Video Highlights of the Forum

This past weekend, the League of Women Voters in Richardson posted their video on the forum.  As voters are going to the polls either participating in early voting or later on election day, November 6, I want to illustrate my views on the forum. 

The length of the video is 43 minutes long, the actual forum (minus all of the introductory remarks) begins at 3:45.  14 questions were asked during this forum.  They ranged to what we thought was the mission of the State Board of Education is to numerous questions on curriculum. 

Many of the highlights of forum occured during the middle of the forum between the 12:00 mark of the video to the 26:00 minute mark.  Most of the questions revolved around my number one issue- curriculum- an issue that will obviously impact our children each and every school day.  Here were the specific things of note I noticed.

12:06- Asked question- Will we spend time with teachers on curriculum?

Here I point out, I have been a teacher my entire professional life and my service on the DISD school board for 10 years.  I am directly involved professionally as a professor of humanities at Richland College, after all now.  So, either way, I will spend time with teachers. 

Book written by Bill Ames

Mrs. Miller in her reply at the 13:45 mark, merely says she interviews retired and active teachers.  But does not cite any specific examples until she introduces at the 14:25 minute mark- Bill Ames (see link here from Texas Freedom Network) by name to the audience, a Republican Party activist, who is not an educator at all.   In fact, Mrs. Miller at the 15:00 minute mark mentions him as an expert in history.  In another question on curriculum, regarding the role of advisory committes, Ames in mentioned twice by Miller at the 16:00 and 17:00 minute marks on the video. 

Republican Party activist Bill Ames

19:00- Incorporating Scientific Method Into Curriculum

I am for promoting a fact based curriculum based on physical evidence and reliable, scholarly research.  Mrs. Miller, avoided answering this question completely by talking about her expertise with phonics and her related positions with reading.  I am upset the moderator in the forum did not insist on a direct answer from Mrs. Miller on this question.  This is direct evidence that she will NOT stand up to individuals within her party trying to promote ideology over what is practical fact in the scientific curriculum, as depicted in the recently-released film "The Revisionaries." 

24:30- On Health and Teen Pregnancy issues

Texas for many years have had among the high rates of teen pregnancy of any state in the nation.
My position is simply this as I pointed out in the forum- "Knowledge is power."  Our kids are not being given the resources they need to protect themselves.  At the 25:40 minute mark, Mrs. Miller talks about what she and the state legislature did in 1995 and essentially defends the status quo allowing individual schools to NOT take responsibility to educate students on these topics.   

More Reaction from Forum

A fairly positive review came out just today regarding my performance in the forum again from a gentleman named Mark Stegar.  I am somewhat surprised how objective this review is.  There are actually some objective people out there wanting to inform the community of what actually happened that night. Aside from the reporters and the League of Women Voters (LWV) volunteers, I actually thought almost everyone in the audience there were Miller supporters that night. 

The video from the forum that night has not yet been posted on the LWV Richardson website.  When it is, I expect it to be found here.  I like to look at myself and point out some highlights from the forum that viewers should be looking for. 

While we are on the subject on endorsements, I wanted to show this link from the Texas Freedom Network endorsing my bid for State Board of Education District 12.  I also appreciate my support by the Stonewall Democats of Dallas. 

I will keep you posted on fruther developments. 

 

The Day After: Reaction to Forum

Picture from Dallas Morning News. 
Our forum last night at the Richardson ISD School Board Auditorium.
 

Last night, I participated in what will be the closest thing we will have to a debate between us- Tincy and I, as you can see from this story by the Dallas Morning News.  However, I admit at times it hardly felt like a neutral athmosphere.  I don't want to be critical at the League of Women Voters who organized the event, they did their best to promote a fair democratic process by NOT allowing campaign material to be openly distributed in the auditorium. Yet I do think quite a few supporters for Miller were present in what was supposed to be a community event focused on informing undecided voters.  In fact, at one point in the forum even Mrs. Miller freely admitted to one of her longtime supporters being present and available after the debate to help explain her positions on writing the History curriculum! 

There was one question I thought was both bizarre and clearly put out by a Miller supporter designed to her explain her specific positions on technology in the past and to put a positive spin on them.  That question regarded the topic of funding for computer hardware.  Miller has had a mixed record at best embracing technology.  She has not been honest in the past and was not honest at all last night on her lack of support promoting the use of modern-day technology.  She should and does know as much as anyone that the State Board of Education does not govern the funding at all on computer hardware.

As I tried to explain last night, school districts in Texas have acquired much of their funding from Federal, not State funds such as Title I to bring modern technology onto their campuses.  On occasion some school districts have been able to get private donations from individuals and non-profits to address this issue.  The Texas State Legislature has just recently passed into law that barely addresses this issue- the need for all students within Texas public schools to have access to modern day, 21st century technology such as e-books or I-Pads. It was called Senate Bill 6, which I will describe in another blog. 

A Supporter's Letter to the Morning News

Last month, the Dallas Morning News endorsed my rival, Geraldine "Tincy" Miller.   I don't have much to say personally about the Editorial Board's endorsement, however one of my supporters, Lorraine Keed of Dallas does.  This is what she wrote to them:

Your editorial of 9/18/12 wherein you rally your support for Geraldine "Tincy" Miller for Texas State Board of Education, District 12, gained my attention. You indicate that Ms. Miller is an "imperfect" candidate having already previously served 26 years on the Texas State Board of Education with a record of inconsistency and vacillation. It would seem the only affirming endorsement you can give Ms. Miller is that she is a Republican and a member of a Dallas real estate family? This post is not about partisanship or family background, it's about growing the minds of Texas youth with factual information in preparation for their own self-actualization in society.

The other candidate for the post, Lois Parrott, is far from imperfect. Lois Parrott is and has always been an educator. Who better to immediately fit in with the "centrist" wing of the board to prevent further weakening of curriculum standards in our schools? As a long serving member of the Dallas Independent School Board, did not Lois Parrott's skepticism, as you put it, regarding the Edison charter school plan of a former Superintendent prove to be warranted? The charter school went down the drain with millions of taxpayer dollars, right? Are you not being “divisive” by not revealing the facts?

 

I raised two children over the years in the DISD system and when I had an issue it was Lois Parrott who resolved it and she wasn't even my board representative, but she was truly the most responsive DISD board member. Alternatively, I have also placed calls to Ms. Miller when she was my representative on the State Board of Education - I am still waiting for a return call.

The status quo at the State Board of Education has contributed to driving Texas educational standards into a downward spiral nationally this past decade alone. Texas should have a stellar educational system, but yet we do not! There is no room for vacillation and inconsistency when adhering to one's steadfast commitment to a mission. Lois Parrott has the unwavering commitment required for the post of State Board of Education, District 12 because she knows what is truly at stake - the youth of Texas!

 

Memo to Tincy: America is "A Melting Pot"

Roughly a minute into this video that I talked about in a post last month, "Tincy Miller: On Camera & Unscripted," I noticed that Mrs. Miller voiced disapproval over teaching world cultures.  The question to be fair asked if she was for world cultures being taught specifically in charter schools.

She said that American culture is superior over other cultures by mentioning the idea of American Exceptionalism repeatedly in the video.  There is no doubt our country is unique, however my disagreement with you, Tincy, is this:  America is the world's "melting pot."  American culture is really a mixture of world cultures and the modern day epicenter of world history. 

The three most obvious reasons why America is the world's "melting pot." 

1)  Our country started out as 13 British colonies that banded together and declared independence from King George III and the British Parliament in 1776.   Many our laws and traditions thus come from Great Britain and Ireland.

2)  Our country took over lands originally colonized by other nations such as purchasing Louisiana from the French in 1803, getting Florida from the Spanish in 1819, and fighting wars with Mexico to secure much of the American West in the 1840s.  Alaska was bought as a Russian territory after the Civil War.  Before that, many dozens of Native American tribes dotted the American landscape.

3)  The headquarters of the United Nations is right here in America, in New York City!  Leaders worldwide come at least to openly and peacefully express their concerns.  (Of course this is considered international territory.) 

America history was part of world history from day one.  America continues to be part of a larger story- the history of human civilization. To suggest that America has today a wholly self-contained culture from day one does Texas schoolchildren an enormous injustice!

I Help Build It (In DISD)

Long before the Dallas ISD School Board was a political stepping stone, I was on it during the dark days of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  We had races where few qualified candidates actively sought office on the Dallas school Board.  One notable example is here for this South Dallas DISD Board seat which was left vacant after Dr. Yvonne Ewell, which now Townview Center is named after, died in 1998.

As I mentioned in my previous blogs I have had called for financial reform, fighting privatization against out of state interests, and aslo my main web site discussed about the schools I arranged to built in the 2002 DISD Bond Package.  That bond package was important because DISD had not passed a bond for a whole decade-10 years prior-1992.  The bond package which was worth $1 billion, at that time the largest in DISD history. 

Many of these newer schools that came from that bond package I was able to get built in my school board District.   These schools include Jack Lowe Sr. Elementary, Sam Tasby Middle School, and Emmitt J. Conrad High School.  All of these schools are in the same "feeder pattern."  That means if a student attended Lowe Elementary or Tasby Middle School they would wind up being enrolled as a student in Conrad High School, which is today one of the most impressive schools in the District.

While Republicans tout about building things and having executive experience, these are things that Mrs. Tincy Miller does not have much experience with.  She mentioned her most significant accomplishment aside from making the state curriculum more friendly to those with learning disabilities is protecting the State Board of Education's Permanent School Fund from special interest groups.  The money from this largely unknown-fund comes from interest payments from Texas state-owned lands that have been managed by the State Education board. 

She cites a key reason she wants to come back to her old job, is to keep this fund clean of special interests.  But I wonder if she couldn't do that the first time around, why should we expect her to be successful a second time?  (Please also see this recent video.) And what is more troubling is that she can't do that working with people within her own party?  The State Board of Education has been a Republican-dominated body after all.   My answer is she never had the executive experience I've had.  After all, I was the President of the Dallas ISD Board for 2 years over a multi-cultural and economically diverse student enrollment of 162,000. 

Because she never served on a school board- Mrs. Miller never had a hand in building schools, finding and managing money to cover the day-to-day operations to fund them.  I help rebuild the reputation of Dallas ISD, I helped made it hip for business executives to work with Dallas ISD.  People of means want to put their kids in the Dallas ISD again. 

Tincy Miller...On Camera & Unscripted

My opposition...the Republican candidate Tincy Miller in
one of her campaign handouts.

For those who want to know Tincy Miller is, I was able to find this video clip of her.  This footage was taken during the Republican primary season earlier this year.   Why does this race matter?  This video clip can explain it all.  She spends far more time on justify her personal ideology rather than expressing fresh ideas on what she wants to do if elected.  To sum it up, she talks about what she will NOT do.

Here were some interesting points you should notice in this clip.

5:57- Asked about the importance of teaching the origins of American democracy from the Magna Carta to property rights, and the U.S. Constitution. 

Merely said these are examples of American expeptionalism.   

Didn't mention that much of U.S. law was and is based from the British Constitutional Monarchy system because America was a British colonial possession. Magna Carta is best known for being the British Parliament's stand that no King could raise taxes without permission from it back in 1215- 500 years before the U.S. existed!   This tape points out how Mrs. Miller is just plain ignorant of our country's historical origins. 

 

11:00- Asked about the possibility of losing Federal education funding (Title I) if the State Board of Education refused to adopt the Department of Education's Common Core standards

Literally says, "Let's just get rid of President Obama, get a Republican president to get rid of the Department of Education." Addressed no specifics whatsoever to make up for loss of Title I funding. Kept saying that this was a states' rights issue and an intrusion with the Federal government. 

 

Noticed she said that since the mid-1980's Texas was the cutting edge leader in public education and other states "were picking our brain."  She forgets to mention that a Republican President from here (George W. Bush) just a few years back wrote and passed a law with a Republican Congress called No Child Left Behind to address education issues nationwide!

 

 

 

Joining Forces to Register Voters

Picture taken with my I-Phone.  Working with the Hancock and Ternan
campaigns to get out the vote and register voters. Taken earlier this week.

 

I have been walking all week long door to door with  Rich Hancock and Jack Ternan and their campaigns especially on Saturdays.  They are running for seats in the State House of Representatives and the Texas Senate respectively.

Jack Ternan is running for the District 8 Texas Senate seat.  He agrees with me that Republicans are essentially fighting yesterday's political battles rather than engaging in honest debate in finding solutions to today's problems.  The link to his website is here.

Rich Hancock is committed to giving all voters a real voice in a Republican dominated house that's run by puppets of special interest groups. He is running for the District 102 seat in the State House of Representatives.  The Republicans now have unfortunately a supermajority holding 100 out of 150 seats in the State House that can override any veto or parliamentary procedure.  His campaign site is worth looking at.  

We all need your voice and more importantly your vote this November! 

In The Beginning...and Today's Challenge

I arrived in Texas with $50.00 dollars as a student attending North Texas State and fortunately had a teaching fellowship and went to the financial aid office so I could eat in the dorm. This is how I survived. When I started teaching I borrowed money to buy a car so I could get to my school to teach with DISD. My father died when I was a sophomore in college and I was pretty much on my own.  

Today, I am facing a well-organized, well-financed status-quo Republican candidate who is running for the same political office she lost two years ago, but held for over 25 years!  Her name is Geraldine "Tincy" Miller.  She defeated four candidates including a runoff  this past July 31st on the strength of a $193,000 war chest financed by business leaders such as Roger Staubach with no direct ties to the Dallas area public school community. Yes, that Roger Staubach- the former Dallas Cowboy quarterback of the 1970s turned real estate tycoon who sold his company to Jones Lang LaSalle. You can see his name along with other top Republican legislators in this endorsement list. 

Why is Roger Staubach of all people backing Mrs. Miller?  I don't know.  He may be an old personal friend, but that is speculation on my part.  I do know she admitted her main income came from selling real estate in this runoff interview.   

A better question is- Why is Mrs. Miller is running for this seat a second time around?  She actually touts her experience here on her biography page, discussing her 26 years already serving on the State Board of Education.  Four of those years, she admits she was the chairman on the board, from 2003-2007 and another two as vice-chair in the late 1990s. I am now running a low-budget, door-to-door campaign to battle these powerful political interests.  I am facing a candidate who is openly admitting to the public she wants to return to the status quo. She is NOT hiding the fact she is supported by political interests based in Austin not here in Dallas.

My Role in Fighting for Financial Reform in DISD

This 1998 D Magazine issue tells in detail the
extreme financial corruption that existed when I
first came to the DISD Board.

One of the things I admit people have forgotten about Dallas ISD was the complete lack of financial accountability as evidence by this D Magazine cover story published in April 1998 which existed when I was first elected to the DISD Board.  A D Magazine editorial also published in the same issue  praised my efforts for calling an independent financial audit of Dallas ISD's finances. 

Neither Republican runoff candidate has ever served on any local school board, much less one from a major metropolitian area as I had.  While the State Board of Education does not deal directly with financial management of individual schools, having experience with handling with all of the administrative challenges and pressures of running schools is important.  Like any elected body, the State Board of Education is influenced by big-money interests especially the textbook companies.

Texas due to both its geographic and population size is by far one of the biggest textbook purchasers in the country.  Virtually all national publishers will tailor their material to Texas curriculum standards.  The people who will determine those standards of course serve on the State Board of Education.  I can't prove for sure of individuals on the State board in the recent past have been pressured from such national interests. Given the wholesale curriculum changes especially in the social studies area (which will be mentioned as a seperate topic in a future blog) that occured two years ago it would not surprise me.  In any case, citizens have a right to know who can take a stand against a group in such a hypothetical situation.

Some years later, the Dallas Observer in a lengthy profile about myself admitted that I was the only trustee to openly oppose then outgoing Dallas ISD Chief Financial Officer Matthew Harden's $600,000 settlement with the school district.   If you read the whole D Magazine article regarding the corrupt DISD administration of the mid and late 1990s I first came into, you'll find this interesting expose from D Magazine making the case that Harden may have used District resources illegally to build his own private home.  It notes my confrontation with Mr. Harden questioning him on this issue at that time.

The Edison Project (An Experience With a Private Firm)

This firm, then a publicly traded company once ran
seven DISD schools during the early 2000s.

Advocates of public school reform have often pointed out that private firms are a solution to improving the quality of public education.  During the early years of my tenure on the Dallas ISD Board, I have had some questionable experiences with a private firm, called then the Edison Project (now Edison Learning) which is based out of New York City.  The idea for the firm to take over several DISD schools came from a superintendent we hired out of California, named Waldemar "Bill" Rojas.

The firm at the time was a publicly traded company that was struggling to make any profit. The stock price of the company was falling, as a result from my understanding.  (It is now a privately held company again under new management.) In any case, some schools under Edison did better than others.  However, we had shall we say questionable results here in Texas.  Here is a newspaper article from the Dallas Observer documenting their own spin of the story on the beginnings of our involvement in Dallas ISD with this company. 

The Observer wrote another profile about Edison's history with another Texas school distict called "No Class."  PBS did a show (here is the companion site) for a PBS about the company nationally in 2003.  The wikipedia entry on the overall history of the company is here. 

Utimately, we voted to discontinue our contract with Edison in 2002 because we didn't feel we were getting our money's worth after allowing the company several years running seven DISD schools. Test scores or other factors such as staff, parent, and student morale didn't illustrate a significant difference in quality with other District schools.  The Dallas Morning News agreed with our assessment.

The Sad Legacy of No Child Left Behind

Much of the No Child Left Behind law remains much in effect technically.  For those not aware with what the act is, much less its history, I strongly suggest you check this Wikipedia link.  It is a brilliant, detailed summary of the many pitfalls of this law.  The law was introduced and pushed through Congress during the early days of the George W. Bush administration.   This legislation definitely was the top priority of the Bush administration prior to the 9/11 attacks. 

I admit I am not an expert of this policy.  However, There is a key problem with the language of the law alone.  First, the act measures the academic achievement of a K-12 school primarly on standardized tests.  If a school does not achieve "Adequately Yearly Progress" in improving test scores each year, eventually that school in theory could be closed down or even run by a private company, which I will mention in my next blog.

The origins of the No Child Left Behind Act are definitely based in Texas, despite the initial bipartisan support the law enjoyed when passed in 2001.  A key behind the scenes creator was actually a Dallas Democrat, Sandy Kress, who served as DISD Board President and left just before I was first elected to the DISD school board in 1996.  Kress and the then-proposed education reforms of the first G.W. Bush presidential campaign was the topic of this 2000 profile in the Dallas Observer, but since then he has disappeared from public life entirely. 

In any case, as we know President George W. Bush was at (of all places ironically) an elementary school in Florida when the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center were ongoing.  With education reform no longer the central priority of the Bush administration, Federal education funding began to eventually decline. This lack of funding became the second major flaw with No Child Left Behind. 

I believe this is understandable primarly because of our nation was so hard hit and Bush had no choice whatsoever but to become a war president.  He had to make very unpopular decisions that would be unpopular regardless of anyone's political beliefs.  Perhaps, Bush wanted to bring real education reform to the country.  However, tragically he couldn't do what he wanted on education on the National level as a governor here in Texas. 

My Republican opponent will claim that the sole critics of No Child Left Behind are Democrats.  However, even some of the political appointees within the G.W. Bush administration, such as former Assistant Secretary of Education Diane Ravitch have now gone publically on record (please see this NPR article) saying this law is a complete failure. She points out that No Left Child Behind has merely created a culture where the law's emphasis on test scores has created a culture of cheating and dishonesty.  In her opinion, the law has now created an environment nationally where true collaboration among educators is discouraged as whole schools are essentially forced to compete with one another.

It is quite simply a sad legacy for a major Federal law that has its origins here in Texas.  What happens here in Texas clearly does not stay in Texas.  The actions that the Texas State Board of Education and Legislature can have a profound, negative impact on education reform nationally. 

Why I am Running for the Texas State Board of Education

Myself  (at center) while proudly serving as Dallas ISD Board Member for District 3
at Bryan Adams High School in April 2003.  I still want to serve the kids!

I am running for the Texas State Board of Education District 12 seat because I believe that each child deserves a quality public education. Another reason that I am running for the Texas State Board of Education because I believe that I can be a stronger advocate than our past Republican incumbents for our teachers, parents and students.

What does the Texas State Board of Education do?

The State Board of Education determines the general curriculum for all K-12 students in all Texas public schools.  The next two years will be crucial in determining the curriculum standards for history and science.  We need to make sure that individual extremist groups do NOT rewrite history and   NEVER create and present scientic evidence based on ideology not facts. 

All Kids Deserve to Access to Technology!

Unlike recent contempories on the State Board,  I understand the importance of exposing students to technology and giving them as much practical experience as possible.  We live in a world where students must know how to type, research information online, and utilizing electronic applications from IPhones to spreadsheets.  Any job from changing tires to being a chef requires an individual to be familiar with electronic devices.  After all, direct deposits are commonplace now rather than paper checks. 

Practical Experience In the Field

Too many education advocates even on the state board lack practical, direct experience in education.  I am still a college professor at Richland Collage where I have taught for many years.  Before that, I taught at the secondary level in Dallas ISD for several years.   I also served for a decade on the Dallas ISD School Board representing the NE area of Dallas, District 3 (1996-2006). I teach both online and face-to-face classes which has forced me to adapt to the ever-changing education landscape.