Hall instead of Haynes

A big upside to the nonsense that was Rep. G. A. Hardaway's (D-Memphis) attempt to test non-public schoolers, that would be the attack before the current homeschool diploma's are 'worthless' attack, I met Michelle Hall. She and several of her children attended one of those hearings and she introduced herself and told me that her husband David Hall, a Goodlettsville small businessman, was running against Joe Haynes (D-Nashville) in the 20th Tennessee Senate District. It was very good news at a very frustrating time.

I just got an email from Michelle this morning letting me know that David's website is up and they're ready to get volunteers lined up in preparation for what I'm sure is going to be a hard push back from Sen. Haynes. You'll find some of David's positions at his 'Return to Common Sense' page. His children have created DemocracyMeetTheHalls.com which is their e-book about their dad.

So I'm happy to pass on to you my recommendation that you vote for this Republican on November 4. That seems like a long lazy summer away but November will be here before you know it and now is the time to ensure that David has a firm foundation and the resources necessary to actually win in November and that the Senate continues in Republican hands.

Encouraging choice in the meantime

While waiting to hear how our own Tennessee Legislature will vote on our current education choices in Tennessee I'm preparing to be in Memphis next week to host a panel on homeschooling for the US Department of Education's Innovations in Education Summit.

May 15: (Thursday)Memphis: US DOE Regional Summit on Innovations in Education featuring a panel discussion with TnHomeEd Founder Kay Brooks, author of "So-Why Do You Homeschool?" and Nashville area homeschooler Mimi Davis and Betty Schmidt mother of a special needs child.

The U.S. Department of Education's Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives and the Office of Innovation and Improvement will conduct regional summits to highlight educational innovations. The summits will showcase educational options at the local level and seek to empower community leaders and parents with information, ideas, and successful models that can be replicated elsewhere.

Registration is free and includes lunch.

• 9:00: Welcome & the National School Choice Environment
• 9:30: Expanding Parental Options to choose Private Schools--Choice Programs in the States (to include panelist Eric K. Hilgendorf, Director of Charter Schools & Choice, TN Department Of Education)
  
• 10:45 Charter Schools in Action
• 12:00 luncheon with keynote speaker Mary McDonald, Super. of Schools, Diocese of Memphis
• 1:15 Expanding Parental Options to Choose Private Schools, moderated by Karla Dial, Managing Editor of School Reform News.
  
• 2:15 Private School Choice in Action, moderated by Drew Johnson, President of the TN Center for Policy Research
  
• 3:30: Choice in Action - Homeschooling, moderated by Kay Brooks, Founder, TnHomeEd.com
  

Thursday, May 15, 2008
9:00am - 5:00pm (Registration begins at 8:30am)

Hilton Memphis Hotel
939 Ridge Lake Boulevard
Memphis, TN 38120
(901) 684-6664

Agenda
Registration Form

If you can attend, make sure you come up and introduce yourself. Our panel begins at 3:30 p.m.

Information please

I'm waiting for the House Calendar and Rules Committee to meet so I can see how they handle HB1652 regarding Category IV diplomas. So many of the same people who voted against it in the House Education Committee are also on the Calendar and Rules Committee that you have to wonder if they'll let it move forward.

There is no certain start time for this meeting. It is scheduled to start after Education, a budget update, after Government Ops and Finance, Ways & Means. Forget sufficient notice to the people regarding how things are being done or what's being done. Forget knowing when they're meeting. Forget know what they're meeting about. It's fruitbasket upset season at the Tennessee Legislature. Sadly, it's normal for our legislature, particularly the House, to lollygag for the first several months and then cram as much legislation through and past inquiring citizens and advocates as possible in the last couple of weeks. The result is that often no one knows what they're actually working on and sometimes you have to believe that's by design.

I watched a few minutes of the Government Operations Committee and was astonished to find that the Committee Chair Rep. Barbara Cooper (D-Memphis) was NOT providing Rep. Mike Bell the list of entities that the committee was voting on NOT sunsetting. Because Rep. Cooper has a habit of being a 'low talker' it was hard to follow but it sounded like they were about to vote on the status of some 90 entities. Rep. Bell requested that the bill be rolled to the 'heel' of the calendar in order to allow time for him to review the list and make an informed vote. Clearly irritated by the inconvenience she told him that the list was being printed but she insisted the vote occur then. Being denied reasonable information, Rep. Bell did the only thing he could at the time. He voted no.

Good enough for UT, Vandy, Harvard...

"Worthless"
"Not worth the paper they're written on."

That's how Tn DOE Executive Director of Field Services Cindy Benefield is being quoted as having described the diplomas received by tens of thousands of students across the state. These students have received their diplomas from Category IV schools as defined by the State Board of Education. Of course, their onerous rules for us won't apply to their teachers who don't currently have baccalaureate degrees. It doesn't take into account student ACT/SAT scores and doesn't take into account the tens of thousands of homeschoolers who have successfully matriculated on to colleges and trade schools since the CRS law was written. Common sense and tack records aren't being considered here. Shouldn't those schools be the best judges of the value of the student's diploma? No, this is a heavy handed and protectionist power play by educrats and their political appointees.

Benefield's loose words have resulted in a policeman who graduated 7 years ago, received a 4.0 during his training and had been on the job for months being removed from the field and his arrests being fresh fodder for criminal attorneys. Also a grandmother's day care operation was threatened when the state determined that her employee had one of these 'worthless' diplomas and grandma is now forced to fire her granddaughter in order to keep her license.

It's being reported that ITT Technical school has been denying registration based on this woman's words.

Rep. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) presented to the House Higher Education Committee last week an amendment that would require the state and its agencies to recognize these diplomas issued by church-related schools sanctioned by TCA 49-50-801.

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, title 49, chapter 1, Part 1, is amended by adding a new section thereto, as follows:

Section 49-1-1___. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a student who has a diploma recognized under §49-50-801 or §49-6-3030 shall be considered by all departments, agencies or entities of state government as possessing a valid high school diploma. this section shall not apply to state lottery proceeds as provided in title 49, chapter 4, part 9.

That committee approved it for passage and sent it on the the full House Education Committee with the understanding that the DOE and Rep. Bell would try and come to some agreement.

Frustratingly, the DOE provided an amendment that would pretty much negate TCA49-50-801 and require 9-12 graders to be taught by those with a baccalaureate degree.

SECTION 1. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, chapter 1, Part 1, is amended by adding a new section thereto, as follows:

Section 49-1-1-1____. Notwithstanding any provision of law to the contrary, a student who has a diploma awarded by § 49-50-801 or §49-6-3050 shall be considered by all departments, agencies or entities of state government as possessing a valid high school diploma as long as all entities issuing diplomas pursuant to the above statutes require and document that all teachers conducting classes in kindergarten through grade either (K-8) hold a valid high school diploma or GED and all teachers conducting classes in grades nine through twelve (9-12) hold at least a baccalaureate degree awarded by a college or university accredited by an accrediting agency or association recognized by the state board of education. This section shall not apply to state lottery proceeds as provided title 49, chapter 4, part 9.

SECTION 2. Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49, Chapter 50, Part 801, is amended by deleting subsection (b) in its entirety and substituting instead the following:

(b) with the exception of requiring all teachers conducting classes in kindergarten through grade either (K-8) to hold a high school diploma or GED and all teachers conducting classes in grades nine through twelve (9-12) to hold at least a baccalaureate degree awarded by a college or university accredited by an accrediting agency or association recognized by the state board of education, the state board of education and local boards of education are prohibited from regulating the selection of faculty or textbooks or the establishment of a curriculum in church-related schools.

One of the primary reasons that code was created was to enable parents without a BA/BS to school their children at home. The DOE sees this as a chance to take back land they couldn't hold on to back in the '80's.

The Tennessee House Education Committee room will again be filled with homeschoolers today. They'll be clogging the phone lines again. They'll be maxing out the state's video streaming of this hearing. They're tired of this year of assault and they will be remembering this election season who was for freedom in education and parental rights.

You can find more details on all this, to include video of the House Ed hearing, legislative contact information, etc. at http://tnhomeed.com/HB1652-SB1827.htm. During those hearings Rep. Tommie Brown (D-Memphis) had the best question. Since these diplomas have been fine for years and years "what has changed?" It's a great question.

Update: The bill passed with the amendment homeschoolers were hoping for.
Read Red Hat Rob's blog for a great overview. The Memphis/Winningham contingent ate up an entire hour trying to block it. But our friends stood firm. We're tremendously appreciative. It's on to the full House and then the Senate.

No balance in academia

No real surprise in the research that Jay Greene reveals in his post today but it needs to be said out loud and over and over. Academia is NOT a representation of America. It's likely a representation of what they'd LIKE America to be... but America isn't there yet. So, in this political season Greene looks at the presidential contributions provided by academia and discovers their contributions to the right are few and far between.

But I do find these results troubling in two ways. First, if universities are going to lack balance in the perspectives that are represented on campus, they should be open and honest to prospective students and donors about that imbalance. Like Christian colleges, they should declare their focus and priorities up front rather than pretending that they are inclusive of all views.

I agree. Higher education consumers could use something more than slick brochures of a pretty campus. Knowing what sort of frame the instructors are going to put around their lessons are more important. If you doubt they're inclusive of all views...see Ben Stein's "Expelled-No Intelligence Allowed". We can't even talk about the subject of origins or problems with the theory let alone get fair representation regarding how to deal with the issues of the day. You want to emulate the '60's student radicalism? You'll have to join the student conservative (that's right wing, republican, pro-free market, pro-life) group. Academia created the radical student movement and they're finding themselves playing the role of the administration this time 'round.

NCLB cat skinning

Not sure if this sort of 'out of the box' thinking should be rewarded or not but it certainly proves there is more than one way to skin a cat. From Joanne Jacobs where she explains that some schools failed NCLB and some student race reclassification changed the school's status.

Principal Jim Wong reviewed the files of all the students classified as African American on the test, he said, and found that four of them had indicated no race or mixed race on their enrollment paperwork. Wong sent his staff to talk to the four families to ask permission to put the kids in a different racial group.

“You get a kid that’s half black, half white. What are you going to put him down as?” Wong said. “If one kid makes the difference and I can go white, that gets me out of trouble.”

Why not START here?

The Tennessee House, lead by its Democrat leaders, continues to coddle it's own despite their conviction by the people of felonies. The latest is their unwillingness to add to the punishment met out by the judicial system and strip them of their taxpayer funded health benefits.

When asked then about why not pass the bill if lawmakers shouldn’t commit felonies, Miller said legislators were being unfairly singled out.

[This from Rep. Larry Miller, D-Memphis, House Calendar and Rules Committee.]

“I think what you’re doing, your finger pointing at legislators only,” Miller said. “Why not pass the bill and apply it to all elected officials statewide and all appointed officials? Why not?” Nashville City Paper

Man, those Memphis legislators can be tight as ticks can't they? You have to wonder if Miller is really trying to be fair or if he's just scratching the back of John Ford the convicted former legislator from Memphis who is finally starting to serve his time.

Why not START with the legislature? Why not lead the way, Rep. Miller? Why not demonstrate your own willingness to live under the laws you propose for the rest of the elected?

Rep. Jason Mumpower R-Bristol, whose district couldn't BE further away from Memphis, is exactly right:

“There’s a simple way, a very, very, very simple way, for legislators to not have to worry about this bill — just don’t commit a felony,” Mumpower said in an interview. “It’s flabbergasting.”

UPDATE: Bill Hobbs makes a great point. He's "more interested in finding out for whom Naifeh and too many Democrats in the Democrat-controlled state House think the benefit should be continued in the future."

Gone before it got here

The largess graciously handed to the peasant classes by our congressional overlords appeared in the checking account this morning. We had every intention of saving this but it was essentially gone before it got here. Yesterday's bad news from our HVAC guys means every bit of it, and much more, will go toward buying and installing a new 2.5 ton heat pump.

I'm thankful for this money but I can't help but wonder about all the stuff Congress and the State Legislature deem more important than leaving our hard earned money in our own pockets. Particularly galling is the Governor's whining about how revenue's are down and all his grand plans for our money won't happen. He'll have to rewrite his budget because his own number crunchers thought the money well would never run dry--or at least not until the next administration. Gee, who would have ever thought that taxing cigarettes would discourage their purchase? However, because rank has its privileges he won't suffer much at all. The $13 million party bunker is still moving forward. We might have to do without but he and his legislative comrades still be able to party on.

Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey and other Republicans are among those who don't support a funding increase when so many cuts have to be made in other parts of the budget.

"I won't be OK with that because I just can't believe that we're going to be cutting half a billion dollars out of the budget and still funding new programs," Ramsey told reporters in Nashville last week. "If we were doing the same thing, he'd be calling us irresponsible for doing that." Tennessean

Hold the line, Lt. Governor. Somebody needs to be responsible. Somebody has to be the adult and say "No." Somebody has to realize that taxpayers may not have any more to give.

And don't overlook the seeding of the income tax clouds by State Representative Craig Fitzhugh, D-Ripley, chairman of the House Finance Committee who voted for it last go 'round:

"The general economic downturn across the country has affected us drastically on our state sales tax," he said. "It's a real critical situation as far as revenues go." Tennessean

Acting responsibly

"I think, to me, it's a little irresponsible
to wait until someone commits a violent act
and then deport them,"
[Davidson County Sheriff Daron] Hall said.

That's the sentence in this morning's Tennessean that jumped out at me and very accurately sums up the situation for me. But he didn't go far enough. It's a LOT irresponsible to wait as the family of Donna and Sean Wilson know all too well. Sheriff Hall goes on to say:

"The person didn't follow immigration laws, driving laws and criminal laws, and that's reason enough to believe they will continue to not follow our laws.

He's exactly right. He gets it. I'm very thankful he gets it. I'm very thankful he's got this 287(g) program up and running in Davidson County. The federal government has failed to secure our border. Governor Bredesen has failed to secure our border. Thankfully, Sheriff Hall and Chief Ronal Serpas and their officers are doing what they can to stem the tide.

I understand that the circumstances these people came from could be very hard and hopeless. However, I don't believe that's the case for all of them.

I also know that the US being the relief value for corrupt and dictatorial governments doesn't really solve the problem in the long run. Enabling these immigrants to fix their own governments and economies which would allow them to stay with their families is a much better solution. But no one really talks about that. It's as if people completely overlook the real reason they 'had' to leave their families and enter the US illegally. If the frustration level of citizens escaping their home counties doesn't rise to the level of their own Boston Tea Party and they stay and fight for their homeland how will things ever change? They won't. The major changes will occur HERE, not there.

AT&T and parental controls

I've been online now for some 13 years. I started with AOL and quickly learned that they'd rather promote spam than provide me with real email filters. I switched to BellSouth and had been a happy customer for most of those 13 years...until now. AT&T now owns BellSouth and I'm paying them the very same price for less service.

A couple of years ago dsl finally came to our neighborhood. I was one of the first to sign up and it's been great. Pretty good speed, no dial up screech, people can still call me while I'm online---Papa really likes that feature. After a couple of years the 2Wire 1700HW modem BellSouth provided me has, according to AT&T tech support (there's no way he's really named Martin) died.

They'll ship me a new one..Great...it'll only cost $$ plus shipping...No. If you can't provide a new modem free, I'll find someone who can....Oh, I don't know. I'll have to check with my supervisor...Good news, Mrs. Brooks, we can provide that for free with a 2 year commmittment...No. Do you see how long I've been a customer...Good news, Mr. Brooks... just shipping of....I'm not paying shipping...Good news, Mrs. Brooks.

So I get the new 2Wire 2701HG-B. We get it hooked up and running. Things seem to be working just great until I realize that the parental controls the old modem had aren't available on this new modem. That's not going to cut it. Too many children, too many devices---I gotta sleep sometime.

I call tech support and they tell me I have to download AT&T parental controls software. Fine. I do that. But the trick is it won't control the network that is our computer use around here. I call tech support back and they confirm that I have to install their software on each of the computers that access the 'net. Great, but how do I install the software on the game system? Or my Palm? Oh, that can't be done. So I'm paying the exact same price for less service? Oh, no. It's a better modem, they tell me. Better how? Because from my vantage point, I've lost a BIG service that I counted on to monitor Internet access in our home.

I spent a week emailing back and forth with AT&T asking them if there is a way around this, pointing out their webpages that say these controls are available, asking why they've downgraded their service and I'm still paying full price. I'm done. It's clear to me they don't care about providing the service I'd been using, appreciating and paying for all these years. Apparently, customers with home networks and wireless toys aren't worth bothering with. Surely, some company out there realizes that there is a need for router based parental controls.

Any suggestions for ISP's that do provide this service? Routers that do what my old 2Wire1700 did without subscribing to a service I'm already paying for but not getting?

Does someone out there have good news for Mrs. Brooks?

It's Briley's fault, I'm sure

Yes, I'm more than well aware of the Google ads for "girls" that's been appearing on this blog lately. That URL showed up a couple of years ago and I added it to my Google ad filter but it's back again. I'm blaming recent posts regarding Rob Briley's behavior as the cause of it all.

In the meantime I'm trying to get Google to remove it--again.

Proximity and Power

Jay Greene (of the Washington Post and Manhatten Institute) has his own blog now--that's good news. Here is a snip from his Proximity and Power update post.

Some folks wanted to see more data on my earlier post, Proximity and Power. In that post I described how Jonathan Butcher and I have actually measured the distance between interest group state headquarters and state capitol buildings. Our argument is that interest groups want to inflate the perception of their power by having offices that are very close to the capitol.

Here's his Tennessee information:

The rank is among the 25 most powerful interest groups as identified by Fortune Magazine. The teacher union is a prince among princes.

Return to sender

From the Wall Street Journal's Letters section in response to some teachers who blame poor performance on the children:

Still, [teacher] Ms. Wuller is on to something with her suggestion about returning "inferior raw materials to their place of origin." If sixth-grade teachers find their students aren't adequately prepared for sixth-grade work, they should return them to their place of origin -- the fifth-grade or earlier classroom they came from. Instead of blaming social conditions for student failure, let's just ask teachers to do their job: Educate students.

George A. Clowes
Senior Fellow for Education Policy
The Heartland Institute
Chicago

The problem is the system segregates children by age instead of ability. When we learn to accept the fact that people learn at different rates and that your AGE shouldn't be a determining factor in your progress through the system we'll be able to focus on the needs of students instead of their time in seat.

It's holiday time again

Ben Cunningham's mail from State Sentor Joe Haynes (D-Nashville) included this 'invitation' to take a sales tax holiday. Ben wonders where his notice about tax hikes got to. I got a similar invitation last year but haven't received this year's version. I remain less than impressed. As I said last year:

Sen. Haynes, I've been running a household budget for six some 20+years now. I've figured out that a savings of .0975 is rarely something to get all excited about. A sale of 10% at any store doesn't even get my attention. Usually, with careful shopping, stocking up and checking competitive ads (normal SOP around here) I can save much more than that. .0975% isn't worth driving up to Rivergate to fight the crowds of folks who think that this is a good deal. Especially when the state taxes me 21.4 cents per gallon to drive up there.

Frankly, I'm offended by this slick oversized announcement of your largess. I'd like REAL tax relief instead.

Briley v. Men

The Tennessean does a LOUSY job this morning of reporting on State Rep. Rob Briley's (D-Nashville) "Ophelia" moment last week during his completely out of line questioning of Rep. Stacey Campfield's (R-Knoxville) personal views on human behavior that had nothing to do with the bill before the committee. Frankly, it came off very much like Briley is still working through his own issues*. Instead of proffering legitimate reasons that defrauded men should be required to continue to pay child support for children that are not their own Briley stands in his glass house and demands Campfield's opinion regarding pre-martial and adulterous relations.

For some reason the Democrat 'statesmen' at the legislature have decided that Campfield is fair game for their petty antics and Briley took full advantage of this culture by threatening to hold the entire committee hostage until Campfield answered Briley's completely inappropriate questions. The legislature doesn't need to know how Campfield feels about adult relations. It needs to understand that this an injustice that needs to be corrected.

How Campfield managed to remain calm and professional during this latest personal attack, and the others, is beyond me.

And for the feminists out there that think this is some sort of assault on women---it's not. You can't have your cake and eat it too. You want the freedom to have relations with anyone---you need to be 'man' enough to suck up the consequences. Are we dependent upon men or not? We don't have a right to demand indentured servitude of anyone. We don't have the right to lie for cash. We don't have the right to lie to our children about where they came from.

I can't even imagine how stunned and shocked men caught in this situation feel right now. Rep. Briley owes Campfield, and the people of Tennessee another apology for yet another over-the-top abuse of his position as a 'public servant'.



*Links to an adult site

Outrageous, again

State Rep. Rob Briley (D-Nashville) is proving, again, why he needs to step down from the State Legislature. As if his personal battle with alcoholism and keeping his family together weren't enough he's decided that men who have been mistakenly identified as the father of a child, and paying child support as a result, shouldn't have any relief from that injustice. This inthe same year that Rep. G. A. Hardaway (D-Memphis) proposed to DNA test every child to establish paternity. What's up with these men?

But back to the current nonsense. This from Rep. Stacey Campfield's (R-Knoxville) blog post:

My bill to allow non biological parents (proven by DNA) to stop future child support payments was killed in full judiciary this last week. The bill did not cover people who had adopted or used artificial insemination or such cases. It was drafted for people who had been defrauded into believing they were the fathers and were not.

We're talking fraud here. We're talking about instances when mom wasn't faithful and kept it a secret from dad...for financial gain. And here's the astonishing exchange initiated by Rep. Briley via AC Kleinheider (now of the Nashville Post). He's got the transcript if you don't have a few minutes for this video.

This: "Yet you want to punish a child as the result of an adulterous situation," said Briley. "You put the child in the position of bearing the burden of a parent's conduct." Ummm...Rep. Briley, that's life. It's what happens. Sins of the father (and mother) are visited upon the children as you well know. It doesn't do anyone any good to compound that error with further injustice.






KnoxNews has a few more details.

Nashville perspective

We knew Garth Brooks was a really big star, especially here in Nashville, but until today's Business Section of the Tennessean published this photo...we had no idea just how big a star.
















Here's the shot not cropped so tightly.

Stakeholders and money

Bit and pieces that have collected over the last couple of weeks.

Stakeholders: The City Paper editorialized on 4/7/08 in regard to the number of people running for the MNPS BOE and how several current members got on the Board with 'business' support:

That being said, there is not only a debate that needs to take place about where the schools are headed but also what has the quality of the board’s stewardship been sine the 2006 elections.

It happened again, chatting up another citizen while waiting to give blood they sheepishly admitted they occasionally watch Channel 3 and the BOE meetings. Then they shake their head and make a comment about how unbelievably inept the BOE is and then they tell me what numbers their child has for the lottery to magnet schools. Their zoned school isn't an option.

Frankly, the Board's stewardship has been lousy. They have failed over and over again to hold their only employee responsible for the failures in the district. They gave him pay raises and extended contracts. No one who voted to keep Garcia at the helm of MNPS should be reelected. As the current candidate list stands the only person we can actually hold accountable is MNPS BOE member Ed Kindall (District 7-Downtown-Glencliff) as MNPS BOE member Gracie Porter (District 5-East Nashville) has no opposition and MNPS BOE member George Thompson ( District 1-Bordeaux) and MNPS BOE Chair Marsha Warden (District 9-Bellevue) have wisely decided to move on. Kindall has been on the board for nearly a quarter of a century. He's got a lot of explaining to do.

And so the 'business community' referenced above has decided that more community input is necessary. But they didn't mean community community. They meant special interests community. Again from the City Paper we learn that several entities have written the mayor and BOE expressing their desire to help find the new schools director.

The letter was sent March 27, and was signed by leaders of the Chamber, IMF, Metropolitan Nashville Education Association (MNEA), the local NAACP chapter, Service Employees Union, Steelworkers Union, Stand for Children, and Nashville Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Seems to me several of these entities have already put their money where their interests lie and have, essentially, bought and paid for their representation on the board. See Gracie Porter's contributors in 2006 as an example. <<<----- What we need is some vetting by parents and taxpayers. We need some specific statements from the candidates. We need a person who is an excellent administrator first and then someone who can work with the educators, parents, the council and citizens. Oh, and the Metro Council (those that hold the purse but don't have the authority to direct its spending) also wants a voice in the process. As quoted in the City Paper on 4/8/08

Council member Jim Gotto said, “It is fine and well for all of these individuals and groups to want to give [board members] input, but board members, you make the choice. You’re going to have to live or die with who you choose.”

Ah, but that requires some accountability by the voters. Which is something that has been sorely lacking.

MNPS budget: CM Emily Evans (District 23) has a series of lessons regarding the Metro Budget. Here's the link to her MNPS overview.

The Director of Schools, Chris Henson spoke at great length tonight about getting input from the schools themselves on how to improve and working to eliminate top-down decision making. This notion that the people that spend each day with your child are best equipped to decide what they need to get the job done is irrefutable and represents a cultural change that can only bring us good things. Chris also said that not every school needs the same thing.

Which fits very well with this City Paper article of 04-18-08.*

In accordance with what has been asked of the district by the Tennessee Department of Education (DOE), Metro schools will soon submit “action plans” on a quarterly basis that will monitor student performance and play a role in school funding. The plans complement the annual School Improvement Plan structure, which is already in place but in the process of being overhauled.

At some point we've got to recognize that each school, each district isn't the same. The Central Office is too far removed from the front lines to mandate how every dime of this money is spent. Schools have got closets full of 'central office ideas' that are going to waste because they don't fit that school's population or are yesterday's hot idea. We have got to hire great principals who, like the superintendent should be, more managers (and teacher mentors) than educators and let them manage their portion of the budget as their student needs warrant. I believe that will create better neighborhood schools AND create a cadre of experienced administers that can move up that career ladder and mentor the next generation of principals.

Things are looking up: It's looking like between Interim Director Chris Henson and the State DOE some major improvements are being implemented in MNPS. Throw in the obvious relief as expressed by many folks including today's Rex in the City

Principal hiring procedures are now what they were before Garcia arrived; the district is now completing school improvement plan forms using the same template as other districts in the state — MNPS had its own form during the Garcia administration — and district leaders have been told in plain language to shut down the “culture of fear” pervading many Metro schools.

and things haven't looked so good for MNPS in almost a decade. If Henson keeps this up and we get through this BOE election season in August we should seriously consider offering him the job--if he'll take it.

MNPS website still quite frustrating. Some sub-domains would be handy.... http://www.MNPS.org/Board, /Schools, /Budget. No one remembers numbers. Where's Interim Director Chris Henson's page? Why can't the BOE member page also include info on their district...or at least a link to that separate page that MNPS provides?


*[Man I HATE that the City Paper doesn't include a date on their articles. If no one comments you've no idea when it was published. I finally found the date by searching for the article. Thankfully, they've finally started including dates there.]

Revolving doors

FAA officials often are former execs of the airlines they now regulate.

Education officials are often former employees of the schools they now regulate.

Which is the actual, "shocking" headline in today's Tennessean? The former. Somehow, it's a headline maker when FAA officials have a conflict of interest but it's an asset when education officials have that same conflict of interest. They don't call it that though, it's called 'experience' and it's become an essential qualifier for positions on the school board and in community groups charged with improving the system, for Dept. of Education staffers and just about anyone else interacting with the system.

The article goes on to say: What the education industry wants from government it often gets, and no wonder. The people who work in schools one day can become education executives the next -- and vice versa. (snip) The industry's revolving-door relationship with the education industry is under fresh scrutiny after two education officials accused...

Oh, wait, no..."What the airline industry wants from Washington it often gets, and no wonder..."

Heads up, folks. Often the very people that create the public school mess have got jobs advising and fixing the problems they helped create. They act as hedges of protection and their alliances with the public education system too often keep them from cleaning house.

Conflict of interest is no better in the education field than it is in the aviation field. Customers in both industries fail to get to the destinations on their ticket if real accountability isn't part of the system.

Trusting Blackburn

Congressman Marsha Blackburn (R-Williamson County) is amending her 2002 campaign disclosure forms. Seems they found some errors and need to clean things up. Her new Republican opponent Tom Leatherwood (currently Shelby County Register of Deeds) is making hay of the situation while he can:

Leatherwood: "While many families are struggling just to make the monthly budget in this poor economy, Congressman Blackburn has misplaced over a quarter of a million dollars. If we can't trust her to manage her own budget, how can we trust her to manage our tax dollars?" (via Tn Politics Blog)

And how does the economic situation have anything to do with campaign finance errors? It's OK in good times but not bad? And nowhere does it say she didn't manage her budget well. No one said she failed to pay her bills.

Misplaced is a long way from lost or embezzled.

This wasn't tax money that was part of the accounting error. It was private donations to her campaign.

What needs to be out front is this paragraph from the Tennessean:

"Blackburn said her campaign discovered the discrepancies during a months-long review of its records after her bookkeeper and fundraiser raised concerns. The campaign contacted the Federal Election Commission last summer about the problems."

and

"Blackburn blamed the unreported donations on a credit card company that handled online donations and inexperienced campaign workers who deposited checks without recording them in the ledger of donations reported to the FEC."

HER campaign caught the errors. HER campaign contacted the FEC. The FEC didn't notice anything about these 2002 finances that was amiss. I've done some bookkeeping in my time. Stuff happens. That's why you double check. It's why you routinely audit. No one actually expects the books to always be 100% perfect. They do expect them to be reviewed in a timely fashion and corrected quickly. I'm willing to bet she won't let 6 years pass before her records get a through going over again. Let's see if Mr. Leatherwood's campaign glass house does it better. Maybe we should go back and examine his records from his first race for the State Senate.


As an aside, I have always appreciated her keeping the 'congressMAN' title. Seems to me if the feminists really want equity...they wouldn't quibble about her not being called 'congressWOman'.