DOE 
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Mon Dec 06, 2010 at 10:18:00 AM EST
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Republicans are famous for saying that government can't work, that it is the problem, not the solution.
And there is a very good reason why -- every time the GOP gets into power it sabotages every part of the government that is functioning well. Think of the Veterans administration which was a paragon of great care under Clinton, and a colossal mess under Bush when we were at war. Think of FEMA which was awesome responding to disasters under Clinton, but was a mess after Bush appointed "Heckova Job" Brownie, a horse jumping judge, to run it.
And now we have Chris Christie, who is doing everything he can to dismantle public education. First he appointed Bret Schundler in a massive signal to all of us that public education was under attack, but that wasn't enough. After losing millions of dollars due to Christie's own incompetence, the governor fired Shundler and made the Department of Education even more of a fucking disaster.
The exodus of senior staffers at the state Department of Education has turned into stampede, frustrating local school leaders who say it is undercutting chances of reform.
"It's a threadbare department and it's been rendered useless by the governor," one superintendent told The Auditor. "The department has basically been shut down, that's the bottom line." ...
This week deputy commissioner Willa Spicer will retire. Several division directors have left in recent weeks and months, including Janis Jensen (academic standards), Roberta Wohle (special education) and Sandra Alberti (math and science). Five of the six assistant commissioners have left, leaving only Barbara Gantwerk at that level.
Hendricks wouldn't discuss this, but The Auditor is told she doesn't feel she has the authority to fill these posts. And what reckless soul would take a job when it's not clear who will be the real boss?
It's a strategy, combined with starving the beast. The Republicans are out to destroy government by creating massive deficits so we can't afford quality and functioning programs, and then putting incompetent people in charge of those programs we can afford.
And yet they still get voted for and Democrats get called traitors. Amazing.
h/t roundup
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Fri Sep 17, 2010 at 04:54:42 PM EDT
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This is pretty hot stuff. On Monday, during the Senate voting session, Sen. Barbara Buono will introduce a resolution to grant subpoena powers to the committee she chairs - Legislative Oversight - so it can finally receive the documents and testimony required for the Senate to review how and why New Jersey's Race to the Top (RTTT) application was botched so badly.
Buono released a statement this afternoon:
We have been left with no choice but to seek to use the Legislature's subpoena power to compel the handover of vital documents and correspondence and require the attendance of key individuals.
The Legislature holds the primary constitutional responsibility for ensuring every child receives a good education. We also have an obligation to maintain the system of checks and balances that ensures the integrity of state government. This resolution does nothing more than allow our coordinate and co-equal branch of government to fulfill its constitutional responsibilities.
Yesterday, after a standard 7-day period to reply to an Open Public Records Act request, plus a 9-day extension, the NJ Department of Education did not produce the documents sought in Buono's OPRA request. And Buono says key people at the heart of NJ's RTTT application process have either declined her committee's invitation to testify or simply never responded. Given the Christie administration's stonewalling during the Assembly's RTTT hearinglast week, refusing to allow top officials to testify, this really can't be a surprise to Christie's increasingly opaque administration. Buono:
On Monday, I will ask the Senate to take the extraordinary, but not unprecedented, step of granting the Legislative Oversight Committee subpoena power so we can conduct a meaningful hearing next week. This action should come as no surprise given the administration's disturbing pattern of rejecting requests for information and denying the Legislature an opportunity to properly investigate the circumstances surrounding a failed attempt to secure approximately $400 million in federal Race to the Top funding.
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Tue Aug 19, 2008 at 09:47:40 AM EDT
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Sometimes no comment leaves you with much more credibility than the words that actually come out of your mouth. Take for example, the latest statements by school administrators trying to defend their degrees received from "diploma mills". First we have Freehold Schools Superintendent James Wasser. This is the man who chastised a student earlier this year for not addressing him as "Dr":Wasser insists he earned his degree online so he could save the taxpayers money and not take time away from his job. "I could have left my job at 2 o'clock in the afternoon," he said. "I chose not to. I could have cost the taxpayers a tremendous amount of money." Come on, are you serious? You got an extra degree to help the taxpayers? Previously he has already defended his decision to get his degree in this manner:"I did it. I would do it again. The only thing I would probably do differently is, now that I am aware of this word "accreditation,' I would thoroughly research that." Now a school administrator doesn't know what accreditation is? I'm glad he's familiar with "this word" now, but he should become more familiar with the saying, "When you get in a hole, stop digging." Moving on from Wasser, we have Asbury Park acting superintendent James Parnham who received a "Masters of Arts" from another questionable school and described what he did to earn the degree:Parnham said his degree was based on his life experience, and that it took him about a month to put his resume together to get the diploma.
Asked if he received his Almeda degree in return for merely submitting his resume, Parham said, "I also had to do a paper."
How long was the paper?
"The paper must have been about two, maybe three pages," he said. It is an insult to listen to these people try to defend themselves. A whole month to put together a resume and a 2-3 page paper coupled with life experience? The next degree these people go for should be one in media relations, so they can learn when its better to not relate at all.
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Sun Aug 17, 2008 at 06:35:08 PM EDT
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The NJ Department of Education issued a report last week saying that Freehold administrators did not mean to deceive when they received degrees from a "diploma mill" at taxpayer expense in order to get a raise: The Education Department in its report suggested -- but didn't require -- that school administrators in the future earn their degrees at reputable, accredited schools. So it's still an option to get your degree from non-accredited schools if you'd like, according to the department of Education and they say they don't have the power to change it apparently:Education Commissioner Lucille Davy said she doesn't have the authority to regulate what kind of degrees school boards allow when determining pay and benefits for administrators.
"It is wrong for people to use diploma mill degrees to increase their salaries. But I don't have the authority to stop them," Davy said. It's wrong? That's it? If she doesn't have the power, then the Legislature or whoever else does should do more than offer faint condemnation. The response from the Education Department prompted today's quote of the day:"I feel sorry for New Jersey. Here they had an opportunity to step up to the plate, and they opted not to. I would have thought New Jersey would have had a little more brass than that," Allen Ezell, a former FBI agent who investigated diploma mill fraud, told the Asbury Park Press for Sunday newspapers. But until someone shows a little more brass as the FBI agent puts it, diploma mills will remain an option in New Jersey because no one seems to have the power or the will to change it.
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Wed Jul 30, 2008 at 01:21:39 PM EDT
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I predicted practical LED lighting for your home would be available around February, 2010. That was 18 months ago. I think we're on track to meet that target. Let's see how that prediction is coming along.
Some interesting new products have begun to emerge, to be discussed shortly. But first please take a few moments to sign a petition. I'll explain what this has to do with LED lighting below.
SIGN HERE: Tell EPA Administrator Johnson: "You're Dismissed!"
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