The Biden campaign released the names of those on the transition team for every department.
This is the list of the transition team for the Department of Education.
Department of Education
The Department of Education team will also review the Corporation for National and Community Service.
| Name | Most Recent Employment | Source of Funding |
|---|---|---|
| Linda Darling-Hammond, Team Lead | Learning Policy Institute | Volunteer |
| Ary Amerikaner | The Education Trust | Volunteer |
| Beth Antunez | American Federation of Teachers | Volunteer |
| Jim Brown | United States Senate, Office of Senator Robert P. Casey, Jr. (Retired) | Volunteer |
| Ruthanne Buck | Self-employed | Volunteer |
| Norma Cantu | University of Texas at Austin, School of Law | Volunteer |
| Jessica Cardichon | Learning Policy Institute | Volunteer |
| Keia Cole | MassMutual | Volunteer |
| Lindsay Dworkin | Alliance for Excellent Education | Volunteer |
| Donna Harris-Aikens | National Education Association | Volunteer |
| Kristina Ishmael | Open Education Global | Volunteer |
| Bob Kim | John Jay College of Criminal Justice | Volunteer |
| James Kvaal | The Institute for College Access & Success | Volunteer |
| Peggy McLeod | UnidosUS | Volunteer |
| Paul Monteiro | Howard University | Volunteer |
| Pedro Rivera | Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology | Volunteer |
| Roberto Rodriguez | Teach Plus, Inc | Volunteer |
| Shital Shah | American Federation of Teachers | Volunteer |
| Marla Ucelli-Kashyap | American Federation of Teachers | Volunteer |
| Emma Vadehra | The Century Foundation | Volunteer |
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Sooooo. What are your thoughts, Diane?
I don’t know many on this list. Some have ties to the failed Race to Top. I’m hoping Biden sticks with his promises.
I’m not surprised to see many neoliberal pro-privatization individuals and groups on this list.
Really, really depressing.
Expect more top-down micromanagement of schools and a continued emphasis on the Deformy program of “accountability” for teachers, schools, and administrators based on pseudoscientific, numerological “data” [he shakes his head and sighs] from invalid but mandated assessments based on the puerile Gates/Coleman standards bullet list, with the addition of other measures, such as attendance and dropout rates, on state dashboards or even a federal one.
This is the only language these people know. They will tweak the failed Deformy program and hype it as the long-awaited magic elixir/philosopher’s stone, just as they have with every other failed idea they’ve had.
Everybody sing:
When will they ever learn?
When will they eeeeeeeeever learn?
The emphasis on “data” is an attempt, of course, to be scientific, but in education, it runs up against the limits of scientific methods and so can only be described as scientism or even pseudoscience. The last thing we need is the sowing of another top-down, standards-and-data based monoculture.
Real continuous improvement is a bottom-up phenomenon driven by autonomous actors on the line able to respond to particular needs, drawing upon competing models and materials advanced by hundreds of thousands of researchers, subject-matter experts, and classroom practitioners.
But in saying these things, I am speaking in a small voice into the hurricane from Washington that has been laying K-12 education flat for decades now and looks, from this list, as though it will continue unabated.
And Biden will use his teacher wife as a shining example of “Hey I’m a teacher, and all this reform is a good thing” as a selling point. Blechh!
Exactly right, Bob, in both your posts above, very ominous start to more of the same we’ve fought against before.
I don’t see a single teacher on the list. I see that Ruthanne Buck “served” as “senior advisor” to Arne and King. Kristina Ishmael is an “agent of change.” Peggy McLeod touts “Common Core standards” and being the head of La Raza’s charter school network. Roberto Rodriquez is an Arne/King acolyte.
Doesn’t surprise, but does disappoint. I hope NPE puts out a strong statement and effort we can support. We knew that support for Biden might still mean a lot of work on education. It’s now confirmed. Is Betsy-lite around the corner. Are educators and public school advocates ready to get to work? Will there a meeting with Diane Ravitch and Carol Burris that’s not just window dressing? Time to roll up our sleeves.
Let me revise that slightly:
Real continuous improvement is a bottom-up phenomenon that balances the habits of the tribe (the tried and true, passed on in institutional and private memory from practitioner to practitioner), supplemented by change driven by autonomous actors on the line able to respond to particular needs, drawing upon competing models and materials advanced by hundreds of thousands of researchers, subject-matter experts, and classroom practitioners.
But then along comes another idiot guru with a plan. Throw it all out and do this.
NPE will push hard for equity and funding and against high stakes testing and privatization
Head of The Education Trust? John King, Jr., former New York State Education Commissioner and Secretary of Education under Obama and standards-and-testing true believer. And so on down the list.
Look at Biden’s Pandemic team. All doctors and public health experts who have deep knowledge of medicine and public health. Why isn’t this same standard of experts applied education? Why don’t the teaching profession & public schools deserve the same respect? Instead we get Arne Duncan redux.
I’m not disappointed. I’m angry. And so should every teacher who worked to elect Biden and other Democrats. There’s a core tension between the reformers & public school educators and we’ll see if the educators on that committee will use their power to push back against the billionaire approved appointees.
Personnel is policy. This transition team is a slap in the face to racial equity and civil rights. Privatization, charters & vouchers are born out of Jim Crow and the southern white’s reaction to Brown.
Equity in opportunity isn’t on Biden’s education menu.
about Roberto
I first met him when I was lobbying on the Hill with Monty Neill – he was at the time a key staffer on education for Teddy Kennedy. He was cordial to us but non-committal. I last encountered him at an event at the Finnish Embassy where he was one of several speakers, including Randi Weingarten. He was at the time IIRC in the White House as a key advisor to M. Barnes, head of the Domestic Policy Council under Obama. I will say he was probably better on education than a guy named Steve hose last name I have forgotten who had been Obama’s education advisor while O was still in the Senate – a man with a Ph. D. who had taught physics. My memory of our (Monty and me) encounter with him was how transactional he was. He got excited about one idea Monty share, but then asked if we had shared it with anyone else and how they might have reacted, because he was not going to raise it with his boss unless he (Obama) could get full credit for pushing it. Turned me off.
That said, that Linda D-H is coordinating gives a little bit of hope.I will remind people that when we did our Save Our Schools March Linda was the opening speaker.
But unless the Dems have control of the Senate there is no real hope for meaningful change in Federal education policy. And as I learned during some of my own meandering around the Hill and having contacts with House Dems through my membership in the National Democratic Club, far too many Dem House members have staffers dealing with education who came out of TFA, and that is still hard to get by.
Roberto, like all of Obama’s advisors, was all-in for Race to Top, Common Core, VAM, merit pay, testing. Linda developed EdTPA and Smarter Balanced Assessment.
Personnel is policy. Let’s see who Biden chooses.
Glad to see Darling-Hammond. Was hoping she would be Secretary of Education.
Oh, my sky-daddy, NO!
LOL. Howdy, Duane!
When Coleman and his wrecking crew hacked together the Common [sic]\ Core [sic] State [sic] Standards [sic] for Gates so that Gates (and the test makers) could have a single, national bullet list to key “educational” software to, he called for a great return to close reading of texts, and by texts, he meant substantive works of classic literature. But if he knew anything at all about US education on the ground, in actual K-12 schools, if he had actually ever taught in a K-12 English classroom, he would have known that almost every school at the time used a hardbound literature anthology full of classic texts that had stood the test of time with, for each selection, guided reading questions for close examination of those texts, typically following a Bloom’s taxonomy model, moving from recall to interpretation to synthesis and evaluation. And these were typically organized coherently into knowledge domains (e.g., Elements of the Short Story, Poetry and Figurative Language, English Romantic Literature). But ofc Coleman already knew it all, or thought he did, and so he worked in COMPLETE IGNORANCE OF THIS and hacked together his almost content-free list from a cursory perusal of existing state “standards” that were simply lists of mostly extraordinarily vague and general (and thus not concretely, validly testable) skills. And so the texts were RUINED when they were Cored. They DEVOLVED into test preppy exercises on random skills from the Gates/Coleman list.
And here’s the moral of that: The gurus, with their micromanagement plans for everyone else, have nothing but disdain for the rabble and breathtaking hubris. They think they know better and welcome, in their ignorance and hubris, the opportunity to become the deciders for everyone else.
But institutional memory among classroom practitioners and innovations from the hundreds of thousands of working researchers, subject-matter experts, and classroom teachers are far, far smarter than Coleman will ever be.
The Buddha said, “If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.” Of course, he didn’t mean this literally. He taught ahimsa, nonviolence and respect for living things. What he meant by that statement, of course, was “Be skeptical of gurus.”
Wrecking crew is an apt analogy for David Colemen. it applies equally to Biden’s transition team.
Coleman is a one-man wrecking crew
Wrecks R US
“If you meet the Coleman on the Rhodes, run the other way”
Coleman , an aOxfordmoron, is a Rhodes scholar.
Old Chinese Saying
Meet the Coleman
On the Rhodes?
Run the other way
Oxfordmoron
In the clothes
Of Buddha, as they say
And now, ofc, those institutional memories in K-12 English Departments have been almost erased by the Orwellian, Big Brother, test-and-punish Deform establishment (Coleman might as well have been Winston working in the bowels of MiniTru, erasing what was known). An entire generation of young English teachers has come up knowing nothing but incoherent, Common [sic] Core [sic] skills practice based on the Gates/Coleman list. The tragic irony of this is that Coleman’s desired return to knowledge of the texts has been completely undermined by emphasis on skill-based test prep. Why? Because these moronic gurus of the test-and-punish movement didn’t know what English teachers had actually been doing (see my note, above) and because the stakes attached to the tests based on the skills list were so high that skills-based, almost entirely content free and almost entirely RANDOM test prep supplanted actual instruction in both teaching materials like textbooks in classrooms run by teachers forced to post the Colman skill being “practiced” today, every day, on their white boards.
Sigh. Depressing.
But not shocking. It’s Biden, after all.
YEP!
Duane,
You are no longer in moderation.
Indiana never gives up on finding the ‘ideal test’. It DOESN’T exist. It is a waste of taxpayer money. It is a sham that destroys education, love of learning and the professionalism of teachers. Republicans can be SO proud of their continuing attempts that destroy. Gad.
Here is a pandemic and this is what state officials say is necessary.
…………………………………..
Indiana plans to revamp school A-F grades
State officials aim for the new system to go beyond test scores and reflect changes in state graduation requirements.
By Dylan Peers McCoy Nov 10, 2020, 6:47pm EST
The Indiana State Board of Education aims to overhaul the A-F grades it gives schools to include new measures of how much students are learning and better reflect the state’s education priorities.
At a meeting Tuesday, the board discussed a framework drafted by its staff that offered several ideas for updating the school accountability system. The revamp will likely include many of the same metrics that schools are currently judged by, such as state test scores and graduation rates, but the board is also considering adding measures and tweaking some of the existing ones.
The proposal raises several possibilities, including incorporating science and social studies test scores in elementary school grades, using student attendance as a measure of success, and changing the way that graduation rates influence school grades.
The state will hold several discussion sessions in the coming weeks to gather feedback and ideas from parents, teachers, and administrators.
School grades, which the state began using in 2011, play a crucial role in Indiana’s efforts to improve educational quality. They are designed to offer parents and community members an easily understood assessment of how schools are doing. And schools with chronically low marks face state intervention.
The accountability system has always been controversial, in part because it relies heavily on state test scores. Elementary and middle schools currently receive A-F grades based on how well students do on the math and English portions of the state ILEARN exam, an approach that some critics say leads schools to narrow their curriculum and misses other important information on school quality. High school grades also incorporate school graduation rates and measures of college and career readiness, such as how many students earn college credit or certifications.
Because of precipitous declines in standardized test scores when the state made changes to its assessment, schools were held harmless from dips in passing rates for three of the last six years, and many schools received state letter grades based on old scores.
Indiana operates two parallel accountability systems, with each school receiving a state grade and another assessment to comply with federal law.
It’s unclear whether the new model will eliminate the need for separate federal evaluations of schools.
“Indiana’s accountability system will do what’s best for kids,” said state board chair B.J. Watts. “If that mirrors the federal system, then that’s great. And if it does not, then I’m OK with that.”
Many state leaders hope the overhauled A-F grades will incorporate more than student test scores. But experts caution that it can be hard to create reliable, comparable metrics of student success besides standardized test results. That’s because schools often use different approaches to tracking priorities such as whether students are chronically absent or on track to graduate, and the results can be easily manipulated.
The board is also considering creating a new dashboard with supplementary information on how schools are doing.
Christy Hovanetz, a senior policy fellow at the Foundation for Excellence in Education, a nonprofit that consults with states about accountability systems and how to improve them, argued that it would make more sense to include additional information in the dashboard.
The initial framework the board is using starts from the right goals and values, Hovanetz said. But, she added, the board needs “to be more critical about which indicators are appropriate for a rating versus which should be on their dashboard.”
This is what Deformers do. They tweak the failed reform and then hawk it as the Second Coming.
Jesus Christ on a Bi-cycle
There is actually a rock climbing wall in Utah with that name. Only its full name is Jesus H. Christ On a Bicycle (JHCOB) wall
LOL
Aptly, when you are on it, it , you have a lovely view of the road (or Rhodes, as the case may be)
Strong representatarion from teacher unions, no representation from DFER or Chiefs for Change and a superb leader in Darling-Hammond, a really good beginning
Strong representatarion from teacher unions, no representation from DFER or Chiefs for Change and a superb leader in Darling-Hammond, a really good beginning
Fellow Commenters .
Do you recognize the names of the individuals on this transition team? It seems to have sprung full-grown from Biden’s inner circle. Any sense of their educational leanings?
How does an educator, who might be a good candidate for SoE, come to the attention of the transition team? If this is a real process there should be a way for someone to apply for the job. Can someone ask Linda Darling-Hammond how the search works
Three of the 20 have affiliation with the AFT? Could the fix be in for Randi Weingarten?
Teach plus also seems to have many TFA grads
Alphabet Supe
It isn’t what they say
But really what we see
The letters TFA
And letters AFT
When Billy G went to AFT,
they sold their soul for a little fee.
This list is an Ed Deform family reunion.
I am in the process of doing research on the histories and current responsibilities of the people on this list. Believe me the list is filled with Obama’ staff, many working in education. More later.
HAAAAA!!!!!! The Resistance Research Team is on it!!!!!
xoxoxoxoxxo
Thank you, Laura Chapman.
I’m afraid of how you say, Plus ca change…
Membership list, Office of Opposition Research, The Resistance:
Laura Chapman
One additional comment, and I am working from memory on this. IIRC Biden’s bgrother Frank was very involved in lobbying for /promoting charter schools. I think looking at the complete list of names what I sense is that it is an attempt to balance different strands within the Democratic coalition where there is still a fairly wide range of viewpoints on education.
Biden’s brother, Frank, either currently still owns or maybe owned a for-profit charter chain called Mavericks.https://deutsch29.wordpress.com/2019/04/28/frank-biden-his-for-profit-charter-chain-mavericks-in-education-and-more/
Coming soon, Ed Deform 2.0! New, improved Balanced Scorecard! Now with Scrubbing Bubbles! Because you have to micromanage the rabble.
I think I’m going to be sick.
Diverting taxpayer dollar into your own pocket, or how to make a mint in the charter scam. [And you thought Trump University was bad!]
Buy an abandoned K-Mart on time. Gut the inside. Line the walls with refurbished computer terminals bought in bulk from China. Subscribe to a virtual “learning” platform. Have kids show up and work online, 100 to a room, under a “teacher” with five-weeks training whose job it is to make sure the terminals are working. Collect the per-student annual taxpayer allotment per student. Use that to pay down the mortgage on the old K-Mart and build equity.
Remember that you are not in the business of educating students. You are in the real estate business. Spend as little as possible (preferably nothing at all) on staff and on frivolities like textbooks, science labs, art supplies, teacher supplies, theatres and theatre equipment, gymnasiums and sports equipment, nurses and medical equipment, and so on. Churn those teachers to keep pay low. Provide only the most minimal benefits or, preferably, none at all.
Anything you don’t spend on education is profit.
For more from Scamming for Dummies, call 1-555-GET-RICH today. Our con artists are standing by!
Great commentary — Nightmare vision. This is the blue wave. End Game: Keep everyone ignorant and the one-percenters in control
Pedro Rivera –
“On Tuesday, the president of Thaddeus Stevens College of Technology was named a member of President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ leadership transition team.The Lancaster resident, who just ended a five-year stint as Pennsylvania’s Secretary of Education and served as School District of Lancaster’s superintendent before that, will be one of 20 volunteers on the Department of Education “agency review team.
It will be interesting to see if the reps from the teachers’ unions have any effect on outcomes. Other than them and Linda, very, very upsetting list. But not surprising.
Lily Eskelsen Garcia recently stepped down from leading the NEA. I wonder if she is already under consideration?
The DC Two step
One step down
Two steps up
Dance in town
Hup hup hup
REALLY?! Thank you, retired teacher, for this interesting information. Are they going to try to press for her on the points that:
1. She was a teacher.
2. She is a woman.
3. She is Hispanic (Wikipedia lists her as “the 1st Hispanic to be chosen as the Dem Party’s nominee for a U.S. Congressional seat in Utah, raising almost $1 million {1998}.
4. “When Joe Biden was elected president…in Nov. 2020, E.G. was reportedly among those being considered for the post of Sec. of Ed.”
&, then: “In 2020, Garcia was named a candidate for Sec. of Ed. in the Biden Administration.”
&–“She is reported to have a close working relationship w/incoming 1st Lady Dr. Jill Bifen, fellow NEA member & educator.”
So, yes, retired teacher–she’s going to be the next Sec. of Ed.
When Biden appeared at the NEA Convention in 2019, she greeted everyone warmly. She gave Joe the warmest greetings of all.
Biden’s Education Transition Team is a good beginning as it brings together diverse educators representing deep knowledge of teaching and learning across our country. Please communicate to them that standardized testing at grades 3-8 is a waste of money and learning time and it does nothing to improve school outcomes. Outcome tests at grades 5, 8, and 11 might give a snapshot over a 3 year cycle of academic strengths and weakness students exhibit and could be useful to local educators as data for local strategic plans. More importantly, school systems need a simple way to communicate local needs and acquire funding for those needs. Right now, every state needs a rescue package to prevent layoffs in all civil service positions. COVID caused large revenue losses for all states. A Secretary of Education who believes in community public schools will unite rural, suburban and urban citizens. Our children will be better off if they are the focus of all the help we design and not testing and technology companies.
What are their contact numbers, emails? Where do applicants apply for the job?
What’s the timetable? Is this just window dressing and the shortlist is already down to one?
Is Biden more of the same old same old? What about all the words from Dr. Jill about the importance of education and the value of classroom teachers? Was that just a bunch of sugar-coated BS?
Dr Jill (Stein) had a very good education plan.
Stein supported a “student bailout” to cancel student loan debt.
She opposed high-stakes testing and the privatization of public schools.
Stein advocated for tuition-free education from pre-school through college.
But we will never know if it was just sugar coated BS.
It was sugar coated BS.
She also had a great job creation plan for the economy and to address climate change (Green New Deal, back before most people even knew what it was), but we will probably also never know if that was just sugar coated BS.
Thank you SomeDAM.
I have more faith in Dr. Jill Stein’s positions than Dr. Jill Biden’s ed spiel.
I fear her spiel is a hollow appeal.
Her rap may just be a lot bull crap.
She may only be in it to spin it.
Sorry, but I can’t forget that Jill Stein sat at Putin’s head table with Michael Flynn to celebrate RT, the Kremlin’s propaganda arm. She siphoned off 1 million votes in 2016.
Stein was never my choice for anything. I’m still smarting over Bernie.
And I have no trouble with any critique of her education plans. In fact, I wasn’t entertaining her at all except for SDP’s calling attention to the odd coincidence of two Dr.Jills
In fact, I prefer Dr. Brown who holds the first doctorate ever conferred in carbonation.
The telltale photograph of Jill Stein is at the bottom of this article: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/russians-launched-pro-jill-stein-social-media-blitz-help-trump-n951166
Or Putin coated BS😀
That’s what i’m here for. To point out odd coincidences.
Sometimes they are just that.
Tongue Twisters
Doctor Stein
Is now defined
By dinner seat
At Putin’s feet
A picture hung
On thousand words
But not in tongue
That we have heard
Is “Dr. Jill” a reference to Jill Biden? I took it as such, but others think it refers to Dr Jill Stein, Green Party candidate in 2016. Can you clarify?
Yes, I meant Jill Biden when I said Dr. Jill.
SameDam Poet reminded me of the other Dr. Jill (Stein) — Green Party.
Diane reminded me of her politics.
I was joking.
I’ve never been much of a literalist.
More of an illiteralist.
I like to highlight that there is often more than one way of viewing something.
Yes, being stuck in Modi has effectively silenced me. Sad, very sad indeed. Will go comment on the post from the Montana teacher since I’m just a rural rube myself. Maybe I should join Parler!
Wouldn’t it be nice if a classroom teacher or a “not far removed” from the classroom got the Secretary job? My choice is Jahana Hayes, Democrat of Connecticut. She was National Teacher of the Year in 2016
See above–NEA ex-president (just resigned) will undoubtedly be chosen as the next Sec. of Education.
It has been harrowing. We will never be rid of CBE.
Odd that Jill Stein is being brought up here, again. I just walked past a “Vote Green Party!” yard sign that was laying in the street (which, in & of itself, is rather odd, considering our neighborhood displayed lots of “No Tax Hike!” signs & signs for GOP IL candidates (not any it45/Pence signs, except for one, 2 blocks away). Long past.
Anyway–& you would be aware of this, Threatened Out West–Salt Lake City newspaper brags she’s one of top two contenders.
Anyone in a betting mood? If I’m right, you donate what you can to the NPE. If I’m wrong, I’ll donate at least $10. (But each of us can only be wrong once! I don’t trust anyone to protect our pensions, esp. now that our graduated tax didn’t pass in ILL-Annoy {despite the $$$ & good efforts of our Governor}.) & it’s those billionaires & millionaires here who ILL-Annoy me. NOT the Governor. (But, of course, our Dem Speaker of the House is extremely it45ian in his unwillingness to resign, & now top IL government is getting together on asking for his resignation (which he continues to refuse).
The Libertarian candidate Jo Jorgensen was the big vote getter this time. I bet she took votes from Trump.
I thought that as well, Diane. Good!
Oh–&, of course, people, know I was referring to Lily RE: Sec. of Ed.–& the contest.
Wasn’t referring to either Jill! I think J.B. will be otherwise very busy–you know–NOT ripping up/destroying the Rose Garden, NOT holiday decorating the WH as if its inhabitants (well, maybe) & visitors were vampires or polar bears, & most certainly NOT shopping for that “special” jacket that tells the world, “I don’t care…do you?”
Very funny contrast.
Jill also NOT spending time botoxing and pouting or seething over Donald’s special love for Ivanka the Terrible.
I’m wearing one of my Bernie shirts today — first time since Super Tuesday.
I wore my Bernie (2016!) pink hat all the sunny days of summer (sigh!) while out on walks (only safe activity for this senior this particular summer).
I’m still feeling Bernie! His movement lives and will have growing impact as those who supported him replace the half-stepping moderates, the crackpots and the sky-is-falling Republicans.
I wouldn’t want to teach in today’s atmosphere. I still have no idea of how to teach online elementary music classes, or beginning band, and don’t know how to do normal activities such as singing with masks on. Won’t go into all of that.
COVID-19 is proving to be a HUGE problem:
Chicago Tribune
NOVEMBER 11, 2020
More than a third of Illinois teachers surveyed said they’ve considered leaving the profession amid COVID-19 stress
More than a third of Illinois teachers surveyed said they’ve considered leaving the profession amid the safety concerns and debilitating stress of the COVID-19 pandemic, officials at the state’s largest teachers union said Wednesday.
Iowa guv Dim Reynolds (& they are stuck w/her until 2022; but then, again, sadly, Sen. Joanie Ernst) just won reelection finally granted Iowa City S.D. a waiver to close, but they may be reopened after Thanxgiving. “As of Tuesday evening, IA City Schools had 132 students & 30 staff +, 474 students & 92 staff in quarantine & 17 classroom closures.” (The Gazette). I am hoping my niece–a 1st Grade Teacher–isn’t one of the +s. &–further stupid–they’re waiting until Monday to close. (How many more cases between Tuesday & Friday?)
A clear “open & shut” case. And, then…open again.
Just. Plain. Stupid.
Betsy DeVos has got to be the easiest act to follow.. Even easier than Arne Duncan. A lamppost in Denver would be a better Secretary of Education.
Moscow Mitch has to be desperate to be asking me for donations. I just received this enlightening email.
……………………………..
I need your immediate support to stop Chuck Schumer
Mitch McConnell (Iphone) newsletter@thepatriotictimes.com via cp20.com
7:33 AM (11 minutes ago)
Chuck Schumer can see a victory approaching.
And no, that unfortunately isn’t a typo.
Some races are currently still too close to call, making the future of the Senate UNKNOWN, but as of now there is a real chance that Democrats could have COMPLETE CONTROL of the Senate come January.
I need to ask you to rush an emergency contribution to FIGHT BACK right now. DONATE using this secure link: https://secure.winred.com/mitch-mcconnell/mcconnell-election-schumer- carolmalaysia@gmail.com
If Schumer manages to pull off victories in these CRITICAL battleground states, then our conservative movement is the ONLY THING that can stop him.
He’ll try to pack the Supreme Court with radical Justices, raise taxes for hard working Americans, and implement the dangerous Green New Deal. Will you please make a contribution of $150, $50, or $35 to prevent that from happening?
RUSH DONATE TODAY TO STOP SCHUMER
YOUR HELP IS NEEDED TODAY
It would truly be a shame if all of our work over the past four years was for NOTHING.
But you have the ability to make sure that our conservative agenda is protected, which is why my Senate colleagues and I are hoping you’ll chip in HERE>>>
Thank you,
Mitch McConnell
Sent from my iPhone
Text MITCH to 47360 to receive mobile alerts! Team Mitch is happy to help at 1 800-403-1744. Reply HELP for help, STOP to end. Message frequency may vary. Msg&DataRatesMayApply. Terms and Conditions HERE.
Thanks for the reply, Fred Smith, up there, yesterday, at 11:28 PM. I am hoping, though, that Stephen Colbert has his Melania impersonator on A Late Show at least a few more times before it45 leaves the WH. She is outstanding! (&, actually, deserved to be on many more times than she was.)
Gee. Trump said it was a hoax put out by Democrats to make him look bad. Surely, Trump doesn’t lie. /s
…………………………
Boise Schools will shut down in-person classes after Thanksgiving break; sports stop now
NOVEMBER 12, 2020 04:58 PM, UPDATED 37 MINUTES AGO
The Boise School District will shut down in-person schooling at the Thanksgiving break and won’t return until at least mid-January, the Board of Trustees decided Thursday afternoon.
In-person schooling will run through Friday, Nov. 20. It won’t resume until at least Jan. 19, after winter break and the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday. The change affects 4 1/2 weeks of in-person schooling (nine school days per student).
Also, all athletics activities will be suspended through at least Jan. 15. That begins immediately, and includes practices and workouts. It’s possible those would be resumed before in-person learning, BSD Superintendent Coby Dennis said during the board meeting. At least a couple of coaches have contracted COVID-19, he said…
..
Read more here: https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/coronavirus/article247158609.html?ac_cid=DM322588&ac_bid=-1451707626#storylink=cpy
Across the country, school districts are shutting down or canceling plans to reopen.
Allison Farrand for The New York Times
As the predicted fall surge of coronavirus cases engulfs much of the country, the picture for the nation’s schools looks grim. Many schools that reopened this fall are now closing their doors, while others that began the year remotely with hopes of reopening later in the semester are delaying those plans.
The Detroit Public Schools system is among the latest districts to suspend in-person instruction, announcing on Thursday that it would switch to remote learning starting on Monday, and stay with it until Jan. 11, citing the city’s rising positivity rate. As of Monday, Detroit’s seven-day-average positivity rate was 6 percent.
Roughly 10,000 of Detroit’s 50,000 students had chosen to attend school in person. Because of the district’s deal with its teachers, which allowed teachers to choose between teaching in-person or online, some of those students were not actually in classrooms with their teachers, but were receiving online instruction under supervision from other school staff.
In Iowa, where cases have nearly tripled over the last two weeks, multiple districts — including Des Moines, West Des Moines and Iowa City — received waivers from the state this week to switch to remote learning.
In New Jersey, where cases are also increasing precipitously, the East Brunswick Community Schools district, which has been operating on a hybrid model, announced this week that it would be going remote starting Monday and remaining so through Jan. 11.
Meanwhile, several districts have put reopening plans on hold, including Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Anchorage, Alaska; and Minneapolis. Chicago has not set a date for students to return to classes.
Many of the cities where schools are closing or remaining closed still allow for some indoor dining or allow bars to operate, a dichotomy that health experts have seized on as epitomizing the country’s misplaced priorities.
Restaurants, bars and other venues are known to be at a higher risk for transmission than schools, said Dr. Jennifer B. Nuzzo, an epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
“The growth, development and well-being of our children have been deeply harmed by these school closures,” she said. “We should make the safe operation of schools our top priority and do whatever is needed to bring case numbers to where they need to be to allow schools to stay open.”
— Kate Taylor