it was used against nausea and to alleviate morning sickness in pregnant women. Thalidomide became an over the counter drug in Germany on October 1, 1957. Shortly after the drug was sold in Germany, between 5,000 and 7,000 infants were born with phocomelia (malformation of the limbs). Only 40% of these children survived.  Throughout the world, about 10,000 cases were reported of infants with phocomelia due to thalidomide; only 50% of the 10,000 survived. Those subjected to thalidomide while in the womb experienced limb deficiencies in a way that the long limbs either were not developed or presented themselves as stumps. Other effects included deformed eyes and hearts, deformed alimentary and urinary tracts, blindness and deafness  —Wikipedia… 

 

Like Common Core, no preliminary tests were run… Like Common Core the drug was sold in advance before it was finished.  Like Common Core, those taking it were never given true facts about the risks….  The drug caused a 50% fetal death rate. Those who survived lived with great challenges….

So today, the testing community and those like Earl Jacques, state reps in their employ, often state that state testing is necessary to measure progress….

Your response to that needs to be…  “Yes, just like Drugs are necessary to kill disease.  But some drugs are dangerous. Some drugs have serious side effects… (why don’t you try living with a 4 hour erection?)….  We don’t give drugs out to everyone unless they are proven safe to everyone, do we?  Isn’t that exactly why we have prescriptions?..”

The argument is not over standardized testing… it is over this dangerous Thalidomidic test, the Smarter Balanced Assessment, which does lasting damage… No one is talking about all drugs in general… It is about one specific drug that causes irreparable damage on a gigantic scale …

At least back in 1958 responsible people finally took the drug off the market… That is what needs to happen with the Smarter Balanced Assessment….  Back then, they weren’t worried about corporate profits; they worried about the defects being caused in real children.

Whose opinion would you trust with your child’s or grandchild’s future?  Jack Markell’s?   Or 100% of child psychologists who say…. “You really need to opt your child out of this test..”

When you hear talk of how we need testing… remember the entire opt-out movement is about this one test, (for us) the Smarter Balanced Assessment and how horrible it is… imagine if all pregnant women today were required to take Thalidomide? And if they were aware of its side effects, still they were not allowed to opt out?

ITTS…. It’s This Test, Stupid.  Nothing more, nothing less.  ITTS…..

Why Parent’s Opting Out Is Their Most Important Decision This Spring

A.  It prevents 95% of students from taking the test, meaning all test results  for those who got stuck taking it, are void and null.

B,  It prevents a GIANT blemish on your child’s permanent record; one that should have never been there.

C. It prevents your schools’ takeover based on faulty data.

D. It prevents your good teacher from losing her job, based on faulty data.

E.  It prevents your child from being bussed away from his closed school to another one across town, based off of faulty data.

F.  The tests are set for grades 2 levels above what is being tested.

G. The tests do not show what your child has or has not learned.

H. The tests psychologically profile children into groups who aren’t and who are prone to be favorably cultivated for later sexual abuse.

I.  Your child’s information is advertised for sale on pedophile Internet chat rooms.

J.  Your child is labeled as a FAILURE, despite grades, good homework skills, and a ample knowledge base.

K. Your family’s political affiliation, your religion, and police record are listed on your child’s profile to be looked up by anyone who pays enough for the privilege.

L.  You are never allowed to ever see the test… Maybe your child answered correctly but was given a random score.  No teacher, no principal, no school official, no parent, EVER sees the graded test….  You simply have to trust the most untrustable people we have ever seen in our lifetimes, when told your child’s alleged score.

M. These scores are used by big business, investors, and bribed elected officials (Sokola, Scott, Jacques)  to close schools, pay people less, and fire people for faults not of their own…. They do nothing for your child.

N.  Universities have said they will not use these scores in evaluating students matriculating into their classes… Meaning that there is absolutely no value in your child taking this test simply to get secret information on your family which can then be sold to anyone willing to pay $79.99 for unlimited number of reports for one year.

O.  Your child feels dejected, broken, stupid, and a failure… The joke is if this test never existed, he would see himself as being a good student.

P.  Your child will be ruled out of entering certain careers based on results in 1st and 2nd grade….  Imagine you being ruled out of your current profession because of what you did in  first grade?

Q.  All know that if everyone tells you that college is not in your future, you will never apply hard to make college become part of your future.  This test completely segregates blacks and Hispanics out of all good jobs starting in 2023…

R.   These test questions are illegible to adults… (have you taken the test?)  Adults can’t even figure out what is being asked.  Kids just guess.  And live by those guesses for the entire rest of their life….

S.  Once taken, these test scores can never be erased… except by a mandate ordered by each state’s General Assemblies.  However once information has been “leaked out”… it is out there forever…..

T.  Killing this test; kills Common Core… Common Core is a whitewash and dulling down of education so all students do poorly in life afterward…  Common Core is like a fake religion… All hoopla and promises, but with no God underlying it who can enforce its edits… Common Core is very dangerous to your child.

T.  The Smarter Balances Assessment was put in place without parental involvement or concern for children.  It is as Communist as anything ever found in Soviet Russia.   Children are the wards of the state;  parents are simply studs and mares.

U. Common Core and these tests violate parent’s First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution.  It never would have happened if parents had been part of its creation, and not an object to be run around in the dark.

V. Common Core is about getting rid of local control and instilling Federal control over your schools’ curriculum.

W. These tests destroy your child’s future….

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Opting out is now a parent’s only option… The Federal Government failed them.  The State Government failed them. The local school boards failed them.  The Charter School Network failed them. The corporate structure of America, failed them…  It is open season on your child…

You can stop it by not letting him take this test… If you don’t opt out, and if you do let them go through with the Smarter Balanced Assessment, your child is now a second class student, behind all those who DID opt out…..

Opting out is supported by all teachers.

Opting out is supported by all principals.

Opting out is supported by all school boards.

Opting out is supported by all childhood psychologists.

Opting out is supported by a majority of our legislators.

Opting out is supported by members of both political parties.

There are bills in every legislature regarding opting out.

Opting out is necessary…

You need to opt out your child if you have not already.

Does Anyone Support Common Core Anymore?

It appears no.. Common Core has quietly been debunked by some if its most ardent supporters.  Not even Markell or Murphy believe in Common Core anymore.  In fact there are at current count only two lonesome individuals still officially in support of Common Core.  They are the overly legislative Dave Sokola in the Senate, and nose-led Earl Jacques in the House.

As usual when someone has been so vociferous a proponent for a misplaced cause, when that cause becomes debunked they often through their own hurt pride, continue the motions they started hoping that in their normalcy, no one will notice…

This often works when their causes are small and inconsequential.  However in grave crises, where their actions must be stopped to eliminate and eradicate the massive hurt they’ve caused, one cannot continue to follow their goals out of pity for them who led us down the wrong path.

We have to announce the path is wrong; we have to offer an alternative direction, and we have to cajole enough to win the argument so all follow our directions.

Currently steps one and two have been realized…. Look at the debate; look at the literature; look at the News Journal– no one is talking about Common Core anymore… Instead, we are currently focused on forcing the removal of its most visible tool, to prevent any further damage….

Common Core is wrong… We all get that now (except for the two misfits previously mentioned.)  All teachers; all principals; all district boards, all superintendents, all parents, and even all students, KNOW that Common Core is past the point of being a colossal joke.

But like a formerly parked car set in motion down a hill, the current test is most pressing issue at hand… How it got loose and started its descent can be dealt with later.  Right now, we all need to combine our voices to holler downhill, warning those unfortunate to all jump out of its way long before metal impacts flesh…..

That translates to not letting any kids take the test… That means every pastor (and most particularly those with urban populations dominating their congregations) needs to preach their congregation’s abstinence from this test…. That means every union across this state, must stand in solidarity with the teachers union when they say this test is dangerous for their kids. That means ever progressive, every conservative needs to lean on their legislator to vote to override the Schwartzkopf’s hold on HB-50 and force it on the floor for a vote…. That means every worker, every middle manager, every secretary to the 1%, needs to speak up on how horrible this test is for their children….

Remember: no test is best.  

But this test set for two years ahead of grade level is nothing more than a colossal waste of time… Especially when all experts say it is very damaging to children.

Reinterpreting Title 14; Chapter 1; Subchapter 3: State Public Education Assessment and Accountability System

With what we currently know about the Smarter Balanced Assessments, it puts the rule of law in danger.  IF we take the Smarter Balanced Assessment, here is what the current law says will happen to our children……

(d) The assessments required in subsections (b) and (c) of this section shall measure:

(1) Student performance as required by any federal mandate; and

(2) For grades 3 through 8, the academic progress of individual students.

Pay particular attention to (2).  Then tell me how the lower score of the Smarter Balanced Assessment fits the tenor of the law above, since it rates children on this test with a completely different one last year… How can you determine the academic progress of students who scored well on the DCAS in 2014 and completely fail the poorly executed Smarter Balanced Assessment this year(2015)?

Obviously… there is zero accountability on progress made by any of these children this year.,…  Which, ironically, breaks the law above….  Some lawyer should have caught this long ago… but I guess the assumption was that test would be so similar passing one would be like passing the other….  Not so.  70% passed the old test… 70% will fail the new test.  We will at the end of this summer, have no clue how well any of these children learned over the 2014-2015 year….. (based on these tests; hopefully the classrooms still functioned regularly).

This shows exactly how Common Core damages education… How much time was wasted preparing precisely for these tests that will be meaningless; time which could have been better spent teaching older curriculums that even parents could understand?

Next:

(1) A 3rd, 5th or 8th grade student whose performance on the reading portion of the assessments administered pursuant to § 151(b) and (c) of this title is Below the Standard, Level II on the statewide assessment, shall not advance to the next grade….

An estimated  number of up to 70% of Delaware’s students will show up in the fall and be told they have to repeat the last grade they thought they just finished…. 70%….

How can that be?  How can we promote only 30% of our students, hold back 70% and still take in a new crop of student at the bottom… Where do we put all of them?

Since this is impossible.  we are going to break the law… We really have no choice… The law says they shall not advance, but we have no choice but otherwise, and the law is thereby broken…

(3) An 8th grade student whose performance on the math portion of the assessments administered pursuant to § 151(b) and (c) of this title is Below the Standard, Level II on the statewide assessment, shall not advance to the next grade

Same argument holds here as well.  The law will be broken.

Now… here is the joke:

(5) With respect to a student whose performance continues to be deficient after completion of the retention year, the Department may not require that the student’s district retain the student at grade level for another year, but shall require that the district develop an individual improvement plan.

So we are going to hold them back one year for failing the test, but then promote them anyway the second year if they still have not passed the test…. Meaning that classes will still have people who can’t grasp the subject now but who are just one year older than they would be otherwise.  So…. what’s the point of taking the test?

So what happens to all these failing kids?  Glad you asked.

• an individual improvement plan  (153 (d) (1) a)
• an individual improvement plan  (153 (d) (2) a)
• an individual improvement plan  (153 (d) (3) a)
• an individual improvement plan  (153 (d) (6) a)

For every failure there is the option to enroll in a private individual improvement plan, paid for by the parents of the student…. It is all about money….  $$$…

How much is it worth to you to have your child keep up with his class and not be held back?  $100?  $200?  $500? $1000? If you are indigent, you can even get a government secured loans to cover all education expenses.  The quasi- governmental institution pays the vendor, and over time you pay back the institution…  All loans secured by your tax refund if you ever renege.

Free public school is free no more…

That is why your child is taking  this horrible test and as all smart people have been saying, will fail  and you the parent, will still pay lots for them to graduate on time.

Thereby, for the quick fix, we need this following bill put on the table….

This act removes Subchapter Three of Chapter One of Title 14, in it’s entirety.   (The numbers for all subsequent ones shall be move up by one)

We can add a new bill later… But this piece is so huge, so corrupt, so full of holes, it is better to remove it completely and continue forward with something brand new next year…..

Why The WEAC Is “All About” Putting In More Charters

From this hearing we now know that Dr. Allan of the WEAC is bent on putting charters into Wilmington.  He said so himself:

Dr. Allen stated that he believes charter schools are a part of public education and that Delaware needs charters to be more unified.

Here are the elements he proposed, grouped in two groups:  Charter and no- Charter.

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.

Charters:

• Create a new vision for charter schools in Wilmington
• Charter school growth could add as many as six-thousand additional seats
• Charter authorizers should be operating based on a strategic plan.
• Develop a strategic plan for charter schools in Delaware,
• No new charter schools or expansions of existing charter schools.
• Establish a Wilmington Charter School Consortium.
• Allow charter schools to benefit from greater collaboration.
• Allow charter schools to more effectively collaborate with public school districts.
• Allow for a liaison opportunity between traditional public schools, charter schools and the City of Wilmington.

Non-Charter:

• Recommended reducing the number of school districts in Wilmington, from 4 to 2,
• Strengthen the role of the community in Wilmington education.
• Property reassessments.
• Establish the Office of Education and Public Policy.
• Approve a new weighted student funding formula.
• Change the current unit count formula to better reflect English Language Learners, high-poverty students, and special education students in grades K-3.
• Create a Wilmington Education Improvement Commission reporting to Governor and General Assembly.
• WEAC has made a point not to comment on the Priority Schools Initiative.

What was missing entirely was how to fund Charters without harming public schools.  Every charter student hurts 4 other children when they leave a public schools for a charter… With 6000 new charter students slated to arrive, that means 24,000 students will be hurt…. Begging the question over whether it is cheaper to stop charters, instead of paying additional monies to undo the damage soon to be done to 24,000 students?

What he proposes is raising property taxes… Yet unsaid was that they don’t have to be raised if you just eliminate charters.  Charters are what are causing the unlimited shortfall.   

The exchange also shows Rep Earl Jacques propensity to ok anything asked by Charters, sight unseen.

Jacques’ statements:

• Chair Jaques agreed with Dr. Allen’s assessment.
• Chair Jaques was delighted that Governor Markell agreed to form a blue ribbon panel.
• Chair Jaques questioned Dr. Allen as to why WEAC is calling for no new charter schools.
• Chair Jaques stated that parents need choices in education and it should be about market share and quality.
• Chair Jaques also noted that he hopes WEAC will consider using the Illinois Facility Fund. (WTF?)

Dr. Allen said that he personally has been a fan of charter schools as a part of the public education process… Again, there is absolutely nothing in this interim report recognizing that charter growth removes revenue from public schools who must continue paying out fixed costs which means fewer dollars going per child…  

Forcing this conundrum:

If your child goes to a Charter he gets inferior education because Charters put less money towards students than do public schools.  If your child stays in public school, he gets inferior education because his school gave most of their per pupil resources over to charter schools and now fixed costs eat out of the money that used to go to each student…

No report is serious about education if it ignores this big problem filling up the whole room….

The Wilmington Education Advisory Committee (WEAC) Is Just Another Charter-Front Organization.

Exceptional Delaware has the full transcript.. Reading over it makes one thing very apparent.  The corporate push for charters which has destroyed urban American education, is very much in play here.  In a sad way, I guess it makes sense.  Like a tick bite, as the original tissue dies the infection must spread ever reaching outward into new healthy tissue in order to stay alive.  Philadelphia is now dead to new charter growth. Delaware having an urban area unsaturated with charters, makes it a good target as any.

Make no mistake.  If one scans the entire nation looking for dead zones in education one can find them easily: Washington DC, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, Cleveland, Newark, and next door Philadelphia…  All which made the mistake of going full forward with rapid charterization.  As study after study has shown, the average score across an entire city goes down when charterization is allowed to happen, but rise upward whenever charters are banned….  We only have to turn to old-school math to explain why… When you hurt 4 students for every one you help… averages must go down…

The only way a charter system could ever work, is if it helps all students at the same time, both those in charters and in public schools…  No one has yet ever been able to find a formula which will do all of that, not even across the entire 30 years charter schools have been in action.  But quite the opposite, in a non-charter school district, public schools DO help all students at the same time.

Charter schools are enormous lucrative business enterprises… They have the rare unique ability to siphon your tax dollars straight into people’s private personal pockets.  Which is why, like the tick bite analogy above, this disease or vice, continues every time it come into contact with an uninfected cell.

Make no mistake.  Wilmington is the next targeted cell… Philadelphia has now after suffering infection after infection, become too wise to invest in charters any further. The WEAC should be viewed as nothing more than a carpet bombing prior to the charter invasion getting underway….   Here is the report… I will quote from this below.

Like everyone else, I was hopeful this was a real attempt to get at Wilmington’s problems and to actually do something to better the education of those children who through no fault of their own, are stuck there.  I was hopeful that the things we know are necessary for child development would be included in this report…  Things like an 11:1 student teacher ratio in all schools k-5 and in 9th Grade wherever the poverty level is above 50%.  Things like taxing the top one percent’s income adequately for one to garner all the necessary funds required to pay for this necessary 11:1 student teacher ratio. Things like decoupling performance data imported from the bankrupt assessment tests, from being included in teachers, principals, schools and district’s performance reviews… when all know that a great teacher in a low poverty area will get fired by her scores, while a poor teacher in a high income area, will be considered exemplary when this approach is the sole determiner. Things like mandatory programs for pre-schoolers which would have as their prime design, to elevate the vocabulary of poor inner city children from 500 words upon entering the school system, up to a 5000 word vocabulary at that age…  Things like paying for charter schools with line items in state budgets as we would for any other state contract, and not steal money desperately needed for educating the majority of children, so huge profits can be made off a few who are in the minority.

These are concrete examples of what are needed.  Yet this report does not even express awareness that those issues exist… Instead, as seen from the tone of this report, it was solely about how to get charters to come into Wilmington… The  report is not for kids; only for owners and wealthy business people.

From this document some things are more clear.

It was only after the Priority School debacle and the highly visible public push-back against the forced charterization being proposed by the state, that the need for a commission like this to back charterization became apparent.  The Governor “hired” Dr. Allan; a commission was formed.

The deceit begins with the stating of the 7 Guiding principals. Though all sound mushy-feely good, the reality is that they are detrimental to public schools; highly skewed to promoting charters…  Some would call them myths.

1) Wilmington education is critical to the success of the entire state.  At first read one would say “sure” and be rather general in their agreement.  But let us challenge that!…  Is Philadelphia’s education critical to all of Pennsylvania’s success?  If so, Erie is in a lot of trouble.  How does the failure of New York City’s public schools directly influence the success in Niagara Falls, or Plattsburg?  if so, they are doomed.  Does Newark, NJ’s failing system spell doom for Penn’s Grove?  My guess?  No.  So how does the success or failure of Baltimore’s outlying school district, impact the success or failure of students or businesses in Ocean City? I guess if true, they can all fall back on careers as a wave surfer….   Point is, that statement deflates quickly when poked one time.  It is intended as more a buttering up to the rest of the state, most likely in order to get them to go along with whatever it will be that is forthcoming…..

2) Wilmington schools should set high standards of learning.  Here we go again.  You cannot take toddlers who cannot jump over a 3 foot bar, raise it up to 5 feet, and expect better results.  You cannot take children entering with vocabularies of 500 words, and expect them to catch up in performance to children entering with 5000 word vocabularies..  Just as we would balk at having to take a test our employer hands us in Mandarin, our children balk at tests on random material over which they have no knowledge.    Our standards should be based on improvement as one makes progress; not some arbitrary line sketched too far up in the sand.  A better goal would be to say we want a higher number of our children to be productive in society… and measure that by crime statistics, drop out stats, and other  social data.  If it drops, we are doing something right. Setting a political grandstanding standard that we want all of our inner city to go to Harvard, is laughable as it is impossible. Even still, based on the nation’s report card, the NAEP test, Wilmington children have already have made great strides since the days just after the occupation ended…   Can they do better?  Perhaps, but only if they get the close personal attention their income handicap requires.  That means an 11:1 student teacher ratio, not a new more difficult curriculum when the lack resources to even fulfill the old one that for the most part was working, are sorely inadequate.

3) Wilmington should be served by traditional, charter, and technical public schools,  Why do we need charter? Evidence shows us that 2 such charters were closed down by the state this year!  Why do we need more?  So we can close them down too? Two years ago, another charter barely struggled to the end of its school year?  So why do we need charters?   We don’t.   Vocational and traditional do not fight over funding.  Charters and vocational do not fight over funding… Only charters and traditional fight over funding… Therefore more charters means less funding for traditional… Less funding for traditional means the opportunities at traditional will be less.  So by allowing charters, we are limiting the opportunities for over 80% of our children… Point blank, when you allow charters, you limit opportunity for 80% of children… Point blank. There is no way around that fact… No way around that fact…. unless you agree to fund charters as you do vocational schools: so there is no conflict of finances between the two. By failing to deal with charter funding and simply stating that Charters are a given… the entire sincerity of this group is undercut…

You simply cannot improve education in a scenario where you punish 80% of your children financially. Ignoring this elephant in the room, shows a lack of any sincerity behind the aims of this commission…

Make no mistake.  It’s single goal is to turn Wilmington into a Charter School District…   (More later: (this is turning into a giant book so it will come in a series of installments.))