Did You Listen in to the Stand for Children Town Hall?

I received my robo-call from Stand for Children promptly at 5:30 p.m.  It advised me to stay on the line.  I got to hear Steve's echo voice tell me all the great things that he's done in his term (and his new line which is that they fired the Superintendent before the story broke in the Times - I'd hope so).  I was asked - by some staffer - what my question was.

My first question was "how did you get my phone number?" and my second question was "why isn't  Peter Maier there?"  I was told they got the phone numbers from King County elections and that he didn't know why Peter wasn't there.

I'll have to call KC Elections because my impression was that I gave them my phone number so that they could call me in case of a ballot issue (not to sell to campaigns).  So now I'll have to give them my e-mail address because I don't like robo-calls.  That's how they got your phone number.

I then said my question was how do these candidates explain the many red flags and community voices they missed about Silas Potter.  I said through one question which was kind of odd because the woman herself didn't seem to know what she was asking (I almost think she was a plant).  She vaguely asked what they were doing for kids. 

Luckily, I had another meeting to get to so I had to go.

Anyone stay for the whole thing?

Comments

dan dempsey said…
So if I had the chance in a public forum ...

Here are my 5 questions for Steve:

#1.. When did the District conduct a careful review of all options for closing the achievement gaps?

#2.. Why did he fail as a Board director to fulfill the requirement to provide a certified correct transcript of evidence used in making the School Closures decisions to the Superior Court?

#3.. Why did he fail as a Board director to fulfill the requirement to provide a certified correct transcript of evidence used in awarding the $800,000 New Tech Network contract?

#4.. Why did he suggest that rather than changing the District's goofy math programs.. or providing waivers, that what was really need was to have the District conduct a properly controlled experiment to determine what programs might work best? ... Is Steve that clueless as to how difficult it is to conduct such an experiment?

#5.. Why does he continually ignore the learning effect sizes in John Hattie's Visible Learning? I thought he wanted to make decisions using good data?
Anonymous said…
The question is why did you waste even 2 minutes of your time when Publicola and a bunch of savvy commenters explained the taint of Big Money trying to grease the skids for its agenda of turning our district into a business opportunity for them and their professional peers, all in the name of Solving The Achievement Gap?

Do the incumbents and Stand on the Children not understand, or do they truly not care, how stinky it is to be backed by outsized donations from wealthy Eastsiders who don't even live here, as well as downtown richies who are trying to "fix" the schools they themselves don't step foot into, let alone send their kids to?
Anonymous said…
That above comment was from me, Fan Of The Children
Anonymous said…
This was not from King Co giving out phone numbers. I don't EVER give my phone number on the ballot because I don't want some partison crank calling me for money or to endorse anyone.

I think this was a "disclosure" of personal information that happened because I checked the box allowing the PTSA to have my home number for a directory.
-annoyed
Po3 said…
I got disconnected before I could figure out who was on the call, any of the challengers or just the incumbents sans Peter?
Sahila said…
P03....

no challengers and no Peter Maier
Anonymous said…
Not Fooled Says

I too hung up. WOT - Waste of Time. This group is backed by Seattle and Eastside elite who campaigned heavily to make sure the state income tax failed - ya know, the one that would have provided actual money to our schools.

Just read that Publicola thread and it is a hoot. Favorite is the last comment, part of which I'm lifting in case people do not have time to go there:

"I went to exactly one Stand on the Children meeting out of curiosity. Glad it works for you, but once was enough for this mom. The general demographics of the group that night were a familiar one in the world of Seattle Big Ed Reform. Largely Caucasian homeowners hailing from Northeast Seattle's nicest zip codes. I'd put solid money on the bet that Stand's local office is NOT in Rainier Valley - the area of town where Stand would like to "fix" schools. Everyone at the meeting was Very Concerned about the Achievement Gap. I did not actually meet a family affected by the Achievement Gap."
I'm pretty sure the challengers weren't even invited. It wasn't a forum or debate; it was a showcase for the incumbents (except Peter).
wseadawg said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
wseadawg said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
suep. said…
And here is yet another example of a wealthy private individual with a pro-privatizing agenda dumping large amounts of money into a school board race:

Bloomberg puts $100K into Louisiana school board races just days before the election

To guarantee a pro-corporate, pro-charter, and pro-John White slate of candidates to be elected;

John White is being promoted as State ed commissioner of Louisiana along with his current post as head of the NOLA Recovery school district. There is huge money and powerful PR/media efforts going to support John White and the charter agenda, as indicated in recent puff pieces on NYT editorial page and in the WSJ about White and NOLA schools.

http://bitly.com/sIdcEA Excerpt:

The MICHAEL R‎. ‎BLOOMBERG REVOCABLE ‎TRUST at ‎909 3‎rd Avenue, ‎New York‎, ‎NY ‎10022 gave the ABC PAC $100,000 just days before Saturday's election. Up in the big apple, that might be chump change, but in Louisiana's cash-starved BESE races, that's a whole lot of cash. Such a large bundle, at such a late time, certainly begs the question whether it was meant to fly somewhat under the radar. Did John White make this call? And should the RSD Super be making political calls?

It occurs to at least one commentator and frequent correspondent with this blog that New York City has come to take over Louisiana's schools. From former NYC Education Official John White taking over RSD (and maybe DOE), to BESE Candidate Kira Orange Jones (who hails from NYC), to the legion of TFA'ers that reportedly roam the hallways of schools throughout south Louisiana, it appears clear that the anti-union bug is one supported and staffed by New Yorkers. With Bloomberg's money playing a very political game, doesn't it begin to get a little awkward for the 'reformers' here on the ground? But we digress...
Sahila said…
I wrote this elsewhere, about the current focus on bullying in education...

seems to fit here:

Issue of Bullying: REALLY - WHAT DOES ANYONE EXPECT? Bullying is motivated by fear; people wouldnt be fearful if we didnt live in a society that says we must/can have only a handful of winners and everyone else is a loser... and we wouldnt have so many bullies if our government and "successful" people didnt show us that might is right and that the ends justify the means........

Bloomberg, Gates, Balmer, Bezos, Broad et al....

Might is right and money is the weapon of choice in bullying the world into the mould they've decided is most appropriate...
Anonymous said…
I have spoken to a rep at King County Elections who assures me that they did not release phone numbers to any organization as they are protected. She did say that names and addresses of registered voters are public record and in theory a organization could pull this information and then somehow associate a phone number to the record. But that seems unlikely.



SPS Parent

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