CURMUDGUCATION: Counting on Superman

CURMUDGUCATION: Counting on Superman:
Counting on Superman

 One of the saddest days of my life was when my mother told me Superman did not exist... I was like what do you mean he's not real. And she thought I was crying because it's like Santa Claus is not real and I was crying because there was no one coming with enough power to save us. 


-- Geoffrey Canada (Harlem Children's Zone)

That's the quote used to set up the 2010 edu-propa-mentary film Waiting for Superman. Like many parts of the education reform movement, it's an inspired piece of misdirection, because reformsters have not only been waiting for Superman-- they've been counting on him.

The Flint and Detroit school disasters have focused national attention on Michigan's emergency manager law. That law has been percolating in Michigan for years, heated up by the folks at theMackinac Center for Public Policy , a right-wing thinky tank that loves the idea of privatizing government and which has been funded by the usual suspects (Koch, Walton, DeVos). They started pushing for a new, powerful Czar-ship in 2005 and finally sold it in 2012 (You can read a more detailed account of the rise of the Emergency Manager in Michigan in this piece.) The adoption of the law was contentious, but the leaders of Michigan were determined that Superman would come, and when he came, they would be ready.

Because the emergency manager model doesn't just believe that Superman is coming-- it depends on it. Superman is coming, and we must prepare a place for him.

The emergency management system we see n Michigan is just one way of expressing the Superman Theory of Change-- there are Supermen among us, and they could save the lesser beings, if only we CURMUDGUCATION: Counting on Superman:

Turkey wants Fremont school board to reject charter school - ContraCostaTimes.com

Turkey wants Fremont school board to reject charter school - ContraCostaTimes.com:

Turkey wants Fremont school board to reject charter school

FILE - In this Sept. 24, 2013 file photo, Turkish Islamic preacher Fethullah Gulen is pictured at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, United States. Police conducted raids in a dozen Turkish cities Sunday, detaining at least 24 people including journalists, TV producers and police known to be close to a movement led by a U.S.-based moderate Islamic cleric who is a strong critic of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It was the latest crackdown on cleric Fethullah Gulen's movement, which the government has accused of orchestrating an alleged plot to try to bring it down. (AP Photo/Selahattin Sevi, File) ( Selahattin Sevi )

FREMONT -- A Southern California charter school wants to expand into Fremont, despite a history of financial problems and accusations of it being linked to a controversial Turkish cleric, which its leaders emphatically deny.

In a bizarre twist, an attorney representing the Turkish government spoke against the Magnolia Public Schools charter application at a recent Fremont school board public hearing, saying it has ties to Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen. John Martin of Amsterdam & Partners in Washington, D.C., also alleged that Magnolia was not factual in its application.

Magnolia's chief executive officer called the accusations strange and baffling.

FILE In this March 15, 2014 file photo, Turkish Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen, sits at his residence in Saylorsburg, Pennsylvania, United States. A U.S.-based Muslim cleric, who has become Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan s chief foe, went on trial in absentia in Istanbul on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2016 accused of attempting to overthrow the government by instigating corruption probes in 2013 that targeted people close to the Turkish leader. Gulen and 68 other people, including former police chiefs, have been charged with attempting to overthrow the Turkish republic through the use of violence, leading a terrorist organization and "political espionage." Prosecutors are seeking life imprisonment for Gulen and others. (AP Photo/Selahattin Sevi, File) ( Selahattin Sevi )

"He seems to believe that we are associated with a religious group, which we are not," Magnolia CEO Caprice Young said at the Jan. 13 school board meeting.

"We're not affiliated with anything but educating public school students in California," Young said Friday. The school has straightened out its finances, she said.

The Fremont school board on Wednesday will consider Magnolia Public Schools' request to open a kindergarten-through-12th-grade school. District staff is recommending the petition be denied.

Fremont Unified did not investigate possible connections between Magnolia and the Gulen movement, Superintendent James Morris said.

"We did our analysis of the charter based on the merits of the petition that (was) submitted," he said.

Martin said his law firm was hired by the Turkish government to investigate Gulen and his movement. That investigation led him to Magnolia schools, he said.

Followers of Gulen, a Muslim imam, have U.S. charter schools that emphasize math and science. Martin and others, including the American magazine the New Republic, allege those include Magnolia. There have been accusations of improper use of public funds and importing Turkish teachers in other states, but Magnolia has not been linked to those investigations.

Gulen's followers are believed to operate schools, universities, corporations, nonprofits and publications around the world, according to articles in the New Republic.

Young said she was mystified by the Gulen accusations. Magnolia's founders did include Turkey wants Fremont school board to reject charter school - ContraCostaTimes.com:

San Diego Elementary Teacher Pens Powerful Defense of Fair Share - California Teachers Association

San Diego Elementary Teacher Pens Powerful Defense of Fair Share - California Teachers Association:

SAN DIEGO ELEMENTARY TEACHER PENS POWERFUL DEFENSE OF FAIR SHARE

(Photo) During a recent education conference in Sacramento, Panelist Lindsay Burningham stresses the importance of legislators, school boards, and administrators hearing teachers’ voices, something their unions facilitate.

The conservative San Diego Union Tribune has published an eloquent andpowerfully written think piece by Lindsay Burningham, an elementary teacher, that defends the principle of all persons paying a fair share for the services they receive.

Burningham, who has been elected by her colleagues to represent them as president of the San Diego Education Association, takes on the corporate special interests behind the Friedrichs v. CTA lawsuit pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.

The court case, funded by dollars coming from radical right wing ideologues like the infamous Koch brothers, seeks to overturn the Abood v. Detroit Board of San Diego Elementary Teacher Pens Powerful Defense of Fair Share - California Teachers Association:

Arizona: Strangled By An Organized Minority | Dr. Edward F. Berger

Arizona: Strangled By An Organized Minority | Dr. Edward F. Berger:

Arizona: Strangled By An Organized Minority

Arizona is run by a well-organized minority. They work to undermine and control representative democracy, elected boards and officials, public schools, environmental regulations, any law that limits the powers of corporations, and interference in their affairs by The People. They believe in the right to rape, rip and run for personal gain while demanding free and unregulated access to natural and national resources. They attack workers’ organizations, associations and unions, taxes on individual wealth, and laws that hold individuals responsible for activities that damage others, the planet, and a sustainable future.

This minority is not the first to believe they should be able to act for personal gain without being restrained. American history has experienced periods when powerful individuals were allowed to do any damn thing they wanted, regardless of the cost to others. History knows them as the Robber Barons, “…who used exploitative practices to amass their wealth. These practices included exerting control over natural resources, influencing high levels of government, paying subsistence wages, squashing competition by acquiring their competitors to create monopolies and raise prices…” Wikipedia.

In recent times, we have seen the rise of men who have been influenced by Adolph Hitler and Joseph Stalin. Their access to power is the role model for a powerful few who want to take away the rights of every American as guaranteed by the Constitution. Men like Fred Koch, who was deeply impressed by Hitler who could act solely on his own to displace people, take land, kill, build oil refineries, create environmental damage, strip mine, declare war, or in every way ignore the damage to the people under his thumb. Fred was impressed by Stalin who could destroy opposition to his ideas, murder millions, and create his own powerful one-man rule. Fred, and a few like him, imagined a world where they could do as they wanted without having any government interference to hold them accountable. He set out to create a hell on earth for everyone else.

Fred was a founder of the John Birch Society, a movement based on:The destruction of public education, the privatization (control) of prisons, racial inequality, and denial of workers’ rights to organize. He was able to inculcate two of his sons (Charles and David Koch) to believe that they are the rightful heirs of his mission and will determine the future of America.

When the John Birch Society gained disrepute, they dropped that name and formed dozens of subversive* organizations. The largest in the US and Arizona is the American Legislative Executive Council (ALEC). If your elected representative is a member of ALEC, be afraid and get them gone! Another is the Goldwater Institute. The corporate leadership of Arizona Public Service (APS) and its holding company, Pinnacle West Capital corporation, is deeply involved with the Koch-ALEC-Goldwater Institute politicians. One can not underestimate the subversive work of the Goldwater Institute (a false 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization) with a purely political agenda. Through its minions, the legislators and governors placed in office by the power of this minority, they were recently able to place a Goldwater Institute lawyer on the Supreme Court of Arizona. As an example of their reach, in 2015 the Goldwater Institute filed suit in far off Massachusetts to challengeArizona: Strangled By An Organized Minority | Dr. Edward F. Berger:

Torlakson Seeks Sponsors for Summer Meals Program - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education)

Seeks Sponsors for Summer Meals Program - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson Seeks Sponsors for Summer Meals Program

SACRAMENTO—State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson today urged eligible organizations—schools, camps, nonprofits, Indian tribal governments, and government offices among them—to apply to become Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) sponsors and ensure underprivileged children have access to nutritious meals once school is out. Applications are due before June 1, 2016.

"Summer for our students should be a time of discovery, fun, and making memories," Torlakson said. "For many California children from low-income families, however, summer can represent just the opposite with limited opportunities for educational enrichment, a lack of safe places for social activities, or a time without healthy meals to eat."

Good summer nutrition plays an important role in addressing childhood obesity as well as combatting the "summer slide," a learning loss that many children experience during the summer months.

The SFSP is a federally funded, state-administered program that serves meals to children who qualify for free or reduced-price meals or live in geographic areas where at least 50 percent of students are eligible to receive free or reduced-price school meals. The program works by reimbursing agencies that serve nutritious meals to children eighteen years and younger during school vacation. The SFSP operates when schools in a community are on vacation for at least 15 continuous school days or when year-round schools are off track.

Sponsors may prepare meals or obtain meals from another SFSP sponsor, public or commercial food vendor, or a school food service department. All meals must meet the U.S. Department of Agriculture minimum meal pattern requirements. Eligible sponsors often provide summer activities for children as well.

For more information about becoming a summer food sponsor, visit the California Department of Education's Summer Food Service Program Information Web page. To speak directly with an SFSP representative, call 1-800-952-5609, or contact Vince Keene, SFSP Program Specialist, by phone at 916-322-8319 or by e-mail at sfsp@cde.ca.gov, or Larry Frakes, SFSP Office Technician, by phone at

916-322-8323 or by e-mail at sfsp@cde.ca.gov.

The CDE will update its Summer Meal Service Sites interactive Web map early this summer to help families locate meal sites or sponsors close to their homes.

# # # #

Tom Torlakson — State Superintendent of Public Instruction
Communications Division, Room 5206, 916-319-0818, Fax 916-319-0100

Last Reviewed: Monday, January 25, 2016

Seeks Sponsors for Summer Meals Program - Year 2016 (CA Dept of Education):

Court rules Michigan has no responsibility to provide quality public education | New Pittsburgh Courier

Court rules Michigan has no responsibility to provide quality public education | New Pittsburgh Courier:

Court rules Michigan has no responsibility to provide quality public education 

Highland Park parent Michelle Johnson, a plaintiff in the ACLU lawsuit against the state of Michigan, says students deserve a fair education. (Zenobia Jeffries/The Michigan Citizen)

DETROIT — In a blow to schoolchildren statewide, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled on Nov. 7 the State of Michigan has no legal obligation to provide a quality public education to students in the struggling Highland Park School District.

A 2-1 decision reversed an earlier circuit court ruling that there is a “broad compelling state interest in the provision of an education to all children.” The appellate court said the state has no constitutional requirement to ensure schoolchildren actually learn fundamental skills such as reading — but rather is obligated only to establish and finance a public education system, regardless of quality. Waving off decades of historic judicial impact on educational reform, the majority opinion also contends that “judges are not equipped to decide educational policy.”

“This ruling should outrage anyone who cares about our public education system,” said Kary L. Moss, executive director of the American Civil Liberties of Michigan. “The court washes its hands and absolves the state of any responsibility in a district that has failed and continues to fail its children.”

The decision dismisses an unprecedented “right-to-read” lawsuit filed by the ACLU of Michigan in July 2012 on behalf of eight students of nearly 1,000 children attending K-12 public schools in Highland Park, Mich. The suit, which named as defendants the State of Michigan, its agencies charged with overseeing public education and the Highland Park School District, maintained that the state failed to take effective steps to ensure that students are reading at grade level.

“Let’s remember it was the state that turned the entire district over to a for-profit charter management company with no track record of success with low performing schools,” said Moss. “It is the state that has not enforced the law that requires literacy intervention to children not reading at grade level. It is the state’s responsibility to ensure and maintain a system of education that serves all children.”

In a dissenting opinion, appellate court judge Douglas Shapiro accused the court of “abandonment of our essential judicial roles, that of enforcement of the rule of law even where the defendants are governmental entities, and of protecting the rights of all who live within Michigan’s borders, particularly those, like children, who do not have a voice in the political process.”

MEAP test results from 2012 painted a bleak picture for Highland Park students and parents. In the 2013-14 year, no fewer than 78.9 percent of current fourth graders and 73 percent of current seventh graders will require the special intervention mandated by statute. By contrast, 65 percent of then-fourth graders and 75 percent of then-seventh graders required statutory intervention entering the 2012-13 school year.

“We respect the decision of the court in this manner,” says Bill DiSessa with the Michigan Department of Court rules Michigan has no responsibility to provide quality public education | New Pittsburgh Courier:

Award-winning teacher: ‘America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There, I said it.’ - The Washington Post

Award-winning teacher: ‘America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There, I said it.’ - The Washington Post:

Award-winning teacher: ‘America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There, I said it.’

Members of Black Lives Matter DMV participate in the annual Martin Luther King Holiday Peace Walk and Parade on Jan. 18 in Washington, D.C. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)

By all counts, Nathan Gibbs-Bowling is a great educator who knows how to reach students and inspire colleagues, so it is no wonder that he is the 2016 Washington state Teacher of the Year and a finalist for the 2016 National Teacher of the Year. He also has a lot to say about the state of public education and school reform — and his views are stark and important.

A veteran educator in the Tacoma School District, Gibbs-Bowling has taught middle school reading and high school students social studies, and is currently teaching AP U.S. Government and Politics as well as AP Human Geography at Lincoln High School. He was a winner of the Milken National Teaching Award, and his biography attached to that honor explains the way he approaches his profession:

For a man who has been described as a “cheerleader, drill sergeant and professor,” it is no surprise that social studies teacher Nathan Gibbs-Bowling at Lincoln High School in Tacoma, WA is considered the “best teacher in the state” by one of his colleagues. Perhaps equally impressive, though he isn’t a rock star or famous actor, his fans — also known as his students — have lauded his exceptional talents as a dynamic and engaging classroom teacher.

Gibbs-Bowling is known as a demanding teacher, not an “Easy ‘A’,” who is highly respected for his Advanced Placement 

Award-winning teacher: ‘America really doesn’t care what happens to poor people and most black people. There, I said it.’ - The Washington Post:

Detroit Dumps Disgustingly Dirty DPS inspections reports that made Detroit teacher 'sick-outs'

City of Detroit releases DPS inspections reports, requirements...:

Judge denies order to stop Detroit teacher 'sick-outs'

Teachers involved in sick-out head to court Monday

Judge denies order to stop Detroit teacher 'sick-outs' http://bit.ly/1KA8TWb

• Detroit schools sue to try to stop teacher absences
• Detroit schools bailout package introduced to lawmakers
• Court denies request for temporary restraining order against Detroit teachers
• Large group of Detroit teachers protest outside Cobo Center
• Will Detroit teachers' dispute go beyond sick-outs?

City of Detroit releases DPS inspections reports, requirements moving forward

City offers list of violations, sets deadlines for fixes

DETROIT - The city of Detroit has released the results of recent inspections conducted at Detroit Public Schools (DPS) buildings.

VIEW ALL INSPECTION REPORTS HERE

More Education Headlines

• Judge hears arguements in lawsuit over Detroit teacher sick-outs
• DPS teachers canvass neighborhoods
• New developments arise in Detroit Public Schools teachers' protest
• Detroit teacher says sick-outs are in response to 'deplorable'…

An inspection report with a list of violations for each of the following schools was released on the city's website Monday afternoon:

• Blackwell Institute (view report here)
• Ronald Brown Academy (view report here)
• Dr. Ben Carson High School for Science and Medicine (view report here)
• J.E. Clark Preparatory Academy (view report here)
• Cody schools (view report here)
• Detroit International Academy (view report here)
• Dossin Elementary-Middle School (view report here)
• Greenfield Union Elementary-Middle School (view report here)
• A.L. Holmes Elementary-Middle School (view report here)
• Osborn schools (view report here)
• Spain Elementary-Middle School (view report here)

The inspections were conducted after what many called "deplorable" conditions were found at several of the district's school buildings. At Spain Elementary-Middle School, mushrooms were found growing in a bathroom. Teachers told Local 4 the mushrooms were not an uncommon site at DPS buildings.

The district will be required to fix emergency issues immediately and lesser violations within 30 days. The city will follow up with school personnel within 72 hours about the emergency issues. If the deadlines are not met, the district will need to justify getting an extension or be issued a fine.

Violations listed in the city's inspection notices range from damaged ceiling tiles to water-damaged floors. According to the city's reports, there are insects and rodents at several of the buildings that the schools must remove. 

Mayor Mike Duggan said if DPS fails to respond, then the city of Detroit will take legal action.

"We are giving school officials a reasonable timeline to correct the deficiencies and we hope they will," said Duggan in a statement. "But if they don't, we are going to take prompt legal action to enforce compliance."

Claiming there is a lack of funding to make repairs is not acceptable, Duggan's office said. It is up to DPS to develop a plan for making repairs.

"I don't want there to be any confusion," he said. "A claim of a shortage of funds is not a defense to violations of building or health codes for any building owner. We're not going to allow our children, DPS employees, or the public to continue to be subjected to substandard conditions."

The schools also are faced with paying the inspection fee.

Meanwhile, Detroit teachers have been staging absences, or sick-outs, to draw attention to the district's shortcomings. They are demanding better teaching environments and pay.

Teachers, parents can still report concerns to the city

Parents and educators can still report problems -- such as heating and cooling issues, mold, electrical problems or fire hazards -- through a link at www.detroitmi.gov or at bit.ly/SafeSchoolsDetroit.

After a complaint is received by the city, inspectors will be dispatched to the property, if they haven’t already inspected the school.

Copyright 2016 by WDIV ClickOnDetroit - All rights reserved.

 City of Detroit releases DPS inspections reports, requirements...:

Detroit Teachers Protest Hearing on Sickouts | Al Jazeera America

Detroit Teachers Protest Hearing on Sickouts | Al Jazeera America:

Detroit teachers protest hearing that could put an end to sickouts

A judge is hearing a case that could stop teachers from calling in sick en masse to protest deteriorating conditions

About 60 Detroit teachers protested Monday outside a court where a judge is to hear arguments in a case that could force teachers to stop calling in sick as a form of protest.

A couple dozen other teachers were in the courtroom waiting for the hearing to start. Teachers' sickouts have repeatedly forced Detroit to close public schools in the past two weeks, keeping thousands of students at home. In a bid to stop the absences, the city's school district filed a lawsuit.

The governor and the school district's emergency manager should be put on trial, not teachers, according to Detroit teacher Steve Conn. Teachers are upset over pay, class sizes, building conditions and Gov. Rick Snyder's plan to overhaul the district.

Two schools closed Monday because of a high volume of teacher absences, said the district, which has about 100 public schools and 46,000 students. On Wednesday a sickout shut down more than 85 of the district's schools.

That and other sickouts have angered Republicans in Michigan's Legislature, which they control. Last week they Detroit Teachers Protest Hearing on Sickouts | Al Jazeera America:

National Survey on Opting Out

National Survey on Opting Out:

National Survey on Opting Out:

Teachers College, Columbia University

525 West 120th Street

New York, NY 10027

212 678 3000

www.tc.edu

NATIONAL SURVEY ON OPTING OUT OF TESTING

Informed Consent Statement

National Survey on Opting Out:

You are invited to participate in a research study about the opt-out movement in the United States. We ask that you read this form before agreeing to be in the study.

The purpose of this study is to collect data from individuals who are interested in and/or involved in the opt-out movement. We define involvement in broad terms to include parents who opt their children out of standardized testing and others who sympathize with the opt-out movement.

The study will help us to better understand why and how people become involved in the opt-out movement and their perspectives on education policy and reform.

The study is being conducted by Dr. Oren Pizmony-Levy (op2183@tc.columbia.edu) and Dr. Nancy Green Saraisky (nlg2004@tc.columbia.edu) from Teachers College, Columbia University. If you have any questions about the questionnaire, you may contact the research team via email or phone: 212 278 3180.

You will be one of 500 people nationwide who will be participating in this research.

If you agree to participate in the study, you will follow a secure link to an online survey. We ask that the survey be completed as fully as possible by one adult person in your household.

Completing this questionnaire is voluntary and poses no risks to you. You may stop at any time. 

You will not be paid for participating in the study.

The questionnaire is completely anonymous and confidential. Therefore, we hope that you will be comfortable being completely honest when answering our questions.

Your participation will take approximately 20 minutes, depending on your answers.

If at any time you have comments or concerns regarding the conduct of the research or questions about your rights as a research subject, you should contact the Teachers College, Columbia University Institutional Review Board/IRB. The phone number for the IRB is 212 678 4105. Or, you can write to the IRB at Teachers College, Columbia University, 525 W. 120th Street, New York, NY 10027, Box 151.

National Survey on Opting Out:

Jersey Jazzman: Once Again: The FACTS On Newark, Charters, and Spending

Jersey Jazzman: Once Again: The FACTS On Newark, Charters, and Spending:

Once Again: The FACTS On Newark, Charters, and Spending

 I see we have to go over this once again. Fine:


- TEAM Academy Charter School, the Newark branch of the nation charter chain KIPP, outscored the Montclair School District one year in one grade on one test -- by 0.2 scale score points.

The next year, that same cohort of students, who were now in Grade 4, showed substantially different results on the same test; the Montclair average was now substantially higher than TEAM/KIPP's.

I don't point this out to suggest either that Montclair's schools are superior, or that TEAM/KIPP's schools are inferior. Without adequately controlling for at least the observed variations in each district's populations (and acknowledging that there are likely many unobserved variations), any comparison between the two systems is utterly pointless.

My point here is that facile, a-contextual, cherry-picked factoids like these are completely meaningless, and that people who bring them up time and again show themselves to be - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2016/01/once-again-facts-on-newark-charters-and.html#sthash.8CLj30DS.dpuf

Schools Matter: The Great Schools Partnership, Duke Albanese, and the Gates Foundation

Schools Matter: The Great Schools Partnership, Duke Albanese, and the Gates Foundation:

The Great Schools Partnership, Duke Albanese, and the Gates Foundation

Today in professional development meetings all over the country teachers are learning the virtues of "proficiency based learning," which is sometimes referred to as "competency based" education (CBE), and sometimes referred to as "personalized learning," and sometimes referred to as "self-paced computer assisted learning," and sometimes even referred to as more Gates Foundation-sponsored bullshit.  

The dream of teacher proof schools has been around for more than a hundred years, and it became an obsession after early 20th Century "reformers" took Frederick Winslow Taylor's idea of scientific management of job tasks and tried to apply those concepts and methods to educational tasks.  

What has always stood in the way of the perfect system of efficient rote learning, however, has been the caring and inefficient teacher whose understanding of child needs has always intruded upon the requirements of the most measurably efficient delivery system.  (See Part 1 of The Mismeasure of Education for the skinny on the social efficiency movement during the early 20th Century).

Among business elites, social managers, and entrepreneurial opportunists, the dream of teacherless learning is very much alive today, and with the financial help of arrogant billionaires like Bill Gates and back-slapping, deal-making middle men like Duke Albanese of Maine, it is being tried on a large scale once more in states like Maine.  In fact, competency-based computer assisted parrot learning promises is planned as a principal delivery system for the Common Core that Gates has spent billions to promote.  CBE promises to be a primary tool to get back that money and more for tech companies.

The conduit from Gates to the classroom in Maine flows through financially-connected front groups like the Great Schools Partnership, and the "Duke" occupies positions on that Boards of Directors and others linked to Gates money.  As a former Commissioner of Education in Maine, he knows how to use influence and to get Gates money from Point A to B to C and, of course, to the D.

Below is a letter from Duke to his new friend, Tom Vander Ark in 2002, when Duke was Commissioner of Schools Matter: The Great Schools Partnership, Duke Albanese, and the Gates Foundation:

Rick Snyder: HOW DICK CAME TO BE SHORT FOR RICHARD

HOW DICK CAME TO BE SHORT FOR RICHARD

Dick Or Richard You Decide 

Today I found out why Dick is short for Richard.

The name Richard is thought by most etymologists to derive from the Proto-Germanic ‘Rikharthu’, meaning more or less “hard ruler” (‘Rik-‘ meaning ‘ruler’ and ‘-harthu’ meaning ‘hard’).  This was adopted into Old High German as ‘Ricohard’, and from there to Old French, then Old English as ‘Richeard’, and today as ‘Richard’.

You might think from Richard meaning “hard ruler” and being a man’s name that Dick being a nickname for Richard probably came about for pejorative reasons, borrowing from one of the other meanings of “dick”, such as ‘dick’ as in ‘jerk’ or ‘dick as in ‘penis’.  However, the first record of ‘dick’ meaning ‘jerk’ didn’t come about until a few hundred years after its association with Richard and the first record of it referring to a penis wasn’t until the 1890s, as a British army slang term.  Exactly how that latter meaning came about isn’t known, being a slang term that was considered somewhat uncouth to put on paper.  Because of that, ‘dick’ meaning ‘penis’ probably had been around a while before the 1890s, but not nearly long enough before to have contributed to the Richard/Dick connection.

How Dick became a nickname for Richard is known and is one of those “knee bone connected to the thigh bone” type progressions, somewhat similar to how the word ‘soccer’ came about.  Due to people having to write everything by hand, shortened versions of Richard were common, such as ‘Ric’ or ‘Rich’.  This in turn gave rise to nicknames like ‘Richie’, ‘Rick’, and ‘Ricket’, among others.  People also used to like to use rhyming names; thus, someone who was nicknamed Rich might further be nicknamed Hitch.  Thus, Richard -> Ric -> Rick gave rise to nicknames like Dick and Hick around the early 13th century.

While few today call Richards ‘Hick’, the nickname ‘Dick’ has stuck around, and of course has come to mean many other things as well.  Its persistence as associated with Richard is probably in part because around the 16th century Dick started to be synonymous with ‘man’, ‘lad’, or ‘fellow’, sort of a general name for any ‘Tom, Dick, or Francis” (which by the way appears in Shakespeare’s Henry IV, written in the late 16th century, with Dick at this point firmly established as an “every man” name).  It may well be that this association with ‘man’ is in turn how ‘dick’ eventually came to mean ‘penis’. How Dick Came to be Short for Richard http://bit.ly/1Tk22aB

West Baton Rouge school system taking lead in latest fight over funds lost to charter schools | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, Louisiana

West Baton Rouge school system taking lead in latest fight over funds lost to charter schools | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, Louisiana:

West Baton Rouge school system taking lead in latest fight over funds lost to charter schools

The West Baton Rouge Parish school system is looking to lead the charge in the latest battle over the amount of local and state tax dollars the Louisiana Department of Education pumps into charter schools annually.

The school district is doing so with help from the Louisiana School Boards Association, which wants the state’s leaders to remove some of what it regards as carte blanche the charter schools have over student enrollment data thanks to recently tightened student-data privacy laws.

The dispute concerns charter schools approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and involves state revenues some local school districts may lose based on where students attending the charter schools live.

“The lack of transparency is very frustrating,” West Baton Rouge Parish schools Superintendent Wesley Watts said Friday.

State Department of Education spokesman Barry Landry said state and federal law does not permit traditional public schools or charter schools to share the identities of students with outside entities, other than for specific purposes spelled out in those laws.

On the state level, Landry is referring to a 2014 amendment to R.S. 17:3914 that restricts local education agencies from sharing students’ personal information, including names, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.

“These laws exist to protect the personal information of Louisiana’s children,” Landry said in an email.

Landry also said state Education Department officials in December met with local school boards and charter school associations to ensure adequate record keeping is taking place.

He said the state agency committed itself to improving the process of auditing enrollment records.

However, Scott Richard, executive director of the Louisiana School Boards Association, said they “fundamentally disagree” with the Education Department’s interpretation of the privacy laws. The association also takes issue with BESE’s lack of policies to verify student residency information when it comes to charter school enrollment, he said.

Watts said members of the Louisiana Association of School Superintendents aren’t just peeved that the amount of local tax dollars they receive annually through the state’s Minimum Foundation Program keeps shrinking as the number of charter schools increase. He said superintendents also take issue with the fact that they don’t know to whom or where West Baton Rouge school system taking lead in latest fight over funds lost to charter schools | The Advocate — Baton Rouge, Louisiana: