Warning: A scary black man is coming to school and he wants to seduce your children.

Robertson and Conway: Giving Conservatism a Bad Name

In the early 1990’s, then US Congressman Larry Hopkins came to Cassidy School to speak to Marcia Foster’s second grade class. It never occurred to me to ask parents if they wanted their children to be excused from the event.

We were teaching children about our democratic form of government. That Hopkins was a Republican and the principal was a Democrat mattered not at all. He was our duly elected representative; he was there for all children; and we were honored. Parents came too and brought treats for the children.

It was a memorable visit. Like a grandfather on career day, he talked about his job and how important it was for every child to work hard in school. I’ll never forget that as Hopkins unfurled his gift to the school - a flag that had flown over our nation’s capital - a child “got sick” all over it. Old Glory saved Hopkins from tragedy. Hopkins’s aide was horrified. Hopkins was amused. I went to the laundry. That’s just life in the school business.

We flew that flag until it wore out.

For a number of years, during the Clinton and Bush (43) administrations, it was my privilege as principal to read a letter from those presidents to our “graduating” fifth graders as we awarded the President’s Academic Fitness Awards. Both extolled the virtues of education, reinforced the notion that hard work led to a prosperous America, and generally challenged students to go on to success in high school, college and in life. It never occurred to me to censor the letters in any way. They were messages from our president. Neither acted politically.

Since 2004, Secretary of State Trey Grayson has held 11 regional summits with hundreds of students and teachers arguing that Kentucky must “increase the civic literacy of our people.” Like Thomas Jefferson, Grayson believes that “civic engagement is essential to the success of a democratic government." Grayson's advocacy is not partisan. It is not meant to stifle speech. It is fundamentally American.

Now comes word that for the first time in history, President Barack Obama will conduct a televised/webcast address to America’s school children, at noon, on Tuesday September 8. The White House says, “the president will speak directly to the nation’s children and youth about persisting and succeeding in school. The president will challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning.” The chat will be broadcast live on the White House Web site and on C-SPAN.

Suddenly alarms are sounding on the far right.

It is unclear who called whom, but both Steve Robertson, chairman of the Republican Party of Kentucky and WLAP 630-AM's conservative pundit Leland Conway called the president’s planned address “creepy.”

Conway and Robertson are concerned that such an event might bring partisan politics into the schoolhouse, so they decided to politicize the event. Conway advised parents to keep their children at home.

But what is truly outrageous here is their use of the word “creepy” to describe the address – imagery that is clearly intended to besmirch Obama in a personal, undeserved and vicious manner. By using language befitting a pedophile or some other depraved individual who might prey on children, Robertson and Conway have fabricated an illusion of the president that is totally without merit.

Moreover it is troubling that Conway - (H-L, 10/6/08) who has argued that there is little racism in Kentucky because you can’t prove otherwise - should evoke such fears about our first African American president harkens back to the Jim Crow days when white populist politicians stirred concerns over miscegenation – as if Obama is coming to despoil our children. This is outrageous.

Robertson and Conway should be ashamed of themselves – but I doubt they are.

There is, indeed, something creepy going on here. But it is not the president of the United States publicly addressing America’s school children. It is the depths to which the neocon wing of the Republican Party and reactionary radio pundits are willing to stoop in order to engender fear and widen the political divide.


This from the Herald-Leader, Photo by Charles Dharapak/AP:

Should kids hear Obama?

Plans by President Barack Obama to speak directly to the nation's schoolchildren Tuesday are sparking controversy in Kentucky.

Fayette County parents will receive a note from Superintendent Stu Silberman on Thursday explaining that the district will participate in the president's address and that parents can call the school if they have concerns. Parents can ask to have their children opt out of the planned noontime speech, and an alternative assignment will be arranged, provided that plans are made ahead of schedule. Other schools in the Bluegrass are following suit.

There were "between 25 and 50 calls" Tuesday and Wednesday to the Fayette County school district, according to Silberman. "We want to respect the office of the president and to respect parents as well," said Silberman. "We want this to be a good event."

Silberman said there are no plans for any discussions after the speech...

This from the Courier-Journal:

Holliday says schools should provide

alternative to Obama speech

Kentucky’s education chief told school superintendents Thursday that if they show President Obama’s coming address to students, they should provide alternative activities for children whose parents object.

Some districts “have received requests for alternative activities from parents who do not wish their children to view the broadcast or webcast,” education commissioner Terry Holliday said in an e-mail.

Here are the scary remarks Obama made yesterday while visiting a charter school in Washington:

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT
AFTER READING TO THE SECOND GRADE CLASS
Capital City Public Charter School
Washington, D.C.
February 3, 2009

THE PRESIDENT: Well, listen, you guys, you've been terrific. Thank you so much for your hospitality --

MRS. OBAMA: -- your good questions.

THE PRESIDENT: -- your excellent questions.

MRS. OBAMA: -- your outstanding listening skills.

THE PRESIDENT: You're excellent listeners. And the reason we came to visit, A, we wanted to get out of the White House; B, we wanted to see you guys; but C, the other thing we wanted to tell everybody is that this kind of innovative school, the outstanding work that's being done here by the entire staff, and the parents who are so active and involved, is an example of how all our schools should be.

And what I've asked Arne Duncan to do is to make sure that he works as hard as he can over the next several years to make sure that we're reforming our schools, that we're rewarding innovation the way that it's taking place here, that we're encouraging parents to be involved, that we're raising standards for all children so that everybody can learn -- especially things like math and science that are going to be so important for the jobs of the future.

And so we're very proud of what's been accomplished at this school and we want to make sure that we're duplicating that success all across the country. So nothing is going to be more important than this. And the recovery and reinvestment act that we've put forward will provide billions of dollars to build schools and help with school construction. It will provide money to train teachers, especially in subjects like math and science that are so critical. And it will also give Secretary Duncan the resources he needs to reward excellent, innovative schools. And so we think it's really important for the country that we get that bill passed.

But thank you so much, everybody. Appreciate you.

MRS. OBAMA: Thank you, guys. This was fun. (Applause.)

CATS Reaction Across the State

Senate Bill 1 could be signed into law today as across the state folks are coming to grips with what all this means.

"I believe there are several positive elements that could represent an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to reform primary and secondary education. Most significantly, this legislation will create a new system for statewide accountability and assessment that will, for the first time, measure individual student progress over an extended period of time. That is critically important,” Beshear said in a statement.

Politically, some wonder anew if House Speaker Greg Stumbo's rookies should be faulted for the surprise abandonment of accountability over the next three years. Was this a phantom provision, dropped into the free conference report at the last minute? If so, how, and by whom? Or was it a provision that all conferees agreed to with eyes wide open?

"It's an outstanding bill that will make great improvements and will honor the input that we've received from our educators," Rep. Harry Moberly, D-Richmond [told the Herald-Leader].

Republican Sen. Dan Kelly of Springfield, a longtime proponent of changing Kentucky's assessment tools, said the bill would strengthen Kentucky's education system, not weaken it. "This is not the death of reform," Kelly said.

By all accounts, there was a great deal of input from teachers who had had enough....of something. Some clearly reacted to the amount of time they were being "asked" to commit to assessment at the expense of instruction. After all, you don't fatten a calf by weighing it. Some claimed that district personnel and principals had pushed teachers to the edge of some ethical cliff, and they pushed back.

Kelly's assurance that this does not mark the death of education reform in Kentucky is a welcome acknowledgement for those of us who believe a strong system of public schools is essential to our ability to compete as a state. But not all conservatives are buying it. Over at vere loqui, Martin Cothran declared that with the removal of the testing system KERA is officially dead and asked,

Will the last person out of Kentucky's Education Reform Headquarters please turn off the lights?

At KentuckyProgress, David Adams noted "the end of a disastrous episode in education 'reform'" and "got a kick out of "the Courier Journal referring to Bluegrass Institute as merely a "right-wing think-tank" (when everybody knows they are so much more). He thanked the Herald Leader for the "big laugh and free mention" when they referred to "conservative enemies" which Adams correctly assumed meant BIPPS, even though H-L didn't say.

None of the conservative groups came right out and said that Kelly was wrong. But they apparently believe he was.

The Herald-Leader lamented that as "lawmakers were dismantling Kentucky's school-accountability system last week, researchers were holding it up as a national model" citing Kentucky as one of five states that stand out for increasing high-school graduation rates while reducing schools that are "dropout factories." "It's impossible to not credit the Kentucky Education Reform Act for improvements in graduation rates," the H-L wrote.

Secretary of State Trey Grayson issued a statement voicing his dismay over the reduction of emphasis on social studies.

“By suspending the state accountability index and following the federal accountability requirements, we run the risk of marginalizing civics education,” he said in the statement. “With no accountability system in place for social studies, schools will naturally place a greater focus on those subjects that are part of accountability standards of No Child Left Behind.”

It now falls to the Kentucky Board of Education to guide KDE's response to Senate Bill 1. They start chatting on April 1st.

In the interim, some school districts, like Fayette County, are going to "make public its own 'academic index' based on this spring's testing, whether the state publishes a performance index or not." State education department spokeswoman Lisa Gross told the Herald-Leader the interim provisions in SB 1 might lead to widespread confusion until the new assessment system starts. Wayne Young, executive director of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators told H-L, "Some districts are going to go ahead and finish their portfolios. But you could get a bit of everything. There's no pattern that I would describe."

This morning outgoing President of the Council for Better Education Roger Marcum told state education leaders in an email message that Kentucky "chose the path of least resistance and the high risk of lower expectations for the immediate future."

His opinion echoed that of Prichard Committee head Bob Sexton who wrote an open letter posted on the Prichard blog,

It was decided that, for the next three years starting this spring, Kentucky schools should have no accountability except for student test scores on math and reading as required by No Child Left Behind. This means that the results of testing for writing (portfolios included) science, history, geography, economics, civics (i.e., social studies) and the arts won't be counted. The Kentucky Department of Education is also prohibited from publishing an overall school improvement score (accountability index) so schools won't know whether they are better or worse than the previous year - and neither will parents or other taxpayers.

Sexton quoted KEA President Sharron Oxendine as saying, "we should 'just give everybody a breather' from most accountability until we have a new system in three years."

The problems with that, according to Sexton include:

1. For the next three years schools won't have a way of telling parents and other taxpayers how they're progressing with student learning except in math and reading required by NCLB.
2. A likely result will be to de-emphasize writing, science, social studies (history, economics, geography, civics) and the arts.
3. Strong accountability ... and making the case for adequate or superior school funding are joined at the hip.

This last point has some serious legal implications for schools. Kentucky's constitution requires the General Assembly to provide an efficient system of common schools throughout the commonwealth. The Supreme Court has ruled that that means schools must be adequately funded to reach their goals. The absence of state accountability makes it very difficult, if not impossible, for a court to determine whether the General Assembly has fulfilled its obligation. How is a court to determine whether the system is sufficiently funded to reach its goals if the state has no justiciable standards by which the court might measure the efficiency of the system?

Grayson, Prichard Committee say bill could hurt science, social studies

This from Bluegrass Politics:

Bob Sexton, executive director for the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence, said the legislation aimed at replacing the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS) could have an unintended consequence of prompting Kentucky schools to focus more on math and reading to the detriment of the other subjects over the next three years before the new testing system is developed for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The House passed a re-written version of Senate Bill 1 by a 97-0 vote Wednesday.

The bill scraps the CATS test and immediately jettisons the writing portfolio requirement from the testing scheme. Other subjects, such as arts and humanities and living studies, also will be taken out of the testing formula next year, according to the bill....

...Secretary of State Trey Grayson weighed in with a similar appeal Wednesday, as reported by Bluegrass Politics.

“By suspending the state accountability index and following the federal accountability requirements, we run the risk of marginalizing civics education,” Grayson said in a statement. “With no accountability system in place for social studies, schools will naturally place a greater focus on those subjects that are part of accountability standards of No Child Left Behind.” ...

In Today's Installment of our ongoing Soap Opera - Felner Aide Phone Records

Well the hits just keep on coming, and today, Jake's got phone records. That means he's got a puzzle to work with.

So where did Felner's tentacles reach? The phone records of Felner confidant, Natalie Siglitz, director of the Office of Civic Education and Engagement at CEHD, produces some interesting names and times, including:

• Glenn Manns with the Ohio Valley Education Cooperative, one of the organizations involved with Anne Northup’s No Child Left Behind Center grant.
• Quite possibly the most interesting piece of this puzzle is that Stiglitz communicated with Superintendent of Jefferson County Schools Sheldon H. Berman as regularly as she spoke with her alleged boyfriend, Robert Felner. At late night hours. A 20+ minute conversation after 1:00 A.M. on a Friday night?
• Interesting - Stiglitz would call her family in Kansas City, then a number from Providence, RI that identified “Robert” on the voicemail greeting, then she’d get calls from Sheldon Berman shortly after. A call requesting comment from JCPS has not been returned.
• Felner’s attorney, Scott Cox
• According to [Secretary of State Trey]Grayson, one message was to alert him that there was a federal investigation at UofL. Stiglitz is involved with the Civic Literacy Initiative of Kentucky which Grayson chairs.
• ...the main number of Governor Steve Beshear’s office. This call took place on a Saturday afternoon, the day after the UofL raid.
  

Conference focuses on civics in schools

This from Toni Konz at The Courier-Journal:


National and local leaders joined education officialsfrom 14 states at a conference in Louisville over the weekend to discuss the importance of restoring civic education in America's schools.


The three-day meeting let participants exchange ideas, share resources and develop materials promoting civic education, said Donna Shouse, a social studies consultant with the Kentucky Department of Education.



Annette Pitts, executive director of the Florida Civic Alliance, said in this era of high-stakes testing, civic education is being pushed to the side.


"We are trying to evaluate what is currently happening and we hope to advance public policy and enhance curriculum in all grade levels," Pitts said. "It's such an important task; if students don't know what the Constitution says or know how to be involved in a democratic system, we are at great risk of losing this form of government."


About 40 people attended the Southern Coalition on Civic Education and Engagement's conference at The Brown hotel, including Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Sheldon Berman, Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson and U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, D-3rd District...