Corcoran made his decision known during a lecture at conservative Hillsdale College in Michigan. He was speaking about “critical race theory” and curriculum oversight and used her as an example of his cleansing of the ranks. Donofrio learned of her termination on a YouTube video. If you look at the photograph accompanying the story, you will see that she teaches at Robert E. Lee Hgh School. (Irony alert.)
A new 2020 law requires the task force to recommend to state education leaders by March 1 how to teach the massacre.
But in a state where fewer than 20% of the teachers are Black, and lots of new teachers enter classrooms each year, many teachers are unaware of these events or unsure sure how to tackle tough subjects of violence and racial discrimination.
There may not be a standard yet because Ron DeSantis is unilaterally making it illegal to teach it. What follows is my case study for testing that.
"You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers
Teachers cannot be trusted, and don’t take my word for it, take Commissioner Corcoran's
Little boot Corcoran said of the 185 thousand teachers in Florida’s public schools; none of them can be trusted (see the video above). They have to be continually policed to make sure they aren’t sneaking on crazy liberal stuff. The book publishers can’t be trusted either because, like teachers, they will try and sneak stuff in.
Sadly he is the warped one out to indoctrinate kids, but since up is down in Florida, he thinks he is the hero.
The commissioner has proposed a rule that will prevent teachers from having opinions during school hours, and it will pass too because the state board of education, a board as unqualified as Corcoran, is just as radicalized.
Florida has a recipe for disaster. Add one part gerrymandering, one part far-right dogma, and a heaping pile of intolerance and sexism to Florida, and we get a state where the zealots at the top impose their will on all those beneath them. The Taliban didn't become the Taliban overnight, they evolved into it, and if we open our eyes, we can see disturbing parallels in the GOP in Florida.
Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis pairing with the far-right Hillsdale College plans to rewrite our civics curriculum including a liberal amount of God and the Ten commandments while completely avoiding the issue of race. DeSantis says to anyone who will listen that kids are being taught to hate our country in our schools. Corcoran practically bragged how he rigged the book-buying process to eliminate crazy liberal stuff and how teachers have to be constantly replaced. Neither has considered that it is their ideas and actions which are driving people away from them.
Speaking of actions, this past session saw an anti-trans bill that called for the inspecting of children's genitalia pass the house. Now the final bill wasn't quite as onerous, but at the end of the day, it was a solution without a problem designed to marginalize and attack an already marginalized group. Unfortunately, the GOP in Florida sent a loud and clear message to our LGBTQ community and that's they are second-class citizens who can be excluded from everyday life.
Then look what has happened in St. Johns county as 80 girls at a high school had their yearbook photos altered because the powers that be determined they were too revealing. The thing is they weren't, but they, CONTINUE READING: The Florida GOP Taliban
Indoctrinate this, part 1: The voices of the Great Migration laugh at Richard Corcoran
A grifter who can't make finalist in a university president search rigged for him is no match for the honest, competitive study of America -- which is an unpoliceable classroom without walls.
I was already in the process of writing and documenting this piece about The Great Migration’s relevance to today’s economic and social moment when the comical ball of failure and grift that is Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran did what he tends to do.
But the passage that follows is most relevant to this article. It’s about the importance of indoctrinating your kids and mine with whatever nonsense Richard Corcoran claims to believe at any given time. I see no evidence he actually believes in anything but petty personal dominance, which means the “indoctrination” will morph from moment to moment if he think he can bully you with it. Indeed, note the part in bold at the end. I think it illustrates pretty well Corcoran’s embarrassing sense of himself as tiny dictator.
Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom
Where not a lawyer, it seems to me Amy Donofrio is going to own the district as she sues it into oblivion. Corcoran tells the Times Union he had Greene remove her from the classroom. While the district sticks with her, she is under investigation (for what) story.
I spoke with a school board member on Sunday, and they said it was absurd that Corcoran was telling people he had her removed though it sure seems like the right hand, the super is keeping the left hand, the board, in the dark.
Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran says he had teacher, Amy Donofrio fired
More incredible work from Accountabalony:
but I didn’t think to say “okay and keep all of the crazy liberal stuff out” and so now we literally have them, and they hide it in “social emotional learning” so it doesn’t SAY “Critical Race Theory” but you could definitely have a teacher who teaches Critical Race Theory so now we have to go back and say, if it’s electronic, we want it out and, on top of that, we’re passing a rule this coming month that says, for the 185,000 teachers, you can’t indoctrinate students with stuff that’s not based on our standards, the new B.E.S.T. standards…
But you have to police it on a daily basis, it’s 185,000 teachers in a classroom with anywhere from 18-25 kids and it you’re not physically there in the classroom. I will tell you it’s working in the universities and it’s starting to work in… I’ve censored or fired or terminated numerous teachers for doing that. I’m getting sued right now in Duval County … because it was an entire classroom memorialized to Black Lives Matter… we made sure she was terminated and now we’re being sued by every one of the liberal left groups for “freedom of speech” issues and I say to them …
We made sure she was fired. Where does Corcoran end and Greene begin?
If you read the piece you will realize he has no idea what Donofrio teaches or what grade for that matter, but he took great joy in saying he had her fired.
Look you have to read the entire piece and then listen to the video.
Florida Politics, a media platform,* has a weekly feature whereby it names the biggest winners and losers of the week in Florida politics. This week, it named Richard Corcoran, Commissioner of Education and erstwhile-House Speaker who was known for always getting his way (is that code language for a bully?), as the week’s biggest loser for issuing a memo to school superintendents to suggest (go back and read the previous parentheses) that mandatory mask policies serve no purpose and should disappear when the next school year begins.
That makes the pronouncement by Education Commissioner RICHARD CORCORAN all the more bizarre.
IN A MEMO to public school district superintendents, Corcoran recommended they drop the mandatory mask requirements for the 2021-22 academic year.
Why?
Corcoran’s memo said, “they serve no remaining good at this point in our schools.”
It’s long been obvious to Florida educators that politicians like Richard Corcoran are ignorant about public schools, Florida’s school districts, and CONTINUE READING: The Biggest Loser – Grumpy Old Teacher
Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?
If the past is prologue, the answer to that question is the opposite of what is right. They will still use the tests to bludgeon teachers and save money. Who wants to make a bet what they will do?
First, some random thoughts.
Executive orders from the state diminish the power of localities. They make Corcoran a de facto king of education. That wouldn't be a good thing even if we had a reasoned educator in charge instead of the jackbooted noneducator thug we currently have.
We should all oppose high-stakes testing as it is currently done. Is there a need for an assessment? Sure, but what we have is punitive accountability on steroids that isn't meant to help. It's meant to harm. Greene and presumably the board's full-throated embrace of them is beyond troubling.
Despite months of telegraphing waivers for the tests were coming, the district spent weeks cajoling families to return and watched up the stress level of students and staff alike, and for what? It's my thought Greene can taste that A grade and is willing to walk over the bodies of teachers and students to get it. Anybody paying CONTINUE READING: Education Matters: Now that the testing EO has come out, the big question is what will DCPS do?
