Reasons to Oppose Common Core from the Left & Right

Once, I supported Common Core.

Now, I do not.

Read on to understand why.

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Everything you need to know about Common Core — Ravitch

By Valerie Strauss January 18, 2014

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2014/01/18/everything-you-need-to-know-about-common-core-ravitch/

Diane Ravitch, the education historian who has become the leader of the movement against corporate-influenced school reform, gave this speech to the Modern Language Association on Jan. 11 about the past, present and future of the Common Core State Standards.

Here’s her speech:

As an organization of teachers and scholars devoted to the study of language and literature, MLA should be deeply involved in the debate about the Common Core standards.

The Common Core standards were developed in 2009 and released in 2010. Within a matter of months, they had been endorsed by 45 states and the District of Columbia. At present, publishers are aligning their materials with the Common Core, technology companies are creating software and curriculum aligned with the Common Core, and two federally-funded consortia have created online tests of the Common Core.

What are the Common Core standards? Who produced them? Why are they controversial? How did their adoption happen so quickly?

As scholars of the humanities, you are well aware that every historical event is subject to interpretation. There are different ways to answer the questions I just posed. Originally, this session was designed to be a discussion between me and David Coleman, who is generally acknowledged as the architect of the Common Core standards. Some months ago, we both agreed on the date and format. But Mr. Coleman, now president of the College Board, discovered that he had a conflicting meeting and could not be here.

So, unfortunately, you will hear only my narrative, not his, which would be quite different. I have no doubt that you will have no difficulty getting access to his version of the narrative, which is the same as Secretary Arne Duncan’s.

He would tell you that the standards were created by the states, that they were widely and quickly embraced because so many educators wanted common standards for teaching language, literature, and mathematics. But he would not be able to explain why so many educators and parents are now opposed to the standards and are reacting angrily to the testing that accompanies them.

I will try to do that.

I will begin by setting the context for the development of the standards.

They arrive at a time when American public education and its teachers are under attack. Never have public schools been as subject to upheaval, assault, and chaos as they are today. Unlike modern corporations, which extol creative disruption, schools need stability, not constant turnover and change. Yet for the past dozen years, ill-advised federal and state policies have rained down on students, teachers, principals, and schools.

George W. Bush’s No Child Left Behind and Barack Obama’s Race to the Top have combined to impose a punitive regime of standardized testing on the schools. NCLB was passed by Congress in 2001 and signed into law in 2002. NCLB law required schools to test every child in grades 3-8 every year; by 2014, said the law, every child must be “proficient” or schools would face escalating sanctions. The ultimate sanction for failure to raise test scores was firing the staff and closing the school.

Because the stakes were so high, NCLB encouraged teachers to teach to the test. In many schools, the curriculum was narrowed; the only subjects that mattered were reading and mathematics. What was not tested—the arts, history, civics, literature, geography, science, physical education—didn’t count. Some states, like New York, gamed the system by dropping the passing mark each year, giving the impression that its students were making phenomenal progress when they were not. Some districts, like Atlanta, El Paso, and the District of Columbia, were caught up in cheating scandals. In response to this relentless pressure, test scores rose, but not as much as they had before the adoption of NCLB.

Then along came the Obama administration, with its signature program called Race to the Top. In response to the economic crisis of 2008, Congress gave the U.S. Department of Education $5 billion to promote “reform.” Secretary Duncan launched a competition for states called “Race to the Top.” If states wanted any part of that money, they had to agree to certain conditions. They had to agree to evaluate teachers to a significant degree by the rise or fall of their students’ test scores; they had to agree to increase the number of privately managed charter schools; they had to agree to adopt “college and career ready standards,” which were understood to be the not-yet-finished Common Core standards; they had to agree to “turnaround” low-performing schools by such tactics as firing the principal and part or all of the school staff; and they had to agree to collect unprecedented amounts of personally identifiable information about every student and store it in a data warehouse. It became an article of faith in Washington and in state capitols, with the help of propagandistic films like “Waiting for Superman,” that if students had low scores, it must be the fault of bad teachers. Poverty, we heard again and again from people like Bill Gates, Joel Klein, and Michelle Rhee, was just an excuse for bad teachers, who should be fired without delay or due process.

These two federal programs, which both rely heavily on standardized testing, has produced a massive demoralization of educators; an unprecedented exodus of experienced educators, who were replaced in many districts by young, inexperienced, low-wage teachers; the closure of many public schools, especially in poor and minority districts; the opening of thousands of privately managed charters; an increase in low-quality for-profit charter schools and low-quality online charter schools; a widespread attack on teachers’ due process rights and collective bargaining rights; the near-collapse of public education in urban districts like Detroit and Philadelphia, as public schools are replaced by privately managed charter schools; a burgeoning educational-industrial complex of testing corporations, charter chains, and technology companies that view public education as an emerging market. Hedge funds, entrepreneurs, and real estate investment corporations invest enthusiastically in this emerging market, encouraged by federal tax credits, lavish fees, and the prospect of huge profits from taxpayer dollars. Celebrities, tennis stars, basketball stars, and football stars are opening their own name-brand schools with public dollars, even though they know nothing about education.

No other nation in the world has inflicted so many changes or imposed so many mandates on its teachers and public schools as we have in the past dozen years. No other nation tests every student every year as we do. Our students are the most over-tested in the world. No other nation—at least no high-performing nation—judges the quality of teachers by the test scores of their students. Most researchers agree that this methodology is fundamentally flawed, that it is inaccurate, unreliable, and unstable, that the highest ratings will go to teachers with the most affluent students and the lowest ratings will go to teachers of English learners, teachers of students with disabilities, and teachers in high-poverty schools. Nonetheless, the U.S. Department of Education wants every state and every district to do it. Because of these federal programs, our schools have become obsessed with standardized testing, and have turned over to the testing corporations the responsibility for rating, ranking, and labeling our students, our teachers, and our schools.

The Pearson Corporation has become

Alabama Common Core Textbooks: Who Calls the Shots?

Alabama continues to be the butt of every joke – from the psuedo state motto “Thank God for Mississippi,” to those which are more biting – every laughingstock must have its basis in truth.

And the truth is undeniable.

Alabama consistently ranks below practically every marker for achievement, success, well-being and health.

Alabama has been on the wrong side of history, which for many, dates back to the days of the Civil War… which ended in 1865.

One could hardly imagine that an event settled nearly 150 years ago would motivate so many to such an extent that they would behave so vociferously, so negatively so vehemently and violently. And yet…

To be certain, Alabama has wonderful people – people who are kindhearted, generous to a fault, loving, diligent, creative, honest, conscientious, forthright, compassionate, intelligent, and more. And yet, for all those positive character qualities, there is always at least one bad apple that spoils the whole bunch, that sours the deal, that gives the entire state a black eye. Such is the case with those naysayers whom oppose Common Core educational standards.

There are people who, when faced with evidence, continue to choose to believe a lie. For example, there is a “Flat Earth Society,” whose members state that their purpose (according to their website) is to establish “… a place for free thinkers and the intellectual exchange of ideas.” “Free thinking” and “intellectual exchange” must acknowledge the truth of facts. And the fact is, that Earth is NOT flat. Any assertion contrariwise is so preposterously absurd that is it is not merely asinine, it is psychotically deranged to so believe.

Such problems of belief contrary to the truth are among those which face Alabamians. From a scientific, factually valid perspective, a belief is an idea held to be true, even though there may be insignificant or no evidence to support the idea held to be true, or the outcomes which would naturally emerge from the same. From there, it’s a short step to conspiracy thinking, Area 51 space aliens and the loony bins that still walk among us. But those lunatic fringe elements exist in every state, not exclusively in Alabama.

Nevertheless, former Alabama Governor Bob Riley has again written of his support for the attainment of educational excellence in state public schools, his first OpEd – Why I Support Common Core Standards – having been published March 25, 2014 in the conservative digest National Review.

 

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RILEY: The truth about Common Core textbooks

In Alabama, final selections are made locally

By Bob Riley
Friday, May 2, 2014
Just about everyone is familiar with the old idiom “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” It’s a valuable metaphor, but as it turns out, it’s also very useful literal advice as it relates to the growing public policy debate over Core State Education Standards.

My wife Patsy and I are very lucky to have all our children and grandchildren living close to us. We love being part of their daily lives and watching our children raise families of their own.

A fifth-grade teacher helps students at Silver Lake Elementary School in Middletown, Delaware (AP Photo/Steve Ruark) Photo **FILE**

A few weeks ago, one of our daughters shared with me a textbook belonging to her son, a public school student in Homewood, a suburb of Birmingham, Ala. Something on the cover of my fourth-grade grandson’s textbook alarmed her, and after she showed it to me, it triggered an investigative instinct in me as well. On the cover, in bright red letters, unmistakable, were the words “Common Core State Standards.”

“If you want to know why so many people do not like Common Core, there it is,” said my daughter. Parents are under the impression that a central, national entity is dictating what our children read and learn, she continued, and every time a parent disagrees with the subject matter or struggles with a new method of math, we do not have to look far to find where to place the blame.

Then she asked me: “If there is no required reading list, no required curriculum for Common Core, why are these books labeled as belonging to and adhering to Common Core?”

Quite frankly, I did not know the answer. I was certain that no single organization in Washington D.C. or elsewhere dictates what children in the Homewood public schools read. I could not explain, though, why my grandson’s textbook made it appear that such a group does in fact exist.

I did what I always do when I don’t know the answer to something — I ask someone who does know.

Betty Winches is the assistant superintendent of instruction for Homewood City Schools, a top-rated public school system, and for years I have known her to be a world-class educator and academic leader in the schools. So I asked her the same question that my daughter asked me: “If there is no Common Core reading list or curriculum, why are the textbooks in Homewood’s schools labeled “Common Core?”

The answer, as Betty explained to me, is

Alabama High School Basketball Coach Denies Wrongdoing: 17-year-old Student Sex all started with “sexting”

Brian Scott Keeton, age 38, taught Math & was a Boys Basketball coach at Vina High School, in Franklin County, Alabama. He was arrested for having sex with a 17-year-old female student. He denies the charges.

Enough already!

But do notice the punishment – 2 to 20 years in prison upon conviction of the Class B felony.

The Alabama Lunchroom Lady “Cougar” got six months in jail, and 5 years probation.

Reckon what this Basketballing Math Teacher will get?

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Second Vina teacher arrested for alleged affair with student

Published 4:38pm Wednesday, November 13, 2013

VINA – The Vina High School boys basketball coach became the second faculty member from the school in less than a week to be arrested for an alleged sexual relationship with a student, officials said.

Brian Scott Keeton, 38, 73 Lost Creek Lane, Carbon Hill, was arrested Wednesday afternoon and charged with one count of being a school employee engaging in a sexual act with a student under the age of 19, which is a Class B felony punishable by two to 20 years in prison if convicted.

This arrest comes only five days after Vina physical education teacher Sonny Dewaine Tibbs, 35, of Hamilton, was arrested on

Govenor Bentley begs, borrows or steals. -OR- What’s it like living in Alabama? Ever been continuously anally gang-raped?

Not only does Governor Bentley send another man out to do his work, but he steadfastly refuses to do the right thing.

And the Huntsville Times REFUSES to cover Dr. Don Williamson’s stumping-for-the-governor’s “Let me borrow-nearly-a-half-BILLION-dollars-without-a-repayment-plan” appearance at City Hall.

Remember: Whatever you do,

• DO NOT increase tax rates on the wealthiest Alabamians, who already pay a lower rate than the impoverished – who also pay the 3d highest tax rate in the USA (why, even former Republican Governor Bob Riley called for tax change saying, “It is immoral to charge somebody making $5,000 an income tax.”);

• DO NOT increase property tax rates on corporate timber landowners who pay a lower rate than homeowners – who already pay 66% less than the national average;

• DO NOT increase severance tax rates on big oil & gas companies who are extracting those natural resources from under Alabama soil; and for goodness sake, whatever you do,

• DO NOT stop earmarking 9 out of every $10 of state tax revenue. God – and Governing Magazine – knows that our 50th place rank among our nation’s 50 states for fiscal management is as best as the whole state of retards can do.

Face it, folks. Alabama continues to be anally gang-raped by dogdamn retards, who call themselves “politicians.”

And, sadly enough, we apparently like it.

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Medicaid crisis if Sept. 18 vote fails, state’s chief medical officer says

Written by Bob Johnson, Associated Press
3:11 AM, Aug. 27, 2012

Dr. Don Williamson, State Health Officer with the Alabama Department of Public Health, announces an emergency ruling that two dangerous chemicals marketed as ‘bath salts’ are being added to the Alabama Controlled Substances List during a press conference in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2011. (Montgomery Advertiser, Lloyd Gallman) / Advertiser file

Alabama’s chief public health official said Medicaid will be in deep trouble if voters do not approve a Sept. 18 referendum to take more than $437 million from a state trust fund and use it to prevent huge cuts in spending on state programs for three years.

The constitutional amendment, if approved by voters, would take $145.8 million a year for three years out of the Alabama Trust Fund to help balance the budget during a time when tax collections are expected to see little growth.

Some critics say the Alabama Trust Fund was initially set up more than 30 years ago to prevent state officials from raiding oil and gas revenue every time the state has a funding crisis.

State Health Officer Don Williamson, who is temporarily overseeing funding for Alabama’s health care program for the poor, said without receiving money from the trust fund the Medicaid program would be $100 million in the red.

He said this could jeopardize programs that provide medicine for poor patients, reduce payments for doctors who treat Medicaid patients, send more poor patients to emergency rooms and eliminate optional Medicaid programs such as providing life-saving dialysis treatment.

“These are life-threatening choices,” Williamson said.

Williamson told The Associated Press that

Alabama Public Television Executive Director Allan Pizzato & CFO Fired, Frog-Marched & Escorted Out Of Building

There’s no love lost for Pizzato’s firing. I’m glad he’s gone.

He’s been nothing but a hindrance to progress and albatross about the neck of Alabama Public Television (APTV) from the time of his hiring. He cut Alabama‘s ONLY STATEWIDE NEWS program “For the Record,” and turned it into a puff piece for politicians and their ilk, then watching it flicker like a candle in the wind, morphed it into some other idiotic nonsense piece of garbage called “Capitol Journal,” which flame eventually burned out.

But hard-hitting interviews had long been gone when long-time news anchor Tim Lennox received a phone call that informed him – while he was out of state on bereavement leave – that he was fired. Yeah… fired over the telephone. No letter, no face-to-face, man-to-man talk. Cowards. When APTV fired Lennox, that was the end of FTR. No more tough questions… softball puff pieces only.

Now perhaps the network can begin to reclaim some of their glory. APTV was the nation’s FIRST public television network. Now, it’s a shadow of a shell of it’s former self. How tragic that Alabama starts with greatness, and ends in a sewer… like the incompetent thieves governing Jefferson County.

My estimation is this entire ordeal is a ruse and a fine excuse to fire Pizzato for his active destruction of APTV.

Regarding Barton’s myopic organization Wall Builders, they’re freaks of nature, as well, who have an unfeigned agenda that has nothing to do with history. They want their brand of Christianity put into every classroom in America. In essence, they want state-supported religion.

Here’s hoping the Alabama Educational Television Commission will hire someone worth their salt who can actually PROMOTE, MANAGE and OPERATE the APTV network as it should be – a cutting-edge, profitable, award-winning, nationally & internationally respected state-run television network, because…

It once was.

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Exclusive: Dismissals at Alabama PTV linked to concerns over proposed broadcast of videos from religious right

http://currentpublicmedia.blogspot.com/2012/06/exclusive-two-alabama-ptv-firings.html

Jun 13, 2012

Two top managers at Alabama Public Televisionwere fired from their jobs June 12 with no explanation of the cause for the immediate dismissals.

The Alabama Educational Television Commission came out of an executive session Tuesday afternoon and ordered veteran pubcaster Allan Pizzato and his deputy Pauline Howland to clean out their desks and leave APT’s headquarters in Birmingham.

“All I can say is that it was

Alabama Republican Lawmaker: Teacher Payraise “Unbiblical,” Defends 62% Legislator Payraise

Republicans of all stripe are just plain stupid.

Period.

Well, there seem to be so many stupid ones… genuinely stupid ones. They seem to think folks live in little Utopian, Ivory-towered worlds where everything is nice and clean and pretty and sweet smelling, and everything is perfect all the time.

Sorry folks. That ain’t my world.

Prolly ain’t yours, either.

Now, that doesn’t mean I don’t like the people – I like some folks whom identify as “Republican,” and on occasion think some things a few of ’em have said to be worthwhile – it’s the rampant radical stupidity that seems to so freely ooze from their pores.

Read on.

Republican Alabama State Senator Shadrack McGill, Woodville - Times-Journal photo by Lindsay Slater

A Republican Alabama state senator – Shadrack McGill, from Woodville – whom represents Alabama’s 8th District, recently decried any possibility of increase in teacher pay while defending raising his own pay.

While speaking recently at a prayer breakfast in Fort Payne

AL Governor Bentley: Reform Ethics Law… the one I helped write.

Governor Bentley’s office recently Tweeted the following message December 14, 2010 @14:50: Amend the Ethics law so that teachers are allowed to receive seasonal gifts. http://tinyurl.com/7n6w6jj

The reader should be aware that Dr. Bentley was a representative legislator from Tuscaloosa whom helped write, approve and pass the bill that became law when it was signed by then-governor Bob Riley, also a Republican.

As any citizen ought, I held great hope for numerous good things to happen to Alabama when the people elected Robert J. Bentley, MD (R), as the next governor.

However, it seems that

AL Lawmaker tells Republicans to “empty the clip” on illegal immigrants

A Republican Alabama State Senator, referring to illegal immigrants, recently encouraged a Cullman County Republican Party audience to “empty the clip, and do what has to be done.”

Scott Beason spoke Saturday, February 5 to a breakfast meeting of the CCRP and focused his remarks on illegal immigration.

Alabama State Senator Scott Beason, R-17th District

Beason represents

Politics as usual in Alabama, and in D.C.?

It’s a disheartening state of affairs to learn that even such accusations could even be considered partially, even possibly true. Where is our political “high road”? The more secretive our government becomes – and we are witnessing increased secrecy, much under the guise of “privacy,” or “executive privilege” – the more tyrannical and prone to corruption our government becomes. The Founding Fathers knew that well. Open government demonstrates to EVERYONE that accountability to EVERYONE is ongoing. When there are no “smoke-filled backroom deals,” no “cloak and dagger,” there is no reason to hide. Political partisans are are NOT enemies, we are brothers living in the same house.

Riley’s final days filled with checks, deals

Posted: Thursday, February 3, 2011 6:00 am
by Bob Martin, The Montgomery Independent, TheWetumpkaHerald.com

AL Gov. Bob Riley to BP: No lawsuit waiver on final oil spill claims

Does it come as any surprise that the Multinational Corporation BP has no allegiance or loyalty to anyone or anything save their profit, executive compensation and shareholder payouts?

And yet – as astute observers note – politics makes strange bedfellows. Appointed by President Obama, Administrator Feinberg is being paid by BP in excess of $10 Million annually. But… would Democrats have expected this kind of “favor for the people” from their president?

Pressure on Kenneth Feinberg to disclose BP pay deal
By Moira Herbst
http://in.reuters.com/article/idINIndia-53083520101122
NEW YORK | Tue Nov 23, 2010 2:03am IST
(Reuters Legal) – There has never been anything quite like Kenneth Feinberg’s $20 billion Gulf Coast Claims Facility. Established to compensate victims of the BP Plc(BP.L) oil disaster, it essentially invests one man with full power over how the money is distributed, while he is being paid by the company and unsupervised by any government body.

Gov. Bob Riley: No lawsuit waiver on final oil spill claims

Published: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 5:00 AM
Updated: Saturday, December 11, 2010, 12:06 PM
http://blog.al.com/live/2010/12/gov_bob_riley_no_lawsuit_waive.html
by Dan Murtaugh, Mobile Press-Register

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley has urged BP PLC and President Barack Obama to make sure that Gulf Coast residents don’t have to sign liability waivers to accept claims payments.

Oil spill claims czar Ken Feinberg recently launched the second stage of his claims process, in which he will offer people final settlements or interim quarterly payments.

The final settlements require the claimant to

Gulf Of Mexico Oil Disaster Governors Refuse to Activate National Guard

GOMOD – Gulf Of Mexico Oil Disaster

UPDATE:

Alabama’s Certificate of Need Law

Wow!

With what I know about Alabama’s CON law, I could write volumes! And then, the title’s enough to get me started. I decided to use the “KISS” principle – Keep It Simple, Stupid.

If you’re a follower of Alabama politics – even casually – then you most likely have heard of, or remember former Governor Don Siegelman and former HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy being convicted jointly of a “quid pro quo,” or more exactly, Siegelman was accused of accepting Scrushy’s bribe… to sit on the CON Board.

Never mind that the FBI extensively coached a known perjurer about what and how to testify – itself an illegal act – and never mind that Scrushy was appointed by two governors of two different parties to sit on the CON Board, and publicly expressed disdain for serving again. But that’s all water under the bridge. I only mentioned that because of its poignancy, and is relative to this post.

I sincerely doubt that most folks know that in Alabama, at least, not just anyone, or any organization can decide to build a hospital. For example, if Warren Buffett and Bill Gates decided that together, they wanted to gift the good people of Alabama with a hospital, they could NOT do it.

Why?

Read on to find out!

Tornado rips severe damage through Albertville, Alabama.

!*! – UPDATED – Tuesday, 27 April 2010, with aerial pics by Eric Shultz, Photographer, Huntsville Times – UPDATED – !*!

Saturday evening, April 24, 2010, around 9:30PM CST, a F3 category tornado twisted its way through the rural north Alabama community of Albertville, Alabama in Marshall County. Ironically, it was on the centennial-second anniversary of a 1908 tornado that devastated the town, nearly wiping it from the map.

Fortunately, though no lives were lost, there were about three dozen injuries reported, some severe, with one transported to another larger hospital facility out of the area.

Damage was severe, wreaking havoc and destruction in Albertville and the smaller, nearby community of Geraldine. Damage was so severe, that Albertville schools will be closed for this week,

Bob Riley loses Hyundai to Georgia

Governor Bob Riley (R), whom crowed about Hyundai Motor Manufacturing’s construction of a new plant in Montgomery, must be eating crow now.

Apparently, Hyundai will be moving OUT of Montgomery to West Point, GA.

Though federal law requires advance notification of layoffs, Hyundai officials

♫B – I – N, G, O… B – I – N, G, O was his name, oh!♫

There was a farmer had a dog and Bingo was his name, oh! B – I – N, G, O… B – I – N, G, O… B – I – N, G, O and Bingo was his name, oh!

Hi kiddies!

Today your Uncle Bob is gonna’ tell you all about his dog!

And what’s his name?

(children yell out name)

Yes! That’s right! Bingo!

And I’m gonna’ kill my dog!

Probably the only thing anyone can do in Alabama is laugh at

Madison City Schools, Superintendent, Principal & Assistant to be Sued over Todd Brown’s murder: Negligence

“The way I look at it, when that child comes to school, they become

Governor Riley’s Office Called

They’re not in.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley is under “attack.”

Poor thing!

Hey… Bob! If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!

Drivel…

That’s how I’d characterize a recent e-mail I received from “Constituent Services” in response to my question.

Here’s the bulk of the no-answer reply they sent.

Oh! My question?

Bob Riley and Troy King: The Saga Continues

It’s well known that Alabama Governor Bob Riley and Attorney General Troy King, both Republicans, have been at odds with each other over

Riley’s weakest speech ever

This evening (Tuesday, 12 January 2010), in his final “state of the state” address to the legislature and the people of Alabama, Governor Bob Riley delivered one of the worst speeches I have ever heard – it was definitely not his personal best.

The way I see it, good-bye and good riddance Bob. You’ve screwed Alabama seven years too long.

You and your cronies cry and whine over public scrutiny given to your $13,000,000 no-bid contract to some nefarious, no-name, no contact information, no website, no identity, no address “company” with ties to your Washington Republican insiders called “Paragon,” claiming no other company or person could do the work. But you’ve been proven wrong by the Huntsville Times, which reported that over 150 Alabama-based companies could have done the work you awarded to that Virginia “company”  by deliberately abandoning the publicly competitive process that saves taxpayers’ dollars.

You boast about jobs you’ve created, but at $55,600/year, which is Alabama’s average household income for a family of three, that $13,000,000 could have employed 233 people in Alabama for a year, or 117 for two years – which is the contract’s term.

It is indeed ironic that paragon means the highest and greatest example; and in this case, it is one to avoid.

Oh… and since you are the undisputed King of No-Bid Contracts – having awarding more no-bid contracts that any other governor in Alabama’s history (against which you campaigned as candidate) – let me publicly call you an ASSHOLE, LIAR and HYPOCRITE.

Alabama Governor Bob Riley addresses the people and legislature in his final "state of the state" address, Tuesday evening, January 12, 2010 in the Montgomery capitol building.

My conversation with Governor Riley’s assistant

When I called the guvnuh’s orifice a few weeks ago about the debacle of his $13,000,000 no-bid contract with Paragon whatever (which has no physical business address, no EIN, no website, no business license, no fax number, no general number or any other form of legitimate business presence), it was all I could to keep my Christian bearing, for the human female that barked at my questions…

Yup, barked… as in “woof, woof!”

Okay.

‘Nuff said.

You know, she became particularly irate when – in response to her statement, to which I patiently and attentively listened – I asked, “If this computer expert has some unique and special knowledge and ability as you suggest she does, that rather makes her like God, then, doesn’t it? No one else has either the ability or capacity to do what she has done.”

Yup.

She got mad at that question.

I don’t know why.

It’s rather simple.

And I’m not a media man.

And I told her so.

I just pay the guvnuh’s salary… and Troy’s salary too.

I guess that makes me their boss.

Yup.

I guess it does.

“I don’t consider this an increase.”

I’ll reserve at least four pejoratives for Dr. Mary Jane Caylor, who, along with other Board of Education members – save one –  voted to increase Alabama’s Community/Junior College tuition 27% in two steps, with automatic 2% increases annually beginning in 2011. Fees were not increased.

The subject line is a direct quote from her after she voted to increase costs.

I don’t think I can express adequate contempt for that idiot woman. To call her a “bitch” would denigrate female dogs.

Members of Alabama’s Board of Education oversee K-12 schools and community/junior colleges.

The solitary vote cast against the increase was from Stephanie Bell of Montgomery, who cited students’ economic difficulties not only in her district but statewide.

However Dr. Mary Jane Caylor of Huntsville was quoted as saying, “I don’t consider this an increase. I consider this an adjustment.”

So… what is this, you lying dumbf@#$? A “reverse decrease”?

Board members justified their move claiming state budget cuts amidst difficult economic times had made it necessary, and that it was the first increase in five years.

One doesn’t have to be a rocket surgeon or brain scientist to figure out that if costs are decreased, a certain amount of increase will inevitably result. Consider, for example, what might happen to higher education in Alabama if tuition costs were halved!

Could we actually increase the average level of education in Alabama by so doing?

Community/Junior College tuition per credit hour will cost $85 in spring 2010, and $90 in the fall, making the average student’s tuition $3210 per semester.

The Board members biographies and contact information may be found on the Board’s website: http://www.alsde.edu/html/boe1.asp

The Board’s members include:

• Governor Bob Riley – President;

• Joseph B. Morton – Secretary/Executive Officer;

• Dr. Mary Jane Caylor, of Huntsville, President Pro Tem, serving District 8;

• David F. Byers, Jr., of Birmingham, serving District 6;

• Gary Warren, of Haleyville, serving District 7;

• Ella B. Bell, of Montgomery, serving District 5;

• Stephanie W. Bell (no relation), of Montgomery, serving District 3;

• Betty Peters, of Dothan, serving District 2;

• Randy McKinney, of Gulf Shores, serving District 1; and

• Dr. Ethel H. Hall, of Fairfield, serving District 4.