January 31, 2014

Man who flogged the boys at Dozier School, FL says it was "state sanctioned"

Troy Tidwell admits using leather strap but says no law broken.


TROY TIDWELL the 'One Armed Man' of Marianna leaves after giving a deposition on Thursday. Tidwell is accused by hundreds of men of physically abusing them as children when they were sentenced to the Florida School for Boys in the 1950s and 60s.
EDMUND D. FOUNTAIN | ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

MARIANNA | They say Troy Tidwell drew blood. They say he dragged the boys to a tiny building on the campus of the Florida School for Boys in Marianna, made them bite a pillow and hit them so hard with a leather strap that they feel it 50 years later.

.....He called it 'spanking,' according to those at his deposition here Thursday. He said it was state-sanctioned discipline, punishment for kids who tried to run away or got caught smoking. He said he hit kids eight to 10 times per infraction with a thick leather strap, but never hard enough to harm them.

State-sanctioned? I can believe that. Look at how many Florida governors, Democratic and Republican alike, ignored the complaints and refused to investigate.....for a century.

More about Tidwell's words on the discipline during his deposition in 2009.

But Tidwell said all discipline was state-approved protocol. They called it Final Disciplinary Action.
'The ultimate issue is: How do you define abuse?' said Masterson. 'He denied that he harmed anybody, but when you have 200 people telling the same story …'

The group which calls themselves The White House Boys deserves so much credit for bringing this to light.

Here is their website.

The White House Boys Survivors Corp.

They got enough notice to have a ceremony held and the infamous White House, where the floggings occurred, was closed and sealed shut. A plaque was put up there.

ON EDIT: I found this sickening statement at their website way down the page.

[blockquotegi]Flogging was abolished by Governor
Hardee in 1922 as too brutal a
punishment for hardened convicts. It
would continue on at The Florida School
For Boys until 1968. This is the worst
case of institutional child abuse in the
United States.

Be sure to watch the video at their website. It opens up right away in Firefox, but I could not view it in IE9. Nothing happened. It's an uncomfortable view, but it happened here.

Sealing the building

They witnessed the sealing of the infamous building called The White House, with a plaque that said:

In memory of the children who passed these doors, we acknowledge their tribulations and offer our hope that they have found some measure of peace.

May this building stand as a reminder of the need to remain vigilant in protecting our children as we help them seek a brighter future."

I have never been angrier than when I read that a Democratic state senator before a crowd agreed to have the plaque taken down.

A Florida Democratic state Senator, Al Lawson, denied he had ever heard any complaints.

To his credit he later expressed concern. But here is the worst part. While he was later speaking at a Chamber of Commerce meeting in Marianna, someone in the audience asked that the plaque that was put up to seal the White House be taken down.

He agreed to try to get it taken down. That is to his shame.

In a gathering of articles about the topic it was found how some of the guards actually thought about

Hell's Acres closed after 100 years

Who was hired to work there?

In the past two years, one guard came to work reeking of alcohol and was referred to counseling. Another came in high on cocaine and marijuana. And another admitted to being a habitual drug abuser after he came to work high and was sent to the emergency room.

In 2005, the school hired James Edge. Three years before, the 265-pound man with a snake tattoo on his leg was arrested for domestic battery and violating a protective order. According to his wife's sworn complaint, Edge wrenched her arm behind her back, fracturing her shoulder.

Edge is the same officer involved in the May 2008 scuffle in which a boy's ear was split open. The following month, records show, he bloodied a boy's nose and slammed him against a fence, cutting his thumbs. Then Edge was fired. Officials now say they are investigating his hiring.

Guard Arthur Edmon Jr. posted photos on his MySpace page in which he makes obscene gestures and poses on a cash-covered table (caption: "f--- u haters&quot . He also posted a homemade rap video of friends dunking a basketball and pointing a gun at the camera.

Guard Frank Bernaldo has a MySpace page that contains sexual images and language and the following biographical nugget: "I like to go hunting but not for animals, only for people who piss me off."

The White House Boys should take some satisfaction in seeing what USF is now doing. Nothing will ever compensate them for what they went through in a school with "state-sanctioned" discipline.

January 28, 2014

Pic of Pete Seeger on way to be sentenced for refusing to name names to HUAC. Brave act.

Found on Twitter.

Jonathan Mandell ?@NewYorkTheater

Peter Seeger, with guitar, on his way to court to be sentence for refusing to "name names" HUAC, 1961

Thanks @NewYorkTheater for sharing this wonderful picture.

January 28, 2014

For Arne Duncan, the Buck Stops Over There. Outstanding Ed Week blog by Anthony Cody.

For Arne Duncan, the Buck Stops Over There

First he mentions Harry Truman sign..."The Buck Stops Here".

Our current US secretary of education, sadly, has shown little capacity to accept blame or take criticism for much of anything, but is a master of deflection. With Arne Duncan, time and again, the buck stops not here, but over there.

When it comes to education in the United States, the problem is, according to Mr. Duncan, "white suburban moms" who think their kids are smarter than they truly are. These silly women just don't know enough to be as concerned as they ought to be about their kids' brainpower. The problem, too, is career educators who have spent their careers lying to children and the public by not letting everyone know how dumb kids really are, in a callous and calculated effort to conceal the truth about themselves (i.e., that they, the public schoolteachers of America, are massive failures top to bottom).

....The sad fact is that there are two Americas. Arne Duncan should be taking ownership of the problem of inequity and inadequate funding for schools in poor areas. He should be using his bully pulpit to go after those who concentrate wealth away from the kids who need the most help. Instead, he spends his time bashing parents, students, and teachers for their perceived failings, and he simultaneously greases the skids for the 1% to wreck public schools via the shock doctrine of under-funding on the one hand and demanding the same results achieved by high-funded schools on the other, then applying punitive measures when the underfunded schools fall short, beginning with labels calling those schools' quality into question and ending with school closures. Notice how this practice assumes that local educational shortcomings are exclusively the fault of local educators: federal educational policy and practice are held blameless at every turn.

Not surprisingly given this approach, Arne Duncan has overseen the closure of more public schools--predominantly in the neighborhoods populated by the poor--than any other secretary of education, ever. He has, in serial fashion, overseen the breaking of our forebears' promises to provide a free education to all, trading the obligation of the public to care for one another--especially the weakest and most in need of generosity from the rest of us, our poor children--for the assurances of America's richest and scabbiest hedge fund managers and CEOs--the same con artists who wrecked banking, housing, and energy, then got bailed out and left the middle class to pick up the pieces--that they will better serve children via competition, branding, marketing, proprietary software, and franchising. "Give us your schools," they cry, "and we will save these children."

A couple of weeks ago Arne Duncan crossed a line of almost no return. There has been no apology from him, and not one political leader stood up and spoke out for the teachers he maligned.

It is always the fault of someone else.

For a Democratic education secretary to set the all-time record in closing public schools should be a badge of shame that reflects on him.

January 27, 2014

Pastor says Obama will bring anti-Christ by having people rely on government. Getting ridiculous.

From the You Tube video link:

Published on Jan 25, 2014

"Pastor Robert Jeffress sat down with Bill O'Reilly Monday night to argue that President Obama is laying the groundwork for the rise of the Anti-Christ because he is "conditioning" people to rely on government support. He said there will be a "future world dictator before Christ returns who's going to usurp people's personal rights, and "change God's laws... without any opposition" so "people will have been conditioned long before the Antichrist comes to accept government overreach, and that's what you're seeing with President Obama."

He said, "I'm not saying President Obama is the Anti-Christ. In fact, I'm sure he's not, because the Anti-Christ is going to have higher poll numbers."

He argued that in addition to Obamacare creating a culture of dependency, Obama is sowing the seeds for the Anti-Christ with the contraception mandate and "abortion-inducing drugs," as well as the "redefinition of marriage.""* Ana Kasparian, Dave Rubin (Rubin Report) and Desi Doyen (Green News Report) break it down.

More at Mediaite

January 26, 2014

WP had a whole list of Pearson problems in April last year. We should send it to Arne.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/04/24/a-brief-history-of-pearsons-problems-with-testing/

Just some examples.

1999-2000 Arizona – 12,000 tests misgraded due to flawed answer key

2002 Florida — dozens of school districts received no state grades for their 2002 scores because of a “programming error” at the DOE. One Montessori school never received scores because NCS Pearson claimed not to have received the tests.

2005-2006 SAT college admissions test – 4400 tests wrongly scored; $3 million settlement after lawsuit (note FairTest was an expert witness for plaintiffs)

2010 Minnesota -- results from online science tests taken by 180,000 students delayed due to scoring error

2012 Mississippi – Pearson pays $623,000 for scoring error repeated over four years that blocked graduation for five students and wrongly lowered scores for 121 others

January 26, 2014

Pearson Co. joins Duncan, Obama at WH education summit. Just paid 7.7 mil fine for breaking law.

That's odd to me. Pearson is making huge profits off their education reform ventures. It seems that even when they break the rules to the tune of millions they are still welcome in high places.

From the PR memo from Pearson this month:

Pearson Joins President and Mrs. Obama, Education Secretary Duncan for White House Higher Education Summit

Pearson today joined President and Mrs. Obama, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and leaders from across higher education to share best practices and explore additional ways to support more low-income students in achieving college readiness and success. As part of today’s summit, Pearson has committed, over three years, to help 50 higher education institutions analyze how low-income and remedial students learn and where they struggle.

“Pearson’s mission is to help students of all ages to make progress in their lives through learning. We are honored to join President and Mrs. Obama, and Secretary Duncan, for this important discussion about how the entire higher education community can help more low-income students achieve their educational goals. Working together, we will find new and more innovative solutions to overcome this challenge and, in the process, reinforce the ideals that are the bedrock of our great country,” said Greg Tobin, Managing Director of College Foundations at Pearson North America, who represented Pearson at the event.

Here's more about their fine paid in New York City:

From December 2013 New York Times:

Educational Publisher’s Charity, Accused of Seeking Profits, Will Pay Millions

The Pearson Foundation, the charitable arm of one of the nation’s largest educational publishers, will pay $7.7 million to settle accusations that it repeatedly broke New York State law by assisting in for-profit ventures.

An inquiry by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York State attorney general, found that the foundation had helped develop products for its corporate parent, including course materials and software. The investigation also showed that the foundation had helped woo clients to Pearson’s business side by paying their way to education conferences that were attended by its employees.

....“The fact is that Pearson is a for-profit corporation, and they are prohibited by law from using charitable funds to promote and develop for-profit products,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement. “I’m pleased that this settlement will direct millions of dollars back to where they belong.”

Pearson and their associates have huge power in the new education "reforms". Here are some examples from a Daily Kos thread.

Scrutinize those who write and grade the tests that judge teachers, students, schools.

In the summer of 2010, Lu Young, the superintendent of schools in Jessamine County, a Lexington, Ky., suburb, took a trip to Australia paid for by the Pearson Foundation, a nonprofit arm of Pearson, the nation’s largest educational publisher. Ten school superintendents went on the trip.

.... Six months later, in Frankfort, Ky., Ms. Young sat on a committee interviewing executives from three companies bidding to run the state’s testing program. While CTB/McGraw-Hill submitted the lowest bid, by $2.5 million, Ms. Young and the other committee members recommended Pearson.

..."For several weeks, New York State’s attorney general has been investigating similar trips involving two dozen education officials from around the country who traveled to Singapore; London; Helsinki, Finland; China and Rio de Janeiro as guests of the Pearson Foundation. The trips, and the fact that most of these officials come from states that have multimillion contracts with Pearson, were the subject of two of my columns this fall.

Last month, the attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, issued subpoenas to the Manhattan offices of the Pearson Foundation and Pearson Education. Mr. Schneiderman is looking into whether the nonprofit, tax-exempt foundation, which is prohibited by state law from undisclosed lobbying, was used to benefit Pearson Education, a profit-making company that publishes standardized tests, curriculums and textbooks, according to people familiar with the inquiry.

I give myself permission to quote more paragraphs from that thread, since it is mine and since it is from a different article:

Pearson was fined about 15 million in 2010 for late scores on the FCAT. That is the state test of Florida which is being phased out....only to be followed by more tests also contracted out to Pearson.

Education Commissioner Eric J. Smith told Pearson he expects the damages to be paid by Aug. 6.

"Pearson's usage of unproven technology systems this year has caused great turmoil for our parents, teachers, administrators and other education stakeholders and I remain committed to holding the company fully accountable for these disruptions," Smith said in a written statement.

"It is our intent to make good on our previously stated commitment to reimburse the department and Florida districts for substantiated, unexpected costs due to the delay in reporting FCAT scores," Pearson spokesman Adam Gaber said in response.

Again this has proved to be true....accountability is only for public school teachers. Everyone else gets a pass.

January 21, 2014

Arne Duncan "is silent as teachers and principals are fired based on test scores."

Picture courtesy of Reclaim Reform

Why did educators boo Arne Duncan?

Booing is the behavior of the powerless

Booing is the behavior of the powerless. Educators are angry–and Jennings knows this–because of the top-down, authoritarian way in which Duncan has imposed policies that are bad for children, ruinous for teachers, and harmful to the quality of education. Jennings also knows that Duncan holds all the power. Educators may write blogs, opinion pieces, books, and research studies, and they will be completely ignored by Duncan. To say the least, he is uninterested in dialogue and unwilling to change his hardened belief that his policies are successful, no matter what anyone says.

In New York City, our mayor proudly announced that the public should hold him accountable for improving the public schools. After he spent $100 million or so to win a new term, someone in the press asked Mayor Bloomberg how the public could hold him accountable. He answered: “They can boo me at parades.”

He is silent as teachers and principals are fired based on test scores. He is silent as beloved schools are closed because of test scores. He is silent as cities turn their public schools over to entrepreneurs. He is silent as for-profit businesses take over public school districts and as for-profit charters proliferate. He is silent as more and more states adopt vouchers to send public money to religious schools. He is actively abetting the misuse of testing. He is actively supporting the forces of privatization.

We know now he will not change course. The only question is whether public education will survive Arne Duncan.

If Arne Duncan remains in control of our nation's education until 2016, odds are great the public school system will be damaged beyond repair.

January 21, 2014

The UNO scandal in Chicago causes a look back at Duncan's tenure there.

http://janresseger.wordpress.com/2014/01/10/chicagos-uno-charter-scandal-tarnishes-luster-of-arne-duncans-hands-off-strategy/

Now several years into Arne Duncan’s tenure as U.S. Secretary of Education, we continue to learn more about the “Chicago miracle” brought to us by Duncan, the former Chief Executive Officer of the Chicago Public Schools, and the man who has infused into federal education policy the “miracles” of innovation and freedom from too much red tape. These were the signatures of the school reform he presided over in Chicago in the form of Renaissance 2010, a decade-long program that closed public schools and launched a vibrant charter sector.

Questions about the local impact of Duncan’s programs in Chicago have exploded into an enormous scandal around Chicago’s best-known and fastest growing local charter chain, the UNO (United Neighborhood Association) Charter Schools. This week, Chicago Magazine published The Rise and Fall of Juan Rangel, the Patron of Chicago’s UNO Charter Schools, an extraordinary investigation of one of the biggest and supposedly most successful charter empires nurtured throughout Duncan’s tenure as CEO of the Chicago Public Schools.

...UNO began opening charter schools in 1997, benefiting from the array of funding streams available in Chicago to entrepreneurs who wanted to enter the charter sector. According to Chicago Magazine, UNO charter schools have received $280 million in public money in the past five years. “CPS, like many authorizing districts around the country, gives charter operators a guaranteed base allotment per student—in Chicago, that amount currently ranges from $4,140 to $5,130. On top of that, charters get additional public funds for facility rent and maintenance and even more if they teach large numbers of kids who are poor or are learning English (as UNO schools do). And that’s not all: there is a blend of local, state, and federal monies dedicated for lunch programs, special education, teacher training, and a long menu of services. Charters also attract serious dough from certain foundations. The Dell Foundation has given UNO at least $1.5 million, and the Walton Family Foundation has forked over more than $3 million.”

.....According to Cassie Walker Burke: “UNO and its CEO thrived mainly because of gaping loopholes in the charter school system. While UNO has received a staggering $280 million in public money over the past five years to spend on education, neither Chicago Public Schools nor the Illinois State Board of Education provided enough oversight. Without that, insiders say, UNO developed a free-wheeling culture that was ripe for abuse.”

January 20, 2014

Arne Duncan is enacting education policies of Newt Gingrich. That is so wrong.

In 2009 Arne Duncan went on a road trip with Newt Gingrich and Al Sharpton. They preached the policies that Newt Gingrich had long been advocating. There has been very little concern about that because it is happening under a Democratic administration.


Picture courtesy of Black Agenda Report

So what are Newt Gingrich's dreams of education reform? When you see them in black and white text there can be no doubt that his dreams are being fulfilled right now. To me that's a shame. An even worse shame is that few are taking a stand against these reforms.

Arne Duncan draws "line in the sand". Supports education policies of Gingrich.

Gingrich's education reforms with sources.

Introduce competition among schools and teachers

We should apply the free enterprise system to our education system by introducing competition among schools, administrators, and teachers. Our educators should be paid based on their performance and held accountable based on clear standards with real consequences. These ideas are designed to stimulate thinking beyond the timid “let’s do more of the same” that has greeted every call for rethinking math and science education.
Source: Gingrich Communications website, www.newt.org Dec 1, 2006

Support charters; insist on change for failing schools
We should encourage the spread of public charter schools--one of the happiest new developments on the education scene--so parents, educators, & students working together can enjoy the maximum freedom to explore options and innovations until every child has a genuine opportunity to learn. As a corollary of this, we must identify the worst schools. We should insist on immediate change for bad schools. To start with, there should be no tenure and no binding contracts in the worst 20% of schools.Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.208 Jul 2, 1998

Private scholarships for students at hopeless schools (aka Vouchers)

If there were families left without an acceptable public school, scholarships should be available for them to find a private one. I am a graduate of a public school, as are my wife and two daughters. All of us remain committed to the idea of public education. However, if the available public school is one that gives parents legitimate worry for their children’s future, there ought to be alternative to having to stand helplessly watching an incompetent bureaucracy destroy their children’s lives.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.209 Jul 2, 1998

As a result of the bipartisan consensus on education "reform" many hundreds of millions of dollars are now going to charter schools run by private companies, to private schools, and even to private religious schools. These funds are being diverted from public schools as taxpayer dollars are shifted to the private sector.

Here is more from Gingrich. This one is stunning. He wants to replace "muliticulturalism" with "patriotic" education.....as if the two can be easily separated.

Newt Gingrich an education

Replace multiculturalism with patriotic education

In the classroom, the very concept of America is under assault. The traditional notion of our country as a union of one people, the American people, has been assaulted by multiculturalism, situational ethics, and a values-neutral model in which Western values and American history are ignored or ridiculed. Unless we act to reverse this trend, our next generation will grow up with no understanding of core American values. This will destroy America as we know it, as surely as if a foreign conqueror had overwhelmed us. It is absolutely necessary to establish a firm foundation of patriotic education upon which further knowledge can be built; otherwise, Americans will lack understanding of American values & how important & great it is to be an American.

It is important to understand what makes America so unique and why generations of diverse people immigrated to this great land for freedom and opportunity. If Americans do not appreciate America, then how can they be ready and willing to defend her?
Source: Rediscovering God in America, by Newt Gingrich, p.133-134 Dec 31, 2006

It's amazing how Newt Gingrich's ideas are now permeating our education system. That's why he was along on the road trip. These ideas were his babies.

January 18, 2014

Chris Christie's in FL very hush hush. Home Depot founder admires Christie more for bridge scandal.

The hush-hush FL fundraisers of Chris Christie; Scott donor calls secrecy "stupid"

Seems Scott is proud of it, and it is Christie wanting it to be hush hush.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is coming to Florida to help fundraiser for FL Gov. Rick Scott in Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Orlando. The venues are like a state-held secret now that Christie is taking fire over "Bridgegate."

But word of the locations is leaking out anyway (see below). And Scott supporters are shaking their heads in the meantime about the secrecy that, they say, is being insisted upon by Christie's political handlers.

"This is ridiculous. It's stupid, amateur hour," said one major Scott donor, who plans to attend at least one of the events. "They took a little story and made it into a bigger one than was necessary. Trust me, this isn't Rick making this a state secret."

So the somewhat-run-of-the-mill fundraising story could now become a spectacle, replete with Weston Rep. and Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz announcing that she'll hold press availabilities to highlight how Christie is hiding.

More from the Palm Beach Post:

100+ GOP donors to meet with Christie in Palm Beach County to discuss White House bid

Co-founder of Home Depot says bridge controversy made him more supportive of Christie.

“It’s just a meeting of people I’d like to have him meet, get to know him. Just a meet-and-greet” and not a fundraiser, said organizer Kenneth Langone, a New York investor who co-founded Home Depot and owns an oceanfront home in unincorporated North Palm Beach.

Langone, who said he expects donors from all over the country to attend, wouldn’t reveal the site of Sunday’s meeting except to say “it’ll be in Palm Beach someplace."

But Langone said the bridge controversy adds to his admiration of Christie.

“All this latest episode does for me is to persuade me further that his ability to make decisions and be a leader who makes decisions is impressive,” Langone said. “The only reason this noise is going on is because everybody knows this guy can go the route. I’m very excited about his candidacy if he runs.”