While Ken Eyring did use most of the time allotted for speakers, he was by no means the only speaker: Alton taxpayer and conservative activist Sylvia French also spoke at the Alton Business Association’s Workforce Housing Forum (again, kudos to them for being willing to host such a forum – generally businesses steer wide of such politically loaded subjects).

In order of their speaking – Ric and Sylvia:

Previous Videos:

Read more

The people who were in attendance at the ABA Workforce Forum just did not want to stop.  Normal for this kind of an event might be 15 – 30 minutes of a Question and Answer period – this one went well over an hour (with some fireworks as well!).  Well, people are fired up, had questions, and they wanted their say as well.  It is clear that this is going to be a topic that will be going on for quite some time – and GOOD for them!  A working democracy demands an involved electrate – and as we have seen lately, it takes an involved AND educated one at the local level to ensure that higher levels of government and various NGOs just plain butt out.  Sadly, those that would want to tell others how to live, and those that act as useful idiots for them,  must be beaten back with sticks (sigh – I do wish that tar & feathers, and the stocks, were still permissible).

Here is Part 1:

Part 2:

Read more

Well, I said that there would be some fireworks – and there was.  Long time Planning Board member and long term Lakes Region Planning Commission member Mr. Tom Hoopes decided that he was going to take exception to the evening’s information.  Really, how did expect that he’d do arguing against the plain language of the HUD documents that Ken Eyring read and the RSA itself read by NH State Rep Jane Cormier?  Regardless of his intent, he did not fare well if one measured the “hoots, hollers, and snickers” from the crowd as he outright denied that what was read was wrong?

From the government docs themselves? That appears near the end of this video.

Previous Videos:

Read more

It was a long night and a long meeting – but if a topic is important, isn’t it important to take the time to discuss it correctly?  It was obvious when looking at the faces of the attendees that a lot of the information was brand new.  It was also clear, when some of the ramifications of what the legally binding documents signed on their behalf by town officials (elected or appointed) might have for them going forward.  “Strings attached” to the money might well become chains (re: Westchester County) – and they are not happy.

Nor should they.  For too long, IMHO, too many citizens have taken the apathetic view that “Hey, those that are handling this will do the right thing by us!” – never realizing that by outsourcing ALL of their responsibilities for lack of time, they haven’t realized that those officials might not have the time, either, to keep up with documents upon documents upon documents layered like onions by full timers who seemingly are driven by an agenda of “social justice”.

Part 4:

And the last video from the Forum, Part 5:

Read more

Last night, the ‘Grok was asked to cover a forum in Alton being sponsored by the Alton Business Association.  I have to hand it to those folks to be willing to sponsor such a forum on this subject as it has, is, and will become more and more political.  Their stance, as iterated by the Chair in this first video, is that if a topic is important to the Town, it is important to them even as they are going to stay neutral on the subject itself.  The ‘Grok salutes them.

Please note – last night was a very long night lasting about 3 hours.  Thus, rolling out the video will take a coupla / few days with the main Speaker being Ken Eyring of Southern NH 9/12 Project.  Also, there was a “spirited Q&A” at the end – yes, the ‘Liar card’ was thrown!  But we’ll keep that secret zipper’d up for bit (wink!).

Part 1 – Introductory Remarks:

Part 2 – NH State Rep Jane Cormier

Read more

The final speaker for the evening was Williamson M. Evers of the Hoover Institute at Stanford University where he specialized in research on education policy especially as it pertains to curriculum, teaching, testing, accountability, and school finance from kindergarten through high school.  Evers was the US assistant secretary of education for policy from 2007 to 2009.  he was a senior advisor to US Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings during 2007.  From July to December 2003, Evers served in Iraq as a senior advisor for education to Administrator L. Paul Bremer of the Coalition Provisional Authority.  In 1996 Gov. Pete Wilson appointed Evers to the earlier CA State Commission for the Establishment of Academic Content and Performance Standards.  he is the only individual to have served on both standards commissions, both of which proposed the subject matter that students should learn in each grade.

Evers was elected in November 2004 to the Santa Clara County Board of Education, on which he served until February 2007.  He is the immediate past president of the board of directors of the East Palo Alto Charter School on which he served from 1997 to 2004.

Part 1:

Part 2 and previous videos after the jump

Read more

It went right up to and a bit after 9pm – I have chopped up the session into five parts – not for content or “editing down” but simply because few people want to sit and watch long videos.

Part 1:

Part 2 et al after the jump

Read more

This past Tuesday, the ‘Grok was invited to cover Conerstone Policy Research’s Common Core Forum.  Four nationally known educators and education consultants gathered to speak to an overflow crowd at St. Anselm College’s Institute of Politics.  Topics ranged from standards to privacy to its purpose (er, not what you think it is) and data mining – all part of the Federalization of what used to be local control education process and curriculum.

While I am going to go back and review each speaker’s video again to pull out the high points, here are some points that I did write down while manning three cameras:

#1 – Race to the Top – Federal Secretary Arne Duncan’s scheme to have states to compete adopt federal protocols by “coercive Federalism” by offering grant money.  Translated by the speaker: ..“they all had to compete to get their money back“.  A subdued laughter from the crowd ensued at the visualization but realizing that it turns State and local elected and appointed officials into beggars.  So much for the real sense of Federalism.

Introductory Remarks by Ashley Pratte (Exec. Dir) and Ann Marie Banfield (Educational Liason)

#2 – Contrary to what is being said,

Read more

Jamie Gass (Director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute) spoke first.  Provided by Cornerstone:

At Pioneer, he as framed and commissioned over 60 research papers on education reform topics.  Jamie has more than two decades of experience in public administration and education reform at the state and municipal levels.  Previously, he worked at the MA Office of Educational Quality and Accountability as Senior Policy Analyst – technical Writer and in the state budget office under two MA governors.  In the 1990s, Jamie worked for the Dean of Boston University School of Education / Boston University Management Team in its historic partnership with the Chelsea Public Schools.  He has appeared on Boston media outlets.

Part 1:

Part 2 after the jump:

Read more

The second speaker of the evening was Dr. Stotsky who was a professor of education reform at the University of Arkansas and held the 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality.  She retired in December 2012.  She served as Sr. Associate Commissioner at the MA Dept. of Elementary and Secondary Education from 1999-2003 where she was in charge of developing or revising all the state’s K-12 standards, teacher licensure tests, and teacher and administrator licensure regulations.  She serve on the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Ed from 2006-2010, appointed by Gov. Mitt Romney.  She served on the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, from 2006-2008, appointed by Secretary of Ed Margaret Spellings.  Most recently she server on the Common Core Validation Committee from 2009-2010.  She was one of the five members of the Validation Committee who would not sign off on the standards as being validated.  She was also editor of NCTE’s premier research journal, Research in the Teaching of English, from 1991 – 1997.  She has published extensively in professional journals and has written several books.

Part 1:

Part 2 after the jump along with previous videos from the evening:

Read more

On the juxtaposition that some people will sign for almost anything, the Liberal Chick got a whole bunch of college kids to sign a petition that advocated to send care packages to the “Freedom Fighters” in Syria. (Video on the jump)

You know, the ones that belong to “affiliates of Al-Qaeda”?  The same Al-Qaeda groups that Obama and “Lurch” Kerry want to ally themselves with in that civil war?  I’m sorry (sorta) – sometimes, you just can’t make this stuff up – this was done on 9/10: the day before we honor those 3,000 innocents killed on our soil by……Al-Qaeda.

Read more

And yes, we have video – consider it both an addition to the audio podcasts that Steve slaves over and a backup in case we don’t have the audio.  All of the topics he mentioned, just that you can see us (plus the “extras” as we don’t don’t stop talking through the breaks!).

Segment 1
Steve and Skip

Read more