Troubled IDEA charter chain coming to Jacksonville in even more trouble

 Some of the post may seem familiar as I wrote most of it last year. I am just going to update it every time a new IDEA scandal hits the news.

IDEA Public Schools CEO JoAnn Gama and Chief Operating Officer Irma Munoz have been fired after a forensic review found “substantial evidence” that top leaders misused money and staff at the state’s largest charter school network for personal gain, the organization’s board president announced Tuesday.  

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/education/article/IDEA-Public-Schools-fires-CEO-chief-operating-16202852.php

Jacksonville needs another charter school like the average person needs another hole in their head and I think most people would agree. That however isn't going to stop DCPS from approving a massive expansion at their next board meeting. Here is the thing, the state despite the Florida constitution saying the school board is the final say doesn't give them a lot of leeway, but that being said wouldn't you like a little fight out of the board?

The IDEA charter school wants to open, and this is just a start, three new charter schools. You may have heard about them in the media and none of it is good.

From the Washington Post

A U.S. congressman is demanding answers from the U.S. Education Department, alleging department employees complained to his office about political interference in the awarding of a multi million-dollar federal grant to the controversial IDEA charter school network.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2020/04/27/idea-charter-schools-landed-grants-with-political-help-education-department-congressman-says/


From the Houston Chronicle

Several weeks after IDEA Public Schools nixed plans to spend millions of dollars on a charter jet lease, the charter network’s leader announced the end of additional “hard to defend” spending practices Thursday...

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/education/article/After-jet-backlash-IDEA-charter-schools-curbing-15017880.php

From ASUMAG

IDEA Public Schools, with nearly 50 schools and 51,000 students in Texas, has been criticized for spending $400,000 on basketball tickets and seeking to spend millions on a private jet lease.

https://www.asumag.com/facilities-management/business-finance/article/21121935/leader-of-charter-school-network-vows-to-end-questionable-spending

You know just run of the mill charter expenses... sigh...

Sigh

Sigh

Did I mention sigh?

Duval last year was less than one point away from an A, who knows how much better we will be in two years, yes two years when the first IDEA charter school is scheduled to open.

Here is an excerpt from the board agenda.
 


https://duvalcosb.civicclerk.com/Web/GenFile.aspx?ar=2349

Charter schools, nobody likes, that we don't need, coming for money we don't have. This is the system Florida has set up, That being said, wouldn't you like the board to say no? I sure would.

DeSantis goes after tech and teachers

 Ron DeSantis went after big tech today, signing a bill that will fine them if they deplatform politicians who violate their standards and conditions, i.e., lie and insight violence. Juxtapose this next to what he said the other day when he said he would go after teachers who dared to tell the truth about the systemic racism that has pervaded our history. Welcome to Florida, where only what the ruling party says matters, whether it is true or not.   

At his press conference, he said...

Khomeini Died in 1989, long before Twitter and Facebook even existed, and the reason Trump was Deplatformed was because of his constant lies and him instigating violence. More specifically, he was kicked off Twitter and Facebook, private businesses, because he violates their terms and conditions. 

As bad as this is, it's made worse because DeSantis and his little boot have said they plan to stifle teachers' free speech. 

From Flagler Live:

A proposed rule that will be weighed by the State Board of Education aims to control the way history is taught in Florida classrooms and not allow teachers to “indoctrinate” students, as part of what state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran called a “constant, vigilant fight.” 

The proposed rule seeks to put strict guidelines on teaching U.S. history.

“Instruction on the required topics must be factual and objective and may not suppress or distort significant historical events, such as the Holocaust, and may not define American history as something other than the creation of a new nation based largely on universal principles stated in the Declaration of Independence,” the state Department of Education’s proposal said.

It also would require that any classroom discussion is “appropriate for the age and maturity level of the students,” and teachers facilitating discussions wouldn’t be able to “share their personal views or attempt to indoctrinate or persuade students to a particular point of view” that is inconsistent with state standards.

The Board of Education will consider the proposal at its June 10 meeting at Florida State College at Jacksonville.

https://flaglerlive.com/163558/fdoe-history-sanitized/

Sigh, the only one seeking to indoctrinate children is DeSantis and his party, who want a sanitized versions of history taught to them. They are seeking to deplatform teachers.  

We should give up all pretense that the republicans have our best interests at heart. Nope, their goal is to stomp out the opposition and to create a cherry-picked and distorted narrative that serves the fever dreams they have replaced reality with.  

I can't imagine this new bill going anywhere; it's ridiculous. It will, however, probably cost our state coffers millions of dollars as they seek to defend the indefensible in court. Unfortunately, however, teachers won't have much recourse other than to take another slight piled on to all the others.

In Florida, we aren't being led, we are being ruled, and it's by a party determined to stamp out dissent, you know like Khomen did all the way back in the 80s; however, unlike him, DeSantis will be able to tweet about it.  

The Florida GOP Taliban

 Florida has a recipe for disaster. Add one part gerrymandering, one part far-right dogma, and a heaping pile of intolerance and sexism to Florida, and we get a state where the zealots at the top impose their will on all those beneath them. The Taliban didn't become the Taliban overnight, they evolved into it, and if we open our eyes, we can see disturbing parallels in the GOP in Florida.

Richard Corcoran and Ron DeSantis pairing with the far-right Hillsdale College plans to rewrite our civics curriculum including a liberal amount of God and the Ten commandments while completely avoiding the issue of race. DeSantis says to anyone who will listen that kids are being taught to hate our country in our schools. Corcoran practically bragged how he rigged the book-buying process to eliminate crazy liberal stuff and how teachers have to be constantly replaced. Neither has considered that it is their ideas and actions which are driving people away from them.  

Speaking of actions, this past session saw an anti-trans bill that called for the inspecting of children's genitalia pass the house. Now the final bill wasn't quite as onerous, but at the end of the day, it was a solution without a problem designed to marginalize and attack an already marginalized group. Unfortunately, the GOP in Florida sent a loud and clear message to our LGBTQ community and that's they are second-class citizens who can be excluded from everyday life.  

Then look what has happened in St. Johns county as 80 girls at a high school had their yearbook photos altered because the powers that be determined they were too revealing. The thing is they weren't, but they, along with draconian dress code policies which only affect girls, show a real step backward for our state and the marginalization of females. 

Throw in annual attacks on public education, teachers, and their representatives and funneling billions into mostly religious schools without standards or accountability, and what else is there?

The most alarming thing is none of this would be going n if the GOP hadn't rigged the electoral game to assure their dominance. Trump beat Biden by a two-point margin in the last presidential election, yet our representation in the Florida legislature is 65-35 republican. Democratic voters are stacked and packed into a handful of districts while the republicans have picked their electorate. This has allowed them to push through a litany of solution without problem bills which in addition to attacking marginalized citizens, have also seen home rule and the first amendment in their crosshairs. They don't have to create bills that solve problems because the opposition, the democrats in Tallahassee are far and few between. 

In 2020 DeSantis won by 33k votes or a third of one percent. Has he governed like that? The answer is no, as he signed one far-right bill after another.  

Discrimination, intolerance, a zeal to rewrite the narrative, and a rigged political system, not with guns like the Taliban did but rigged nevertheless. This is Florida. 

"You have to police them on a daily basis." Richard Corcoran on the free speech of teachers

Teachers cannot be trusted, and don’t take my word for it, take Commissioner Corcoran's 

Little boot Corcoran said of the 185 thousand teachers in Florida’s public schools; none of them can be trusted (see the video above). They have to be continually policed to make sure they aren’t sneaking on crazy liberal stuff. The book publishers can’t be trusted either because, like teachers, they will try and sneak stuff in.

Sadly he is the warped one out to indoctrinate kids, but since up is down in Florida, he thinks he is the hero. 

The commissioner has proposed a rule that will prevent teachers from having opinions during school hours, and it will pass too because the state board of education, a board as unqualified as Corcoran, is just as radicalized.  

From First Coast News, 

 Separating fact from opinion in teaching is what Florida's education commissioner says he wants to do with a plan to remove what he calls "indoctrination" from the classroom.  

 

Some groups are worried those changes will leave out critical historical context. 

 

Many classroom educators are opposing the move. 

Our view of history is always changing, especially in the past few years of dramatic social change.  

 

But Florida's education commissioner wants to limit how much new perspective can be applied to subjects like American history. 

 

“We’re passing a rule this coming month that for the 185,000 teachers, you can’t indoctrinate students with stuff that’s not based on our standards,” Corcoran said. 

 

https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/news/regional/florida/florida-teachers-union-president-against-proposal-to-remove-indoctrination-from-the-classroom-florida/77-9d45342e-e2f4-4546-af90-1725df3beadf 

You see, Corcoran can’t understand that people are turning against his radical and white/Eurocentric conservatism because it’s abhorrent and runs counter to decency. He thinks they must be being tricked by Mrs. Mcgillicutty at PS 18 and her 184,999 friends when the truth is all young people have to do is open their eyes.    

Corcoran is a far-right ideologue who would not be allowed anywhere near education if we lived in a decent state. There is no indoctrination going on in our classrooms, but he will change that if he has his way.   

To read more, click the link: https://www.floridaphoenix.com/2021/05/19/richard-corcoran-is-not-fsu-president-material-in-part-because-hes-an-enemy-of-public-education/

Hillsdale College thinks Putin is the preeminent world leader and why you should care.

 What's a little murder from world leaders? Not much if you are Hillsdale College. Why should you care what they think? Well, they are creating Florida's new civics curriculum and provide the curriculum to a growing number of charter schools here as well.     

From their latest Imprimis

By American standards, Putin’s respect for the democratic process has been fitful at best. He has cracked down on peaceful demonstrations. Political opponents have been arrested and jailed throughout his rule. Some have even been murdered—Anna Politkovskaya, the crusading Chechnya correspondent shot in her apartment building in Moscow in 2006; Alexander Litvinenko, the spy poisoned with polonium-210 in London months later; the activist Boris Nemtsov, shot on a bridge in Moscow in early 2015. While the evidence connecting Putin’s own circle to the killings is circumstantial, it merits scrutiny. Yet if we were to use traditional measures for understanding leaders, which involve the defense of borders and national flourishing, Putin would count as the pre-eminent statesman of our time.

https://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/how-to-think-about-vladimir-putin/?fbclid=IwAR3ALOXoJlZqo7bi1KuZNaYlFglmT4xGD-QfoSlRnZ2QvWxbspP1IVVpizI

Gulp

These are the people that Richard Corcoran wants to make our civics education.

He says teachers can't be trusted not to indoctrinate students, and he turns to them.

If it makes you shudder, then you aren't the only one.

Greene and the district don't deny Corcoran had teacher removed from the classroom

 Where not a lawyer, it seems to me Amy Donofrio is going to own the district as she sues it into oblivion. Corcoran tells the Times Union he had Greene remove her from the classroom. While the district sticks with her, she is under investigation (for what) story. 

I spoke with a school board member on Sunday, and they said it was absurd that Corcoran was telling people he had her removed though it sure seems like the right hand, the super is keeping the left hand, the board, in the dark.

  

So just like that, the commissioner says jump, and our super asks how high, though I guess we shouldn't be surprised how she has bent the knee to the little boot for the last year.

Think about it, if the commissioner is telling the truth, he picked up the phone and said Greene get her out of the classroom, and she said okay and then concocted a story that Donofrio was under investigation for some vague offense. If he's not telling the truth, then he is lying, and the district is covering for him.

The thing is, somebody is lying, it's either the super or the commissioner or both, and sooner or later the cover-up will be bigger than the crime.

Ro read more, click the link: https://www.jacksonville.com/story/news/education/2021/05/17/florida-education-commissioner-richard-corcoran-says-fired-duval-county-teacher-supporting-blm/5134544001/