 |
| Replacement for retired (phased-out) model, The Pawlenty. |
The McFadden: Uncontroversial, standing for nothing.
Looking respectably cordial doing so.
___________UPDATE___________
Ask yourself, is the crock half empty? Or half full?
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Another area where The McFadden might be programmed to equivocate, generalize, evade, obfuscate, blow fuses, or, with some of his friends thinking one way and other friends the other way, having programming conservatively set for The McFadden, presently, to simply and unequivocally agree with his friends:
The main system consideration, is there something hard-wired into The McFadden's central processor core circuitry (or is an installed RWC, LLC, BIOS ROM module governing and at play)?
Or is the thing running on updatable software, only for now at a pre-primary yet-to-be-advertised beta release version?
Something such as a "McFaddenware Core Values Aspiration Adaptation Module" adjunct to The McFadden's Operating System; a software ver. 1.0, (or a 1.1 recoding inclusive of a prelim bugfix avoiding infinite looping and any present firm commitment to any policy or position)?
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
Think of the situation where, as with the healthcare website glitches, when Rove, Weber & Coleman, LLC, programmers get around to a first attempt at installing content what if they have comparable programming problems, and the thing never says boo up to November. The scariest scenario, The McFadden already has speaking capability programmed, but the will and content modules are being formulated as I write, and they are late to never before election day, and the McFadden still wins. Without need of a recount. Almost as scary (but better as theater) would be if programming glitches have the thing saying when first posed to speak publicly, that Marxist socialism is a superior statist form of government to 1% dominated capitalism, the rich should be taxed, he has no care whether the Vikings have a winning record, and Obama is not a socialist and it is a pure and dastardly lie from anyone so ill-motivated as to be saying so - the thing could void all programming warranties and do a reverse-Norm, from GOP to DFL.
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
The Eric Black item from MinnPost as linked to above, shows that The McFadden's obfuscation-evasion module has already been installed and booted up into general working order without major mishap. The content module likely may involve a smaller or comparable number of lines of code, GOP content being sparse and predictable, but probably is still bug-prone to where the risk of having any McFadden content over an empty shell governs. Presumably, the code is being tuned by the LLC's programmers, for installation at some point when television advertising will proliferate, i.e., some time before the primary voting day. In an emergency, with little real risk, the content module from The Pawlenty could be downloaded to a tiny thumb drive and used in The McFadden without any expected doctrinaire mishaps to speak of. While not open source, the simplicity of The Pawlenty's content module is its greatest virtue, for cross-loading into The McFadden, and likely could be cross-installed in an hour or less, today, if felt necessary. Yet, these are conservatives, so they are moving as expected, conservatively. Cross loading content from The Christie might in contrast be problematic because Minnesota has already had one bridge disaster, while The Pawlenty was running on its own content module. Keeping content-neutral status set on The McFadden, short term, seems the prevailing strategy of the LLC, and with its success so far, that tact cannot be greatly faulted. Also, a consistent bug across content modules of The Pawlenty and The Christie is a laughable will to pretend being Presidential in scope, and if The Pawlenty's content module is used, that code would have to be set inactive, bypassed, but duly commented as to cause and reasoning for the code alteration prior to any installation in The McFadden.
_______FURTHER UPDATE_______
As one decidedly grounded on the Jeffersonian principle of absolute separation of church and state, I find it curious how this campaign page for The McFadden extoles alleged virtues of "Cristo Rey, an inner city school in Minneapolis [...] which was started six years ago, [and] is designed to serve children who come from economically disadvantaged backgrounds," without ever using, as though consciously purged by handlers, the word "Jesuit."
This Twin-Cities school's founding appears not unlike an earlier formed Jesuit effort in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore with a Wikipedia page, down to a parallel naming, per the enterprise's about page, which shows the enterprise unashamed and unhampered in using the school's full name, as here:
Mission
The mission of the Cristo Rey Jesuit High School-Twin Cities is to provide an education in the Jesuit tradition which integrates college preparatory academic and professional work environments thereby preparing students from under-resourced families for success in college and life.
With history being:
The Cristo Rey model was developed in 1995, when then-Chicago Archbishop Joseph Cardinal Bernadine encouraged the Jesuits to find a way to provide quality, Catholic secondary education for the impoverished immigrant Hispanic population of Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood. When Fr. John Foley, SJ, was missioned to be the founding President of Cristo Rey Jesuit High School, its development faced a great challenge... funding. There was simply no way these families could afford a traditional private secondary education.
Fr. Foley and his team set to find other means of financing the private school and stumbled upon the idea of a work-study program. When Cristo Rey Jesuit High School opened its doors in 1996, students attended classes four days a week and went to work one day a week at paying jobs in the local, Chicago business community. After only a year, faculty and staff observed that an unexpected benefit from the work-study program; the students themselves were earning more than just a wage to underwrite their tuition, but also valuable skills and experience for their future.
It was soon after, that Fr. Foley dreamed of others replicating his school in Pilsen. In 2001, the Cristo Rey Network was established when philanthropist B.J. Cassin established the Cassin Educational Initiative Foundation, to “blueprint” and replicate Cristo Rey-model high schools and similarly innovative grade schools.
It was through grants provided by the Cassin Foundation that the Cristo Rey Network was able to expand and build more schools across the country. During this time, feasibility studies were conducted in various U.S. cities to determine their viability of sustaining a Cristo Rey model school. Concurrently, the Wisconsin Province of the Society of Jesus agreed to sponsor a Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in the Twin Cities. A year-long study was conducted in the Twin Cities by Fr. Eugene Donohue, SJ and in 2005 Fr. David Haschka, SJ was missioned to found the school.
[...]
[links in original]. So, The McFadden was not programmed with any leadership role in things happening in that school's founding, it being an effort of various named prelates with S.J. after their names. With that financing model in place within the network it is noteworthy that The McFadden is currently treasurer of the venture.
Now, back again to that campaign website wherein Cristo Rey is mentioned per a link given above, again here, the page captioned by the handlers, "A Quality Education For Every Child." In thinly veiled attack language against the Teachers Union which seems aligned in goals with the DFL more than the GOP, that page states:
Stop Serving Broken Systems and Special Interests and Start Serving Kids. For too long, we have accepted subpar results from our inner-city schools. Minnesota has the largest achievement gap in the country and the lowest graduation rate for Latino students. Instead of throwing more money into a broken system that was built to serve special interests, these dollars should be used to promote innovation and results. Every child deserves a quality education, and it’s time to start empowering kids and their parents with the resources and choices they need.
That is pejorative language, doubtlessly not from the content empty McFadden, but the handlers; making the omission of the word "Jesuit" more pronounced in importance. Don't do as the Teacher's Union does [it being nonsectarian a part of the state not of any religion], but do as the Roman Church's S.J. quite-sectarian arm does; is the incompletely stated message, and completion of it serves an electorate faced with making choices.
So, again, the question, the crock, half-full, or half-empty.
Now, easily I can be pointed at as politically incorrect, for bashing the S.J. A fully informed electorate is my goal, and in terms of bashing the S.J. the Roman Church itself has its own history that way. To its credit, it has, in this the 21st Century, appointed its first S.J. Pope, that being a milestone long, long after Constantine was Emperor of Rome.
I have nothing against the S.J., and its first Pope, who seems genuine, likable, and concerned for the poor more so than his predecessor(s) since the Papacy of John XXIII, but I do not want the S.J. directly or indirectly setting education policy for my state or nation, which is and should remain forever a fully secular function of government - the state - to meet that societal duty necessarily and irrevocably and fully separated from the Roman or any other church, mosque, temple, coven, or other enclave of any particular faith biases.
Given that, let us see how the programmers write the McFadden's "content code module - separation;" in view of the possibility, however remote, that the question of church-state separation enters into anything touching The McFadden's quest, along with handlers, for installing the bot into political [i.e., secular] office.
_______FURTHER UPDATE________
Now that there has been a segue to education as an issue, with The McFadden being posed as having an answer, fairness requires delving below the merely superficial toutings on a political website. Cristo Rey's network notes:
Twenty-five Cristo Rey schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia provide a quality, Catholic, college preparatory education to 7,400 young people who live in urban communities with limited educational options.
Member schools utilize a rigorous academic model, supported with effective instruction, to prepare students with a broad range of academic abilities for college success. Cristo Rey Network schools employ an innovative Corporate Work Study Program that provides students with real world work experiences. Every student works five full days a month to fund the majority of his or her education, gain job experience, grow in self-confidence, and realize the relevance of his or her education. Students work at law firms, banks, hospitals, universities, and other professional Corporate Partners.
2013-2014 Snapshot
8,000 students nation-wide
26 Cristo Rey Network schools
25 cities in 17 states and D.C.
96% students of color
$34,000 average family income
1,700 Corporate Work Study jobs
46 National University Partners
100% graduates accepted to a 2 or 4 year college
2.4 average students per computer
[links within original omitted and never mind the 7400/8000 gap, the scale of things is there] That surely gives an appearance of cherry picking a student body; not come one, come all as is a requirement with public schools; without needed servicing of No Child Left Behind [Bush era] demands; and without need of specialty education provision of any kind. Only family relative impoverishment seems at play as an unusual elitist element of Cristo Rey.
But, cherry picking and then saying, "Look, we have something that works," merely proves what has been well known for some time. Cherry picking works. Elitism works. Universal public education access has inherent problems that attach to universality with differing child-skill and home-cultural value dimensions.
No news to any of that.
Cristo Rey Jesuit school, Twin-Cities, notes its board treasurer info: "Mr. Michael McFadden (Treasurer); Co-CEO; Lazard Middle Market; Minneapolis, MN." Then the Minneapolis school's alphabetical listing of its "corporate partners" in its touted unique work-study organizational Gestalt, duly notes The McFadden's co-CEO thing, Lazard Middle Market, LLP, participates.
The question begged, is how many Cristo Rey interns are there at Lazard, and then how universally accessible is such a learning opportunity made equitably available to students not at Cristo Rey?
Again, elitism and benefits of special opportunity to a handful of cherry-picked youngsters is not news to anyone who has thought an hour or more about public education and what might be a nice way to integrate benefit of community contact experience into the whole of the learner-teacher environment.
McFadden/Lazard has some 'fessing to do over universal equal access to its "open door" work-study access, given that The McFadden seeks and wants votes from all parents statewide, not merely parents of the few Cristo Rey beneficiary-families.
And if parents statewide are to see their children having or not having equal opportunity access to "corporate partner mentoring" as that accorded a select Cristo Rey handful; parents statewide might well think to weigh that in their voting.
Finally, within that Cristo Rey network and especially within the Twin Cities endeavor, what is the student:teacher ratio?
I could not find that most essential statistic published. Student:computer ratio, that's given, but not the other ratio, student:teacher. Computers do not teach but only assist teaching. (Only ALEC postures as believing otherwise.)
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For a fair context of the larger and thornier needs faced by meeting the society-wide goal of educating each new generation, fully; (each and every as best as possible given equality of opportunity as a goal); what is to be contrasted with Cristo Rey, in looking at its touting of things?
"Twenty-five Cristo Rey schools in 17 states and the District of Columbia provide a quality, Catholic, college preparatory education to 7,400 young people who live in urban communities with limited educational options.
"Member schools utilize a rigorous academic model, supported with effective instruction, to prepare students with a broad range of academic abilities for college success. Cristo Rey Network schools employ an innovative Corporate Work Study Program that provides students with real world work experiences. Every student works five full days a month to fund the majority of his or her education, gain job experience, grow in self-confidence, and realize the relevance of his or her education. Students work at law firms, banks, hospitals, universities, and other professional Corporate Partners."
Anoka-Hennepin serves approximately 39,000 students and 248,000 residents living in 13 suburban communities spread out over 172 square miles north of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
The largest school district in Minnesota, A-H operates 24 elementary schools, six middle schools (grades six through eight), and five high schools, plus alternative middle and high school sites.
[source: here] If you for one minute think the Cristo Rey model could scale to that, without cherry picking, you are a first class idiot. And The McFadden and handlers want your vote.
Wouldn't it be helpful if the SJ were, for their Cristo Rey adventure, to publish on the web useful information such as the three featured pdf downloads, the AH district makes available, here? Along with info on the recruitment and culling of potential Cristo Rey beneficiary scholars? Comparison would then be at least feasible; with cost per student scaling a factor, and how the internship-memtoring via corporate partners could (ideally without elitist screening) scale to numbers such as 39,000 students in the single AH district.
BOTTOM LINE: If The McFadden's handlers are priming themselves to program the robot to posture about the Cristo Rey SJ elitist cherry-picking model being without any problem scalable to "fix" public education in Minnesota; the only sane answer would be, "Blow that out your shorts, Robot-Man."
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Told you so. Gary Gross, tuning the instrument. Even before programming of any content module for The McFadden is finished. November, please accelerate the clock, get this advertising and propaganda season over, yesterday not being soon enough.
Al Franken's been about what should have been expected, a bit better, and superior as a Senator to Klobuchar and her effort for the environmentally unfriendly Bachmann Bridge for Wisconsin on the Saint Croix.
Reelect Al.
Majority status matters.
Let the robot return to oblivion and excessive wealth, made in a zero-sum game, investment gambling.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
Well, still no faculty:student ratio could be found for Cristo Rey - Twin Cities on its website, but the site shows:
47 graduating seniors
52 staff and teacher
While those numbers suggest much individual attention is feasible, the picture is incomplete.
Class size matters. Any teacher will tell you that. Including those at Cristo Rey. It is a critical/missing statistic. Cherry pick and individualize. Great, in a world without budget pressures or a demand for district-wide universality of access including: dedicated and gifted, indifferent and talentless, all ranges between - that is the public school mandate. It appears Criso Rey operates without such troublesome complications to stress its model.