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Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Jersey Jazzman: The @starledger's Editorial Page Editor, @tomamoran, Is Once Again a Massive Hypocrite

Jersey Jazzman: The @starledger's Editorial Page Editor, @tomamoran, Is Once Again a Massive Hypocrite:

The @starledger's Editorial Page Editor, @tomamoran, Is Once Again a Massive Hypocrite





Just when I think my world can't get any more bizarre:

The New Hampshire Union Leader's endorsement of Chris Christie for president has drawn fire from an unexpected quarter: another newspaper. 
A few days after the influential New England broadsheet threw its support behind Christie, Tom Moran, the editorial page editor and columnist for the New Jersey Star Ledger, which has been critical of the New Jersey governor, wrote a piece criticizing the Union Leader's endorsement. 
"The paper knows almost nothing about his record as governor," Moran writes, noting of the Union Leader, "the paper has been paying close attention to Christie's speeches in New Hampshire, and his visit to the editorial board. And that's a dangerous game when it comes to a slick character like our governor."
Oh my lord. My sweet, sweet, lord....

Go read Moran's dumb-ass column right now. No, go do it, seriously. I'll wait...

[...]

Did you read it? Well, that's good for Moran, whose newspaper is dying. He can thank me for the bump in readership later...

But did you notice something? Not once does Tom Moran mention that his own paper endorsed Christie's reelection for governor in 2013!

Moran issued his tepid mea culpa for endorsing Christie soon after it became clear the governor had let his staff run out of control during Bridgegate.  And yes, most of what we - See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/12/the-starledgers-editorial-page-editor.html#sthash.eWymY5cO.dpuf









Seattle Schools Community Forum: It Appears Many Are Lining Up to "Save" Washington State Charter Schools

Seattle Schools Community Forum: It Appears Many Are Lining Up to "Save" Washington State Charter Schools:

It Appears Many Are Lining Up to "Save" Washington State Charter Schools



Would that be as many folks lining up to support McCleary funding for over 1M Washington state public school students.

Here's the latest.

I asked OSPI some questions and got some curious answers. 

Me 

1) if the charter schools go off state funding (and they should, on or about Dec. 14th) but they get private funding, what do they have to do legally with OSPI? 

Do they register as private schools?

Can they be in some quasi-charter state until/if they get funding from the Legislature?

In essence, by OSPI rules, could they go from a charter school to a private school and then back to a charter school? 

2) When charters go off the state-funding, will the Superintendent be making any kind of press announcement on how this plays out vis a vis OSPI?  


OSPI

1. Six of the charters will go to Mary Walker School District as ALE schools. The two charters in Spokane will remain in that district as general education schools. We are still wrestling with 
Seattle Schools Community Forum: It Appears Many Are Lining Up to "Save" Washington State Charter Schools:

Jersey Jazzman: Star-Ledger: Christie Stinks, But We Hate Teachers Unions More

Jersey Jazzman: Star-Ledger: Christie Stinks, But We Hate Teachers Unions More:

Star-Ledger: Christie Stinks, But We Hate Teachers Unions More




NOTE: I accidentally erased this post on 12/2/15. I retrieved it through Google Cache and have printed it with the original publishing date.

When it comes to generating illogical, incoherent, self-contradictory claptrap, Editorial Page Editor Tom Moran and his merry crew at the Star-Ledger never fail to disappoint. But their idiotic and shameful endorsement of Chris Christie for governor - a man they admit has been an abject failure in Trenton - is a new low. An embarrassment of ignorance, Moran and the S-L's endorsement proves once again that their unhinged hatred of teachers unions has clouded any sense of reason this editorial board may have once had.

The editorial, quite rightly, documents the many, many failings of Chris Christie [all emphases mine]:


Balance that against his measurable failures, and you have to conclude he is much better at politics than he is at governing.
The property tax burden has grown sharply on his watch. He is hostile to low-income families, raising their tax burden and sabotaging efforts to build affordable housing. He’s been a catastrophe on the environment, draining $1 billion from clean energy funds and calling a cease-fire in the state’s fight against climate change.
The governor’s claim to have fixed the state’s budget is fraudulent. New Jersey’s credit rating has dropped during his term, reflecting Wall Street’s judgment that he has dug the hole even deeper. He has no plan to finance transit projects and open space purchases now that he has nearly drained the dedicated funds he inherited from Gov. Jon Corzine.
His ego is entertaining, but it’s done damage as well. By removing two qualified justices from the Supreme Court without good cause, he threatened the independence of judges at all levels, and provoked a partisan stalemate that has left two vacant seats on the high court. This was a power grab gone wrong.
The public gives him top marks for his handling of Sandy, but the record is mixed. Why would his administration park NJ Transit trains in a low-lying area where they flooded, causing $120 million in damage? Why did the federal government have to strong-arm the state to include more relief for renters and Spanish-speakers than Christie had proposed? And why should anyone believe taxpayers got the best price on refuse removal when the governor awarded a no-bid contract through a political friend?
Our own view is that Christie is overrated. His spin is way ahead of his substance.
If all this is true - and it is - why in the world would the S-L ever think of endorsing Chris Christie? The only possible reason would be that his opponent, Democratic State Senator Barbara Buono, is far worse. She must have a record so bad, so truly awful, that the S-L would get behind Chris Christie, a governor they just admitted is "overrated."

What is it that earns Buono such opprobrium from Tom Moran and his posse? Surely, they would mention her worst transgression first; surely, they would cast the first stone at her for her most terrible, her most heinous, her most unforgivable sin.

True to form, they do. In the world of Tom Moran and the Star-Ledger, the most horrid crime a politician could ever perpetrate would be to side with a teachers union:


Why then, are we endorsing him for a second term? Because his challenger, state Sen. Barbara Buono, is a deeply flawed candidate.
Begin with education. Buono’s close alliance with the teachers union is a threat to the progress Christie is making in cities such as Newark and Camden. She is hostile to charter schools, which now educate nearly 1 in 4 kids in Newark.
Think about this for a minute. Moran and the S-L admit property taxes have skyrocketed under Christie, despite his claims that he's reined in taxes on the middle class. They admit Christie is waging war on the poor and the environment. They admit he is a fraud on the budget, they admit he is neglecting the state's infrastructure, they admit he has dangerously politicized the courts, they admit he is an out-of-control egomaniac, they admit he steers contracts to his political patrons, and they admit his handling of Sandy was less than admirable.

But all together, none of this matters nearly as much to the S-L as the fact that Barbara Buono has earned the support of the NJEA and AFT-NJ. This so important to Moran that he mentions it first in the list of the reasons why the S-L won't back Buono against an admittedly failed governor.

The Star-Ledger's jihad against the NJEA is a troubled and troubling obsession on the part of Moran and his editorial board. How deep must their hatred of teachers unions run that all of Chrstie's failures - failures they admit in their very endorsement of him - are swept aside so they can, once again, take a swipe at the only organizations in the state that stand for teacher workplace rights?

Continuing:


An authoritative national study showed that students in the charters are learning more, which explains why 10,000 Newark families are on waiting lists. Yet Buono cannot bring herself to acknowledge that the charters have helped. She sponsored a bill that would basically slam the brakes on new charters by requiring voter approval of each one. She is making a status quo argument in the face of persistent failure.
That "authoritative" study - which I have to assume is the CREDO report, because the S-L, true to form, won't actually give us the name of the study in question - says no such thing. When it comes to learning gains, charter schools are essentially a wash - when you account for student characteristics, a point that Moran pig-headedly refuses to understand. Continuing:

Buono opposes the Newark teacher contract, which freezes the pay of the worst teachers and grants bonuses to the best. She wants a traditional union deal, in which no distinction is made.
Buono supports 

- See more at: http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2015/12/star-ledger-christie-stinks-but-we-hate.html#sthash.Vxaqsjsl.dpuf






Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Passes House 359-64 | deutsch29

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Passes House 359-64 | deutsch29:

Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Passes House 359-64

lesser evil


On December 02, 2015, the Every Student Achieves Act (ESSA) passed the Houseby a vote of 359-64.
All 64 Nay votes were Republican, with three Democrats and seven Republicans not voting.
ESSA is the long-overdue reauthorization of the Ele,entary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), the latest version of which was the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB).
Like NCLB, ESSA is a test-centered bill, and ESSA is clear in its requirement that a state receiving Title I funds tests at least 95 percent of all students in grades 3 through 8 and at least one grade in high school in English and math. (Science is a testing requirement, as well, but not as often as ELA and math.)
Unlike NCLB, ESSA does not dictate a state’s goal-setting terms for “annual yearly progress (AYP),” and it does not spell out a list of punitive consequences for states’ not achieving AYP. Nevertheless, I do not view ESSA as a happy marriage so much as a necessary divorce. ESSA is clear that states are expected to work the results of that at-least-95-percent-tested requirement into their state accountability systems– which on the face affects schools, and, yes, could still influence teachers’ being graded using student test scores.
If it passes the Senate, ESSA becomes immediately effective except in the case of Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Passes House 359-64 | deutsch29:

Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/2/15



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Special Nite Cap: Catch Up on Today's Post 12/1/15
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