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Saturday, March 29, 2014

Mother Crusader: Parent Fights Principal Who Uses Common Core To Deny A Teacher's Request For A Holocaust Speaker

Mother Crusader: Parent Fights Principal Who Uses Common Core To Deny A Teacher's Request For A Holocaust Speaker:



Parent Fights Principal Who Uses Common Core To Deny A Teacher's Request For A Holocaust Speaker

Below is a guest blog from a dear college friend of mine. I've known for quite some time that she is passionate about Holocaust education, both speaking to students herself and also arranging to bring Holocaust survivors into schools. And I've always known that she is one tough cookie.

I was shocked when a little more than a week ago she started posting on Facebook about a principal who denied a teacher's request to have a survivor speak to 8th graders, and used the Common Core as the rationale for his frighteningly bogus decision. I was not shocked that she decided to put up a fight. I immediately asked her to consider writing up her experience as a guest blog, and she graciously accepted.

I want to thank her for her steadfast resolve in bringing this rich curricular experience to students. Without people like her, who have sincere passion for such a vitally important topic, I fear strict adherence to the Common Core standards will deprive our nation's public school students of experiences that make them not just good test takers, but caring, compassionate citizens.

Here is her story.

Guest blog by Andye Daley


My name is Andye Daley. I am a mother, an educator, past vice president of The Holocaust Education Center of the Delaware Valley Board of Directors, and on the Board of Directors of Jewish Family Services of Delaware. I am also a strong believer in Holocaust Education. I feel it is vitally important as it pertains to teaching our young middle school and high school students.

I have been weighing out my feelings on the Common Core Standards for the past few 
Meet Andy Daley
months.  I thought perhaps the standards could be beneficial to our people, but now I have seen first hand how the implementation of the Common Core is slowly taking the humanities out of our schools.

Just last week I had to push back firmly on the misguided actions of a principal. An Appoquinimink district teacher asked me to see about getting a Holocaust survivor to speak to the 8th grade student body at her school as I had done the year before. I was very excited to help. Imagine my surprise to get an email an hour later saying I should hold off on securing the speaker because she got "shot dow

Under fire, proposed voucher expansion advances | Tampa Bay Times

Under fire, proposed voucher expansion advances | Tampa Bay Times:



Under fire, proposed voucher expansion advances









 The proposed expansion of the state school voucher program cleared another hurdle Tuesday, winning the support of the House Choice and Innovation Subcommittee.

The bill (HB 7099) received a favorable vote in the House Finance and Tax Subcommittee earlier this month. Since the proposal was only referred to one committee, it is now eligible for a vote on the House floor.
The voucher bill has sparked one of the most emotional debates of the 2014 session. On Monday, pastors, parents, teachers and schoolchildren packed into a meeting room to share their perspective on the expansion.
There were so many speakers that Chairman Michael Bileca had to cut some of the testimony short.
Lawmakers approved the measure in a party-line vote.
Rep. Shevrin Jones, D-West Park, tried adding language that would have required the state to "assist private schools in the administration of the statewide standardized assessments." But it was shot down by Republicans on the panel, who have said that a testing requirement is unnecessary.
(Senate President Don Gaetz has said he will not consider the proposal in the Senate without a state testing requirement. Students who are currently in the program must take some form of standardized assessment, but it doesn't have to be the state exam.)
Meanwhile, the non-profit that runs the voucher program came under fire Tuesday for a 2011 video that was posted to YouTube.
In the video, Step Up for Students President Doug Tuthill outlined the organization's political strategy. He talked about the role of an affiliated political committee.
"One of the primary reasons we’ve been so successful we spend about $1 million every other cycle in local political races, which in Florida is a lot of money," Tuthill told a group at the University of California, Berkeley. "In House races and Senate races, we’re probably the biggest spender in local races."
Tuthill said he and other proponents "make low-income families the face of the program."
"We put those people in the face of Democrats and say 'How can you deny this parent the right to educate 

Nite Cap 3-29-14 #BATsACT #RealEdTalk #EDCHAT #P2



James Baldwin said it best: 

"For these are all our children, and we will profit by or pay for whatever they become."


A BIG EDUCATION APE NITE CAP




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YESTERDAY

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