We’re Back! Education Reform – Here We Come!
It’s amazing to realize how time has flown by since we last posted! The last year almost seems a blur!
First, I’d like to thank everyone for the many prayers, cards and good wishes we received while Don has been getting his heart patched up.
For those who didn’t know, Don now has the RollsRoyce of defibrillators and TWO (count ‘em – TWO!) pacemakers. He has a powerfully strong heart, but the electrical system had gone wonky! Now, his ticker is ticking perfectly and he is even stronger than before!
So guess what he’s going to do with all this new energy? 
You guessed it! He’s gonna straighten out every public school in America!
And he’s just the fella that can do it!!!
So stay tuned to watch “The Dynamic Duo” (that would include me) get our public schools squared away – the RIGHT way!
We can use all the help we can get!
Thanks a lot!
Brennan and the newly-refurbished Don Kingsland (Mr. Education Reform)
MARCH into Education Reform – Day 1
Wow! It’s already March 2010!
The 2009-2010 school year will be FINISHED in a couple of months! And what kind of positive changes have happened so far?
Well . . . One could argue that additional emphasis has been placed on education reform because of the administration’s “Race To The Top” and the Billions of dollars that go along with the administration’s determination to change public schools.
Whether you agree with the agenda proposed by Education Secretary Arne Duncan or not – at least a greater awareness of current public school failings is a good thing.
But what has really been done to fix things?
- Are dropout rates any lower?
- Have students improved in global competitions?
- Are our public school students getting an adequate education to prepare them for global competition?
The answers are all NO! NO! NO!
The situation has not improved in our public schools. In fact, they have really gotten worse!
While politicians and educational “Mucky-Lucks” argue over how to straighten out schools, down here in the real world, things continue to deteriorate.
Another school year is almost over, and now President Obama says he wants to adapt NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND! YEEK!
Marching Into Education Reform
All during this month I want to share with you all the information I have learned during my investigations.
While I took a leave of absence to prepare our publicity program, I continued educating myself on the various agendas being proposed to “fix” our public schools.
All this month I’m going to share what I discovered with you.
As we simultaneously rev-up our publicity program, I’ll be sharing our latest videos with you as well. Hopefully we’ll improve in video content and quality as the month proceeds.
You be the judge!
In the meantime, let me re-share the early video we did to offer Obama et al an opportunity to straighten out ALL our schools quickly and easily. Needless to say, they never bothered to accept or reject.
Contact with our local politicians, including Congressmen and Senators has also been fruitless.
So now we are going to the people who really count: parents, teachers and taxpayers.
Here’s one of our first efforts at video. More, and hopefully more informative and entertaining ones to follow in the coming days.
The Billion Dollar Education Reform Challenge
See ya’ tomorrow!
Brennan
The Billion Dollar Education Reform Challenge
I’ll be back to blogging fulltime in January. We are still prepping our BIG PROMOTION!
Wish us luck! In the meantime, here is another video about what we are doing. (Don’t worry – we will get better at videos as we keep going. You shoulda seen the first ones!)
Here’s the video for December:
http://www.TheKingslandPlan.com Retired master teacher challenges President Obama and Secretary Duncan to give him a budget and let him straighten out public schools across the country, QUICKLY.
The Billion Dollar Education Reform Challenge
Against Mayors Controlling Education
Are you ready for the November video? Here it is, ready or not!
My hubby is so funny and so talented!
P.S. We are still working on our big push for January when I’ll be back posting every day or so!
The Kingsland Plan for Fixing Public Education
We’re preparing a BIG publicity push for January 2010.
In the meantime, we are practicing making videos (and hoping to get better).
Here’s the video for October:
Stop the NAMECALLING!
The political and educational scenes are becoming more hostile every day.
It’s time for both sides of both issues to stop acting like children – and try a little courtesy instead.
Education Reform: The TEAM Concept
Don Kingsland is back with another “dream sequence”:
Politicians Should NOT Be Running Education!
Today we have a Guest Post, by my favorite husband, the author of “Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan To Save Public Education”:
“NO! To More Political Interference In Education”
I’ve been watching and waiting to see what direction Arne Duncan, the new Secretary of Education would take with the $100 BILLION education stimulus dollars he now has at his disposal.
Tuesday, Duncan announced that he wants more mayors involved in running their local school districts – just like Mayor Daley is in charge of Chicago.
Mayoral control of our schools . . . and that’s worked so well in Chicago???
Holy Cow! No! No! No!
Mr. Duncan, who was appointed to his Chicago post by Mayor Daley, had no real previous background in education prior to his appointment. He may have done a good job of straightening out the finances of the district, but education stayed on it’s nose dive.
The dropout rates in the Chicago districts are horrendous and worsening. Parents have staged multiple protests about the quality of education. Numerous episodes of graft and corruption have been reported.
It’s not that I believe Mr. Duncan was responsible for the corruption, but balancing a budget is NOT the same thing as straightening out education.
Now, with the new stimulus monies, we may get some bigger and better buildings but what about students’ learning?
With Mayors running the schools, it’s too easy for emphasis to go on construction, rather than learning. There’s more money in a building boom.
PLUS, while I don’t believe Mayors are necessarily corrupt, they are politicians who want to be re-elected, or promoted.
How many owe favors? Hmmm?
Mr. Duncan says that he will feel he has “failed at his job” if more mayors are not in charge of their school districts by the time he leaves his position. WOW!!!
Unless he was misquoted, and I don’t think he was, I am extremely nervous about the direction he plans to take education.
How many mayors do you think are knowledgeable about improving education?
Are we to be impressed with what has happened in Chicago where, once again, Mayor Daley appointed a NON-educationally-based croney to take Duncan’s place?
Straightening out education needs to be in the hands of people who UNDERSTAND education and how to HELP STUDENTS LEARN!
Political interference in our schools (from the ACLU to others) has been part of the PROBLEM!
Sorry, Mr. Duncan, your mayors MAY give us better-looking school buildings – and probably better football teams – to stimulate the local economy . . .
What about straightening out EDUCATION?
Big beautiful science labs and school campuses may look good, but what use are they when our students are falling to the bottom of the heap in global education results?
Let’s get “the horse before the cart” and start concentrating on STUDENT LEARNING – then we can afford to have some politicos interfering!
C’mon, Dear Reader! What do you think?
Don Kingsland, author
“Set Our Teachers FREE! A Plan To Save Public Education”
Barack Obama on Education Reform
Today, I’m starting a new series on what the administration plans to do to improve public education.
First in this series is a video of a speech Barack Obama made in March 2009:
Nice talk!
In the coming days, I’ll be sharing with you just HOW this administration has been implementing their ideas for improving education.
Keep checking back!
In about two weeks, just as the 2009-2010 school year starts in some areas of the country, I’ll have a BIG announcement for you.
Looking forward to your comments and feedback,
Brennan
Another Look at Arne Duncan’s Education Plan
The Thomas B Fordham Institute has published another video, this time, evaluating the Secretary of Education’s plan for education reform.
Speaking of…school turnarounds from Education Gadfly on Vimeo.
What do you think?
Brennan
