Backlash Against Governor Christie’s Overseer Superintendent Grows in Newark | janresseger

Backlash Against Governor Christie’s Overseer Superintendent Grows in Newark | janresseger:

Backlash Against Governor Christie’s Overseer Superintendent Grows in Newark

Posted on February 27, 2014 by janresseger

Articles at Politico Pro are almost always behind a pay wall, but this morning somehow Diane Ravitch has forwarded yesterday’s piece about the school crisis in the Newark, New Jersey’s public schools, Chris Christie Faces New Uproar in State’s Largest City.

The reporter, Stephanie Simon, does an excellent job of tracing the escalation of tension in Newark  as Governor Chris Christie, his appointed state overseer superintendent Cami Anderson, and outgoing state school commissioner Christopher Cerf attempt to close so called “failing” schools, most of them located in Newark’s poorest black neighborhoods, silence principals who have spoken out, and now fire masses of experienced school teachers by overriding the due-process protections in the union contract.

Neither Cami Anderson nor Christopher Cerf is a career educator; both were trained at the Broad Academy, where financier Eli Broad’s short program turns business and military leaders into superintendents.  Broad-trained leaders tend to endorse school closure and privatization as strategies for so-called school turnaround.  In Newark today Anderson and Cerf— imposing policy on a majority African American school district—are white.

Ravitch also shares an interview published by Salon with Ras Baraka, a school principal and member of Newark’s city council, who is running for Mayor of Newark.  Baraka shares his

BELIEVE IN NEWARK - RAS J. BARAKA FOR MAYOR 2014

UPDATE: Cerf’s Amplify gets $2.3 million from Newark + Teacher seniority waiver to be dropped | Bob Braun's Ledger

BULLETIN: Teacher seniority waiver to be dropped | Bob Braun's Ledger:

Cerf’s Amplify gets $2.3 million from Newark

Cami Anderson, the Christie-appointed superintendent of Newark schools, has awarded three contracts worth $2.3 million to Amplify Education, Inc.—a company that, in a few days, takes on a new  executive, New Jersey Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf, Anderson’s immediate boss. When Cerf announced he was leaving Feb. 10, he told The Star-Ledger he didn’t know whether […]

38 by Bob Braun / 29min 

BULLETIN: Teacher seniority waiver to be dropped

Cami Anderson, the Christie-appointed superintendent of Newark schools, is expected to drop her request for a waiver from state regulations to she can ignore seniority rights when and if she lays off hundreds of city teachers. That doesn’t mean she won’t lay off teachers—but she will have to abide by current law and regulations when she does.

The main characters in the drama won’t talk about the report I received that Anderson won’t try to persuade outgoing Education Commissioner Christopher Cerf or his successor to set aside regulations that protect experienced teachers. Tomorrow is Cerf’s last day.

I first reported here Feb. 21 that Anderson would try to use a little-used provision in state regulations that permits school districts to ignore, or waive,  regulations if they come up with an “equivalency” plan that achieves the same goal as the ignored rules. In this case, she wanted to skip traditional standards—experience within appropriate certifications—and to add so-called “effectiveness” ratings as a measure of experience. As a consequence, a teacher with less experience but 

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM for Dummies

CURMUDGUCATION: VAM for Dummies:

VAM for Dummies

If you don't spend every day with your head stuck in the reform toilet, receiving the never-ending education swirly that is school reformy stuff, there are terms that may not be entirely clear to you. One is VAM-- Value-Added Measure.

VAM is a concept borrowed from manufacturing. If I take one dollar's worth of sheet metal and turn it into a lovely planter that I can sell for ten dollars, I've added nine dollars of value to the metal.

It's a useful concept in manufacturing management. For instance, if my accounting tells me that it costs me ten dollars in labor to add five dollars of value to an object, I should plan my going-out-of-business sale today.

And a few years back, when we were all staring down the NCLB maw requiring that 100% of our students be above average by this year, it struck many people as a good idea-- let's check instead to see if teachers are making students better. Let's measure if teachers have added value to the individual student.

There are so many things wrong with this conceptually, starting with the idea that a student is like a piece of manufacturing material and continuing on through the reaffirmation of the school-is-a-

The Education Spring’s ‘Year Of Action’ Revs Up

The Education Spring’s ‘Year Of Action’ Revs Up:





The Education Spring’s ‘Year Of Action’ Revs Up

 When President Barack Obama, in his State of the Union address, called for a “year of action,”he probably didn’t have this in mind.

An extensive and diverse coalition of forces opposed to the education policies pushed by his administration, and many state governors, is organizing on an unprecedented scale to spur a variety of protest actions, including street rallies, sit-ins, walk-outs, strikes, boycotts, and disruptive legislative actions and lawsuits.

It’s clear, last year’s emerging Education Spring that revealed a nationwide movement of diverse factions opposed to unpopular education policies has now developed substantial new organizational capacity and a more powerful voice.

The “new populism,” as my colleague Robert Borosage reveals, that is defining the economic debate in 2014 is also firing a new populist movement to reject failed education policy mandates and call for new reforms of our public education system.

“Movements grow,” Borosage reminds us, “only when harsh reality is combined with dedicated organizers and teachers.” Well, the “dedicated organizers and teachers” for a populist education movement have arrived.

Meet The Organizers And Teachers

This week, hundreds of activists are gathering in Austin, Texas for the first annual meeting of the Network for Public Education, a group with a stated opposition to the status quo education policies pushed by federal and state governments, including “high-stakes testing, privatization 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Suspensions/expulsions key to building charter school 'culture'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Suspensions/expulsions key to building charter school 'culture':

Suspensions/expulsions key to building charter school 'culture'

"Charter schools should not be allowed to 'expel' their way to better performance if they are truly public schools." -- Ald. Bob Fioretti

Last month, the U.S. Department of Education and U.S. attorney general's office released national guidelines on student discipline codes, acknowledging many urban school districts' zero-tolerance policies have created school-to-prison pipelines.

Chicago schools CEO Byrd-Bennett claims she wants to reduce expulsions and suspensions that hit hardest on African-American students. She claims that she "inherited a really punitive zero-tolerance code of conduct." But in fact, every district she has led, from Cleveland to Detroit became notorious for black-student expulsions and suspensions.

BBB and Rahm's problem now is, they're both afraid to take on the privately-run charter schools where, according to this morning's Sun-Times, students in Chicago are 11 times more likely to be expelled than students in traditional schools. They've both made their total political investment in the expansion of charter schools, at the expense of publicly-run neighborhood schools but can't move the needle on expulsion/suspension numbers without 

Confused about LCFF? Oakland students break it down, why the upcoming LCAP meetings are so important and what democratic school budgeting would look like | Classroom Struggle

Confused about LCFF? Oakland students break it down, why the upcoming LCAP meetings are so important and what democratic school budgeting would look like | Classroom Struggle:

Confused about LCFF? Oakland students break it down, why the upcoming LCAP meetings are so important and what democratic school budgeting would look like

This is a repost of an article from a new Oakland student blog. Check out the original here: http://youngoakland.com/2014/02/students-want-their-voices-heard-in-new-school-budget-making/

Students Want Their Voices Heard in New School Budget Making

By ana, February 26, 2014

By Nelzy, Katie and Ana

After a lot of effort by students in California, a new budget plan was passed by the state legislature to offer equity vs. equality. The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) determines the amount of money schools will receive for each California student, creating a new base line amount and providing additional money for students who are in need of more resources because they are low income, english learners or foster kids. The LCFF also offers students, teachers and parents a chance to work with school districts to have a say on how the money should be spent.

Under the LCFF, each student in California brings his or her school $6,342. On top of that a school receives $2,220 more for each student who is low income, or a foster kid, or an English Learner. But that’s not all! The schools in which more than 50% of students fall into those categories get another $2,220 per student.

Each district according to the LCFF law should have a Local Control 

New Sup for Sac? - One Vote for Community Builder!

New Sup for Sac? - One Vote for Community Builder!

In an earlier post I asked "Sacramento Needs a New Superintendent- A Corporate Reformer or A Community Builder?" Well here is one vote for Community Builder: 

Who Will Your Board Member Pick for the Next Superintendent? 

You remember the old saying, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!” Well, its time to dust off this old saying and use it again if we allow our board to make the monumental error of selecting a less than qualified superintendent again, especially in light of recent rumors circulating that some Board members are considering to pick Raymond’s hand-picked Interim Superintendent, Sara Noguchi, Ed.D. to become the next superintendent.  

SCUSD is the 11th largest and most diverse school district in California with over 47,900 students, 81 school campuses, and with an annual budget of over 450 million dollars. It is also a low achieving district who, according to CDE data, its API (Academic Performance Index) numbers have gone down from 2012 for every ethnic group of students and just about every other category. In other words, it is a school district in need of real, experienced leadership. 

If we have learned anything from former Superintendent Raymond's tenure, is that a superintendent with significant experience does matter. Every superintendent hired by the SCUSD board prior to Raymond had, on average, over twenty years of experience in education; and had served as superintendent at some other school district before coming to SCUSD. In other words, they had significant experience; and they had a track record. 

The same level of credentials also holds true of other school districts of comparable size to SCUSD across the country. For instance, a review of the biographies of superintendents currently serving in school districts in Boston, Chicago, Miami-Dade, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco reveals that they all have one thing in common: they have a minimum of 20 years experience in education having moved up from being school teachers, school principals, district administrators, and having led a school district before taking on their current roles. For the first time in recent memory this common sense criteria for hiring superintendents has not been applied by the SCUSD Board - Raymond was hired despite having only 2 years and 10 months of experience in education. The problem was not that SCUSD did not have a competitive salary to offer for the position. In fact, SCUSD offered a salary of $260,000 dollars for Superintendent, a highly competitive salary by any standard. 

Noguchi, unlike Raymond, does have more educational experience. For instance, she has a doctorate in education, has taught, and has served as consultant to education agencies such as CDE. However, Noguchi has never managed a school district before, not even a small one. And, perhaps, more significantly, she has no track record we can judge her on. What we are able to discern about her leadership since becoming Interim Superintendent, however, is that she has not negated any of Raymond’s decisions, no matter how ill thought out or ill advised. For example, she has not taken any action to reduce or correct the excessive salaries being paid to her colleagues in the Cabinet which total a staggering 1.3 million dollars.

In another area, Noguchi’s decision making style has not exhibited any true leadership, leaving everyone wondering who is really in charge, which shows that she is more a group thinker, than a leader. A recent example of this observation is her inability to hold her colleagues accountable for the deteriorating parent relationship with district officials under her colleague Teresa Cummings, a situation that reached an all time low when Cummings called outside police to settle a disagreement with a District Advisory Council parent leader - a matter being reviewed by the CDE. Unfortunately, the Interim Superintendent is on mute

The opportunity to redirect the district from a Broad Academy sponsored corporate agenda to a community agenda is now, but not with the people who Raymond left behind to run the school district. We should demand from our board that we will expect nothing less than a highly experienced superintendent with a track record we can judge them on for such issues as what he/she thinks about charter schools, school closings, parent engagement, common core, and who has a track record for promoting diversity among its staff. So remember the next time your Board member argues in favor of the least qualified candidate to run our school district: “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me!”

Union Election in Los Angeles: Meet Candidate Gaffney - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher

Union Election in Los Angeles: Meet Candidate Gaffney - Living in Dialogue - Education Week Teacher:

Union Election in Los Angeles: Meet Candidate Gaffney

By Anthony Cody on February 26, 2014 7:19 PM

Coleen Bondy, Los Angeles teacher, has prepared special coverage of the upcoming teacher's union election in her city. Here is her report:

United Teachers Los Angeles, the teachers' union for Los Angeles Unified School District, is holding elections for all of its major offices this spring. Ballots will be mailed out to the membership beginning Feb. 25.

Effective leadership has never been so critical to UTLA members as it is now. Teachers have endured years of brutal budget cuts, including furlough days, pink slips, increased class sizes, and have gone seven years without a raise.

In addition, LAUSD has implemented programs such as Breakfast in the Classroom that are wildly unpopular with teachers, who already deal with cleanliness issues in the classroom because of a lack of adequate custodial staffing.

LAUSD's school board appears to be charging full steam ahead on a plan to equip every student with an iPad, at a total cost of about $1 billion. It is planning to use bond money that voters 

@Every Learner: Someday Is Now — Whole Child Education

@Every Learner: Someday Is Now — Whole Child Education:

THE WHOLE CHILD BLOG

@Every Learner: Someday Is Now

February 26, 2014 by Whole Child Symposium

Now is the time to make a difference in the lives of our learners, to propel them into the world as beacons of success and hope. ASCD's 69th Annual Conference and Exhibit Show is two weeks away—it's not too late to participate!

The conference will be held in Los Angeles, California, March 15–17, 2014, and will showcase ideas and best-practice strategies that are driving student achievement and unlock ways to boost teacher and leadership effectiveness. Attendees will choose from more than 350 sessions that will enable them to prepare our world's learners to be creative, critically minded, and compassionate citizens. The conference's general session speakers include education luminaries such as Sir Ken Robinson, Daniel Pink, and Russell Quaglia. The conference is generously supported by sponsors including Microsoft, Adobe, and VINCI.

As you plan your conference experience, consider attending a whole child or policy session:

Saturday, March 15

• A Whole Child Approach to School Improvement: The Opportunity to Make Change Happen
  At the ASCD Whole Child Theater, learn about school improvement, policy changes that are critical to school success, and a framework for intentional and targeted teaching.
• Federal Education Policy and You
  Decisions made by policymakers in Washington, D.C., can influence educators' daily lives, from how teachers are evaluated to what student test scores are used for and the resources available to districts or schools. Learn about ASCD's positions and resources and how ASCD is actively advocating on your 

Getting to the Heart of Education: Listening to the Whole At-Risk Student

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all." —Aristotle Many at-risk students in schools are crying out for help with their real-life issues, yet many educators respond with an emphasis on academic proficiency skills. With today's stress on academic achievement at all costs with little regard for the mental, social, physical, emotional, or spiritual aspects

by Stephen Sroka / 1d 

FEB 24

Everything Is Not Always Awesome, But It Can Be

A positive school culture is critical to the success of any school. As educators, we know that staying positive in the wake of planning, paperwork, meetings, grading, and all of the other administrative tasks is tough, especially when we got into this business because we love to work with students. It takes more effort than simply "putting on a happy face," as the musical number goes. Th

by Kevin Scott / 2d 

FEB 21

Every School Has Its Challenging Students

As educators, we are the gatekeepers for society and the nurturers of individuals. We have an obligation to teach all students, but some are really hard to teach. How can we promote safety and success for all, while supporting our challenging students to grow and learn? In this webinar, Jeffrey Benson, author of the ASCD book Hanging In: Strategies for Teaching the Students Who Challenge Us Most

by Klea Scharberg / 5d 

FEB 20

Play: Is it Becoming Extinct?

Think back for a moment to when you were a young child. What games did you play? What things did you play at school? Do you remember your parents telling you to "go play?" I remember riding my bicycle, roller skating, getting together with the neighbor kids to play hide-and-seek, and Barbie's of course were my favorite! Today if a parent were to say "go play," would children kn

by Tisha Shipley / 6d hide  //  save

FEB 19

Personalized Professional Development Elements: Supporting the CCSS Transition

Personalized learning has proven effective for empowering students to monitor their learning, establish goals, and reflect on progress. As the the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) have become a target of focus for educators, we must consider how we are embarking on this learning journey as adults. Providing a professional atmosphere for personalized learning is essential in supporting teachers t

by Celina Brennan / 7d 

Throughout February and March: Building School Morale

Educators working in a positive school culture experience collegiality, trust, and tangible support as leaders and peers, creating an environment where there are high expectations, involvement in decision making, and open communication. Students entering a positive school culture feel safe, engaged, and connected and see school as a place where they can learn and contribute to the world around the

by Klea Scharberg / 7d 

#ResistTFA and the Zero-Sum Game - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson

#ResistTFA and the Zero-Sum Game - The Jose Vilson | The Jose Vilson:

#ResistTFA and the Zero-Sum Game

by JOSE VILSON on FEBRUARY 26, 2014

in JOSE

In the middle of writing my piece on Jordan Davis and the lack of volume about the decision / non-decision on Michael Dunn, a few people bristled at the idea that Teach for America would use my piece as a rebuff of #ResistTFA, a trend started by education activists to combat the deleterious effects of Teach for America on K-12 education. Um, that’s not quite how it went down.

In fact, I knew about the hashtag, but I didn’t know when people would discuss this nor did I know that the conversation would make it to Al Jazeera or a few newspapers across the country. If anything, I wrote the Jordan Davis piece as its own isolated rejoinder to the ignorance I saw. I do mean ignorance in the truest sense of the word, for, to ignore this event is to ignore the students in front of you.

Unless you think you’re absolved from the results of a court case about a kid that looks like he could be my kid. Whatever works for you.

In any case, one commenter in particular found it curious that I would write this Davis piece because, “If the rule was that no one can speak out on an issue unless they have already spoken out on all the other concurrent tragedies, then everyone would have to go silent,” then went to try and challenge my record on these things.

A few things:

• I do speak to international issues, early and often. I speak on war, capitalism, race, gender, and homophobia frequently, but you’d actually have to know me to say that.
• Me calling out folks for not speaking on these issues doesn’t dismiss any particular

- See more at: http://thejosevilson.com/resisttfa-zero-sum-game/#sthash.NuLiVF51.dpuf

solidaridad: Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again

solidaridad: Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again:

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again by Robert D. Skeels

Bill Gates and Steve Barr are trying to take over UTLA, again

Arne Duncan: You’re a Liar, Common Core Will Destroy American Education | TheBlaze.com

Arne Duncan: You’re a Liar, Common Core Will Destroy American Education | TheBlaze.com:

Arne Duncan: You’re a Liar, Common Core Will Destroy American Education

This week, TheBlaze’s White House Correspondent, Fred Lucas, conducted an interview withEducation Secretary Arne Duncan.

Fred did a great job reporting exactly what Secretary Duncan said, without adding his own commentary. That’s what a good journalist does.

I, Pat Gray, however, am not a journalist. I definitely add commentary. Oh, and truth. Because Secretary Duncan flat out lied to Fred, and to you.

If you were to accept everything Secretary Duncan said at face value, you could easily say, “wow, this Common Core state standard thing sounds GREAT!”  That’s why I don’t recommend that you take everything he said, or what any Common Core advocate says, at face value.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks to the Associated Press during an interview in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 17, 2013. Duncan says it’s tough to prepare students for college when they’re more worried about being killed than making it to graduation. Credit: AP

Let’s start with Duncan’s claim that Common Core state education standards are not federal-level coercion, adding, as he put it, “as some Republicans in Congress have characterized them.”

That’s Duncan’s attempt to make this sound like a purely partisan issue. It isn’t. There are plenty of Republicans who are very much in favor of Common Core.  Some are names you know well, like Mike Huckabee, Jeb Bush, Utah Gov. Gary Herbert and Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval. Republicans can be just as wrong as Democrats sometimes, I think we’ve seen that.

As for Duncan’s claim that these standards are not federal-level coercion?

Well, let’s see; the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, (also known as the Stimulus Package) dangled federal funds like carrots in front of all 50 states to get them to adopt the 

AFT - Letter to N.J. Gov. Chris Christie

AFT - A Union of Professionals - Letter to N.J. Gov. Chris Christie:

Letter from Randi Weingarten to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie on the school crisis in Newark

February 26, 2014

The Honorable Chris Christie
Governor of New Jersey
PO Box 001
Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Governor Christie:

There is a crisis in Newark. And that crisis was made worse by your schools Superintendent Cami Anderson opting not to attend last night’s School Advisory Board meeting to hear the concerns and desires of parents, educators, students and the people of Newark.

Governor, you have complete and total control over the schools—the way they are managed, the way they are funded. The Newark community has met state requirements to regain local control twice now, in 2011 and 2013. But your administration kept changing the bar, and the state remains in control.

At the very least, then, your superintendent has the obligation to listen to the people of Newark—the people who send their children to our schools, and the people who spend their working lives trying to make a difference in children’s lives.

So we’re clear, please know I don’t condone disrespectful behavior, be it at a school board meeting or when, in my opinion, you bullied teachers. However, the potential that some at a school board meeting could be boisterous does not justify the superintendent skipping it entirely.

The people of Newark want their schools back. They don’t want the One Newark plan, and they have lost faith in the way Superintendent Anderson has managed the city’s public schools.

Let me explain. Superintendent Anderson dismantled the Global Village—a smart, community-driven effort to provide children with much-needed wraparound services. She ended the Newcomer program, which provided support for English language learners. Her “renew” schools efforts have yielded poor results. She quickly spent the sizable donation from Facebook. She suspended several administrators who disagreed with her, and she made backroom deals with charter operators. She is forcing through her One Newark plan despite public outcry. And now, under the guise of so-called budget problems, the superintendent has asked out-going state Education Commissioner Chris Cerf to allow her to waive our contract and state law, and wants to replace experienced teachers with new Teach for America recruits, who have never stepped into a classroom and have no qualifications to teach in the Newark schools.

We worked on that contract together. We agreed that it put into place policies that would be good for students and for teachers. You said yourself that it would “improve the quality of education across the City of Newark.” This is a failure of management, a failure of fiscal stewardship and a failure of instructional leadership.

Rather than deal with the fact that Newark students are suffering, school buildings are crumbling and staggering inequities persist, Superintendent Anderson would instead blame and mass fire the people who have devoted their lives to helping Newark’s children. 

Instead of driving deeper divisions and distrust in Newark, we need to be focused on solutions that work—early childhood education, wraparound services, project-based learning, professional development and more. We need to make Newark schools places where kids can build trusting relationships with each other and with adults, where they can learn the critical-thinking skills they need to compete in the 21st century, and where they develop the persistence and grit they’ll need to deal with adversity. 

Governor, the Newark community has made it known: They don’t want mass closings, mass firings or mass privatization. They want to regain local control of the district. They want to reclaim the promise of public education in Newark.

I ask you to listen. Give the people of Newark their schools and their future back.

Sincerely,

Randi Weingarten

cc:

Newark Superintendent Cami Anderson
Education Commissioner Chris Cerf
Newark Teachers Union President Joesph Del Grosso
AFT-New Jersey President Donna Chiera
State Senator Ronald Rice
State Senator M. Teresa Ruiz
State Senate President Steve Sweeney

Brevard Schools, Binggeli, the 1/2 cent sales tax increase – as sales tax money is being given away to Major League Soccer, Hollywood, vouchers to religious or politically affiliated… | Reclaim Reform

Brevard Schools, Binggeli, the 1/2 cent sales tax increase – as sales tax money is being given away to Major League Soccer, Hollywood, vouchers to religious or politically affiliated… | Reclaim Reform:

Brevard Schools, Binggeli, the 1/2 cent sales tax increase – as sales tax money is being given away to Major League Soccer, Hollywood, vouchers to religious or politically affiliated…

Posted on February 26, 2014by Ken Previti

Brevard Supt. of Schools Brian Binggeli threatened potential cuts to arts programs while increasing class sizes, threatened to use temporary mobile classrooms, threatened to fire people, etc. IF the 1/2% (one half cent per dollar) sales tax increase doesn’t pass in November.

This would seem fair if sales tax money wasn’t being given away by the hundreds of millions of dollars to special interest groups. We would pay the increased sales tax as certain select groups are handed the money. Not fair.

Threatened. Yes, that is the correct word. At the “informational meeting” at Viera H.S. on the night of Presidents Day, Feb. 17, a national holiday when schools are closed, Binggeli framed his arguments. He used massive projected charts which showed pages of people fired (For some reason, he said that no teachers would be fired – only contract workers who teach, whatever that means to him.), classes cut, class sizes increased, programs ended, bus problems left as-is, and lots more. Could be. Might happen.

Binggeli then professed to love every item on the lists, but somebody has to MAYBE cut, cut, cut. And Binggeli is the man to do it. So he said.

Now, IF the 1/2 cent sales tax passes, he MAY decide that SOME of these terrible things MIGHT NOT have to be done. NO PROMISES, mind you.

Binggeli promised to “take this show on the road” thirty times or more if necessary. And that is precisely what it is, a Dog and Pony