A friend in Indiana had this to say about the Tony Bennett grade-fixing scandal:
“For those of you who are not from Florida or Indiana, you have no idea how this feels for us who are. This is early birthday, Christmas in July, karmic, happy dancing joy for those of us who have lived with the disastrous policies that the Bennett (Daniels/Jeb Bush) juggernaut has foisted on us.”
Karen Francisco, the editorial page editor of the Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, had this to say in an editorial called “How Much for an A?”
” I never doubted that the grading rubric was changed to make some schools look better, but I wouldn’t have guessed it was all about making one charter school look good….Indiana voters dispatched Bennett without knowing of his behind-the-scenes manipulation of school data. Now voters should realize the lengths public officials will go to keep the biggest donors happy. The nonsensical grading system foisted on Indiana schools was designed to punish public schools and advance the choice agenda.
“The question for lawmakers listening to hours of testimony over last spring’s ISTEP+ computer meltdown is not whether the scores are valid. It’s how much longer will the lawmakers themselves continue to support a charade designed and maintained to please wealthy donors?”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
We need massive citizen action to forward candidates with integrity.
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He and Michelle Rhee would look good in matching orange jumpsuits.
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Where is the justice for white- collar crooks??
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Ever since Ford pardoned Nixon, NOWHERE!
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Except for maybe the most egregious, as when Madoff decided to ripoff his fellow richmen/women. Ripoff Joe Blow and Jane Smith, no problem!
Usually just means how much justice can I buy with my money.
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Congress investigated steroid use in baseball – when are they going to investigate these cheating scandals?
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How long? Too long and maybe forever.
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Make no mistake, you can bet your last damn dollar that this is no anomaly! The score manipuations and constant changing of the school performance score formulae is going on in several states to achieve the desired results, to gain federal funding and grants, to position public schools for takeover, to make charters look successful, to gain funding available for charter startups. . . .Louisiana’s Superintendent Chief or Change TFA benefactor John White has positioned himself for an investigation that could prove to be his downfall. The frustration is in being powerless to initiate such an investigation or to find a legislator with the anatomy to do it. One can only hope that some of the LDE employees he has alienated with his ruthless control will open up and blow this disastrous reform movement out of the water.
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Someone let us now if MSNBC ever covers this…i cannot watch them anymore…
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Yup, fighting Jeb and his merry band of privatizers since 1998 here in Florida.I am feeling a tiny bit of “karma” here.
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What is happening in Florida. I searched online newspapers in Florida and only found one that carried this story.
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I just found it in Miami Herald morning edition…..I agree it will be interesting to see how Florida deals with it. In Indiana he was voted out but in Florida is appointed.
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A-F ratings are the reformers’ Enron black box.
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I don’t know how much more evidence we need. It seems to me the tests became easier during Bennet’s time in office as well, thus creating an image of success for his policies. How else can you explain huge gains in Algebra state-wide. Teachers weren’t teaching better or harder – they just kept teaching as best they could. No mandate will change that.
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Can someone in Florida do the Hustle for me? It seems the only dance that is appropriate.
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I did a happy dance on the beach!
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I wrote this:
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As usual, your writing is worth reading. Some fine points well articulated and presented.
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There were four schools in Indianapolis and one in Gary that were “taken over” by the Indiana Department of Education and were given to chart school companies that made contributions to Tony Bennett and Mike Pence’s election campaign. Eugene White, former Superintendent of IPS schools called for state officials to look into the method of grade calculation of two of his four schools taken over because he knew their previous test scores had shown improvement. When his accusations fell on the deaf ears of Tony, they sued along with Gary for the overpayment by the state funds to the charters that are operating these schools. http://www.indystar.com/article/20121221/NEWS/121221013/IPS-wins-lawsuit-over-6-million-sent-takeover-schools.
The corruption, power and money grabbing is starting to surface and it will only get worse. There are more revelations about Tony to come and it will be obvious that these people are guilty of fraud. The question is, when will there be investigations and more importantly, charges filed? Indiana has had corrupt State Superintendents before and we sent them to jail on much lesser offenses.
Tony Bennett needs to be held accountable.
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“LIKE”
I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel SOOOO vindicated, and I, like you, believe this is just the beginning.
Daniels has been busted via his emails, now Bennett. Go AP, keep searching.
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“Accountable” was one of Dr. Bennett’s favorite words.
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“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends. I have not much hope that Gollum can be cured before he dies, but there is a chance of it. And he is bound up with the fate of the Ring. My heart tells me that he has some part to play yet, for good or ill, before the end; and when that comes, the pity of Bilbo may rule the fate of many – yours not least.” —Gandalf, Lord of the Rings
Is it possible Bennett could ‘reform’ and become one of public education’s greatest allies? For those who doubt this, remember, we’re on the Diane Ravitch blog here.
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Teachers and administrators were charged with crimes in Atlanta. Why isn’t this a criminal act? He belongs in jail!
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Here’s another article on this fiasco: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-exclusive-gop-donors-school-grade-changed-182455021.html
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We are SO close to exposing what quackery and fraudulent patent medicine show tactics were being used to sell corporate takeover of education. As a new school year begins, we need to stand strong with Supt. Ritz in returning education to those who know education.
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Get ready to gag:
On Tony Bennett’s “grading-gate,” avoid the rush to judgment
Michael J. Petrilli / July 30, 2013
http://www.edexcellence.net/commentary/education-gadfly-daily/flypaper/2013/on-tony-bennetts-grading-gate-avoid-the-rush-to-judgment.html
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Please remember, this school grading system has a direct impact on teacher evaluations and compensation, as well as school takeovers by the State!
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Someone come and take Tony Bennett back to Indiana,,,anyone?
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The only way we people in Indiana would take him back is if it’s to see him face charges of fraud and misappropriation of funds…and any other charges they can get to stick to him.
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• Don’t lie, Don’t cheat and Don’t steal…. and don’t teach moral character, integrity and critical thinking! It appears our education system and charter schools, are involved in every attribute identified.
What audacity this person and his cronies have. What would they say to a teacher who modified a grading rubric so a favorite student got a favorable grade? Pure, absolute corruption. The goal has never been to better educate the children. The focus has been on one thing and one thing only – how an elected official and his friends can make a lot of money off the public dime. If this isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what it will take to make concerned citizens pay attention to what is happening to our education system!
Common Core Standards for all U.S. Schools was enabled by the President’s federal stimulus law and his Department of Education’s “Race to the Top” gimmickry. The administration bribed cash-starved states into adopting unseen
instructional standards as a condition of winning billions of dollars in
grants. Even states that lost their bids for Race to the Top money were
required to commit to a dumbed-down and amorphous curricular “alignment.”
In practice, Common Core’s dubious “college- and career”-ready standards undermine local control of education, usurp state autonomy over curricular materials, and foist untested, mediocre and incoherent pedagogical theories on America’s schoolchildren.
“An English curriculum overloaded with advocacy journalism or with ‘informational’ articles chosen for their topical and/or political nature should raise serious concerns among parents, school leaders, and policymakers. Common Core’s standards not only present a serious threat to state and local education authority, but also put academic quality at risk. Pushing fatally flawed education standards into America’s schools is not the way to improve education for America’s students.”
– University of Arkansas professor Sandra Stotsky
•
Bipartisan Common Core defenders claim their standards are merely “recommendations.” But the standards, “rubrics”
and “exemplars” are tied to tests and textbooks. The textbooks and tests are
tied to money and power. Federally funded and federally championed nationalized
standards lead inexorably to de facto mandates. Any way you slice it, dice it
or word-cloud it, Common Core is a mandate for mediocrity.
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We don’t want him back. Let him twist slowly in the wind on this one.
When he started his punitive treatment of public teachers in Indiana, I threw out a perfectly good set of CDs of Tony Bennett’s greatest hits.
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