Bob Ingle's Double Standards

Bob "Hoover" Ingle, 11/23/10:

The head of the Bergen County Education Association  issued a call to pray for the death of Gov. Christie, which was a bit much even by the NJEA’s standards. The NJEA president,  Barbara Keshishian , called to apologize and the governor invited her in to his office to do it face to face. Christie, giving a speech in Arizona, tells the story as only he can. [emphasis mine]

Bob "Hoover" Ingle, 4/16/11:

Maybe it’s just me but it seems not long ago the New Jersey Democrats were good at making a point and communicating. Not now. During a news conference, Gov. Christie made a remark that the news media should  “take the bat” to Sen. Loretta Weinberg for collecting a taxpayer-funded pension for being a legislator while making $49,000 a year as a legislator. He obviously was asking when reporters are going to hold Weinberg up to scrutiny as they do other people in the same double-dipping situation. In the old days there would have been a news release from someone like Senate President Steve Sweeney saying a governor should use better metaphors, or some such. But now there has to be 128 press releases from lawmakers each saying the same thing and each pretending he meant take a Louisville Slugger to the senator. Anybody who thinks he meant that is too stupid even for our Legislature.

It looks like the Democrats are desperate to take attention away from their lack of ability to solve the state’s growing problems so they’re trying to stir up something about nothing. They even tried to tie it to battered women. Come on!

People talk like that all the time. The Democrats frequently ask me when I am going to turn my guns on Christie. Nobody thinks they’re talking about real guns and violence. When people engage in overkill (oops, I just did it myself) … starting again … When people put out dozens of releases saying the same thing it has an opposite effect of what’s intended. It makes them appear insincere and less concerned about how words affect the listener than trying to draw attention from themselves. [emphasis mine]

Again, the "prayer" was this:

"Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor."

So, according to "Hoover," this is "issuing a call to pray for the death of Gov. Christie," but "taking a bat" to Loretta Weinberg really meant "asking when reporters are going to hold Weinberg up to scrutiny."

I mean, it's so obvious...

You take a bat to whomever you want, Mr. Governor, sir, and I'll keep sucking up!

Chris Christie: He's REALLY a great guy!

I find this op-ed by Steve Goldstein of of Garden State Equity to be a rather... interesting... peek into the mind of Chris Christie:

Now let me say something that may surprise many of you.  I don't write this as a hater of Chris Christie.  On a personal level, far from it.  Given my progressive politics and leadership of the state's LGBT civil rights organization, you might not believe I could have any nice words for the Governor.  But I do, and I want the Governor to know it.  Behind the scenes, he and his Administration have treated my organization with respect and even kindness. 

             Indeed, Governor Christie was fantastic on the anti-bullying law he signed in January.  A couple of weeks earlier, he asked to see me, and did, in a meeting that lasted the better part of an hour.  He was as knowledgeable and open as any other Governor I've worked with.   

             Frankly, I wasn't sure why Governor Christie wanted to meet me.  Apart from my own differences with the NJEA emanating from how it deals with others – which predated this Governor – I am a passionate supporter of unions, including public unions.  I think the world of the Communications Workers of America, for instance, who do a world of public good.

             And let's face it, the LGBT community isn't part of his political base.  That made it the Governor's engaging with me even more impressive.  He has no political reason to do so.  But he made clear he respects my community as an important constituency within the diverse mosaic of New Jersey, and he asked his staff to work with us where possible. 

             Before and after that, they sure have.  What I respect about this Administration is this:   We may not always agree, but yes is yes, no is no, and I'll get back to you soon means they get back to you soon.  By the way, I just stated publicly what some Democratic officials have stated privately. 

             The Governor and I said flat-out we'd never agree on marriage equality.  But we also agreed there would be no reason we couldn't work together on other issues for the betterment of New Jersey.  Thus I've come to appreciate the Governor as different from than the caricature he's portrayed to be.

Goldstein's piece comes on the heels of this from one of my fantastic commenters (much love, posters!):

I work in a district where a meeting was held. He talked with teachers from the district about our concerns "on the ground." It was reported there were issues brought to his attention by these teachers he had not considered. He also pressed some of his reform points. He was civil, polite and respectful. I think that's why he did not want the press there. He is secretly being nice to teachers. Wouldn't play well with the press and his carefully cultivated image. There weren't any administrators because he wanted them to beable to speak freely about their issues without fear of disiplinary actions form the district.

How do we reconcile this with Chris the Bully, smacking down teachers, "taking the bat" to 76-year-olds, cutting his own people off at the knees because they work with the enemy, and all sorts of other petty nonsense?

I can't get into the man's head (thank the lord), but he certainly wouldn't be the first Republican who was caring and kind in person and a massive tool in public. He may also suffer from that peculiar conservative malady where there is no sympathy but plenty of empathy: they support gay rights when they have a gay family member, or cancer research when a loved one suffers, but have little interest if they or their families are not affected.

At the end of the day, how Chris Christie behaves in private really isn't very important. He may be very nice to Steve Goldstein, but he will never, ever, ever support ME. I won't presume to speak for the GLBTQ community, but it seems to me that's THE central issue for this constituency in New Jersey. If he won't support it, why support him, no matter how nice and polite he is in private?

Same for teachers. He is proposing to radically reduce our pay, our benefits, and our job protections. It's fine that he's a nice guy in private, but I really don't care. I'd take a narcissistic jerk who supports teachers over a great guy who decimates my profession any day.

One more thing: Steve, I can guarantee you Christie knew about your troubles with NJEA. Don't you think that might have had something to do with why he worked with you?

The Biggest Lie in America Today

"We just don't have the money!" Bull.

Low taxes, and regressive, too. What could possibly be the cure? Thinking...

Pot, Meet Kettle

Today, Governor Christie's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, apologized to an obscure teachers union official for making such a big deal about a joke taken out of context:

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said Christie was taking the obscure union official's comments out of context. "That’s a complete contextual distortion," he said, adding that anyone who was "in the room would know that." 

It has been obvious to anyone that Christie's assertion that this official "prayed for my death" has been taken way out of context, as the "prayer" in  question was clearly a joke told in poor taste:

"Dear Lord this year you have taken away my favorite actor, Patrick Swayze, my favorite actress, Farrah Fawcett, my favorite singer, Michael Jackson, and my favorite salesman, Billy Mays. I just wanted to let you know that Chris Christie is my favorite governor."

So kudos to Christie for acknowledging that saying something dumb out of context is not the same as a direct threat...

Oh, wait... hold on...

Sorry, I got this wrong. Drewniak was actually defending Christie for doing exactly what he had a hissy fit about just last year! When Christie said the press should "take the bat" to 76-year-old State Senator Loretta Weinberg, Drewniak ran to his boss's defense:

Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said Weinberg was taking the governor’s comments out of context. "That’s a complete contextual distortion," he said, adding that anyone who was "in the room would know that."  

[...] 

Drewniak said Stender’s statement was "twisted." 

"It’s a ridiculous and over-the-top distortion to deflect from Senator Weinberg’s pension double-dipping," he said.

You know why Christie gets away with this hypocrisy? Because he can.

Politboro Jr. High, NJ

So I've had a chance to look at the education "reform" bill Christie proposed; it's as insane as you would imagine.

Christie says:

"Let me be clear," Christie said in a press conference in his outer office yesterday. "We don’t want to see the elimination of tenure, but the elimination the tenure system we have now."

Another day, another lie. This bill clearly eliminates tenure.

All tenure does is prevent a teacher from being fired without holding a hearing before someone outside of the school district. If a teacher doesn't have tenure, they can be fired at will by school officials and/or administrators.

In Christie's bill, all it takes to fire a tenured teacher is one "ineffective" rating in one evaluation in one year. Forget the about using test scores (a completely failed policy, anyway); in this bill, a principal can give an "ineffective" rating regardless of test results, as they only count for 50% of the rating anyway.

(Of course, a principal can easily sabotage a teacher's rating by playing around with class lists; I'll talk about this later.)

Worse, there's no appeals process unless the teacher charges the district "failed to adhere substantially to the approved evaluation process." Any savvy principal can easily game this system and stay within the rules, especially if his superintendent backs him up.

The fact is tenure under Christie's bill would be absolutely meaningless: it would offer NO protections. In that climate, it's easy to see schools becoming the new Tammany Halls of New Jersey: political patronage machines that reward cronies and demand political fealty from staff.

It's not surprising that Chris Christie would sign off on such a perversion of the schools. Christie after all, is a supplicant of Carl Rove who made his bones in Alberto Gonzales's Justice Department. Remember the fired US Attorneys? Christie has already shown he has no problem politicizing education when he pulled the same stunt with seven county school superintendents.

With this bill, he's just expanding the franchise. Any teacher who doesn't toe the correct political line, who raises a ruckus on behalf of a student whose needs aren't being served, who causes trouble during a contract negotiation... well, let's just say you may want to look into another line of work.

And that's the dirty secret the corporate reformers don't want the public to know:

Tenure doesn't just protect teachers; it protects the taxpayers. It keeps schools from becoming a haven for the politically connected.

You know, there once was a country that made the school system a tool of politicians and their cronies...

Study hard for the NJASK, Ivan!

Christie's Secret Teacher Meetings?

Did you know Chris Christie was having closed-door meetings with teachers? Neither did I.

GovChristie Governor Christie 

@ 

@NJreviewer Already having priv mtgs w/teachers. Have had 4 so far--no administration, no press. I am learning a great deal abt their issues

2 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Really? Care to share it with the rest of us? Especially since your screwing around with my career.

The Christie Cronyism Bill

The actual text of Christie's tenure "reform" bill is not yet up at his website (as of this writing, the links on his website are wrong), so I have to rely on news accounts. But it's clear that he is proposing the end of due process for firing teachers:

Under the new system, teachers would be given one of four ratings – highly effective, effective, partially effective, or ineffective.

Teachers given the two highest ratings three years in a row would be eligible for tenure. Educators rated partially effective for two years or ineffective for one year would lose their job protections and could be fired at a principal's discretion.

And who gives teachers their ratings? Principals. So here's how it could work if a teacher's principal has it in for her:

Since principals determine class lists, a principal could put all of the low achievers in one class. The kids take the state exam and and teacher's VAM rating comes in low. But even without that, the principal could conduct the standard observations for the year and still write up the teacher as "ineffective," regardless of the class's test scores.

The teacher loses her tenure the next year. All tenure means, by the way, is that a teacher cannot be fired without a hearing. But now, no matter what happens in the classroom the next year, the principal can summarily refuse to renew the teacher's contract, without any cause whatsoever.

In other words: this teacher remains employed entirely at the whim of the principal and/or his superiors. There is no recourse for her at any point in the process. Not once does anyone have to determine of the principal was at fault.

If you don't think this is a recipe for cronyism, corruption, and abuse, you're a huge sap. This plan puts children LAST - they will be denied good teachers solely on the say so of a single administrator.

What a mess.

The Education Kleptocracy

If you have any doubt as to why the corporate reformers are pushing their agenda, follow along with this little twisted tale. We'll start with some of today's news about our boy, Acting NJDOE Commissioner and pal to the super rich, Chris Cerf:

TRENTON — A private consultant is being paid $60,000 by a California philanthropic foundation to help reorganize the New Jersey Department of Education, acting education Commissioner Christopher Cerf said during today’s Assembly Budget Committee hearing.

Asked by Assemblywoman Joan Quigley (D-Hudson) if the department had hired such a consultant, Cerf said he was working with someone on a part-time basis, describing the man as a "friend" who is "very well respected" in education reform circles across the country.

After the hearing, Cerf confirmed the adviser is William Cox, who owns consulting company DSA Capital, state Treasury records show.

The Los Angeles-based Broad Foundation is paying DSA Capital to lead a team of consultants and produce "a high-level plan" for the Department of Education, DSA’s three-month contract shows.

Cerf is a 2004 graduate of the Broad Foundation’s superintendent’s academy, and it is common practice for the foundation to financially support its own as they transition to new leadership roles, DOE spokesman Alan Guenther said. [emphasis mine]

It ain't what ya know, it's who ya know. Remember:

But it gets better. The Record picks up a connection the S-L missed:

The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation website says the philanthropy had over $2.2 billion in 2009 and it “seeks to dramatically transform American urban public education so that all children receive the skills and knowledge to succeed in college, careers and life.” It runs the Broad Center for the Management of School Systems and the Broad Superintendents Academy, where Cox taught and Cerf studied leadership. 

Cox said in an interview he has known Cerf for years, and the foundation thought Cox could help him in his new position. [emphasis mine]

This is Cerf's m.o. - he works his network, and everyone gets their back scratched. He's been doing it for years.

But it gets even better than this. The S-L continues:

Thinking critically about the Department of Education’s structure and capacity is important, said Bruce Baker, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s Graduate School of Education. But Baker questioned Cox’s credentials to lead such an effort. 

"Why wouldn’t they draw up an RFP and bid this to the major firms that do this stuff, recognized firms?" Baker said. "Our public agencies and those who draw on the public dollar have an obligation to be transparent."

The professor asks a good question: why would Cerf bring this guy in? What's his background anyway?

The Record knows:

Cox has years of experience scrutinizing school systems. He said he worked as an analyst at Standard & Poor’s for 21 years, often focusing on public sector enterprises. He led a project called School Evaluation Services, launched in 2001 to assess schools’ finances, demographics and performance nationwide under a grant from the Broad Foundation, the Gates Foundation and the U. S. Department of Education. 

He became a managing director at Standard & Poor’s, and did work restructuring businesses. After leaving that company in 2008, he founded DSA Capital, a business strategy firm. [emphasis mine]

You know who owns Standard and Poor's? McGraw-Hill.

The teachers reading this blog just had their jaws drop to the floor; yes, it's THAT McGraw-Hill, the extremely well-known textbook and standardized test publisher. The same McGraw-Hill that is right in the middle of the DC testing scandal that calls into question the claims of former superintendent and corporate-reform supermodel Michelle Rhee.

But, yes, it really does get even better than that! Because what did Chris Christie just announce as part of his education "reform" plan?

Measures of Student Achievement Recognizing the Importance and Limitations of Test Scores. Fifty percent of a teacher’s overall evaluation should be based on direct measures of student achievement as demonstrated by assessments and other evaluations of student work.  This would be compromised of two required components and one optional component. The largest required component would be an individual teacher’s contribution to his or her students’ progress on a statewide assessment.  However, the other required component would take into consideration other factors that impact a student’s growth, including school-wide performance and specific student circumstances. Additionally, districts would be permitted to choose one or more optional measures of student achievement from a list of state-approved measures.  Such measures might include student performance on nationally-normed assessments or State-mandated end-of-course tests. [underline emphasis mine]

In other words: the standardized test will be the determining factor in teacher evaluation. But wait: only 10% to 20% of teachers could be evaluated currently on standardized tests - we only use them for Grades Three through Eight, and only in certain subjects. Wouldn't we have to develop a whole new raft of standardized tests to evaluate as much of the teaching corps as possible?


That certainly seems to be what Derrell "The Freman" Bradford - a (highly unqualified) member of Chris Christie's Education Effectiveness Task Force - seemed to be saying in this Twitter exchange:

stopthefreezeNJ DEFEND NJ PUBLIC ED!

Hey @Dyrnwyn, you guys got merit pay for gym teachers and inclusion specialists worked out yet?

21 hours ago Favorite Retweet Reply

Dyrnwyn Derrell Bradford

@

@stopthefreezeNJ working on assessments for them too. Teachers will be evaluated, fairly. And when I say teachers, I mean all of them.

20 hours ago

So, let's recap: Acting NJDOE Commissioner Chris Cerf is using billionaire Eli Broad's money to bring in William Cox as a consultant. Cox worked for years for a subsidiary of McGraw-Hill, a huge standardized testing provider. Cox comes in, and soon after Gov. Chris Christie announces his support for basing teacher evaluations on those same standardized tests. And Christie's hand-picked appointee to his task force on teacher evaluations confirms that assessments are coming to cover the many teachers whose students' work cannot yet be judged by this standardized test.

This is, in a word, disgusting. It reeks of back room deals and feeding at the public trough. It is the shaping of policy to enrich government contractors, as far away from the elected representatives of the people as possible.

I'll keep saying it as long as the evidence all points to it: corporate America got fat on our military, and they are coming after our schools next. Halliburton High is the logical outcome of this new education kleptocracy.

ADDING: Oh my goodness gracious - the stuff this guy Cox has been up to. I mean, wow (an article by RiShawn Biddle no less!). We'll be talking more, folks...

Funny

Maybe you don't read Leonie Haimson's blog because you don't live in NYC. Too bad, because you're missing out on some real gems, like this:

CM Jumaane Williams pointed out the conflict in Walcott’s claim that the DOE would not allow services to kids to degrade, while radically increasing class sizes. He asked about an 80% increase in IT and computer contracts. Charles Barron said that there was a “revenue deficit” not a budget deficit, and suggested that the city could raise funds easily: just “stop and frisk white men on Wall Street to see if they had any toxic derivatives” in their pockets. Barron suggested that Walcott should ask the mayor to stop the layoffs: “"When you all go to lunch or breakfast or caviar at his mansion or whatever you do, I think it's important to influence him.”

Reminds me of this:

The Daily Show - Crisis in Dairyland - For Richer and Poorer - Teachers and Wall Street
Tags: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

According to Megyn Kelly, teachers should make less than Wall St. bankers because we have summers off. I agree: I should be paid 5/6 the salary I could be making at Goldman-Sachs. I'll deal with it somehow...

Christie's Lying Statistics: A Recap

Before I push ahead to look at Chris Christie's corporate-based education reform proposal, let's recap his distortions, deceptions, and outright lies when laying out his case for the need for reform:

- Christie: Teacher pay increased 5.9% in two years, which is obviously outrageous!
- Here's the Truth: Recent teacher pay raises are well in line with pay raises throughout the workforce. Teacher pay has lagged behind the average wage in New Jersey for years. And recently settled contracts are in line with the decreasing pay found in the rest of the workforce.


- Christie: Teacher salaries in New Jersey are the 4th highest in the nation.
- Here's the Truth: It's completely deceptive to compare teacher salaries without taking into account the cost of living in different regions of the county. When adjusted, teacher salaries in New Jersey are actually comparatively LOW.


- Christie: New Jersey spends more per pupil than any other state.
- Here's the Truth: Again, you need to take regional differences in costs into account when making these comparisons - when adjusted, NJ is NOT #1 in the nation. Further, New Jersey is one of the best states in the nation at equitably distributing school funding between wealthier and poorer districts.


- Christie: New Jersey students show poor achievement, as evidenced by the gap between wealthier students and poorer students, or between white students and black or Hispanic students.
- Here's the Truth: Actually, black, Hispanic, and poorer students do relatively well in New Jersey compared to the rest of the nation. The reason for the "achievement gap" is that white, wealthier (not "wealthy") students do exceedingly well compared to the rest of the nation. Time and again, using many different measure and standards, New Jersey public schools are consistently among the very best in the nation.


Once again: any reasonable and honest governor would be heaping praise on the students, teachers, and parents of New Jersey for the remarkably fine job they do in making our pubic schools some of the best in the entire world. Yes, we have much work to do in bringing poorer, black, and Hispanic students up to the very, very high bar set here in New Jersey; however, we are already making excellent progress.

Chris Christie continues to distort, deceive, and lie about the great things that are happening in New Jersey's schools to push a radical corporate reform agenda. His real motives are to destroy pubic sector unions, make New Jersey's taxes even more regressive, and privatize as many education functions as possible, turning our schools into Halliburton Highs, ripe with money ready for the plucking by private contractors.

He can not be allowed to get away with this.