Schools are not the same as factories. Business principles do not apply.
S
Steven H. Newton
11 years ago
It is time for Delaware citizens, not corporate officers, political appointees, or cherry-picked individuals to become the stakeholders in public education. It is also time for Secretary of Education Mark Murphy, whose tenure in office has been a disaster for Delaware children, to resign.
E
Elizabeth Lockman
11 years ago
I was reluctant to sign at first, feeling as I do - selfishly - that it is too late anyway to save the priority school my family enjoyed for many years. I already saw how demoralized staff there had become in the final years, despite the community's constant fight to demand parity. I'm deeply disappointed that these pleas, from the actual school community, were never heeded in favor of this "compliance" process. While I hope whatever happens leads to a successful future for the school that evolves in the building, I am very aware that this has already been very destructive to the school community that we were a part of, and I don't think anything can repair or restore that. Amazing how years of hard community work can be undone in a few short months of tone-deaf, top-down effort which is somehow supposed to be encouraging hard community work to support our schools.
A
Annalisa Ekbladh
11 years ago
DDOE should read their own reports and stop applying rigid plans to our schools. Our Districts and our children deserve better. Social workers and smaller classes for children at risk! Stop blaming the principals, teachers and Districts for poverty!
M
Mike Oboryshko
11 years ago
The problem is county-wide poverty; we need Priority Neighborhoods and Priority Families first.
D
Donna Reed
11 years ago
This plan by the Secretary of Education is a nightmare.
M
Maureen Keeney
11 years ago
the schools should pick a plan that works for the community .
District tax payers want this process followed not some fiat from Dover.
J
Jennifer Twardowski
11 years ago
Yes, what/who is really the priority?!
P
P. William Cortes
11 years ago
The DOE plans are the cover for total privatization of city schools by proponents of corporate education and elimination of public education systems and public school teachers.
M
Mary Schorse
11 years ago
Without the full and complete support of the students and families these plans claim to want to help they will do little more than continue current trends, regardless of how much incentive is provided to the principal. No one goes into the education profession for the money. Dangling large salaries are not guaranteed to draw candidates who are in it to make a meaningful difference in the lives of public school children.
J
john kowalko
11 years ago
Horrific abuse of power by order of this Governor and DOE. Disgraceful and intolerable assault on professional educators by malcontents who wish to feed their corporatist agenda
A
anne w solan
11 years ago
The State of Delaware must put both real effoct in collaborating with and supporting with REAL funding what is necessary to get these schools up to level of suburban middle class school populations in NCC
E
Eve Buckley
11 years ago
Newark, DE & Christina parent
M
mike kempski
11 years ago
well stated
K
Kevin Ohlandt
11 years ago
This is excellent! The Delaware DOE is trying to rush this for whatever reason. Why commission a report and not even sign off on it?
K
Kevin Ohlandt
11 years ago
I can certainly appreciate your circumstance. Unfortunately, the options you had are not options many of these students have had. Not everyone can benefit from "choice" or "privatization". All I know is the DOE and Markell have sold a box of goods that everyone thinks has gold in it, but the box is empty and full of nothing but smoke and mirrors. Yes, these schools need more. Nobody doubts that. But that starts with more funding and resources, which this priority plan will not provide. Many of these charters you speak so highly of are in the midst of an ACLU complaint to the US Office of Civil Rights against the state of DE and Red Clay. In the business world I have worked in, we call that "fraud", "discrimination" and "segregation".
Schools are not the same as factories. Business principles do not apply.
It is time for Delaware citizens, not corporate officers, political appointees, or cherry-picked individuals to become the stakeholders in public education. It is also time for Secretary of Education Mark Murphy, whose tenure in office has been a disaster for Delaware children, to resign.
I was reluctant to sign at first, feeling as I do - selfishly - that it is too late anyway to save the priority school my family enjoyed for many years. I already saw how demoralized staff there had become in the final years, despite the community's constant fight to demand parity. I'm deeply disappointed that these pleas, from the actual school community, were never heeded in favor of this "compliance" process. While I hope whatever happens leads to a successful future for the school that evolves in the building, I am very aware that this has already been very destructive to the school community that we were a part of, and I don't think anything can repair or restore that. Amazing how years of hard community work can be undone in a few short months of tone-deaf, top-down effort which is somehow supposed to be encouraging hard community work to support our schools.
DDOE should read their own reports and stop applying rigid plans to our schools. Our Districts and our children deserve better. Social workers and smaller classes for children at risk! Stop blaming the principals, teachers and Districts for poverty!
The problem is county-wide poverty; we need Priority Neighborhoods and Priority Families first.
This plan by the Secretary of Education is a nightmare.
the schools should pick a plan that works for the community .
This needs to happen.
[email protected]
District tax payers want this process followed not some fiat from Dover.
Yes, what/who is really the priority?!
The DOE plans are the cover for total privatization of city schools by proponents of corporate education and elimination of public education systems and public school teachers.
Without the full and complete support of the students and families these plans claim to want to help they will do little more than continue current trends, regardless of how much incentive is provided to the principal. No one goes into the education profession for the money. Dangling large salaries are not guaranteed to draw candidates who are in it to make a meaningful difference in the lives of public school children.
Horrific abuse of power by order of this Governor and DOE. Disgraceful and intolerable assault on professional educators by malcontents who wish to feed their corporatist agenda
The State of Delaware must put both real effoct in collaborating with and supporting with REAL funding what is necessary to get these schools up to level of suburban middle class school populations in NCC
Newark, DE & Christina parent
well stated
This is excellent! The Delaware DOE is trying to rush this for whatever reason. Why commission a report and not even sign off on it?
I can certainly appreciate your circumstance. Unfortunately, the options you had are not options many of these students have had. Not everyone can benefit from "choice" or "privatization". All I know is the DOE and Markell have sold a box of goods that everyone thinks has gold in it, but the box is empty and full of nothing but smoke and mirrors. Yes, these schools need more. Nobody doubts that. But that starts with more funding and resources, which this priority plan will not provide. Many of these charters you speak so highly of are in the midst of an ACLU complaint to the US Office of Civil Rights against the state of DE and Red Clay. In the business world I have worked in, we call that "fraud", "discrimination" and "segregation".