Flooding across the country has forced people to evacuate their homes, leaving behind everything they’ve worked hard to achieve.

People watching the disaster on television empathize with those experiencing the devastation and may even feel compelled to contribute money to help defray the cost of the damages people have suffered.

However, unless you have actually experienced losing everything you have worked hard to attain; until you have watched your belongings and possibly your loved ones, wash away while you stand, helpless, you can never fully realize or comprehend the feelings and reactions of those who have undergone the tragedy.

As flood victims face each day trying to piece their lives back together, the rest of us continue on in our daily lives, thankful that we escaped the catastrophe.

This is the conundrum education activists face when trying to enlighten people to the devastation caused by the flood of corporate influence on the system of education.

There will be many who will survive the disaster while looking on in horror as the majority of children, who are unable to swim through the torrential downpour of politics, money, and influence, succumb to the waters of mis-education.

There are those that will empathize and are anxious to send money to help flood victims, but they too are suffering and have little time to become involved in changing the system and stopping the reign.

Fortunately, stopping the reign of corporate influence on education can be accomplished by simply voting into office those individuals who are not salted with the cupidity for power and money.

Money will help ease the suffering, however, electing individuals who brave the waters to save our children from the flood of corporate influence on education will stop the reign.

Our elected officials must be more concerned with those suffering from the loss of education, helping them to build and rebuild strong, durable, educational foundations that will not wash away in the flood waters that life rains down.

Our children deserve educational leaders who will brave the waters to save their educational lives.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Incompetent: Lacking the qualities needed for effective action.

Incompetence: The state or fact of being incompetent.

Last night the RCSD Board of Education held a Special meeting where Resolution 32, entering into an agreement with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was resubmitted for approval.

Present were Commissioners Adams, Cruz, Elliott, Evans, Powell, and White. Commissioner Campos was absent.

Attached are the statements made by the Commissioners who commented on the rationale for their decision and those who commented on the statements of other Commissioners.

Transcript of 8-6-13 Special Board Meeting

Resolution 32 was passed by the Board with Commissioners Cruz, Evans, Powell, and White, voting in favor of the resolution and Commissioners Adams and Elliott voting against.

Though Commissioners Powell and White admitted to having reservations concerning the resolution and the due diligence of the administrative staff to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of the outcomes of the consultation with McKinsey, they voted to adopt the resolution.

It is unfortunate that a School Board Commissioner would be offended by the assumption of incompetence and then admit to being inefficient in handling district affairs for eight years.

Commissioner Evans, President of the Board, has been a member of the Board since 2003 and Commissioner Powell, Chair of the Finance and Resource Allocation Committee, was first appointed in 1997, and has served as an elected official since 2003. The two longest standing members of the Board are, admittedly, still unaware of how to effectively and efficiently manage district affairs.

Our children have suffered under this inefficient and ineffective Board for nearly a generation with graduation rates never reaching more than 50%.

Rochester citizens concerned with providing our children with an excellent, child centered, free and public education, are asked to access the Green Party website to sign the petition calling for the resignation of the Board members who, by adopting Resolution 32, admit that after eight plus years, they still do not know how to properly manage district affairs.

The link to the petition is: http://www.greenrochester.org

Our children do not have years to wait until the Board reaches competency.

Join the movement to Save Our Children!

Teaching is the only profession where those engaged in the profession are asked to pack up their belongings every summer and wait to see where they will work in the coming months.

Wednesday, September 4, 2013, begins the new school year with little to no positive changes for students and a great many administrative changes for staff.

According to a recent communique from Superintendent Vargas, the Rochester City School District is a “Focus” district and “We have many Priority schools that are required to demonstrate positive results quickly through school improvement plans. That makes it essential that we have Principals and supervisors with the expertise, experience and energy to drive change in their school communities.”

Dr. Vargas continues to state, “With those needs in mind, I have made changes in the way our School Chiefs are aligned to support Principals and schools.”

These changes in administrative staff, individuals who rarely enter the classroom, are expected to trickle down to the students and somehow are expected to positively impact student learning.

Superintendent Vargas’ plan, “To help drive the improvements, we have recruited a handful of school leaders from outside the District.”

With the exception of Rodney Moore who, according to the district, “Brings Nearly 20 Years’ Experience As a Teacher And Administrator, With a Focus on Middle School Students . . .” the others hired previously worked for the district.

There is no mention of hiring more teachers to lower the teacher:student ratio in the classroom, no mention of hiring more paraprofessionals to lower the adult:student ratio.

And, while staff members are given the administrative “line-up”, many teachers and paraprofessionals, who work directly with our children, still have no assignments for September while others will have to report to new schools, set up their classrooms, and become acclimated to a new environment and a new administration.

This “shuffling of the deck” response to the failure of our current system of education has never and will never work. This is the “Status quo” that continues to support failure.

Our children deserve real change that will focus on ensuring their educational success.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

The Federal Register announced the “Final Priorities, Requirements, Definitions, and Selection Criteria; Race to the Top-District. These priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria are effective September 5, 2013.”

The Executive Summary states, “The purpose of this action is to establish priorities, requirements, definitions, and selection criteria that will enable effective grant making, resulting in the selection of high-quality applicants who propose to implement activities that the Department believes are most likely to support bold, locally directed improvements in learning and teaching that would directly improve student achievement and educator effectiveness. . .”

“Through this competition, the Department will encourage and reward those local educational agencies (LEAs) or consortia of LEAs that have the leadership and vision to implement the strategies, structures, and systems that the Department believes are needed to implement personalized, student-focused approaches to learning and teaching that will produce excellence and ensure equity for all students. . .”

“Applicants must design a personalized learning environment that uses collaborative, data-based strategies and 21st-century tools, such as online learning platforms, computers, mobile devices, and learning algorithms, to deliver instruction and supports tailored to the needs and goals of each student . . .”

It is understood that creating a successful system of education, “requires a multi-faceted approach that addresses the individual and collective needs of students, educators, and families and that dramatically transforms the learning environment in order to improve student outcomes.”

This being the position of the federal government, and, since state educational plans must align with federal regulations, there is no reason why the Rochester City School District should be content with a “business as usual” approach to its failing system of education.

New leaders with a new vision that will change the direction and focus of education so that it concentrates on the developmental learning abilities of every child while discovering, developing, and directing the talents and gifts of all children will not decrease the amount of financial support received but will actually serve to increase our district’s funding.

Our children deserve new leaders with the strength and courage to change the direction of education towards their success.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Ten years ago mayoral control was the answer to the failing system of education in New York State. Now charter and private schools and the “common core” are considered the answer.

Currently, failing school districts blindly follow the edicts of a federal government that wants no responsibility for educating America’s children yet hands down a “cut and paste” document prescribing what children should do, ignoring what children can do, in order to determine the achievement of children and the ability of educators based on an unrealistic and inhumane set of standards. These artificial learning standards are now being forced on three and four year old children at the early childhood level of education.

Common sense tells us that our current system of education is failing to provide an excellent education to America’s children and that we cannot continue to allow educational leaders to “reform” the system instead of change it.

Add-ons, take-aways, professional development and “turn-key” teaching dominate education reform as it continues to employ adults and mis-educate children.

The RCSD has bought into the new “Common Core” standards and on August 10, 2013 will indoctrinate parents into the “New Wave of Common Core”. The conference subtitle, “Our Children, Their Future”.

To whose future are they referring?

Since the common core standards are contrary to the developmental learning abilities of all children, and, given that districts that are not failing are not expected to comply with the standards, common sense tells us that school districts that experience high concentrations of poverty and extreme educational failure are purposely forced into a system of education that does nothing more than provide an uneducated “workforce” for corporate commanders.

These poor, inner city school districts acquiesce to the demands of federal and state policies in order to “get more money” not to better educate children.

Our children deserve educational leaders who have the common sense to realize that the common core does nothing more than enslave children to a life of self hatred and poverty.

Our children are excellent, not common, and their education must be the same.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Talent: A characteristic feature, aptitude, or disposition of a person or animal; the natural endowments of a person; a special often athletic, creative, or artistic aptitude; general intelligence or mental power.

Gift: A notable capacity, talent, or endowment.

Given the definitions above, everyone is talented in some way since in order to remain alive there must be some mental power. As well, to be able to survive, there must be some general intelligence.

To see a child as gifted, one must believe that every child possesses some notable talent that distinguishes them from others as being particularly suited to one aspect of life over another.

In our current system of education, when a child enters school for the first time, the goal is to discover the child’s weakness and then force the child to strengthen their weakness with the expectation that this will make the child stronger.

In a child centered system of education, the discovery is of the child’s talents, making them stronger in their abilities so that they can overcome their weaknesses. Developing the child’s gifts gives them the confidence in themselves to share their gift with others and receive the gifts of others as well.

Arts education, gifted and talented programs are the foster children of education, shuffled from place to place, hoping to someday be adopted into a permanent home.

The concentration in education is on conformity, creating an artificial norm that ignores the diversity of our children while forcing them to reject their talents, deny their gifts, and adopt the unnatural roles society has chosen for them.

Educating our children by means of a ‘common core” curriculum and a “master schedule” systematically destroys the child’s ability to believe in themselves, to respect themselves, to love themselves.

When a child feels they are irrelevant, everyone and everything else becomes irrelevant and we see the breakdown of society and the weakening of mankind.

We must begin to act wisely and change the system of education so that it strengthens our children, our community, our nation, and ultimately our world.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

The Rochester City School District, being a Title 1 district receives much of its funding through federal entitlement programs. The district also classifies more African American males that the State average.

There is no question that the entire system of education is wrought with institutionalized racism, however the struggle to overcome this inherent evil can only be effective when addressed at the federal level.

Currently, according to the language of the federal government, the level of achievement for all children in the United States is “middle income white male”.

Individuals are considered excellently educated if they meet or exceed the level of educational success as their white male counterparts. Every other individual in America that does not fit the description of “middle income white male” is considered a subgroup according to Federal education language.

Today at noon, the Frederick Douglass Resource Center will host a talk by Shawn Dove, philanthropist and manager of the Campaign for Black Male Achievement. Local leaders will be called upon to discuss the educational challenges that exist for Black and Latino males.

If the language of the Federal government’s entitlement programs is not addressed, little can and will be done to end the institutionalization of hate within the system of education that works to enslave all children to the “isms” of corporate control.

When “middle income white male” continues to be the bar of achievement, racism, sexism, and classism all come into play and weigh heavily on every child that does not fit the predetermined norm set by the federal government.

Today’s discussion should include a commitment to lobby the Congress and Senate education committees and demand that the language of Federal entitlement programs be free of all reference to any group or subgroup classification.

By ignoring the language ensconced within the system of education we are simply reforming the failure that our current system of education produces and has produced for decades.

We must remove all bars from education and allow our children to soar to the heights of their personal level of success.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Choice: The opportunity or power to choose between two or more possibilities : The opportunity or power to make a decision.

Option: Something that can be chosen.

An excellent education provides our children with the opportunity to see and understand the possibilities that exist within them that make choosing their life’s path personal and meaningful.

If, in education, we don’t open the doors to the realm of possibilities for success in life, death becomes an option for our children.

Unfortunately, the morbidity rate of mis-education has increased the educational mortality rate of our young men and women.

It is impossible to teach our children how powerful they are when the adults in their immediate environment feel powerless to control their own lives. This attitude of helplessness is learned.

Children are born fearing nothing and loving everything. As they get older, they begin to adopt the attitudes and beliefs of the adults within their sphere of influence.

Upon entering school, children are introduced to a whole new set of attitudes and beliefs that they will juxtaposition against those they bring from their primary environment, home.

If, in school, children learn that their primary environment is unacceptable, they generalize that attitude and believe that they are also unacceptable.

In our current system of education, children of impoverished parents are not seen as having the “proper knowledge” base and are therefore “classified” as learning disabled so that they can receive the “special education” they must have in order to meet the requirements of the grade in which they have been placed.

Parents, whose children have been classified, accept this fate for their children because more than likely, they were indoctrinated into the system of education in the same way.

This sense of helplessness is perpetuated generation after generation as has become more than a symptom of mis-education but a legacy of failure throughout our country.

When our children are given no choice for a successful future, their only option is death by drugs, guns, incarceration, hopelessness.

Our children deserve the power of choice that an excellent education provides.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Though Resolution 2013-14:32, which calls for entering into an agreement with the Gates Foundation to spend $360,000.00 to teach our district leaders how to manage the district, was tabled and moved to a Special Meeting to be discussed, it was not voted down.

The resolution should have already been discussed before coming to the Board for approval. Each member of the Board should have realized the ramifications of this agreement and, understanding the implications of the open-ended time reference, “future years” should have immediately rejected it on that basis alone.

What was approved by the Board was $15,213.00 with the justification that “Teachers will support the Teacher Incentive Fund Conference though Avatar work and programmatic support of the conference including presentation sessions aligned with the Regents Reform Agenda.”

$110,000.00 for “The Office of Professional Learning in Partnership with the Departments of ELA and Math will provide training for 7, 8, and 9th grade teachers on the Ramp Up and On Ramp protocols.”

$60,000.00 for a program that will provide “First Aid training with certification opportunity. Self-esteem and community building activities.”

Also approved was a series of amendments that moved $1,110,140.00 dollars out of the General Fund budget and into Title 1 Grant funding to cover the cost of summer school.

By not voting down Resolution 2013-14:32, approving the expenditure of money the district does not have, and having to redirect those expenditures to Title 1 funds that are designed to help those students with specific learning difficulties, our district leaders have proven that they are unable to properly manage the district and its affairs.

Is it the intention of the Board to follow the lead of corporate concupiscence by mis-educating our children to become the 21st Century workforce?

Is the Board more concerned with getting money to employ adults rather than using the money they have been given to educate our children?

As concerned citizens it is imperative that we are cognizant of the decisions that our elected, appointed, and hired leaders make.

We must change the leadership in order to change the system of education that has been failing our children for decades.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!

Many sayings speak to the ignorance of mankind but none so relevant as those of Adolph Hitler who said,

“How fortunate for leaders that men do not think.”

and, “The great masses of the people will more easily fall victims to a big lie than to a small one.”

The biggest lie ever told is “ignorance is bliss”.

People have clung to this saying to remain complacent in their own lives while living vicariously through others who feel more deserving of a better life because they have more money.

The truth, ignorance is not bliss, it is deadly.

The RSCD monthly business meeting was postponed until today, Monday, July 29, 2013. On the agenda is Resolution 2013-14 which calls for the district to enter into an agreement with the Gates Foundation for $360,000.00 to teach them how to manage the district.

There is only one speaker at tonight’s meeting addressing this agenda item.

The larger community is aware of the devastating effect of corporate influence on education, yet remains blissfully ignorant of their power to stop the corporate carnage devouring our children’s educational future.

We tell ourselves that nothing we do will make a difference, not understanding that by relinquishing our power their power increases.

They know they cannot take our power, we have to give it up freely and in doing so, we remove ourselves from the responsibility of self governing.

As their role models, seeing our lack of commitment to the truth, our children believe they are powerless and fall prey to the lie.

Our children look to us to help them make sense of this world. They see the acceptance of man’s inhumanity to man and believe this to be “the truth” of life since few speak out against it.

When we, as role models for our children, don’t believe in the power of our voice to change our world, what chance do our children have to stand against the “powers that be” to change their world?

We must stand together against the lie of ignorance.

Knowledge is empowering, our voice is powerful.

Join the Movement to Save Our Children!