flynn082

Am I missing something here? Why are republicans rushing to give democratic candidate Kimberly Daniels money? Could it be her anti-public education views, the fact she really isn't a democrat or both? From Florida Politics: As of July 20, the last date for which campaign finance data is available, House District 14 incumbent Rep.  Kim Daniels  is still well ahead of Democratic challenger  Paula Wright . In the money chase ahead of the open Democratic primary, Daniels raised $7,642, and spent $13,420, between July 7 and July 20. She has just over $21,500 on hand. Of the contributions, $5,000 came in five $1,000 checks from a North Miami Beach address housing a gaggle of dialysis companies. Also contributing: former Republican candidate for 4th Circuit State Attorney  Wes White , as well as  Harry Rummell  of the  Peter Rummell  family. http://floridapolitics.com/archives/270053-hd14-daniels-wright Daniels was also called a champion of education by ...

For years when I would write about the Jacksonville Public Education Fund's entanglements with school board candidates, they would push back and say, board members can do whatever they want and it doesn't influence their work. Well friends we all know that isn't true and some more evidence is this statement put out by Trey Csar just days after leaving JPEF Via facebook: Friends, if you can, please come out and get to know my good friend,  Darryl Willie , who is running for School Board in District 4, next week. Darryl is an amazing man and father who has committed his career to improving educational outcomes, particularly for low-income kids and kids of color. Our city would be well served under his leadership. Ugh. Here is the thing I know a lot of amazing men and fathers that I wouldn't want on the school board. That's a serious job that requires a particular  set of skills that you don't get spending two years in a school and running  a non profit that basica...

Today I received an escalating series of nasty comments from anonymous who I after the first few told I would not put up anymore unless they identified themselves and then I am sure quite by accident they did, and sadly it was none other than school board member Scott Shine. I am offended because my therapist says I don't have any daddy issues. Anyhoo as you can see they left the same comment twice, once as anonymous and once as wave rider and yes Shine is waverider. He's a blogger? gulp! https://www.blogger.com/profile/14794966639149286479 You should know I think posting negative comments anonymously is an act of cowardice. I think if you have something to say you shouldn't be able to hide behind your keyboard. Shine apparently thinks different. I also think Shine is a bully. I get it he doesn't like what I write and if i was him too, I wouldn't like it but if he doesn't want me pointing out the things he does, then he should do different things. He's a pub...

Dave Chauncey likes to tweet, or retweet and most is about sports, though mired in his feed is the following tweet showing support for the expansion of charter schools of which over 330 have failed in Florida  and over a dozen in Duval as well. First you should all know that Public education and teachers in Florida have had fewer enemies as big and powerful as Corcoran. He has attacked and underfunded education at ever possible opportunity but it gets even worse. One of the reasons he is such a big fan of charter schools is  because his wife benefits directly from them. From the Tampa Times; Classical Preparatory School, a charter school founded by the wife of incoming Florida House Speaker Richard Corcoran, has its sights set on expansion. Opened in 2014, its waiting list is twice the size of its 406-student enrollment. And its contract lets it grow to nearly 1,000 students through 12th grade. To explore its options, lawyers for the kindergarten through ninth-grade school las...

I am starting my 18th year but I am only on step sixteen. One year I was a full time sub and another year despite there being 120,000,000 in reserves, then superintendent Pratt Dannals declared a financial emergency and steps were waived for a year. On step 16 I am scheduled to make 47,800 during the 18-19 school year https://dcps.duvalschools.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx? A teacher in 2005 on step 16 was scheduled to make 40,833.   https://www.nctq.org/dmsView/15 Now lets put both amounts into the inflation calculator https://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ Hmm, it says I should be making 52,685 dollars Hmm my regular calculator says I should be making 4,885 dollars more. Why do I have the feeling what with losing the step in 2010 and the salaries getting smaller and smaller, I am out tens of thousands of dollars and why do I feel like I am not the only one? You know I don't blame DTU, I think they have done as good as job as possible with economic issues. You can't sque...

On the heels of Tallahassee grossly under funding their safety initiatives... On the heels of Tallahassee's attacks on teacher unions... On the heels of hundreds of teachers being fired because they couldn't pass part of a test that Tallahassee purposely made much more difficult... On the heels of Tallahassee pushing amendment 8, a poison pill amendment which would obliterate local control of schools... Tallahassee now has districts bracing for last minute teacher cuts at the states neediest schools. Duval teachers United sent the following message to its members and you can bet if it is happening in Jacksonville it is happening all throughout the state. Because of the special status of turnaround schools, the state requires that specific employee staffing changes take place. The moves will be based on student VAM scores. The state has identified cut off student VAM scores in order for individual instructional staff members to remain at the schools.  If you teach in a VAM subje...

The union sent out the following note: Because of the special status of turnaround schools, the state requires that specific employee staffing changes take place. The moves will be based on student VAM scores. The state has identified cut off student VAM scores in order for individual instructional staff members to remain at the schools.  If you teach in a VAM subject area or grade level, you may be surplussed to another school if your scores don’t meet the state’s cutoff score.  It is important that you are aware that this may become a possibility. Once the VAM scores are released from the department of education, teachers will be notified if they will be surplussed to another worksite for the upcoming school year. The employee will have two days to pack up their belongings at their current worksite and move them to the new work site. These are the schools that can expect the last second surplusses Arlington Middle George Washington Carver Elem Gregory Drive Hyde Park Elem **...

One involves her 40 million yacht becoming unmoored and the other involves her curtailing debt relief for defrauded students. From CBS News: Someone untied a yacht owned by the family of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos in Ohio last weekend, police say, causing up to $10,000 in damages. The 163-foot yacht is worth  a reported $40 million , according to Toledo's The Blade newspaper. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/betsy-devos-40-million-family-yacht-untied-causing-10000-in-damages/ From the New York Times: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos proposed on Wednesday to curtail Obama administration loan forgiveness rules for students defrauded by for-profit colleges, requiring that student borrowers show they have fallen into hopeless financial straits or prove that their colleges knowingly deceived them. The DeVos proposal, set to go in force a year from now, would replace Obama-era policies that sought to ease access to loan forgiveness for students who were left saddled with debt aft...

I have to tell you that is very troubling. It indicates he isn't being supported by teachers and parents but rather by special interests who are going to come with their hands out if he wins. During his last reporting period, he took in 6,500. Of that 1,325 came from individuals, and the rest from businesses, furthermore more than 5,000 came from outside his district. The reporting period before had him rake in 10,040. Of that over 8,000 came from out of the district including a 1000 bucks from school voucher king and Tampa resident John Kirtley.  It was a little over 16,700 the reporting period before that, and almost 10 grand came from out of the district and most of what didn't came from a few big businesses. His first reporting period he brought in 24,000. Four thousand of it came from Gary Chartrand playing fast and lose with campaign finance laws. What he did may not be illegal but you can bet people like you and me couldn't get away with it.  Oh and of that 24 grand,...

The obvious answer is he knows Teach for America is controversial and he knows many people are realizing the program offers the exact opposite of what are neediest kids need. The less obvious answer is he knows it does the exact opposite of what kids need and he wants to distance himself from it. Just a reminder, Teach for America takes mostly non education majors, puts them through a six week teacher boot camp and then int our must challenged schools where they are supposed to serve two years, creating an ever revolving door. The program is also expensive as hell. Heck if I worked for them I wouldn't want people to know either. These campaign sites are supposed to put positive spins on things, but here he has no spin at all. He doesn't mention TFA, he doesn't mention where he works at all, calling it his current role, and if you are thinking about voting for him, you have t find this troubling. I also think he vastly oversells what he actually does, but that's what cam...

DCPS started the budget year 62 million in the hole, mostly because of unfunded mandates from Tallahassee and the fact Vitti spent like a drunken sailor on his way out of town. A lot was on the cutting block and perhaps the most painful were art, music and PE. Well working with the board Greene has announced these were priorities we are not going to cut. From WOKV:   As Duval County Public Schools faces a $62 million budget hole, we've learned cuts to arts, music, and physical education funding are now being taken off the table. In their previous budget recommendation, the district administration proposed changes to the frequency of these classes in elementary schools to help save more than $2 million.  Under that plan, the district would have assigned staff by using a ratio to students.  Instead, DCPS says the frequency will remain the same, so students should see no changes to the level of these classes at their schools this upcoming school year, when compared to last s...

Amendment 8 is a poison pill for public education. It pairs two nominally popular if not superfluous ideas with one that strips local control away from school boards and the republican party and the charter school industry are pumping money into making sure it passes. Remember when one of the mantras of the republican party was local control was better? Well friends not anymore especially if it gets in the way of their donors making money. From Florida Phoenix: The Republican Party of Florida, investment companies, education groups and fans of charter schools have so far contributed $167,000 to 8isGreat.org, a political committee pushing to approve a contentious education amendment to the state’s Constitution. The largest contribution was from the Florida GOP — $100,000 on June 13, according to the state’s Division of Elections. The so-called Amendment 8, on the ballot November 6, represents a legal, political and philosophical battle over who can or can’t control charter schools in Fl...

Tell me there isn't a war on public teachers by Tallahassee or better yet tell the 920 effective teachers who are currently out of a job while teachers at private schools that take vouchers don't have to be certified or have degrees, and several of the schools even have hired felons.   The crown jewel of Tallahassee's education agenda this year was to decertify teachers unions because they can't stand the profession and his on the heels where they have ratcheted up the difficulty and cost of teacher exams in the state.  From WFTS- Tampa Mixon is just one of, at least, 920 Florida teachers who, we've learned, are being terminated this summer because they can't pass a portion of the Florida Teacher Certification Exam also known as the FTCE licensing exam. The battery of tests which include a variety of subject area exams and general knowledge tests are a must-pass for anyone who wants to teach in Florida.  The state revised the FTCE in 2015. Our series, ...

Right now, JPEF is the only school board forum game in town and that should make us all troubled for many reasons. First the forums are being held downtown, not in the districts the elections are taking place and only 30 people can attend. Now they do say they will be live streamed but color me not very confident. If that wasn't bad enough, they are rife with conflicts of interests too. Several members of JPEF’s board of directors have picked candidates in each race to support. Nick Howland in 2, David Chauncey in 6 and Daryl Willie in district 4, sending these preferred candidates thousands of dollars.  Then both Willie and Howland are closely related to Teach for America and five of the ten staff members at JPEF have TFA in their bios. I believe these things create both an insurmountable conflict of interest and at the very least present the appearance of impropriety. We need organizations like WJCT, the Times Union, The NAACP and the League of Women Voters to step up and make su...

There is a 2018-19 class of new Teach for America recruits. The TPC gave TFA Jax a hundred thousand dollars. This makes TFA look strong with a bright future but the truth is a lot different. DCPS says they have no plans of continuing the program. Now they are finishing the commitment made under Vitti but they don't plan on moving forward with any new ones and thank goodness. Did the TPC know this when TFA took the money? Did the new TFAers know they would be working charter schools? My bet is not. Darryl Willie has some tough questions that need answered and I for one hopes he gives us more than just slick dance moves. TFA is on the way out of Jacksonville and that is both long overdue and a good thing, but for some reason Willie is operating like there isn't a care in the world.

Here are some facts about Florida's voucher program: Vouchers siphon over a billion annually away from public schools. Teachers at voucher schools don't have to have degrees, be certified and can have serious criminal records.  They don't have to have a recognized curriculum and many teach junk science an false history. Most of them don't have to report how they spend the money they receive.  There is zero academic accountability that the state requires for public schools. John Kirtley Florida's voucher king, is also a major donor to republican candidates for which he has been greatly rewarded.  Now there is evidence that students who receive the vouchers are harmed by them. From UVAToday: A  new study from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education finds that low-income children or children enrolled in urban schools do not benefit more from enrolling in private school between kindergarten and ninth grade. “Despite the arguments in favor of the use of v...

I hear all the times in education talks, students first, whatever is in the best interest of students, and this may not be popular, but it makes me cringe. You see in education there are TWO paramount parties and neither are more important than the other and that is students and teachers. You can't support or ignore one without likewise supporting or ignoring the other. When I started the blog, this was my overriding thought, the better things are for teachers, the better things will be for their students. If you support and empower teachers they will do the same for their students, but if you marginalize, overwork, berate or so many other things that are common, well that will trickle down too. On Tuesday the district and its partners put on a meet and greet for Superintendent Greene where she gave a fiery and impassioned speech and I have to say I am not a kumbaya guy, that is I don't need a pep talk but after she was finished I was ready to get back to work, admittedly a fee...

At today's meet and greet, and more about that later, I asked superintendent Greene if going forward the district plans to hire any new Teach for America teachers, and she said they are hiring, so if you are interested get your resume together, but they had no plans to hire new TFA teachers.  Now there is a new class of TFA teachers in own, so I guess this means they will all be going to charter schools. I wonder if they new that when they were hired. If Darryl Willie does his day job like he runs for school board then its my bet not. Just a quick refresher, TFA takes mostly non education, recent college graduates, puts them through a six week teacher boot camp and then into our neediest schools where they are supposed to serve a two year commitment making sure our neediest students have the exact opposite of what research says they need. In short it is dreadful. You know TFA just took a hundred thousand dollars from The Players Championship, money that could have went to truly nee...

There is a meet and greet for Superintendent Green today at UNF. Today Darryl Willie invited people to go to it.  The problem is RSVPs closed on July 10th. Now I guess we can argue if there should be a RSVP to events like this. I don't think there should be, but right there is says please RSVP by July 10th. https://www.eventbrite.com/e/welcome-reception-for-duval-schools-superintendent-dr-diana-greene-registration-47528263315 D-Willie probably didn't even look, he was to busy perfecting his dance moves is my bet, but the thing is, its the little things, its the details that determine success and failure, and Willie has no time for the details. Willie takes money from people who would privatize our schools. He doesn't  believe teachers are professionals or that experience matters. He doesn't do his paper work and he thinks his dance moves should trump others ideas and today he invited people to an event that stopped taking RSVPs a week ago. He is a parody of a candidate....

If Florida was a country it would have the 17th biggest economy in the world. It's worth over a trillion dollars. So the question is, why does the state have such a hard time investing in education? One word, republicans. The republicans have been in charge of the state government for over 20 years and before you lavish praise on them for the state passing the one trillion milestone, I would argue we would be doing much better if we would have taken the federal money to build the super train from Orlando to Tampa and if we would have taken the medicare expansion. For no reason I can tell but spite, Tallahassee turned it's back on billions and billions of dollars which would have provided jobs and services to Florida's citizens but I digress. Since republicans have been in charge, the state's teachers when cost of living is factored in, are the lowest paid in the nation and we are routinely at the bottom of per pupil spending and investing in education. Instead of invest...

In Darryl Willie's latest campaign post he asks District 4 do you love me? Ugh how does he fit his head through his shirt? He posted a video where he gets out of the D-Willie mobile and dances with his family and school board building in the background? There is nothing about that pesky reading problem, teacher morale or the 63 million dollar budget shortfall, just him shaking his money maker. The school board needs serious people to do a serious job and D-Willie has just proven again its not him. We can't afford to put somebody who thinks selling his dance moves is more important than selling his ideas on the board. I am reminded of a line of dialogue from the musical Hamilton. Hamilton asks Burr, if you stand for nothing what do you fall for, and Burr replies, talk less smile more, don't let them know what you are against or what you are for. Willie is dancing not talking about his ideas and he hopes people will overlook his lack of them, as well as his lack of experience...

It might seem like I am pretty critical of JPEF and it's because I am. I think it is abhorrent that they take that sweet sweet Gary Chartand money and then pretend to be advocates of public education. Here is an incomplete list of things they have done over the years. They have hosted school board forums without revealing their board members support particular candidates. They did a white paper which said, public schools do better than charters and we don't know how well private schools that take vouchers do, but we need more charters and vouchers. Trey Csar their long time director said he wasn't for public schools he was for good schools, a noble sentiment indeed, but its to bad JPEF isn't call JGSEF. I would also argue that supporting charters and voucher schools goes against his sentiment. They crowned a Teach for America teacher with just two years classroom experience as the best the district had to offer. They advertised for a forum whose theme was how can we get...