Where public policy meets common sense
Posted in Education on Jan 19th, 2012
Guest Post from Dr. Lillian Lowery, Delaware Secretary of Education: Almost 10 years ago, the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act began requiring states to report disaggregated student test scores. Aggregated results had masked serious deficiencies among many of our country’s most vulnerable students. The law’s great legacy is bringing accountability for states, districts, [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 12th, 2011
Double the flavor, double the fun went the commercial slogan. Capitol School district hopes double the principals will increase scores in Dover High School. Is this education reform or just another way to take money from the classroom and away from the taxpayers in the name of reform? What do you think? Dover, Del. — [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 1st, 2011
With all of feedback about the problems with the federalization of education, you have to wonder why we would rush to jump on that bandwagon voluntarily.
It happens all over the state, late summer hires are brought into the classrooms before their background checks can be completed. Capital School district board member Brian Lewis wants to use the private sector as a solution to screen new school hire while waiting on the results of the finger prints. Brian Lewis leading the [...]
Posted in Education, local government on May 11th, 2011
I am happy to see that most of our candidates endorsed here won the school board races and most of the others came close. Keep going Joe and Cheryl. The future is yours. I was particularly happy to see my friend and fellow Dover Human Relations Board Alum, Brian Lewis win. We share a similar [...]
Posted in DE General Assembly, Delaware Democrats, Education on Mar 31st, 2011
Centralized planning has been the bane of modern education in my opinion. While the 21st century is becoming a century of individual sovergnity and localism through global networking, American education has been moving toward early 20th century central planning and stagnet bureaucracy. Despite the smart and honorable people in Delaware’s Department of Education (here after DoE), our [...]
Posted in Education on Feb 27th, 2011
6-year-old forced into psych ward against mother’s wishes by Chris Slavens His father, an Army commander, was being deployed to Iraq, and 6-year-old Jack Dorman didn’t want to be in school in the first place. He suffers from separation anxiety and had been visiting a therapist. Sadly, the boy’s day got a lot worse after [...]
Posted in Crime, Education, Regional Politics, Stuff on Jan 7th, 2011
We pushed aside old fashion discipline as being unenlightened. The result is that schools became more about crowd control than they need to be. Learning has taken a back seat to survival for some students as they face daily harassment and bullying. With schools increasingly shackled when it comes to effective discipline and intervention, the [...]
Posted in Action File, Education on Jun 24th, 2010
The Parent’s right to know bill SB 293 will likely have to come back next year as the senate committee seems to have determined not to release it. It could be revised or worked around the opposition, but I am not optimistic with June’s end of session deadline. I am glad that it got a hearing. [...]
Posted in Education on Jun 3rd, 2010
The bill proported to be in reaction to the insane Christina incident expelling a student for eating with a camping knife from cub scouts. HB 347 does not address that issue at all, but removes reporting requirements of misdemeanor crimes for children under 12. It is on the way to the Governor. The reason the reporting [...]
Posted in Education on May 28th, 2010
Is running a state or a school district? The average superintendent gets more than the governor did before the voluntary Markell pay cut. I believe 5 get above 170K. The top paying districts are Brandywine and as of the last year that I could find number, Christina. Several elementary school principles get above 100k. The [...]
Posted in Education on May 27th, 2010
For the last 5 years state and federal law regarding the education of children with disabilities have not been aligned. House Bill 396 by Rep. Teresa Schooley would remedy that issue. It is a bill which should have passed years ago.
My first reaction was suckers. The district has one of the highest local expenditures in the state and is one of the highest expenditure per student districts as well. The salaries are the highest with some principles making what other district assistant superintendents make. Salaries and benefits will go up another 2 million this year. [...]
Posted in Education on Apr 25th, 2010
Bill S.1210: STEM Education Coordination Act of 2009 by Delaware’s own appointed one, Ted Kaufman would be the greatest shift away from local education in American History if implemented. The Ruling party is out to remake America in their image. The Tenth Amendment is meaningless. The fact is educational achievement fell with the beginning of [...]
Posted in Delaware Democrats, Education, Family, Parental Rights on Apr 21st, 2010
My Representative and friend Darryl Scott D-31 has introduced house bill 231 to require employers provide up to 16 hours of unpaid leave a year to attend children’s school conferences and extra curricular events. Now it should noted that I rarely agree with Rep. Scott’s politics. My initial instincts are to oppose this bill as a mandate [...]
Posted in Education on Apr 14th, 2010
HB 328 expands the definition of disability and the mandate to accommodate those with them. It is a fair concept and will keep Delaware in line with Ridgewood Board of Education v. N.E. My concern is that it will work out fine for taxing authorities such as the districts which can raise the tuition tax [...]
When considering after-school programs for children, many parents don’t think about the integrity of the personnel heading the program. In Delaware, it looks like that is about to change. Thomas Ott, the head football coach at Cape Henlopen High School, was recently arrested and chargedwith four counts of second-degree unlawful sexual contact, four counts of second-degree rape, two [...]
Posted in Education, Regional Politics, Unions on Apr 4th, 2010
The executive director of the New Jersey Education Association earned 550K in compensation and benefits. The average teacher in New Jersey earns 60K in salary. Interesting.
Posted in Education on Mar 30th, 2010
State to Receive Funding Toward Educational Reforms Delaware was named today as one of two states (Tennessee) selected for Phase 1 funding of a Race to the Top competitive federal grant to improve education in public schools. The announcement is being made today by Education Secretary Arne Duncan. “What’s really important today is where we [...]
Posted in Education, Family, Parental Rights, Stuff, civil liberties on Mar 26th, 2010
Legislation was introduced Thursday, March 25, 2010, to involve parents more in their children’s education. The “Parents’ Declaration of Responsibilities”, which would affect all public and charter schools in the state, seems like an unnecessary adoption of common sense. Parents would be asked to sign the declaration at the beginning of each school year stating [...]
Posted in Education on Mar 16th, 2010
Professor Paul E. Peterson of Harvard University gave an intersting insight into achieving better student performance. Yet few doubt that public schools today are troubled, as the president noted on Saturday. What the president left out is that the performance of American high school students has hardly budged over the past 40 years, while the [...]
Posted in Education on Mar 15th, 2010
Seaford School District is seeking permission to repair your schools. Voting will take place 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. April 13, at the Seaford district office, 309 N. Market St.
Posted in Education on Mar 12th, 2010
If you are poor and trying to go to work or school, your daycare options are family or warehousing. The state reimbursement rates are so low that the only way you can get quality day care is by a provider’s generousity. I call it state sponsored slumming for child care. The child care providers who open [...]
Posted in Education on Feb 2nd, 2010
When you have a real study instead of a poorly designed one funded by the hard left, abstinence based education shines. This is the first real study, in recent years, which tracked a population who took different courses. A number of studies showed the same results, but a much media attention has been given to [...]
Posted in Education on Jan 15th, 2010
The Opinions expressed are those of the author. In the past the adminstration had an unedited posting on its educational strategy. Eli Broad is #42 on the 2009 Forbes list of the richest Americans and one of the richest people in the world. The son of Lithuanian immigrants, he was born in the Bronx and [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 10th, 2009
Due to innovation and planning, the well managed Appoquinimink School district did not have to raise taxes to fund a new school. The sound management brought resounding yes vote to the disrtict. Assured that their taxes would not go up, voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a referendum that will allow the Appoquinimink School District to build [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 8th, 2009
Another day and another incident of bullying and ethnic intimidation in a Philly School. If it happened in a work place, it would not be tolerated by adults. Now students are taking matters into their own hands after 26 Asian students were assaulted and needed medical treatment. The environment of ethnic intimidation and harassment has [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 3rd, 2009
There would seem to be some similarities between healthcare reform and the proposed school consolidation here in Delaware. Like those who support healthcare reform, those who support school consolidation , tell us about how much money it will save the tax payers. But when you look behind the numbers and think about how government [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 2nd, 2009
I’d like to cover some of my thoughts regarding the discussion of school consolidation. Let’s look at the money. The possibility of saving $45,469,422 is slim to none. There’s a number of things that should be considered. We will need to pay a hefty salary to a superintendent for the large districts like we would [...]
Posted in Education on Dec 1st, 2009
A new Stanford study will cast doubt in some minds about the effectiveness of Charter Schools. The study had novel methodology and was very complicated. It compared individual charter school students with group averages of traditonal public school students. It did not compare the individual student’s gain or loss from the year before, but compared the individual [...]
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