DelawarePolitics.net

The Next Generation of Innovators Posted by John P. Holdren & Melody Barnes on November 23, 2009 at 11:35 AM EST on Whitehouse.gov President Obama today helped launch a new campaign, “Educate to Innovate,” designed  to energize and excite America’s students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).  It builds on the President’s pledge that [...]

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51 DELAWARE CHARTER SCHOOLS STUDENTS RECEIVE 2009 MICHAEL C. FERGUSON ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS The 2009 Michael Ferguson Achievement Award Winners were recently announced by the Delaware Department of Education and 51 students from Delaware charter schools were among those recognized. Hanna Kempton of Charter School of Wilmington and Elliot Hale and Erin Simmons, of Newark Charter [...]

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The CR Institute put out some informationon sunlightonschools.org.  It is aimed at helping us to understand education spending better. Here is an extract of their districts of the week. The interesting statistic to me is “percent of total expenditures spent on instruction”.  CR spends over 60% on instruction while the other districts are in the [...]

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Update at end Governor Minner gave us the brilliant slogan “Delaware, It’s Good Being First,” and indeed we were first, page A1 of the Monday edition of the New York Times.  However, based on the article maybe we should change our slogan to “Delaware, It’s Good Being Zero,” as in zero tolerance.  Hat Tip to Delaware Dem over at Delaware Liberal for first [...]

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Teacher Kevin Jennings (see his website)claim to fame began with an appointment by Clinton ally and RINO Gov. William Weld of Massachusetts were he wrote a report on Making Schools Safe for Gay & Lesbian Youth. He is better known today because wrote the foreword to The Queering of Elementary Education– Yet the Delaware state [...]

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Kilroy brought this to our attention. Here are the latest crime stats for our schools. What is not reported are the many incidents of bullying that never get beyond a teacher or principal. Adults would never tolerate an environment where their personal safety was threatened for work. Our children certainly need better. I really do [...]

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A few weeks back when Obama scheduled a speech for all of the U.S. school children, some protested. In some quarters these folks were dismissed as kooks. Surely there would be no effort to just indoctrinate kids by Obama supporters? Well in one New Jersey school it is already going on.  Here are the lyrics [...]

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Yeah, you heard me, the year was 1991: Rep. William Ford, then chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, ordered the General Accounting Office to investigate the cost and legality of Bush’s appearance. On October 17, 1991, Ford summoned then-Education Secretary Lamar Alexander and other top Bush administration officials to testify at a hearing [...]

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The principal got this one right, it was not assembly material. I accept her explanation that she accepted the recommendation of others. I could see it as a discussion item in middle school or above, but not in an elementary school assembly. How about I pledge to work to the end of legal abortion? I [...]

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We can spend all the money we want on education, but it ain’t no good if the kids don’t care. An interesting approach is to begin a conversation about the value of education launched by 20 TV networks including the BET family of channels, the MTV family of Channels, the VH1 family of channels, the [...]

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It took a while but I got back my notes so here is the second part of last week’s Kent County Town Hall.   Part two began with Senator Bushweller and Representatives Bennett and Scott introduced themselves and talked about what they had done over the past seven months.  Then they moved into a question [...]

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August 19, 2009   Governor Markell and the General Assembly members for the Dover area held an under advertized town hall meeting for the local residents at the Kent County Administrative Offices in Dover.   The 2 hour meeting began with the Governor laying out some of his vision and answering questions from the public.  It [...]

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The state has released the ratings for your local schools. What do they really mean? As usual there is no context given, but the good news it that we actually have some mechanism to begin rating our schools. The problem is that after a decade and half we have yet to come up with a [...]

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Rep. John Conyers finally admitted what we already knew, that our elected officials on Capital Hill don’t read those pesky pieces of paper that turn into laws and taxes and even wars because it’s just too darn hard: “I love these members, they get up and say, ‘Read the bill,’” said Conyers. “What good is [...]

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It appears that actually teaching reading works. Delaware made more progress closing the achievement gap between black and white students than any other state. This is thanks in part to Carper era reforms. Charter schools, reading specialists, and standards that included decoding all played a role in my view. It is easy to criticize what [...]

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Gays need the right to alter the definition of marriage or else our children won’t learn. That must be the case because the National Education Association is backing changing marriage. I am glad that someone is on top of the crucial issues facing our children. They found other problems as well. They solved the problem [...]

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We are almost ready to dump the DSTP. It appears that we are stuck with it one more year. It is mid-summer and the scores have finally been released to the public. There is little meaning to the scores as far as the public is concerned. They do not tell what student progress was made [...]

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smitty-note: bumped this post up to give it a chance in the sun, rapid posting caused it to get pushed down on the page rather quickly PSSST….Dover…you passed an Onion not an Apple by Joanne Christian Let me applaud the 17 Representatives who “got it” in their decision to vote “NO” to HB 117. HB [...]

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In spite of the fact that the  DSTP was a state mandate, at least the state paid for the actual test.  A new assessment would likely save the state money, but in spite of cutting the contribution to the local schools, the Department of Education seems to want school contributions.  The districts at least control [...]

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Friend and commenter, Joanne Christian, dropped a comment on Delaware Liberal in reference to the shocking and seemingly ignorant passage of HB117 in the house yesterday. 17 wise and well-thought-out Representatives voted no on this bad piece of Longhurst legislation. My focus being on Appoquinimink, I’d like to thank Rep Dick Cathcart for his no [...]

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Assassination ads do not usually get placed in the classified ad section of newspapers especially when they are against the President. It read, “May Obama follow in the steps of Lincoln, Garfield, McKinley and Kennedy!” I hardly think that I need to condemn such an ad because it should be a given that I see [...]

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Joanne…need your input! Rescued comment from David A: Art brings up a point that is not lost on voters. Most of the decisions are already made at the Department of Education. Local control is a talking point not a reality. Most of the budget is mandated down to the line. For only the second time [...]

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Smitty made a great point over on DL that deserved a wider audience than one blog. He is opposing changing school board elections to November with the general elections. I agree with him. I do NOT EVER want to know or hear what political affiliation a school board candidate identifies with. If nothing else, I [...]

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Do you want real answers to the economic turmoil? Financial expert Dave Ramsey is hosting a nationwide town hall on April 23rd. Go to http://www.townhallforhope.com For site locations follow the link. I have been to other Dave Ramsey events. They worth your time.

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Fear Mongering And Loathing In Las Vegas Delaware Once upon a time, I worked for a wise candidate who told me that when budget cuts are on the horizon, an administration will threaten teachers’ jobs or pay to scare and anger the masses. That way, when a teacher’s 8% pay cut ends up being a [...]

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In the beginning of February, I got a newsletter from school reminding parents that the Delaware State Testing Program was coming up in March. It contained a little advice: …please be sure that your child gets an adequate amount of rest the nights before the DSTP tests. A good breakfast is also very important. Send [...]

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LEAD (Leadership in Educational Achievement in Delaware) committee chairman Marvin “Skip” Schoenhals made a controversial recommendation to limit referendum oversight for operating expenses. It was not a radical proposal. It did not seek to abolish, but limit the people’s oversight. A limit would be set and if the limit is surpassed then a vote would [...]

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…from Pima County, Arizona. The only place I can find this is a blurb straight from WDEL’s website, WDEL.com.  Considering they constantly update and roll-off their news on the website, here is the text, from WDEL: Delaware loses revenue from Military Academy By Carl Kanefsky The Delaware Military Academy has gotten bond funding through Pima [...]

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In case you missed it, I must inform you that news has broken that we don’t have an immigration problem. We have a language problem. Senator Barack Obama said yesterday that “instead of worrying about whether immigrants can learn English,” Americans “need to make sure your child can speak Spanish”. 83% of Americans don’t quite [...]

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I am a Charter School proponent.  I am also accepting of Senator Blevins’ SJR11, “Instituting a One-Year Moratorium for New Charter School Applications.” Two reasons that make me wince first, then two reasons I accept it afterward.  In the name of front page space, take the jump to page two for the low down.

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