Florida Using Undisbursed RTTT Funds To Settle Lawsuit!

Well, well, well! Now the truth is going to come out! People of Florida have been led to believe that the State as a whole, could not opt out of Common Core Standards because FL had taken the money from the RTTT grant and it had been disbursed to the school districts. Our legislators lied to us!

Well – that is a truth and it is a lie! How can it be both? Because the 6 school districts that did get awarded funds from the Phase 2 grant which we found out was a drop in the bucket of that $700M dollars. What do I mean? I mean in the State of Florida’s report to the Federal DOE 2011-2012 (Florida Report Year 2: School Year 2011– 2012) clearly states they retained 98% of the funds because they knew the individual school districts did not have the funds to pay for this “boondoggle.” That would mean they held back somewhere in the neighborhood of $686M. Under “challenge’s” in the report “Although FDOE struggled with executing contracts in Year 1 and early Year 2, the focus is now on ensuring that the contractors are producing high quality “deliverable’s”. This is particularly important in Florida as 98 percent of the State’s portion of Race to the Top funds is budgeted for contracts. It is going nowhere near the school districts!

Now we find out the state, more accurately the Florida DOE and it’s Commissioner have been sued and are going to pay what they owe in that loss they are going to use the RTTT funds to do so. How can they do this? Because Bennett ask the brand new Department of Education Communications Director Joe Follick, (4-15-2013) if they could use that money and Follick in speaking for the state Department of Education, said the agency has determined that using the grant money for the settlement is allowed and Follick has refused to elaborate.

So who determined this is ok? The State’s legal eagle George Levesque? Another legal entity? Governor Scott? The state’s CFO? Maybe the FL State School Board who seems to have taken it upon themselves to approve the hiring of “throw-away Bennett” and approving the implementation of the Common Core Standards!

TIME FLORIDA STARTED ELECTING ITS COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION AND THE MEMBERS OF THE STATE SCHOOL BOARD!
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Florida Using Federal Money To Settle Suit Over Website By GARY FINEOUT THE AP Thursday, May 23, 2013

TALLAHASSEE | Florida is dipping into federal grant money that was supposed to help improve the state’s schools in order to settle a bitter contract dispute. Education Commissioner Tony Bennett earlier this month agreed to settle a lawsuit filed against his department by a Tallahassee-based technology company.

The Department of Education is paying $1.25 million to Infinity Software Development. Infinity was hired to build a website intended to help students, parents and teachers master new academic standards.

But the deal ended acrimoniously with Infinity suing the state and the state terminating the contract. The money to build the website came from Florida’s $700 million Race to the Top federal grant, aimed at helping improve student achievement in the state. Before the contract was terminated, the state had already spent nearly $2.5 million on the project.

Joe Follick, a spokesman for the state Department of Education, said the agency has determined that using the grant money for the settlement is allowed. Follick refused on Thursday to elaborate. An Internet news operation, the Florida Current, reported Thursday the settlement had been approved.

The settlement not only includes a payment to Infinity — it also calls for the removal of the company’s name from a vendor complaint list maintained by the state. The president of Infinity did not return an email request for comment.

Florida’s effort to create the website as part of its education reforms dates back more than two years.

In early 2011, the state initially chose Microsoft to design and build the website. Infinity, however, challenged the contract by contending Microsoft should have been disqualified because the software company was unwilling to hand over ownership of the equipment and software to the state.
The state agreed to hire Infinity in July 2011, but it took until December of that year to sign a final contract. Emails obtained by The Associated Press showed that one point of disagreement was who should manage the contract.

Those emails showed that Steve MacNamara, then chief of staff for Gov. Rick Scott, was involved in a push to give the governor’s office the ability to resolve any disputes related to the contract.

Then-Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson in November 2011 wrote directly to MacNamara to protest “your desire to have another party manage the contract.” MacNamara told the AP last year that while Scott and Robinson met once to discuss the contract, he was “not involved in the negotiations” and left all discussions to his deputy chief of staff.

Months after the contract was finally signed, both sides were at an impasse. Florida officials complained that Infinity was behind schedule and had turned unacceptable lessons and tests in areas such as math, civics and biology. (Supposedly only math and ELA are supposed to be put into the schools at this time! krd)

Infinity in its lawsuit contended the delay in awarding the contract shortened the time to get the work done by 10 months and required the state to meet tight timelines to keep the project on schedule. Infinity officials maintained the department did not review the work in a timely fashion or failed to sign off on work done by the company. Infinity in September warned state officials about the problems and asked for at least $3.23 million to cover completed work. The letter stated that if lost profits were included, the total due Infinity was $4.5 million.

The bitter dispute leaves in limbo the fate of the Web-based system that was intended to provide practice lessons and tests for the standards that will be phased in for math, English, science and civics. The department said last year it would rebid the contract.

NOW – Education Commissioner Tony Bennett is mulling a reorganization of the state Department of Education http://www.news4jax.com/news/commissioner-may-reorganize-dept-of-education/-/475880/20243938/-/caacwd/-/index.html

I often wonder how much people really know about the members of the Florida State Board of Education. This group is not elected nor are they Educators yet they make decisions about policy that affect students and teachers in the state. They have the ability to “pull the trigger” and raise requirements or lower them as they see fit. This group also selects the education commissioner.

This group has pushed the diversion of more and more money away from regular public schools towards charters, virtual schools, private schools and testing companies. Why are the district superintendents (most of whom received no RTTT funds) and the district school boards supporting Common Core? Something is extremely strange about this whole thing!

How About A Quick Peek At 3 Of Our State School Board Members!

Kathleen Shanahan: Kathleen is the CEO of URETEK. The FLDOE website says she has a distinguished career in many fields (not education). She is a prominent Florida businesswoman with a long and distinguished background in politics and public service. She has held federal and state public policy positions of chief of staff for Fl. Governor Jeb Bush, chief of staff to Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, deputy secretary of the California Trade and Commerce Agency, special assistant to then Vice President George Bush, and staff assistant on President Reagan’s National Security Council. Ms. Shanahan currently is a board member of the Florida Council of 100, executive committee member of the Republican National Convention 2012, a fund-raiser for the Jeb Bush Foundation for Excellence in Education as well as being one of his “REFORMERS”.

Sally Bradshaw: worked for Gov. Haley Barbour and was an advisor to the Romney campaign in 2008. She served as a political advisor to G. H. Bush and was also a chief of staff to Jeb Bush.

Gary Chartrand: He is on the board of the Jacksonville Public Education Fund and a director on the board of the KIPP schools in Jacksonville, FL. (Charter consortium) He is also NOT an educator!

Is there a particular reason why the Florida State Board of Education has NO EDUCATORS serving on the board?

The mantra of this cabal has been to divert more money away from regular public schools and triple down on testing. The coming quadruple down with Common Core cements the shameful legacy of this group of dilettantes.

Additionally in the same report “RTTT Florida Report 2011-2012” emphasizes their 2014-2015 Charter School Plan “Florida is committed to supporting charter schools through its Race to the Top efforts. As such, the State has provided funding to encourage charter management organizations and charter operators to open 30 to 40 new charter schools across the State and provided additional funding to support a program for the development of
turnaround principals in charter schools, educator evaluations in charter schools, and CCSS and LIIS implementation in charter schools. Identified under Race to the Top and the School Improvement Grant as PLA, priority schools identified as part of the State’s approved Elementary and Secondary Education (ESEA) flexibility requests!”

“Florida is working with 17 charter school participants to provide training to aspiring turnaround principals. This work is being done in conjunction with the turnaround principal work (see Turning Around the Lowest-Achieving Schools). FDOE is in the early stages of its work with a vendor to provide training on educator evaluations in charter schools and is currently reviewing proposals from contractors to provide training on CCSS and LIIS implementation in charter schools.”

So if I read this correctly, Florida is using their RTTT funds to also pay individuals to train people to run Charter schools! Would we suppose they are part of the many Charter School Consortium’s also pushed by Jeb Bush?

You need to be asking the questions: “Why the big push for Charter Schools if all the schools in the end are going to have to go along with the Common Core Standards and the students to be robots?

Because – simply put – Charter Schools are part of the plan for the take-over of the Education system by the government! Never, ever forget the bottom line to Charter Schools – they use taxpayer funds and they are unelected boards which leaves Parents and taxpayers out the equation – you have no rights!

Now Florida Legislators and Powers To Be! Let’s be honest – just who are you working for? The children and teacher’s of Florida or those businesses and lobbyists who are packing your election coffers full as long as you “dance” to their “tune?”

Other Common Core States – you need to check out exactly what is happening in your states!

Stated in the report is what will be affected if we do not comply – section 80.43: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?c=ecfr&SID=086932763f55a79ee96960031ae55099&rgn=div5&view=text&node=34:1.1.1.1.26&idno=34#34:1.1.1.1.26.1.129.4

Call Them What They Are – Worms Milking the System!

Time and time again we find these “worms” slithering around in the name of “improving” the education of our children. Their latest attack on our children is coming under the name of Common Core (CC) and it is so filled with these worms by their endorsements and greed that it and everything they touch is “rotten to the core”.

We can only hope the gig is up on Michelle Rhee and some of the other cronies who have their fingers in this massive “take-over” of the education of our children. The Washington, D.C. test results Rhee used as the Holy Grail to base her empire on were fraudulent. The adults cheated and Michelle Rhee and her successor and Teach for America buddy/alumni Kaya Henderson, Chancellor of the D.C. public schools, covered it up.

I hope you know what Teach for America is!  It’s Wendy Kopp’s organization that takes newly graduated college student’s whether they are Education grads or not, puts them through 5 summer weeks of training and then trades them off to various school systems to be placed in low-income areas for bottom line pay with parents expecting their children are being taught by an educator. Another scam!

Parents should be paying attention to all the buzz over the publication by independent journalist John Morrow of a secret memo that says nearly 200 D.C. educators may have cheated on standardized tests in 2008 when Michelle Rhee was schools chancellor.

You see, these profit mongrels usually don’t care if you find out about their little deeds because usually no one pays any attention and if they do nothing is done about it. They continue to manipulate the system and play games with the futures of our children.

Maybe all the blood-thirsty, selfish, NWO people could just all move to Antarctica and leave the rest of us alone. But then again sometimes the cover-up is what gets them in the end. All that’s left now are who else goes down as a result.

At some point the media will start pointing all this information out and maybe, just maybe, parents/taxpayers will begin putting all the “duck’s in a row” and know once and for all they have been HAD at the expense of their children and their wallets then scream “HALT” – Enough is Enough!

Now the whole thing is just one big lie, and one of Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change may have been part of the cover-up according to John Morrow:

The erasures stayed buried for years. The official who had spotted the problem, Deborah Gist, urged Rhee to investigate and has kept quiet ever since… Five months after she had informed Rhee of the widespread erasures, Gist resigned to become State Superintendent in Rhode Island. Rhee now publicly praises her efforts there too. Gist soon will be asked by the Rhode Island media why she kept quiet but she is Jeb Bush’s third Chiefs for Change to run into trouble within the last year.

This list of Bush “Reformer’s” as he calls them is a “Who’s Who” all the way from the President of the CFR to multiple Florida legislators.

Florida’s new Commissioner of Education, Indiana’s throw-away Tony Bennett’s list of campaign contributors is troubling enough – filled with high rollers set to make millions off of the Common Core boondoggle – Bennett is also facing criticism for $1.7 million worth of high-tech equipment he purchased through his former chief of staff. Meanwhile, the implementation of the Common Core Standards that he championed in Indiana under the direction of Jeb Bush is being opposed by the Republican National Committee and we would like to add a growing band of those in Florida and around the country.

A three page sales agreement for a total of $1.7M of taxpayer dollars shows an order placed for dozens of pieces of high-tech equipment; soft-ware and services sold by California-based Cisco Systems, at the time of the purchase employed Tony Bennett’s former chief of staff.

All Indiana seems to have to show for this expense is 2 window blinds at $1500 each and 2 $6500 high definition desk top videoconferencing units, which, as of last week, didn’t mesh with the department’s broader telecommunications system. The purchase was finalized 3 months before Bennett lost his election and Florida’s State Board of Education patted themselves on the back for hiring Indiana’s ousted Commissioner.

“It’s frustrating”, a top aide to first-year Superintendent of Public Instruction Glenda Ritz stated. “It’s just frustrating because it seems there wasn’t a lot of thought put into the purchase. A lot of tax dollars were spent on something that we don’t know how to use, and we don’t even know if it’s needed.”

Do they have classes for these Jeb Bush lap dogs or does all this maneuvering and ripping tax payers off come naturally? I’m glad you ask because yes they do! Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education even pays for some of the Florida DOE employees to attend his yearly summit’s. This event will again for the 5^th year in a row pull in all the deaf and blind people that believe their association with Jeb Bush will further their careers, give them power or make them rich.

Now we have wind that Jeb Bush’s newest “Chunk for Change” not only is a non-educator, but along with the manipulation of NM Governor Martinez who brought Hanna Skandera to NM to be secretary of public education, she has put NM in a very bad place and angered some of the NM senators who failed to confirm her appointment before the end of session.

If NM senators are smart they will bite the bullet and vote to send Hanna Skandera packing before they wind up like Florida and have  the Jeb Bush Foundation for Excellence in Education running their education system and their legislators.

Senators need to hold Skandera accountable for her failure, and particularly her proposal to manipulate school grades to mask the degree to which schools are not doing enough to help the students most in need of improved instruction.

Did  Ms.Skandera and others playing this “ruin our children game, take the course at  Teach for America on  “How To Cheat the Taxpayers and Ruin Your Education System All At the Same Time” presented by Michelle Rhee?

During her unconfirmed tenure, Skandera has displayed remarkable distrust of New Mexico parents, teachers and school administrators and disdain for state laws and traditions. Now, thanks to Washington, we know that she is incompetent.

Upon arrival, Skandera disbanded the state advisory councils on Indian, Hispanic and bilingual education. She fired dozens of employees in the Public Education Department and brought into New Mexico highly-paid temporary consultants, one of whom lamented that NM student assessment rules did not permit English-only testing. She also sent $800,000 of state funds appropriated for Indian education to Teach for America, which devoted one percent of the money to recruit and train Indian teachers. (Looks like Skandera got her training from Ms. Rhee also!

NM Senators need to hold Skandera accountable for her proposal to manipulate school grades to mask the degree to which schools are not doing enough to help the students most in need of improved instruction. Her idea is a cunning deception to produce an illusion that her policies have brought about a dramatic improvement in school performance.

They might also take the opportunity to use Skandera as an example to parents/taxpayers to stop Jeb Bush from trying to manipulate the states and their education plans and standards to agree with HIS idea of what education should be all about.  He is after all a NON-educator himself, although he does know how to spend other people’s money and also misappropriate it.

Florida should never forget his involvement in the $4.6M Florida Savings & Loan scandal in the ‘80’s along with ripping off the Florida Pension Fund to bail out his friend  and owner of the failing Edison Charter school system while still Florida’s governor.

And people talk about him running for President! I know there has to be someone much better in America to run for that office!  Americans also need to remember the Bush family is Progressive and NWO!

Does the RNC realize or even care that all these businesses aligning themselves to push the Common Core “for profit” are all buddies of Jeb Bush and Bill Gates? Moreover, do they realize that coupled with Rhee’s scandal, Common Core gobbles up a lot of work done by republican dominated legislatures across the nation and that their unimpeachable champions have been Bush and Gates?

Florida’s choice of Tony Bennett for Commissioner of Education giving Florida it’s third in a row “Chief’s for Change” in that position, should give cause for reflection to parents and taxpayers as to the motive and intent of the UNELECTED Florida State Board of Education because here, once again it represents cronyism.

You ask how does that fit? Well, with the head of this group being the President/CEO of KIPP Charter schools Florida and 2 other board members having no less than 20-25 years behind them in supporting the Bush family through being campaign workers, Chief’s of Staff, fund raisers and a number of other positions, one can only wonder just how objective they can be and to whom do they owe their allegiance.

A good case for urging Florida’s legislature to re-think their position and make the office of Commissioner of Education and the State School Board elected positions making them accountable to the taxpayers – you know, the one’s whose money they spend so freely!

Since Florida is always mentioned in the press as the state to “take their lead from” I suggest you re-think that thought as it isn’t really working out well for the people of this state and that certainly includes the children.

We can only hope and pray the future influence of the Bush-Rhee-Gates dominated education reform machine be put under a microscope and fall away before our legislators are allowed to ruin our children with the Common Core. American parents and taxpayers should earnestly hope so. Maybe the end of this continual worship of Jeb Bush and all his lap dogs is near.  We can only pray and maybe we will get lucky and it will take down Bill Gates and his cronies too.

PARCC, Chief’s for Change and CCS

The Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) creates a standard set of K-12 assessments in math and English. The PARCC, is made up of the following states which includes Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Florida*, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana*, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey*, New Mexico*, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma*, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island*, Tennessee* and the District of Columbia.

The states listed above with * are those whose Commissioner/Superintendent of Education are also blessed with being part of Jeb Bush’s Chief’s for Change on his “Excellence in Education Foundation”. Talk about “conflict of interest”. And very few people are complaining about this! Anyone got any ideas as to why parents/taxpayers are not throwing a “hissy fit” in regard to this cronyism between their state officials and “big” business having this “choke hold” on our children’s education?

I am having a hard time believing that parents around the country have not heard about all this information regarding the CCS since the liberal press is reporting it because most of the push and support of the CCS is coming from the Republican governors/commissioners/superintendents of education.

Maybe it is because they just do not understand the whole thing?

The PARCC was awarded $186M Race to the Top assessment funds in September 2010 by the U.S. Department of Education to help in the development of the K-12 assessments. PARCC will include educators in the development of its assessments and will consult with more than 200 postsecondary systems to ensure that the examinations are preparing students for college and careers.

The PARCC is basing the content of these assessments on what it takes to be successful in college and careers in the future. I question how these individuals know what it takes to be successful in college or in their future careers since first and foremost they are politicians and most have never been educators.

Considering the far left liberal class of education our colleges are feeding our children these days, I certainly question their input into this whole agenda and we will not mention the enormous salaries our college professors are receiving which in turn is causing the “American’s Student Loan Racket.”

The people pushing this Communist agenda of the Common Core Standards (CCS) were in most cases college students who graduated and within 5 years of graduation were running for political office. For the most part, they certainly did not graduate with a degree in Education.

These examinations are also to coincide with the full range of the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSI) to make certain that standards are present in classrooms. PARCC assessments are currently being developed and are on track to begin being administered during the 2014-2015 school year. But wait!

Just yesterday, Tony Bennett Florida’s new Commissioner of Education and Tennessee’s throwaway, cautioned that Florida needed to prepare itself for a “Plan B” on the implementation of Common Core Standards (CCS) and its PARCC assessments.

What? Are we not so sure we have everything together or is it that the people are beginning to wake up and discover how the CCS will be taught and what is included in the curriculum? We can only hope!

Evidently Bennett is also concerned about the ability of 22 states in the PARCC consortium to agree on common assessments and common cut scores. This is where the real reality of what is going to be taking place in the classroom exists. Bennett must be getting some signals that everything won’t be worked out by 2014-15 – hence the need for Plan B.

Actually I think as part of the accountability process for teachers is to try and drive them crazy. I believe most teachers are smarter than those overseeing the education of our children – the difference is the accountability scam as written is meant to push them over the edge and get rid of smart teachers and yet the proponents of this garbage will continue to get paid even when the standards and graduation rates continue to drop.

I wonder who they will blame for the failures then!

Why is Bennett making the calls for the decisions made by the PARCC? Maybe because he is the head of the “Chief’s for Change” and those who are not already “blessed” to be a part of that group are “hoping”.

Mike Thomas in the “Foundation for Excellence in Education’s blog” stated, “In Florida, 85 percent of teachers who attend training sessions like what they are being trained to do and that is to teach critical thinking skills and more in-depth knowledge.

Really? Teachers all over the country have stated they will play the CCS game but what they are upset about is the massive testing regime that will come with the PARCC and the fact they are not allowed to question any content in the CCS. With the CCS it is “what you see is what you get” whether it proves to be good or bad.

Why change the whole gambit and not just go back to phonics of which we all know worked? Because it is not Communist based!

Thomas went on to say “Implementation issues must be managed so Common Core critics don’t parlay them into deal-killing issues. If so, we’ll never get to 2018. Sounds to me like there is a little dissention within the ranks. Just an idea – maybe they are having second thoughts as to the cost of testing through Pearson of which the current testing fees at least in Florida are about $8 per child and are expected to jump to an average of around $80-100 per child.

Why the big jump? Maybe because those overseeing of the education of our children are once again having a romantic interlude with BIG BUSINESS – Pearson!

I am curious as to what is in it for these Commissioner/Superintendents of the “Chief for Change” states. Is it really something as simple as to what they would consider status? Do they really support all this CCSS of a “one size fits all” education for the children of America? If that is so, then they certainly know nothing about what they are supporting and they refuse to listen to parents/taxpayers who only want to inform them of the background of this agenda.

They are as bad as the elected legislators who have been in office so long they have conveniently forgotten who they work for. They think we are working for them. In the case of state Commissioners/Superintendents of Education this cronyism in regard to the Chief’s for Change and any others who support the CCSS is a great argument for those offices to be an elected one rather than appointed as Florida’s is!

When they are appointed their allegiance is to the governor and state school board rather than the children of their state and their best interest.

Does the FLDOE Work for Jeb Bush’s Foundation? Part 1

If you are receiving this posting and have been following me for very long you know I think there is a level of cronyism and corruption taking place in Tallahassee in regard to our Education system and in particular “Charter” schools. In addition, the connections between the FL. legislators, the FLDOE and Jeb Bush’s Foundations has come to the point of “out of control”. The Florida Legislature is in the process of trying to “clean” it’s house by writing a new Ethics Bill of which I stated the other day does not go far enough or deep enough.

Today the following information was brought out by a fellow blogger Bob Sikes on his blog “Scathing Purple Musings. I am happy to say we think quite a bit alike when it comes to the Education system in Florida or should I say “lack of Education”. The DC watchdog group “In the Public Interest” is doing a great job.
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← Bush Foundation “staff acted to promote their corporate funders priorities” – Posted on January 30, 2013 by Bob Sikes

Today’s release of emails from a DC watchdog indeed provided some troubling revelations. Among these were arranging travel and reimbursements for Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) staffers and examples of clear advocacies for their corporate donors. But more than anything else, the sheer volume of emails between multiple Foundation for Excellence in Education(FEE) staffers and state employees at the Florida Department of Education made the two appear almost co-dependent. So many policy questions and requests for data were made by FEE staffers to numerous FLDOE staff that one would more likely be left with the impression that the later worked for the former.

Most disturbing of these involved attempts to dictate policy and legislation. This from “In the Public Interest”:

In addition to sending an invitation to the FL state board of education to attend a press conference in support of parent trigger legislation, FEE staff were very much involved in legislation affecting the state’s school turnaround procedures, which include converting some neighborhood schools to charter schools. (Education Commissioner Gerard Robinson) emailed (Jeb Bush CEO Patricia Levesque) in December 2011 to review the Department of Education’s Differentiated Accountability Draft Legislation. Levesque writes, “I think we need to add a sec into this bill to give you/the department authority to set a state‐approved list of charter operators or private providers so districts can’t pick poor performers to implement turnaround. Also, you/State Board should have more authority to enforce a strict timeline for turnaround models.2” If Charter Schools USA, the for-profit operator, were included on the “state approved list,” it could improve the company’s growth potential.

And this involving Florida’s No Child Left Behind waiver:

Levesque made her and her team’s resources available in February 2012 to “help with any defense of Florida’s waiver, push back on Ed Trust’s report.” (Education Trust’s report, which rated each state’s NCLB waiver application, noted that Florida’s accountability system did little to address achievement gaps.) Chiefs for Change, another Jeb Bush-related education group, became aware of the report, because Paul Pastorek, who, as the former Louisiana state Superintendent, was a member of Chiefs for Change, attended a meeting about waivers at the Federal Department of Education as a representative of the Chiefs. New Jersey Education Commissioner Chris Cerf’s private response about the ratings to a representative from Education Trust was shared with Robinson by Levesque along with the note: “Did Gerard get his copy of their review? We would like to help respond.” Levesque and the Foundation were an integral part of the waiver process in Florida; at one point Robinson emailed a staffer saying “Please connect with Patricia as you did before to discuss our latest draft document. Also, take a look at a document she me about our waiver.”

It is clear that Levesque and her staff have been enlisting the assets of the FLDOE to support legislation they’ve crafted on behalf of their clients like Pearson and Charter Schools USA. Moreover, the never-ending requests for data reveal even more. FEE has been manipulating the FLDOE to conform to it’s agenda while using it as a tool to maintain the Florida Model Jeb Bush sells to state legislatures all over the country.
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My added thoughts to this – I am not surprised it has surfaced and I am very grateful that it has. There is even more to come!

I would hope that you will read into these communications exactly what is here – the connection between the Florida Department of Education, Jeb Bush’s Chief of Staff Patricia Levesque and the Foundation for Excellence in Education’s manipulation or attempts to manipulate the legislation regarding Charter Schools in Florida and also the relationship s between the FLDOE, the Bush Foundations, Charter School and now Virtual School businesses and their “for-profit” “public-private” donors.

1. Gerard Robinson leaving the post as Florida’s Commissioner of Education “early” after reading this only endorses my thoughts that he found he was having to serve far too many masters and maybe his “ethical” side took over – we can only hope!

2. Florida now being graced with Jeb Bush’s Chief’s for Change “leader” as our Commissioner of Education and reading this information only makes me feel far more uncomfortable than I did before – especially when I know at least HALF of our State School Board is sleeping with Jeb Bush and his Foundations and have for some time in one capacity or another.

3. We have legislators who have been drafting policy to enrich the pockets of the likes of “Charter Schools USA” and their CEO Jonathan Hage and Mr. Hage being chosen as Florida’s “Man of the Year”. By the way – his children do not attend any Charter schools – his 4 children attend Pine Crest School, a private school at a tune of $20K per child, per year. He complains the closest Charter school to his home is 30 minutes away. (I still am curious as to how many of our Florida legislators send their children to Private schools).

4. Then there are the legislators drafting policy and putting into effect bills regarding Charter schools while enriching their pockets -Rep. Fresen, Academica; John Legg, Day Spring Academy; Rep. Seth McKeel, South McKeel Elementary Academy and Sen. Anitere Flores (Doral Academy.

5. How about the legislators who were as of 12/2012 (can’t say if they still are because Jeb Bush changed his web site) serving on Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education: Sen. Don Gaetz, Sen, John Negron, then Senator Thrasher and Rep. Weatherford.

Time and again the ethics have been overlooked and excused and I can tell you Patricia Levesque holds the same status and push in her job as does Valarie Jarrett in hers. These are very dangerous women who have perfected the ability of control and manipulation.

If Patricia Levesque comes calling put out the call “DANGER WILL ROBINSON, DANGER”! Maine’s Commissioner of Education Stephen Bowen might in the long run have been better off in making that call than the one he did to Patricia Levesque asking for her help in setting up Jeb Bush’s program in their state. Time will tell since he has been lured into the Levesque’s “spiderweb” and is now one of Jeb Bush’s Chief’s for Change also!

“Oh what tangled webs we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

http://bobsidlethoughtsandmusings.wordpress.com/2013/01/30/bush-foundation-staff-acted-to-promote-their-corporate-funders-priorities/#comment-5436

http://www.inthepublicinterest.org/sites/default/files/0212%20ITPI%20Privatization_Report_f_0.pdf

Our Children Used As Communist Bait

“Come My Little Pretties”!

More and more attention is being given to the horrors that are being perpetrated upon our children. Human trafficking, pedophilia, for profit education, vaccination’s filled with live viruses, steroids in the milk, shootings, fluoride in the water, enforcing racial divide, television programs for dummies, psychiatrists issuing psychotropic drugs, video games which lets our children enter the world of murder, drugs and crime in general with no feelings or consequences.

The move and the want for this country to be brought to her knees is not a new objective. Senator McCarthy was right in everything he charged, but the commies had more power and managed to convince America he didn’t know what he was talking about and that he was on a witch hunt.

Obama does not get to take the honors for the idea of “bringing America to her knees”, just putting the things in place to carry it off by a stroke of his pen and the attitude “what are you going to do about it.”

The recent shootings are also a focused agenda to tear down the 2nd Amendment, using our children as a sideways target, with the left declaring we do not need guns – you can hunt and provide your food in other ways.

What? That is not what the 2nd Amendment is all about and they know it. It is all about the PEOPLE being able to protect themselves from a tyrannical government that is “out of control”.

You need clarification of “out of control”? The FEMA camps all over the country is not a dream of the writer and the propaganda the government puts out about them is to defy the imagination. Can you honestly picture a natural disaster in the U.S. that would require 800+ camps? The Rex 84 Program was established on the reasoning that if a “mass exodus” of illegal aliens crossed the Mexican/US border, they would be quickly rounded up and detained in detention centers by FEMA.

Since the forming of that program we have learned the Progressive left certainly does not care if there is an influx of illegals since they refuse to close the borders and want all illegals to be legal. Why are they refusing to close the borders – Bush, Clinton, Bush, Jr., and Obama? Because each one of them are New/One World Order “wannabe’s” and with the open borders we would become the North American States eventually.

What role are the children to play in this? Well, we have just had our first graduating class of Obama “brown-shirts” who have spent most of their lives playing kill games and watching kill & horror movies feeling no attachment to the end results. Do you really think they will hesitate to take a gun to their neighbors especially when they are young (18-24), no feelings, paid and made to feel important. Most of them are also very immature.

And the Federal government wants to talk about gun control? What about putting guns in the hands of these children to be used against their fellow Americans? They do not want to arm teachers but will older students! A large population of our children is so messed up they don’t know their right hand from their left. They certainly cannot make change in a store or answer a direct question in detail unless you give them multiple choice answers.

They believe “free” sex means “doing it” whenever you feel like it. The consequences of that mean nothing to them. I recently watched a video of young Americans (age 20-30) being asked about their feeling in regard to abortion and almost 100% asked responded there was absolutely nothing wrong with abortion, sex on demand or that they should be held responsible financially if a child resulted. They are being taught immorality “should” be the norm.

In addition in the same video, most were willing to “kill for hire”! “What the heck, I don’t known’um.”

The schools should not be in the business of teaching or approving of sexual behaviors in students. It might be better for the whole country if they focused on abstaining rather than free condoms, showing them how to use condoms and taking our girls for free abortions without parental permission but at the same time they cannot have aspirin in their purse or backpack.

Our children swear at the drop of a hat! They are rude, arrogant, and dis-respectful and have no idea what they want in their future except for someone else to pay for it. Adding to that you have the Federal government passing legislation in favor of gay & lesbian agendas in the schools even to the point Obama’s first appointment to the office of the Safe School Czar was to a “for many years” homosexual.

I personally have no problem if you want to declare yourself gay or lesbian – I do have a serious problem that they think they have the to right behind the backs of parents to present programs to children as young as 10 “that they are probably gay but just do not realize it yet”. To me you are bordering on pedophilia!

The added us of our legislative process to write and pass legislation against “bullying” but in same legislation inferring the only bullying going on is against gays, lesbians and trans genders. So in how many school districts now is it alright for a student to choose on any given day what sexual preference he or she prefers to observe. Your daughter can dress as a boy and us the boys restroom and a boy can go dressed as a girl and use the girls restroom. This is with full support of our president I might add.

Where does this all come from? Mostly it comes from the first paragraph of this article and the rest from a slow, precise indoctrination through their education and the immoral world around them. You say not so! Really you ask? How many stories have you heard over the last year of Union teachers sending home union propaganda and endorsements of Obama in everything he does? Urging the students to convince their parents to vote for Obama – singing songs to his praises in school.

We set up an idol in the office of the president and at the same time tear down the very core of America – God, the Constitution, Flag, Bill of Rights, Declaration of Independence and our Moral Fiber.

A recent reading test given to 3rd grade school children in Florida focused on how much better life is if your parents were part of a Union. It portrayed every aspect of the home life as better if your parents just paid Union dues.

I want to make it clear this writer is not implying ALL children fit into the above descriptions, but those who do not are in the minority. I can tell you my research shows if a child is raised in a Judeo/Christian home (even if unfortunately there is a divorce) with fundamental basics of morality, religion and respect, they see past the indoctrination process and even go home and tell their parents what is happening in their schools.

Beware – private schools are beginning to follow the push for the Charter school pattern of “for-profit”, public private partnerships by making deals with businesses to enforce the Communist “School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (the “School-to-Work Act”).

Parents we need to be paying more attention to what is happening to our children through their schools through political legislation without any true interest in what the end results are in regard to our children’s futures! . Don’t be fooled by fancy legislation titles and well laid out collateral plans by big business, foundations and money-changers!

Another Florida Charter School Scam

Thanks to Bob Sikes and his blog “Scathing Purple Musings” he has saved me a great deal of time having already written this story. I swear I am never moving again!

The former home of a shuttered charter school is set for auction after Great Florida Bank won a $2.24 million foreclosure judgment. The Miami-Dade County School Board voted in April to shut down the Balere Language Academy after parents complained of house parties with alcohol and distasteful promotions.

“The Miami Lakes-based bank (Pink Sheets: GFLB) won the judgment against nonprofit Balere and loan guarantors Rocka Malik and Nagib Malik over a $1.5 million mortgage, plus interest and fees. It was also awarded judgment against Strategic Empowerment for Economic Development Corp., (http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/opinions/3D08-2995.pdf) which provided a $1.2 million second mortgage. The 19,304-square-foot school on six acres at 10875 Quail Roost Drive in southern Miami-Dade County is set for online auction Jan. 23.

NON-PROFIT needs to be highlighted as it reveals the big scam the charter school operators – and their accomplices in the Florida legislature – are pulling over on Floridians. A non-profit charter school is set up by the same folks who own the real estate management company. In this instance, both the school and the company which provided a second mortgage are located at the same address.

Yet Florida’s governor, it’s legislature and assuredly it’s new education commissioner “Jeb Bush “Chief’s for Change boss Tony Bennett” want more charter schools. Hiding behind the benevolence of “choice,” a blind eye continues to be turned away from fraudulent use of taxpayer money. Nevermind the incalculable loss suffered by children and their families who bought into to the scam.”
Thanks Bob!
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Now for my 2 cents!

I am sure I do not have to remind the readers that TAXPAYER $$ pay most of the funding for PUBLIC Charter Schools, but they are run by private or nonprofit boards independent of the school district. No oversight; lenient laws passed by legislators for Charter Schools and when complaints are filed just what takes so long looking into these things while the children again are caught in the “rabbit hole.” Parents began to complain in Aug 2011 about seeing ads for “after hours parties” showing the schools address, boasting sexy and alcoholic images; parents finding empty beer bottles at the school; smelling the lingering after smell of cigarettes; Facebook photos showing partier’s with alcohol; YouTube presentations showing the partier’s with the name and address of location. School officials denied the allegations and said they would look into it. It took until April 2012 for the Miami-Dade School Board to close the school and just what was the Florida State School Board doing all this time other than fund-raising for Jeb Bush’s foundations?

In the meantime, you have another Florida Charter School bite the dust leaving behind millions of dollars of debt showing exactly what is happening within this monster that has been created by our Federal and individual state legislators with the sole purpose they say to “fix our failing “public schools”, but in reality it is to get our education system under the rule of “non-elected” boards and to have our education system be “for-profit”, “public-private partnerships” and not giving ONE PLUG NICKEL ABOUT OUR CHILDREN – only their profit and ego’s.)
Who is to protect American parents and their children against this profiteering plan to not only ruin our children but this country but American parents and citizens who care about this country?

In addition, a report was put out in January 2011 explaining the dangers of state governments turning over their business functions to Public-Private Partnerships. The report stated “Most of the seven states that currently make use of economic development PPPs have experienced a variety of performance problems. These include the following:
 Misuse of taxpayer funds (Rhode Island, Florida and Wyoming)
 Excessive executive bonuses (Virginia, Florida, Michigan and Wyoming)
 Questionable subsidy awards by the subset of PPPs that have a role in that process (Michigan, Florida and Rhode Island)

New, so called modern governor’s are no more reading legislation than the people voting on it and the growing lack of oversight in regard to Charter schools is totally out of control. Setting up a Charter school should not allow the owners/operators to also own the buildings and pay rent to themselves, borrow millions in the school’s name and then leave millions in debt when the school fails, own the catering business or their best friends, their buddies and cohorts sitting on the school’s board, no legislation as to how many school board members are required or how often they should meet and allowing state legislators to profit from the legislation they are passing in regard to Charter schools or any other entity using taxpayer dollars.

Adding to the mix here in Florida our governor is openly going overseas to include Communist China seeking and allowing private companies to come to Florida to invest in our Charter schools. For a man who was supposed to be a “good businessman” he certainly is in the middle of the cronyism and corruption that is building in Tallahassee.

The job of an elected legislator is to serve the people not the other way around. They work for us – we do not work for them!

Florida BUSHWACKED Again!

As I sit here thinking about Sandy Hook it came to me that as with everything else happening in America today the powers to be are focusing on the wrong things – they want our guns – the Progressives do and they will use whatever tool they have at hand.

Many of us have tried to inform the general public what is happening to our country but they chose to ignore the warnings not wanting to “get involved” or “stir the pot”! This is even the case when it affects their children.

I have warned and warned for the past 2 years about Jeb Bush and his “buddies” especially here in Florida and the parents pull the wool over their eyes and go about their day-to-day events depending on someone else taking care of the problems for them.

Well Florida has been “BUSHWACKED” ONCE AGAIN by the decision of the Florida State School Board hiring Indiana’s throw – a – way Tony Bennett as the new Florida Commissioner of Education.

If the national movement to “reform” public education through vouchers, charters and privatization have a laboratory and it is Florida. It was one of the first states to undertake a program of “virtual schools”—charters operated online, with teachers instructing students over the Internet—as well as one of the first to use vouchers to channel taxpayer money to charter schools run by for-profits.

Bennett and his Jeb Bush crony business partners are despised by Indiana voters – parents and teachers alike as shown in how the November election went. It was not a party thing either since most of the state percentage that voted Bennett out of office also voted for Romney.

Indiana is one of 14 states of which elects their Commissioner of Education and this writer certainly wishes Florida would begin to ELECT their Education Commissioner since it puts the loyalty of the Commissioner in the hands of the people and not a Jeb Bush favored School Board.

Indiana, we are happy you stood up to Jeb Bush and Tony Bennett. Sadly, your gain is now Florida’s loss. So now, as Floridians, we’ve got yet another failed Jeb Bush operative turning up here, very predictably, to continue the assault on our children, public schools, and teachers, at his behest. It seems the proverbial shark never stops chewing at the perimeter. In case you missed it Jeb Bush is the SHARK and from the actions of everyone from the governor of Florida to the Florida State School Board, Jeb Bush is still operating as the governor of this state.

Let’s take a look at what upset the voters of Indiana so much.

First of all the voters soon realized that Bennett is merely another one of the long line of “puppets on a string”. He does as he is told – you sometimes have to wonder if they really believe in what they are pushing or is it just the money because Education is certainly a hot commodity – the fastest growing “get rich quick” deal out there.

Secondly, Bennett’s push for information on every Indiana teacher so he can deem them “unaccountable” and replace them with Teach for America recruits on their temporary stop in the schools before they head off to Wall Street. He wants data on all students, so that he can declare schools as “broken” and package them up for the privatizers (Charter Schools). He is a strong supporter of school vouchers especially to be used for private and religious schools – similar to what was proposed in Florida in their Amendment 8. There is more than one lawsuit from around the country currently protesting this practice as being unconstitutional.

Challengers say using tax dollars to pay tuition at religious schools is barred by state Constitution’s prohibiting compelling a person to “support any place of worship … against his consent,” and its ban on using state funds “for the benefit of any religious or theological institution.”

Those in favor of the voucher law say it doesn’t violate the state constitutions because taxpayer dollars aren’t flowing directly into parochial schools but that it is being paid to the parents. Many see this was a smokescreen and just a way of creeping in by a backdoor!

Third, Tony Bennett, as well as Florida’s two previous Commissioners of Education Gerard Robinson and Eric Smith, are a Jeb Bush “Chiefs for Change. Bennett is also the newly appointed by Jeb Bush “boss” of the chief’s. Sitting alongside the previous mentioned three are Maine’s Steven Bowen and former Edison Schools’ Chris Cerf (now New Jersey’s commissioner of education) who profited handsomely when the then-Florida governor Jeb Bush bought out the company’s failing stock with teachers’ retirement funding, a maneuver sticking state pensioners to this day with a $182 million investment in a company out to destroy public education and unions. And Bush friends at Charter Schools USA have been given several so-called failing schools in Indiana, where parents have recently been protesting the corporate takeover.

All of this mess in Indiana has already been tried here in Florida and some of it is already in effect. Now Floridian’s get to play footsy with another Jeb Bush operative.

Involved in the election to keep Tony Bennett in Indiana was of course, your friend and mine, Patricia Levesque. Levesque directs Jeb Bush’s Foundation for Excellence in Education and his Foundation for Florida’s Future and in addition owns her own lobbying company Meridian Strategies in Tallahassee of which she uses to push Virtual and Charter schools.

Levesque, who also lobbies on behalf of many virtual schools, outlined a new strategy in October 2010 at a school reform conference to privatize public schools. In an article entitled “How Outline Learning Companies Bought America’s Schools,” The Nation’s Lee Fang writes that:

Levesque noted “reform efforts have failed because the opposition had time to organize.” Next year (2011), Levesque advised, “reformers should “spread” the unions thin “by playing offense” with decoy legislation,” stating she planned to sponsor a series of statewide reforms, like allowing taxpayer dollars to go to religious schools by overturning the so-called Blaine Amendment, “even if it doesn’t pass…to keep them busy on that front.” She also advised paycheck protection, a union busting scheme, as well as a state-provided insurance program to encourage teachers to leave the union and a transparency law to force teachers unions to show additional information to the public. Needling the labor unions with all these bills, Levesque said, allows certain charter bills to fly “under the radar.” (Does this sound like this happened in Florida with Amendment 8?)

How many times do I have to remind you all that Charter schools are “for profit”, “public-private partnerships”! If you want to get rich these days you would go into some form of business that deals with education.

I will never say the “intent” of ALL Charter schools is bad! I will tell you the true object behind the idea of Charter schools is to remove taxpayer input and oversight from the public schools giving the control of your children’s education to private businesses. Now you have the Communist “school – to – work program that was first brought to light in Cuba with the kids going to school for 2-3 hours and then working in the cigar factories for the rest of the day for FREE! Bushites are not about educating our children; they are about money, power and control.

These are cold, calculating individuals no different from what we have in the White House and surrounding buildings.

There is at this time an investigation going on in Indiana looking into the corporate dealings between the Indiana Department of Education and Bennett’s Jeb Bush corporate friends. There is a strong cronyism connection which can be followed through the donations being given to any and all supporting Bush’s idea of Education Takeover.

Largest push for Charter schools and the Voucher way is coming from the American Federation of Children which has worked for years to expand educational options for all children. Chairman of the Board Betsy DeVos is heading up the DeVos Family crusade to eradicate public education. When challenged about her political and financial connections, DeVos recently stated, “I know a little something about soft money, as my family is the single largest contributor of soft money to the Republican National Party. I have decided, however, to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect something in return.” OUR CHILDREN!

This is being marketed as a solution to save public schools, but the big donors are tied to right-wing think tanks that openly advocate, and strategize, the end of public education. How can vouchers improve public schools if the people mobilizing the movement intend to eradicate public education? Regardless of your personal stance on “school choice,” it’s important to know who is behind the voucher movement and the agenda they don’t share with the public or advertise in their media campaigns.

Somehow we must work together to inform parents and support teachers so they may pull away from the deliberate plan to ruin our children. You have unions on one side wanting it their way and the money brokers on the right wanting to play their game and the kids are the “rope” in the middle being pulled back and forth.

In part two of this posting I will address further the cronyism and the flow of heavy money into the pockets of our elected officials.