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Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Yesterday's fish. Today's advertiser. Who else, but ...



This link. Teacher tenure detractor, tutored by a master detractor.

That linked item, yields this quote:

“I guess there’s an ad out now from Norm Coleman’s group,” Dayton said. “Norm should stay in Washington and hang out with his rich friends.”

Dayton said Coleman should “leave education policy to those who live here and whose careers are here.”

[...] He called proposals for ending teacher tenure “the usual garbage.”

In a statement, Coleman dismissed Dayton’s comments and fired back.

“Gov. Dayton, whose political career has been underwritten by his personal fortune — promoted by the wealth, privilege and fortune of his friends and family — is hardly in any position to hold himself out as the defender of the average, middle class family in Minnesota,” Coleman said. “Before claiming that anyone who disagrees with him is beneath his dignity, Gov. Dayton might want to reconsider his own lack of dignity in waging personal attacks against me or anyone else who supports education reform in Minnesota.”

Coleman said he has lived in Minnesota for 40 years and rejects Dayton’s “desire that I move to Washington, D.C.”

Yes, Dayton's political activities needed no Nasser Kazeminy financing, from "down south" deepwater oil exploration interests. Norm, however, ... whether need or no, Kazeminy was convenient and available.

And that 40 year thing -


_____________UPDATE____________
Wes Volkenant posted about Norm's advertisement, this link - go read it - and he ended up linking to a Norm attributed post at the website of the slush fund that Norm's been installed in as head. Wes is a teacher, and as such knows more about the profession than I do, more than Norm knows, and more than B. Petersen knows too. The blathering is about "effective teachers" as if effectiveness in the task is an easy thing to call, and as if practice does not make perfect. As to experience being a rough measure where things such as standardized testing averages are a bad joke - Michelangelo's first stone cutting was not the Pieta. He'd had a little practice before that. He was not fresh out of college.

What really galls, by example from the Coleman hit-piece:

Keeping Effective Teachers In The Classroom

Teaching isn’t just a job – it is a passion and a skill. Good teachers have the power to shape a child’s future, and we should be doing more to reward and recognize good teachers’ success in the classroom. It’s time to eliminate outdated teacher tenure laws, like the “last in, first out” policies that force school districts to base staffing on seniority instead of quality and performance. Eliminating these policies will allow administrators to keep the most effective teachers, not just the longest serving. In 2012, Governor Dayton vetoed a bill that would have allowed school districts to base staffing on performance, not just seniority (HF 1870 ). This issue was again put to a vote in 2014, and failed to pass the Minnesota House and Senate. (HF 2397)

These turkeys are gobbling around about "effective teachers" as if they had any sense of what one is, and of what an "effective education" is. They are simplistic and embrace ALEC-like focus on standardized testing as if it were a universal panacea for all things related to public education. Like snake oil, for what ails you.

Can Norm be forgiven for such simplistic hogwash? Well, the argument can be made. First, this is what he'd want to sell you as "being educated" after having "an education."

But cutting some slack, the man's entire career line has been painting by numbers, so he probably believes it. Coleman - By numbers, from campus rebel, to law school and then the party switch, to losing an election to a wrestler but narrowly winning against a dead man, to being Cheney's protege and having Kazeminy buying his suits, to being appointed to head a slush fund where he does not call the shots but the wallets providing the slush do.

And as to that song line, "You take out the garbage, and hope it pays off," there is this unforgettable greenscreened hummer. Got it?

A thought experiment - Plato wrote volumes about Socrates, (a teacher and we may say an "effective" one), and only gave us things to consider, not gold plated answer language in a B. Petersen bill.

What is "an effective teacher?"

What is "an education?"

Is it what gets Norm his money, or something more or possibly less - perhaps something more integrated into a whole lifetime's exploration -- going well beyond what gets Norm his money?

What ALEC tells you, just might, possibly might be - untrue. Worse, deliberately so. Huckstered propaganda, perhaps?

_____________FURTHER UPDATER_______________
Today's fish -- JEBBERWOCKY
Those concerned with the quality of people involved in the privatization of public education mish-mosh might weigh:

WASHINGTON — Jeb Bush has resigned all of his board memberships — both nonprofit and business — in a move that helps clear a path toward a 2016 presidential campaign.

[...] Potential foes in both parties have already begun to pour through Bush's extensive private dealings in search of fodder for criticism.

The Wednesday moves, first reported by The Washington Post, do not affect other business interests in which he is a partner. Those include his business consulting company, Jeb Bush and Associates, and Britton Hill Holdings, a Florida-based private equity and business advisory group.

While some strategists have said Bush's private-equity work could open him to some of the same criticisms that dogged Mitt Romney, the GOP's last presidential nominee, Bush himself has said his business record would be an asset in a campaign.

He previously announced plans to step down from the board of Tenet Healthcare Corp. and leave his advisory role with British banking giant Barclays by Dec. 31. He severed ties to other business entities on Wednesday including the for-profit education company Academic Partnerships, Empower Software Solutions and CorMatrix Cardiovascular Inc.

Earlier in the week Bush resigned from the board of timber company Rayonier Inc.

Meanwhile, Bush's team also confirmed Wednesday that he had declined an invitation to speak at a political event organized by Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, one of Congress' most strident immigration critics. An aide cited a scheduling conflict, although Bush is one of the few high-profile presidential contenders not attending the Iowa Freedom Summit in late January.

Source:
Clearing path for 2016 run, Jeb Bush steps down from remaining board memberships
Article by: STEVE PEOPLES , AP - Updated: Jan 2, 2015 - 12:03 AM

JEBBERWOCK Image credit: Wikipedia
[emphasis added] Equity fund operator and family scion. Fingerprints against public education worth scorn? Or somebody's school savior?

We each hold opinions.

______________________

One may ask: What real function did the Jebberwock perform for all those corporate boards; and what was the remuneration? Even, what carryover responsibilities and loyalties may remain, while formally off the several board payrolls?

ALSO: One may google = "Academic Partnerships," or "Empower Software Solutions"

"Virtual education," (is that mail-order degrees undermining traditional universities, computerized "education," or something a bit more); that, and job outsourcing are interesting issues. (I.e., is that HR stuff onshore, or offshore?)