August 31, 2014

Tales of beatings emerging from another FL school for boys near Okeechobee.

I hate to admit that I did not know this one existed. It was opened in 1959, and now is in the hands of private contractors. Investigations there are beginning.

Dozier School for boys in Mariana, FL has finally been closed after years of investigations, nearly 100 years.

Many of the staffers there went to the boys' school in Okeechobee.

Former ‘White House Boy' from Knoxville confronts his past and recalls horrors of Florida reform

At 12 he was beaten so badly by his stepmother Florida authorities removed him from her care. A judge sent the child to a place that sounded like a haven — the new Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee.

There the real hell began. For 10 months, three weeks, four days and some 10 hours, the boy lived in fear. He was beaten, tormented, molested. Struck so often and so hard with a 2 ½-foot-long, 5-inch-wide leather paddle that blood soaked his blue jeans. He got no medical help.

Long after he escaped Okeechobee the emotional and mental pain festered. For years he tried washing out the hurt with alcohol. Eventually he coped by confronting the past and with ongoing therapy and medication. Now the 68-year-old Army veteran and retired truck driver is telling his story. He talks of the abuse, of his helplessness and abiding anger at the men who tormented children. The devout Catholic emphasizes his deliverance from evil, a faith that buoyed his survival and the care from Linda, his wife of 51 years.

Johnson, a Knoxville resident since 1979, is a White House Boy. It’s the name for some 500 men who say they were beaten and abused at two Florida-run reform schools in the 1950s and 1960s.

Sounds like there may be some unmarked graves in Okeechobee near a swamp that might need investigating.

One day at dusk he spotted men dragging a beaten boy from the adjustment center to the rear seat of the school’s 1958 black Ford station wagon. They drove toward the campus tool shed. In a nearby field the next day he saw a freshly dug grave. But the boys were told dairy cows were buried there.

August 30, 2014

FL man who griped about boy's lemonade stand now in trouble for doing business w/o license..

and in his home.

There is a great video here of the young boy and his stand. He seems so polite and calm about it all.

Dunedin boy with lemonade stand reaps windfall; neighbor under city review

DUNEDIN — T.J. Guerrero has gained international attention this week because of his lemonade stand. • Since a story about a neighbor's efforts to shut down the 12-year-old boy's venture ran in Sunday's Tampa Bay Times, T.J. has been given donations, treated to a limo ride and featured in news reports from New York to Europe. He also has given back by donating some of the money to a local animal shelter.

The neighbor, Doug Wilkey, hasn't fared as well. He is now under investigation by the city for — of all things — potentially running a business out of his home without a license.

A tipster contacted the city and pointed officials toward records that show Wilkey, as recently as March, listed his Patricia Avenue home as the principal business address for Bayport Financial Services.

Planning director Greg Rice said officials were drafting a letter notifying Wilkey, 61, that all companies operating in the city require a business tax license, which costs about $45 a year, and that home-based-business owners must sign an affidavit agreeing to follow special rules.

Be sure to watch the video, that kid's a charmer.

I did find this one at You Tube about the stand.

August 29, 2014

Koch brothers influence on Florida State University sets risky precedent.

We have known of the large donation by Charles Koch to FSU's economic department. But the harm done continues with Koch's ability to influence new faculty hires.

From the Alligator Independent News

Koch brothers influence on FSU sets risky precedent

Over the past several years, the Koch brothers and their affiliated groups have donated millions of dollars to a number of American colleges and universities.

Among these donations was a $1.5 million contribution to the Florida State University Department of Economics given by Charles Koch in 2008. The donation included a stipulation that allowed Koch to select members of an advisory committee with veto power over new faculty hires.

News of this arrangement between Koch and the university first surfaced in 2011. However, the Kochs’ relationship with FSU has come under scrutiny during the university’s search for a new president.

Many members of FSU’s presidential search committee have ties to the Koch brothers and to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a conservative policy organization heavily supported by the Kochs.

The leading candidate for the FSU presidency, Sen. John Thrasher, R-Fla., is currently the chairman of Gov. Rick Scott’s re-election campaign. Scott has received immense support from the Koch brothers for his hard-line conservative and pro-corporate stances. Like the Kochs, Thrasher is known as a strong opponent of unions, particularly in the public sector.

More about the Koch donations:

Koch donations not just to Florida State. Branching out to universities around the country.

Under the terms of a 2008 deal with the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation, FSU's economics department is scheduled to receive $1.5 million over six years to hire professors. But faculty members hired with foundation money must be approved by an advisory committee handpicked by Koch. That means Koch effectively holds veto power, an arrangement rarely found in the academic community and that threatens independent thinking.

FSU, like many colleges and universities throughout Florida, struggles with increasing budgetary constraints. The very fact the university would be willing to forgo its independence in hiring for just $250,000 a year is disturbing, but perhaps should not be unexpected given the continuing cuts in state funding and the state Legislature's limits on tuition. After all, lawmakers have told higher education to be more creative in finding outside support.

One of my favorite Florida columnists covered this in 2011. I can't find the Tampa Bay Times link, but I saved this one.

Koch brothers wage a war on Americans

The latest bombshell is from St. Petersburg Times writer Kris Hundley, who exposed a 2008 agreement between the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation and Florida State University for $1.5 million. The money was to fund faculty positions in a new program promoting “political economy and free enterprise.” It came with the unconscionable condition that the foundation’s handpicked advisory committee hold veto power during the hiring process.

Disgraceful, yes, but this is just the newest revelation in what has been a well-reported mission by the Koch brothers to use their vast wealth, estimated at $22 billion each, to alter America’s thinking and turn average people against every government program that makes their lives better and more secure.

If you’re reading “Tea Party” here, you’ve got that right — call them the Kochs’ boots on the ground. But the Koch brothers know that they can’t rely solely on America’s angry, gullible know-nothings to change the national direction. Their ultra-conservatism needs a veneer of intellectual credibility, which is why for decades the brothers have lavished resources on a host of think tanks and academic institutions that are willing to make a case for anything a billionaire without a conscience would want.

August 29, 2014

Conundrum. Rick Scott seizes high ground, to explore legal options against Arne's "punitive" policy.

This is how Rick Scott plays the political game. I am very fearful he is going to come out of this smelling like roses.

This puts Charlie Crist in a pickle. If he opposes Scott on this he is supporting Arne Duncan's very very unpopular position that students just learning our language MUST take the very same test that all others take, and take it without a grace period allowed by Florida law. Our state law allows two years before an ELA student must take the full test.

This is the test that determines grades of schools and determines whether teachers will be fired because students don't test well.

If Crist doesn't speak out he may be seen as not supporting the president's policy, which is Arne's policy.

Gov. Rick Scott, in Miami, rips federal education standards that ‘punish’ diversity


Principal of Southside, Salvatore Schiavone, Gov. Rick Scott and Miami-Dade County Public Schools Superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, meet at Southside Elementary School, Wednesday, August 27, 2014. WALTER MICHOT / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

Florida leaders and the U.S. Department of Education don’t agree on how to assess the test scores of students who are learning English.

On Wednesday, Gov. Rick Scott — in full campaign mode after an easy primary election victory the night before — promised to explore “every legal option” if the feds won’t bend on standards he contends ‘punish’ diverse schools. The governor traveled to downtown Miami to make the announcement at Southside Elementary School, where 41 percent of students are English-language learners.

In a worst-case scenario, schools across Florida could be deemed as “failing” under the current rules of the federal No Child Left Behind law. As a result, the state could lose autonomy over how it spends its education budget, and schools could be forced to restructure staff.

The announcement was the latest effort by the Republican governor to put education center stage — while also appealing to a key county’s multi-ethnic voters — in what is expected to be a tight governor’s race. Ahead of his reelection bid against Democratic rival Charlie Crist, Scott has also announced a historic increase in per-student spending and called for an investigation into the fairness of standardized tests.

Here is more about Scott's plan to pull in the vote.

Arne Duncan may allow Rick Scott to look very good to teachers and parents.


Gov. Rick Scott, talking with a student, and Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, are asking the U.S. Department of Education not to hold Florida schools and teachers accountable for English language learners until after two years of instruction.
LYNNE SLADKY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKELAND | Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday the state will review its legal options if the U.S. Department of Education refuses to reverse its decision that Florida cannot exclude test scores from English-language learners.

A Florida law was passed this year that students who are labeled English-language learners would attend two years of school in the United States before their test scores would count toward school grades.

However, the federal government's No Child Left Behind policy requires all students' scores to count. Federal education officials recently renewed Florida's No Child Left Behind waiver but said the state has to count English learners' scores right away.

This is going to play well for Scott I fear. The law goes against all common sense, so many will feel Scott is doing the right thing. Teachers are already angry at the policy of the Dept of Education that puts their careers in jeopardy. I despise Rick Scott, but even I can see he is playing this brilliantly.

August 28, 2014

Arne Duncan may allow Rick Scott to look very good to teachers and parents.

And that really worries me.

Arne's education department requires that all ELA (English Language Learners) be tested immediately, not allowed time to become more proficient in the English language. This is the testing that will determine grades of schools and whether teachers survive or get fired.

Rick Scott is taking a stand against this edict apparently.

Gov. Scott: Delay Counting Some Test Scores


Gov. Rick Scott, talking with a student, and Alberto Carvalho, superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools, are asking the U.S. Department of Education not to hold Florida schools and teachers accountable for English language learners until after two years of instruction.
LYNNE SLADKY | THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAKELAND | Gov. Rick Scott said Tuesday the state will review its legal options if the U.S. Department of Education refuses to reverse its decision that Florida cannot exclude test scores from English-language learners.

A Florida law was passed this year that students who are labeled English-language learners would attend two years of school in the United States before their test scores would count toward school grades.

However, the federal government's No Child Left Behind policy requires all students' scores to count. Federal education officials recently renewed Florida's No Child Left Behind waiver but said the state has to count English learners' scores right away.

Scott and Florida Education Commissioner Pam Stewart called for federal officials to reverse their decision in 30 days.

"This is yet another overreach by federal education officials into the practices of Florida education leaders who best understand the needs of our students," Scott said in a news release Tuesday.

I taught many who could not speak English at all, who had been in this country just a very short time. The school had stopped the service of providing a translator for the parents, so we had to find someone on our own.

Imagine how a teacher will feel to have their job on the line by scoring non-English speakers the same way as those comfortable in the language.

Scott might come out looking good on this one, and we really don't need that for our state right now.

August 28, 2014

Tucson Weekly: Schools, Society And Snake Oil Salesmen

One of the most frightening things to come from Arne Duncan lately, among other frightening things, is that all children can and should be able to handle honors level courses and tests. He believes that students can and should perform on cue.

This new reform item of his has led to one of the main attacks on teachers....that they do not treat special education students, poor, needy students as though they can do better. This is very unfair, it is not true. I must say there are exceptions to any rule, but most teachers can and do care for and challenge every child.

When I read this article from the Tucson Weekly, I realized that there are some people who get it. That there are still people who believe teachers care and strive to do their best for each child.

Schools, Society And Snake Oil Salesmen

Remember George Bush's line about "the soft bigotry of low expectations"? It's a beautiful phrase with at least a kernel of truth to it, but its main purpose was to bludgeon teachers and administrators who work with low income students, saying to them, "You're all a bunch of bigots who think your students are too stupid to do well in school because they're black or brown or poor! Their low test scores are your fault, because you're lousy educators who refuse to have high expectations for your students."

The leaders of the education reform/privatization movement are accomplished snake oil salesmen. Like the con men of old who used to stand on the back of wagons pitching their wares, these purveyors of educational snake oil begin by rolling out their gruesome descriptions of the aches, pains and mortal illnesses their audience is afflicted with. The only difference is, their pitch is about educational, not physical ailments. They tell horror stories about the mortal danger our country is facing due to our "failing schools" which are sapping our children of their educational potential and turning us into a second rate economic power, soon to be overwhelmed by international competition. When their audience has been sufficiently beaten down, when they've lost all hope that our system of public schooling can ever succeed, when they're ready to grasp at any solution offered up with sufficient evangelical zeal, the con men pull a bottle of magic potion off the back of the wagon and wave it in the air, guaranteeing it will cure all our educational ills. They recite the ingredients in their elixir: charter schools, vouchers, elimination of teacher tenure, elimination of teacher unions. And they promise, if the country drinks it, our educational ills will be cured.

The biggest problem with buying snake oil is, if you believe it will cure what ails you, you're likely to ignore treatments which can actually help. The con man's "magic elixir" won't make things any better, and over the long run, it could make things worse. That's the primary danger in buying the phony cure-all offered by the reform/privatization salesmen. It's not that charter schools and private schools are inherently worse than school district schools. They aren't. The vast majority of serious studies say there's little difference between the achievement of similar students in the three types of schools. The problem is, they're no better than what we already have. If we drink their reform/privatization potion and think it's going to make a difference, we'll end up running in place, going nowhere in terms of improving educational outcomes. Or worse, we'll end up dismantling the system of public education which, for all its flaws, is the best hope we have for educating our children.

And if we drink the reform/privatization snake oil, if we believe our schools can make children from poor families achieve at the same level as children from well off families, we'll ignore the fundamental truth that poverty and poor educational achievement are inextricably linked. We'll forget that if we address the root causes of poverty — even if we can lessen the adverse impacts of poverty on children — we'll raise student achievement whether or not we improve our schools. And if we work on making our schools better at the same time, we'll achieve a multiplier effect. We won't work the miracles the snake oil salesmen promise, but we're far more likely to see genuine improvement in student achievement, especially from the lowest achieving students who live in the greatest poverty.

Rule of thumb: If you want to dismantle a great American tradition like public education, you must first discredit it. You must discredit the teachers in those schools in order to be able to turn their jobs into temp type positions....getting rid of those with higher pay and hiring new ones on the cheap.

The reformers with Arne's blessing are doing a good job of it I fear.

Linked at Twitter

August 27, 2014

Found at Twitter. Warning to Tea Party...Don't Vote. lol

August 26, 2014

I wonder if Arne Duncan is trying to end the category of special education?

I wonder if he and the other "reformers" think that if they demand that special education students perform on the same level as those who are not....I wonder if he thinks the issue of individual capabilities will go away like magic?

Mark Naison wrote about a meeting of a group of BATs (BadAss Teachers)...don't laugh there are tens of thousands of them already...with some of the people in the Education Department. Very angry BATs.

Arne Duncan Drops in Unexpectedly on Meeting With BATS at US Department of Education Office of Civil Rights and Gets an Earful!

He says that the group of reps from the Ed Dept were surprised at their outspokenness. I said they had not been listening. They haven't a clue. Arne Duncan was not expected at the meeting.

Right in the middle of both of these conversations, Arne Duncan walked in and introduced himself! Needless to say, we were surprised because we were told he would NOT be at the meeting. Especially since he entered, along with one of his top aides, just as things were starting to get heated and real disagreements were emerging.

In response to his first comment, Marla Kilfoyle started speaking about her concerns about Department from her standpoint of the parent of a special needs student as well as a teacher. She said it appeared that Department policies were forcing school districts to disregard individual student IEP’s and exposing special needs students to inappropriate and abusive levels of testing.

Secretary Duncan deflected her remarks by saying that the Department was concerned that too many children of color were being inappropriately diagnosed as being Special Needs children and that once they were put in that category they were permanently marginalized. He then said “We want to make sure that all student are exposed to a rigorous curriculum.”

.....Secretary Duncan was someone taken aback by my comments. He said “ we might disagree about the language, but what I want is for all students to be able to take advanced placement courses or be exposed to an IB (International Baccalaureat) curriculum.

Interesting, since IB is another of the "non-profit" companies making a profit off public education.

At this point, Larry Proffitt interrupted the Secretary and said that in Tennessee, Special Needs students were being abused and humiliated by abusive and inappropriate testing and that their teachers knew this, and were afraid to speak out.

Arne Duncan then left the room.

Here's the sad part. At least it's the sad part for those of us teachers who have dealt with this issue many times over. Children are different. They learn differently, they have different capabilities. Many simply can NOT handle advanced courses. Some I have taught have enough heartache learning to read and handle life skills.

Arne has decided that money going to special education should now be tied to the scores of the special education students.

Federal special ed funding should not be based on student test scores

National Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to tie test scores for special-education students to the amount of money a state receives from the federal government for reimbursement of special-education services. States that send back high test scores for special-education students will get more money; those with lower scores will get less or even no money.

Surely this will improve student learning, right?

Clearly, No Child Left Behind’s emphasis on tying student test scores to federal money was a major success! Cloning NCLB tools for special-education students sounds like a real winner.

Secretary Duncan argued, “We know that when students with disabilities are held to high expectations and have access to a robust curriculum, they excel.”

If only teachers knew this was the magical brew to student success! Obviously teachers have never held special-education students to a robust curriculum and high expectations, right?

Arne has magical thinking about students. Wouldn't it be nice if it were all so simple? He thinks he can declare that such students with special needs will take IB courses, pass a tough test....and they will all be fixed.

Some very true comments from the Tucson Weekly.

Schools, Society And Snake Oil Salesmen

Remember George Bush's line about "the soft bigotry of low expectations"? It's a beautiful phrase with at least a kernel of truth to it, but its main purpose was to bludgeon teachers and administrators who work with low income students, saying to them, "You're all a bunch of bigots who think your students are too stupid to do well in school because they're black or brown or poor! Their low test scores are your fault, because you're lousy educators who refuse to have high expectations for your students."

The leaders of the education reform/privatization movement are accomplished snake oil salesmen. Like the con men of old who used to stand on the back of wagons pitching their wares, these purveyors of educational snake oil begin by rolling out their gruesome descriptions of the aches, pains and mortal illnesses their audience is afflicted with. The only difference is, their pitch is about educational, not physical ailments.They tell horror stories about the mortal danger our country is facing due to our "failing schools" which are sapping our children of their educational potential and turning us into a second rate economic power, soon to be overwhelmed by international competition. When their audience has been sufficiently beaten down, when they've lost all hope that our system of public schooling can ever succeed, when they're ready to grasp at any solution offered up with sufficient evangelical zeal, the con men pull a bottle of magic potion off the back of the wagon and wave it in the air, guaranteeing it will cure all our educational ills.

August 24, 2014

Florida leads nation in turning down Medicaid money. Dubious distinction, but makes Rick proud.

Florida leads nation in turning down Medicaid money

TALLAHASSEE – Florida is No. 1 again.

But state officials may not be accepting many accolades for this latest distinction. Florida leads the nation in turning down Medicaid funding from the federal government, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute.

By refusing to expand Medicaid under the federal Affordable Care Act, Florida will lose out on $66.1 billion in federal funding over the next decade. Florida even edges out Texas, which comes in at a close second with $65.6 billion in lost federal funding.

It also means in 2016 some 1.1 million Floridians will go without health insurance who otherwise could be covered by Medicaid, the federal-state health care program for the poor and disabled. Texas holds the lead there with an estimated 1.5 million uninsured residents, according to the report.

Florida and Texas are the biggest players among the 24 states that have decided not to use the option under the federal health care law to expand Medicaid to residents earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level. Most of the states are led by Republicans who have been vocal critics of the ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Further in the article it points out that Ricky agreed in 2013 to accept the funds but only if the government paid the full amount. Legislators did not agree apparently, and the 2014 session showed nothing had been done about it.

August 24, 2014

Charter schools with troubled history apply in South Florida. District not allowed to deny them.

The districts are not allowed to turn down a charter applicant based on its past history. They must look only at the present application.

Charter school applicants have troubled histories

These schools are publicly funded but run privately. Among those applying are:

• A group that managed three new charter schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties that opened this year — and then shut down on the first day of school.

• The founder of two charter schools that failed in 2007 amid accusations of stolen money, shoddy record keeping and parent complaints, according to state and local records. A state investigation later chastised school directors for "virtually nonexistent" oversight, though prosecutors filed no criminal charges.

• An educator who was banned from New Jersey public schools, then consulted for two schools in Broward and Palm Beach counties that shuttered in 2013. The Palm Beach County school district closed one of the schools because of poor academics and financial difficulties; the Broward school chose to cease operations amid dwindling enrollment, according to school district reports.

Starting up, shutting down

Eight hours before students were to report for classes at the new Broward County Charter High on the first day of school this year, Richard E. Durr emailed a Broward school district official saying the school would not open "due to circumstances beyond our control." Durr is a director at the school's management company, American Charter Schools, Inc.

More about the failed New Jersey educator who came to Florida.

School superintendent banned in NJ finds work in FL, brings banned colleagues with him.

Three charter schools in the South Florida counties of Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade hired Steve Gallon III's company, Tri-Star Leadership, in June 2011, five months after Gallon was banned from working in New Jersey, according to a report from the Sun Sentinel.

In May 2010, Gallon and two of his assistants, Angela Kemp, 36, and Lalelei Kelly, 34, were accused of falsifying documents so that their children could attend schools in South Plainfield. Authorities said at the time that Kemp and Kelly provided a sworn statement from Gallon, who falsely indicated that the women and their children lived with him at his home in South Plainfield.

The charges brought against Gallon, Kemp and Kelly were dropped in January 2011 and the three agreed to serve probation and to never work in the New Jersey public school system again, the report said.

Just over a year after Gallon was hired to work with schools in South Florida, he hired Kelly to work as a consultant, at a salary of $60,000 a year, the report said. Months later, he hired Kemp to be the principal at Excel Leadership Academy in Palm Beach County, at a salary of $80,000 a year, according to the report.

There's a war on teachers demanding accountability in every way. There is little accountability required of charter school operators.