More From Port Chester! Vincent Marrone, Concerned Parent or Concerned Lobbyist?

I get home from Port Chester on Monday night and go on the Journal News website and what do I see? A video with two men who were at the forum in Port Chester to hear The King spew forth. One gentleman, is a a teacher, a union president, and a teacher from Ossining, and the other is of someone named Vincent Marrone, a self proclaimed "parent" from Larchmont named Vincent Marrone.

Now in the video Vince claims that he has a five year old daughter (presumably in Kindergarten?) and in a nutshell, says he has no problem with the Common Core standards, supports testing, believes the tests will help them get into college, and says, "I don't know why people are objecting to that," and goes on why teachers don't like testing is that, "...a big part of the scores is tied to their jobs, and it is a big deal that it is tied to their jobs." 

So why all the hub bub about some parent sharing his opinion? I guess one is that the parent from Ossining shared exactly what his background is. Simple, "Bob Rosenbaum, a high school English teacher, a union president and a parent." I think if he came out and shared that he believes that The King is a deity no one would have a problem, (except for thinking The King is a deity) with that for he fully disclosed who he is.

On the other hand, Vinny lied. Yes, he is a parent. But is so much more. Vince is founder and president of Public Strategies, LLC, "full-service government relations firm that specializes in representing clients on regulatory, statutory and budgetary concerns." He's a lobbyist!!!! Oh, oh! Vince, for shame. Why not share this with the Journal News? Are you ashamed of what you do?

As was reported today in New York BATS Facebook page, and on the Hall Monitor blog by Journal News education reporter, Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy, one of Vince's clients is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Yes, that very same Bill Gates who failed to innovate at Microsoft and is attempting to do to education what he has done to Microsoft. Yes, the very same Bill Gates who has shoved Common Core down our throats and who said that we won't know if Common Core will succeed for another ten years.

But let's not stop there. Another client of Vinny's is the New York City Charter School Center. Yeah, charter schools, Common Core, testing, hmm, I see a connection for Vince's sycophancy. Oh snap, I almost forgot. NYC Charter School Center is supported by Billy and Melinda. I am starting to think that Vince was a plant on Monday night and wasn't speaking from the heart but rather from the wallet. And speaking of wallet's, click here and see how much all his clients (some worthy ones I will admit) paid him, in particular Billy and NYC Charter School Center.

But enough of outing Vince, maybe it's time we educate Vince. Maybe Vince should know about the teacher, Rigoberto Ruelas, in Los Angeles who after years of being a beloved teacher was rated ineffective (and outed by Jason Felch of the Los Angeles Times) by some inane algorithm tied to his students test scores. How did Rigoberto deal with this? He committed suicide.

As far as the tests, no one has a problem with testing as long as it is done for assessment, but to make testing part and parcel of a student's whole reason for being in school and to judge teachers is just wrong. How can we determine in 3rd grade, or even Kindergarten (which the powers that be wish) are college or career ready? How can we judge whether or not a teacher is effective by testing? Teacher's have no control over what happens at home.

Vince, worse, and as I said to The King on Monday night, there is no crisis in education. It was creates by the billionaire boys club and the people you represent. All that matters to these people is they see that there is a buck to be made from education and from children.

That is all that seems to matter today in education. Dollars.

Reflections on Seeing The King Last Night in Port Chester, NY

My stream of consciousness about last night:

What many people do not know, is that Port Chester Middle School is actually in the Village of Rye
Brook. Rye Brook is one of the tonier areas of Westchester County. It even has a D'agastino's. But

more on Rye Brook later.

So there I was last night in Port Chester, #47 in line to speak. On one side of the dais, the so-called "educators"; The King, Meryl Tisch, and Regent Phillips. On the other side of the dais, the so-called "champions of the people," Assemblyman Steven Otis, State Senator Andrea Stewart-Cousins, Assemblyman David Buchwald, Assemblyman J. Gary Pretlow, and Assemblyman Tom Abinanti.

Senator Cousins addressed the audience. She shared how she represented such a diverse population. Her district goes from Yonkers to Scarsdale. And she then said something quite interesting.

"We need to know why there is such a big difference of achievement between the students in Yonkers and Scarsdale."

Really? I hope this was a rhetorical question, though I doubt it. It's obvious Senator Cousins. Email me and I will give you a hint.

But this is what I noticed.

Assemblyman Otis was taking copious notes at a furious pace.

Assemblyman Pretlow, though not taking notes truly looked interested and concerned.

Senator Cousins, eh.

Abinanti? Yeah, he looked interested.

The moderator from the Westchester County League of Women Voters was a big meanie. 

Regent Phillips, a friend who is a real mensch said he is a stand up guy.

The King looked like he was on a Blackberry most of the night, but I will give him the benefit of the doubt. I saw a pen moving in his hand.

Chancellor Tisch looked as if she was wondering how fast she can get herself to Saks over the state line in Greenwich once the forum ended.

Yvonne Gasperino is a great speaker and a force to be reckoned with.

As far as myself, I was a little too histrionic when I spoke, though the mean moderator was a meanie to me. I accused the three "educators" of never teaching. Oh, Regent Phillips, I apologize for lumping you with the two lunkheads you were sitting next to, but you still never taught.

I claimed that The King and Tisch are part of the billionaires club, though honorary members.

I shared with them how my son got 2's last year, yet still made honor roll, and had 4's and high 3's until last year.

I asked them how they can sleep with themselves and look in the mirror.

I really wanted to say, "The Revolution has begun," and raise my fist like they did in Mexico City.

But one thing kept gnawing at me.

While I saw a lot of educators; teachers, superintendents, board members, PTA members, principals, assistant principals, teacher's aides, paraprofessionals, one thing was truly missing.

Parents. Regular parents. I mean not parents like me who are in education, who wear two hats (educator and parent), but regular rank and file moms and dads. Not that there weren't any, but I don;t believe that made up even 10% of the speakers last night and probably less of the audience. Hey, I could be wrong, and if I am I apologize, but I am going just by my perception.

But here we were in Rye Brook actually, with Rye, and Purchase, and Harrison, and Larchmont right nearby and I was expecting more. More parents.

Yeah, I know the time was difficult, 4 PM, and the forum was kind of last minute (is it cynical of me to think that it was done this was on purpose?), but there should have been more, should have had much more local, true grass roots involvement there yesterday.

I hope the outrage is building in these communities. I hope the frustration is building. I hope people have had enough of a decisions that should be a local matter, such as their child's education being decided in Albany and Washington, will make them say enough is enough.

But from what I saw last night is The King is fully entrenched in what he believes in and won't budge unless Governor Andy tell him to. The King is butt naked of credibility right now and doesn't know how small he looks.

And as I said last night, there is, and never was, a education crisis. It was all manufactured by those that pull The King's strings.

Hey Parents of Harrison, New York!! George Carlin Knew About It All Along!!

Bear with me, trying to make a point to the document I am about to share.

Not trying to be redundant, but remember about a month ago I posted this George Carlin video? But let's cut those words down and look at the really important and scary stuff George Carlin had to say.

 The big wealthy business interests that control things and make all the important decisions.

The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You have OWNERS! They OWN YOU. 

 they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls

They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well informed, well educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. Thats against their interests. 

Thats right. They don’t want people who are smart enough to sit around a kitchen table and think about how badly they’re getting fucked by a system that threw them overboard 30 fucking years ago. They don’t want that! 

They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork. And just dumb enough to passively accept all these increasingly shitty jobs with the lower pay, the longer hours, the reduced benefits, the end of overtime and vanishing pension that disappears the minute you go to collect it, 

They want it back so they can give it to their criminal friends on Wall Street, They’ll get it.

They’ll get it all from you sooner or later cause they own this fucking place! It's a big club, and you ain’t in it!  You, and I, are not in the big club. 

Good honest hard-working people continue, these are people of modest means, continue to elect these rich cock suckers who don’t give a fuck about you….they don’t give a fuck about you… they don’t give a FUCK about you. 

 The fact that Americans will probably remain willfully ignorant of the big red, white and blue dick thats being jammed up their assholes everyday, because the owners of this country know the truth. 

It's called the American Dream,because you have to be asleep to believe it.

So with that being said, an SBSB source shared with The Crack Team what seems to be a plot by The Business Roundtable to take over and transform American education.

As Sara Wottawa (The source of the document), an educational activist and member of NY BATS commented about the supposed conspiracy between the Business Roundtable and our elected politicians, "This is insane it exposes the whole reform agenda." Speaking to a member of The Crack Team here at SBSB Gail went on about the Business Roundtable,"....this organization donates billions to political organizations and campaigns."

 Anyway, now to the point. I report, you make up your mind;

   Business Roundtable Conspiracy

One last question. Who's going to dig the ditches?

Fine Dining With New York State Education Commissioner John King

I just came across this blog;  Oneonta Area For Public Education today. I think I saw it on the New York Bats Facebook page, or somewhere. Anyway, I fully haven't given it a good read through, but I'm adding it to the SBSB blog roll. Oh, and one other thing caught my eye on that blog. I found out today that NYSED Commissioner John King enjoys fine dining.

One of the authors of OA4PE (Got it right?), Betsy Bloom, shared about a conference she went to in Saratoga in which The King was the keynote speaker. The King yada-yada-yada'd about all the stuff he yada-yada-yada's about. But as Betsy shared, The King showed just how out of touch he is by using an analogy comparing dining with his wife and how shocked he is receiving letters from parents complaining about their child's math homework.

Some highlights;

The King blabbered, “When I’m in a restaurant, and the waiter opens the bottle of wine for me to taste, I never say no, send it back, even if it’s horrible. The same with my meal, if I don’t like it I’ll eat it anyway."

OK. First off, The King just shows how out of touch he is because most of us don't have the class that King claims he does, nor the wherewithal to eat at anywhere other than Applebee's. Besides, couldn't The King have said he orders a Genny when out to dinner with his wife? Heck, I would have even accepted him saying he orders an imported beer (as long as it were Labatt's Blue!).

But John, you lie. You showed in Poughkeepsie what you do when you don't get your way. You run away. You lie. You have others lie for you. You take your ball and run away.

But I call bullocks that you don't send your wine or your food back. If the food is undercooked, or burned, you eat it? If the the wine you ordered tastes like Aqua-Velva you drink it? My mother always, always sent her bluefish back. There was always something wrong with it. There was not one single restaurant in the the United States that could cook her bluefish correctly.

But I have digressed.

I must disagree with Betsy a wee bit on this one. Now bear with me, my point will soon be made.

In fact there is some logic to The King analogy about being in a chain restaurant, like Applebee's. Think about it.

In education, the teachers, the educators, are the waiters. We serve it. We place knowledge on the table of learning. We take the orders of what our students want. We can know what is good or what to stay away from.

The principals are the restaurant managers, the greeters, with the IQ's (at least in NYC) of the hat check girl. They think they know what is happening in the education restaurant, but they don't (in NYC).  But they run things.

The chefs? Well the chefs are the one's that put the curriculum together with the monies they are given and serve it up to the teachers. But the chefs must get direction from somewhere, no?

Yes, the chefs get their orders, their directions from the restaurant home office. In this case the home office is on Washington Ave in Albany. And who runs the restaurant? The King. He puts together the menus, he put together the ingredients, he doles out the monies, and he is the decider.

But because of what he is serving up, all the food at the restaurants taste like cardboard. There is also no fun allowed at the restaurants. No kids menu, no crayons, no coloring. The kids that come to The King's restaurants must have an appetite and attitude that is adult ready.

But the restaurant's The King runs are perfect. Few staff, and fewer customers. As long as the hedge fund investors and restaurant suppliers (Pearson has no branched off into food service) are happy, that is all that matters.

The customers? The King doesn't care. But the customer's care. The customer's aren't looking for anything fancy. They just want value.

The Next Internet Radio Show

Tomorrow night, Thursday, October 24, 2013 at 9 PM will be the famed NYC teacher taking on the NYC DOE of education, Francesco Portelos

Francesco first made news when as a representive on his school's, PS 49 in Staten Island,  SBLT (School Based Leadership Team) he used his constitutional right to inquire about his school's finances. What he found, financial improprieties by his principal, has put him on a Kafkaesque odyssey sitting in the Rubber Room. 

You can find out more about Francesco and his case on his blog; Protect Portelos

Listen here; http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nyinternetradio/2013/10/25/new-york-education-show

The number to call in is (347) 308-8259

The Next Internet Radio Show

Thursday October 17, 2013 at 9 PM EDT we are joined by two guests.

The first guest is retired UFT Chapter Leader Stephanie Flunory joins us to discuss the upheavel at PS 29 in College Point, Queens.

Our second guest is world reknowned educator Shaun Johnson of @thechalkface fame to discuss what measures can be taken locally against Common Core, high stakes testing, and getting back control of our children's education.

The call in # is (347) 308-8259

Listen live at this link (you might have to copy and paste)
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/nyinternetradio/2013/10/18/new-york-education-show

BREAKING NEWS!!! PS 29Q Principal Jennifer Rogers Forced to Resign!!

This news came into the SBSB newsroom the other day. It seems that Jennifer Rogers, principal of PS 29 in Queens has been forced to resign the NYCDOE.

The Crack Team was able to  obtain this letter sent to the PS 29 community by Superintendent Danielle DiMAngo (click to enlarge. Don't click Nixon);

We applaud Ms DiMango for doing the correct thing in accepting Ms Rogers resignation. Obviously she was in over her head and was unable to cut muster as a principal. Perhaps she would have been more productive as a teacher or whatever she had done before that.

People forget the power that they have to affect change at the NYC DOE. Not only the power this blog that continually points out the inconsistencies and hypocrisies of the upper echelon at the DOE, but more importantly, the school communities. Without the communities (families, children, and teachers) of each and every school in NYC we are powerless. Without the mobilization and the actions of the communities, we will forever wallow in what the DOE dishes to us.

So the question remains, how long to clean up the mess at PS 29? We here at SBSB gather not long.  It is a strong community over there in College Point and by June, Rogers will be seen as nothing more than a passing fart the flew through Queens. But more importantly, a community has seen what they can do when working as one. Perhaps the PS 29 community can show other communities how to fight back. C'mon, take it on the road!! It'll be a hit.