My 50, 000th Visitor

Sometime today I officially passed the 50, 000 visitor mark, according to my sitemeter stats. This may not be a big number for some of the big name sites, but I feel like it is significant.

Checking back through my visits I found my 50, 000 visitor was from all places, the offical Government of Ireland website.

Hmmm, I wondered if a government was monitoring my site. I just didn't think it was the government of Ireland.

Oh well, to my 50, 000th and all of my other visitors, thanks for stopping in and please leave a comment or two to let me know who you are.

An Absolutely Awesome Quote

I don't know who to credit it to but here it is:

"It's a shame stupidity isn't painful"

Bushwhacked

I've been reading the book Bushwhacked by the late Molly Ivins in which she chronicles the corruption in the Bush Administration. As a teacher her chapters on NCLB were especially interesting but I disagree with her take on how the law came to pass.

Ted Kennedy is portrayed as being duped by Bush, that all he wanted to do is help America's poor children get a good education. I say that's all BS.

Ted Kennedy is a rich and privileged. If he ever set foot in a public school it was for a photo op. By helping draft NCLB he was simply looking out for his other rich and privileged friends.

The rich and the privileged, the politically connected, look out for each other. None of them really give a damn about America's children when there's money for them and their friends to be made.

One need only read an account of Teddy's flight from Chappaquidik, like this one from Leo Damore, to see what an uncaring, spoiled jackass Ted Kennedy is. Of course, you also have to question the intelligence of the people who keep re-electing him.

Pearson and ETS Lobbyist Is Dissing Texas Schools . . .Now For The REST of The Story

ETS and Pearson lobbyist Sandy Kress has been getting alot of press regarding his sham study of Texas schools, claiming they are not preparing Texas students for college. Of course, I have to wonder why anyone would care what Sandy Kress has to say, especially when he's bad mouthing the public schools, since he helped turn them into what they are.

From his official ETS bio:

He has served on two statewide committees to recommend improvements to Texas public education. His practice focuses on public law and policy at the state and national levels.
Appointed in 1998 by Governor George W. Bush, Mr. Kress serves on the Education Commission of the States. He has also served as counsel to the Governor's Business Council and Texans for Education, and as a member of the Texas Business & Education Coalition and the Telecommunications Infrastructure Fund Board, which will spend more than $1.5 billion over the next 10 years to bring technology to Texas schools.

Mr. Kress was appointed by Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock to the Educational Economic Policy Center. He was later asked to chair the Center's Accountability Committee. This committee produced the public school accountability system that was later adopted into Texas state law and recognized as one of the most advanced accountability systems in the nation. Mr. Kress was also appointed by Lieutenant Governor Bullock to serve on the Interim Committee to study the Texas Education Agency.

As a Texas parent and educator, I sure feel better that the man who has helped run the public schools into the ground is now coming out and saying they're no good.

Of course one of the Dallas Morning News' lazy reporters couldn't bother to do a little checking up on Mr. Kress before writing this story, giving Kress plenty of free press to bad mouth the schools without ever mentioning he's been doing his best to mess them up.

By the way, the lazy reporter's email is tstutz@dallasnews.com. I hope you'll take some time to drop him an email and tell him what you think about his story.

And if you want to read more about Sandy Kress, the man who crafted NCLB, there's this Texas Observer piece. Here's a lovely tidbit to show you just what a great guy he is:

However, black school board members saw accountability as an attempt to undermine the city’s 1974 desegregation order, which allotted extra money and resources to Dallas’s historically neglected black schools. Kress did torpedo several key components of the desegregation order, heading efforts that slashed more than $15 million from bond proposals for a magnet school in a mostly black part of town. He also sought to limit the money spent on “learning centers” meant to reverse the city’s busing policy by bringing black students back into their own neighborhoods. As board president, Kress brought a hardball style of politics to what had been a sleepy municipal body; black board members accused him of meeting in secret with favored board members and manipulating the board’s committee system to dilute the minority vote. Secretly taped conversations alleged to be between Kress and fellow board member and political ally Dan Peavy supported the accusations. Peavy used racial slurs when describing plans to curb the influence of black board members. Kress’s identity on the tapes was never confirmed, but soon after they came to light in 1995, he announced he would not run for another term as board president.

Now, doesn't that sound like just the kind of person we should be listening to?