John White Now Chairs Jeb Bush’s Seriously Dwindling “Chiefs for Change”
Louisiana Superintendent John White has just been made chair of Jeb Bush’s privatizing-reform superintendent’s club, Chiefs for Change.
Now, that reads really fancy, until one notices that Jeb’s little club is, well, little.
As of March 10, 2015, it boasts only four members, down from 13 in October 2014.
Ouch.
Reminds me of dwindling PARCC– also once connected to Jeb Bush via his headquarter turf, the State of Florida.
But back to “failing” Chiefs for Change:
So, White is “leading” three other “chiefs”: Rhode Island’s Deborah Gist; Delaware’s Mark Murphy, and New Mexico’s Hannah Skandera.
It’s not just the few that is unimpressive here. It’s the who.
Let’s start with Gist:
Deborah Gist is on her way out as RI state super and will land in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where her new appointment sparked a teacher protest. Even though Arne Duncanput his federal nose in RI business by trying to have Gist reappointed as state super, the RI state board allowed the deadline to pass for Gist’s RI contract renewal.
And now, Skandera:
After four years of being allowed to operate as New Mexico’s commissioner of education without officially being confirmed, on February 16, 2015, Hanna Skandera was confirmed by a NM Senate committee vote of 22-19, and not without noted reservation:
Critics [of Skandera’s confirmation] , including Democratic lawmakers and teachers unions, blame Skandera for excessive testing, low teacher morale and a greater reliance on private educational firms — including the publishing and assessment giant Pearson Education — that has led to further privatization of public education in the state.Democratic senators in opposition Monday argued that Skandera, who never worked as a teacher or principal, does not meet the criteria for the job set by the state constitution, which states that the secretary of the education department must be a “qualified experienced educator.”Sen. Bill Soules, D-Las Cruces, told the assembly, “This appointment covers none of that.”Other opponents, including Sen. Howie Morales, D-Silver City, questioned Skandera’s trustworthiness. He said Skandera recently misled the Senate Finance Committee when she said a day of pilot testing for the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, system was not mandatory for districts when a promotional flyer for the event made it clear that it was.“Pearson blows her whistle, and she marches,” Sen. Gerald Ortiz y Pino, D-John White Now Chairs Jeb Bush’s Seriously Dwindling “Chiefs for Change” | deutsch29:
