Shirley Saffer supports choice even charter

Living School Choice and Loving It! from Support Shirley Saffer for CSD Board of Education By Shirley Saffer.

“During the recent heated debate on Newark Charter School, I did not participate in any organized effort to thwart the NCS expansion application:not one meeting, not one vote. Why? Because choice is important. Every parent deserves it for their child, just like me. I believe Christina needs to improve ourselves, not curtail the choice of others. The issues with Charter Law are for the state to decide, my job is focused squarely on Christina.”

Lois Lane presents charters May 1 enrollment #’s YIKES Pencader

Read all about it: May 1 enrollments for charters Nichole Dobo

Pencader May 1 numbers 410 needs 500 to meet the 80% financial threshold. May 1 numbers put them a 66%. Some other charter schools struggling. Moyer OMG!

No good news on the Pencader internal conflicts that appears to be at a stalemate. The adults can’t find a way to put their pettiness aside and think of the students. Last year many in the community rallied for Pencader to stay open. The Delaware Department of Education was poised to close Pencader but with public support, new board and new school leader the school was save. It appears the fallout from the “bitch” incident is dooming Pencader. Pencader was doing quite well meeting the probation requirements set last year by DE DOE and now it looks all is self-inflicted

For you Pencader students and parents; John Dickinson High School has choice openings to even out of district students If you decide to leave Red Clay welcomes you. Pencader and other charter schools falling below 80% have until May 31 to submit a financial plan on how they can operate with such low enrollment.

Please go here to see more detailed information Read all about it: May 1 enrollments for charters Nichole Dobo

Follow the $$$ yellow brick road to Transparent Christina

This way to the land of Oz ; ED Voters of DE PAC a/k/a Voices 4 Delaware Education PAC

When teachers become bullies!

Our public and even charter school teachers are amazing people who must endure stress beyond imagination. When they are confronted with unruly students their toolbox doesn’t contain much other than self-control. Even parents know, kids will take you to the edge! But somehow teachers are to be super human and take the abuse ! Sadly when a teacher cross the physical barrier or extreme verbal barrier their careers are put on the line.

I can think of many things monies spent on data coaches could be used for. One parent coaches and now stress intervention for our teachers.

I’ve worked in a treatment center for delinquent adolescents and heard the words, I’ll kill you and your family. My usual response would be with a laugh, that’s fine but now you need to go to your room and take timeout.  I was certified in passive physical restraint and understood the dynamics of yell therapy and how to apply them.

Though for the most part, students are not delinquent adolescents. But surely before the legal status is place upon them they display delinquent behaviors often starting at school. Teachers need skills in crisis intervention but not just for the kids but for themselves.

My concern here today is not really teachers becoming bullies but rather the events that follows when a teacher crossed verbal and physical boundaries. There is no doubt there have been many cover-ups to protect the teachers and administrators. All teachers and administrators know the law regarding wittiness incidents or addressing incidents reported to them. Here is how I see it, when teacher crosses the line due to stress and the inability to take a timeout  is may not be criminal behavior. (we’re not taking sex abuse or incidents regarding sex). However, it is what it is and those incidents must follow legal protocol. The other side of the coin is when administrators covers the incident up. Who is the bigger criminal? A teacher who loss their cool and committed an offense or the administrator who covers up the offense. I say, mandatory prison time for the administrator and put on some kind of national registry to prevent them from ever getting another job in education.

It makes me sick to see legislation addressing bullies within our school at the same time administrators play the cover up game! Then there are are those bold enough to report what they seen or heard about getting tactfully removed via of an agenda to hide the truth via one lies and the other swears to it. Kids are not dogs in a pet-shop. They are human and must be protected.

God bless our public and charter school teachers but when you are stress stop and take time out. Also, don’t fall for the baiting-out games students can play. We need you, rely on you, trust you and see you is a protector of our children.

More proof Markell is the worst governor on education in Delaware’s history

Report card for Delaware’s charter schools Paul Baumbach, president of Progressive Democrats for Delaware, is a News Journal Community View writer.

How are Delaware’s charter schools affecting our public schools? In 2008 Jack Markell said this about Delaware’s charter schools: “We know about some of the successes, but we also know about some of the big problems: resegregation, the skimming of students, the creaming of students…it’s a big issue and for me a matter of major concern.”

Markell said this during his “primary” campaign against John Carney and Mike Protack. It was about securing labor votes! Around that time, I had communications with Markell one being a phone conversation. He sounded very heartfelt about addressing the achievement-gap. When I raised concerns about Rodel’s involvement in education and the fact he was a former advisory board member of Rodel Foundation and the founders and families were major $$$ Marekll campaign contributors he assured me that influence wouldn’t be a problem. 

Why are we advancing Delaware’s charter school system without fixing these systemic failures? Delaware’s charter school system needs to be reexamined and reformed, due to the dramatic changes to the public school landscape and our charter school experiences over the past 17 years.

Because lawyers are making money, Innovative Schools is making money and money is to be made.

How should our charter school system help to improve public education? Delaware law requires that charter schools deliver research-supported innovation, programs that don’t currently exist in Delaware’s traditional public schools. Once in operation we need to measure the innovation’s level of success. Where the innovation is successful, it should be incorporated into our public schools. What good is a drug trial that cures cancer in its sample of patients, but isn’t rolled out to the public at large? This feedback loop is critical to demonstrate the effectiveness of any system, yet is absent from our current system.

Charter schools are a game changer and forces traditional school districts to get their shit together or lose $$$ while maintaining fix cost to operate buildings. However. Race to The Top comes in and stifle’s any real innovations in traditional schools because the money must be spent Jack Markell’s and Arne Duncan’s way that forces the funding to be spent on compliance rather that human capital needed in the classroom. With all this fresh money coming in one would think the class-size wavier would be repealed making the class-size law what it should be. We need to go ahead and set the common core standards and add a national standardize test. Once that is completed all federal and state funding must come in the form of unrestricted blocks grants and get out of the way. If schools fail to me standards federal funds should be reduce accordingly. Race to The Top is a carrot on a stick to conform to Wall Street laced education agendas that ensures Wall Street can capitalize, such as in the case of Wireless Generation. Let the stick be the motivator whereas if schools fail funding will be drawn-down.

The reports note that the DOE fails to oversee adequately Delaware’s charter schools, to implement existing regulations, and to institute needed additions. The DOE admits that it fails to conduct separate audits of its authorized charter schools, as required by the code. Delaware law and regulations for approving charter school applications fail to address the resegregation of the student population, and the impact on the neighboring schools. While these are the two leading concerns for citizens, families, and school districts questioning the need for new or expanded charter schools, our system fails to address them, and the DOE has fails to propose needed changes.

It took a report to reveal the incompetency and the lack of capacity of the Delaware Department of Education? So Markell’s solution to fixing the problem is hiring a gym teacher who has taught for three-years to become the next Delaware Secretary of Education? Also to make note, his teaching experience was pre NCLB. Markell says his Sec of Ed candidate has a “teacher’s heart”! If that’s true Kilroy must have Einstein’s brain! So the new ed coach comes in and cleans house and installs more Markell puppets. The sad part of all this is, the Delaware State Senate will endorse Markell’s candidate for Sec of Ed for the sake of politics and not the kids.

There is no problems with charter schools which are choice demands of parents and students. The problem is the “Delaware charter school laws” and lawmakers refusing to address the problems because of negative financial impact on their political contributions. Good charter schools like Newark Charter are getting beat up on because state legislators coward in the corner or like Rep Schooley treating the community like fools forcing them to meetings on her terms.

Fix the charter school law to make charter schools public schools as proclaimed to be and once that is done fix the capital funding problem.