"A child's learning is the function more of the characteristics of his classmates than those of the teacher." James Coleman, 1972

Friday, March 25, 2011

A Bit 'o Background on Stand for Children's Lobbyist in Texas...

Question: What do you do after working on Dubya/Cheney's Presidential campaign, helping orchestrate a number of Republican victories, and buying Karl Rove's consulting firm?
Answer: Work as a lobbyist for Stand for Children-Texas!
No, this isn't a joke - it's entirely true...
From the Delisi Communications website (click on Ted Delisi):
When Karl Rove moved full-time to the Bush Presidential campaign in 1999, Ted purchased Rove’s consulting and direct mail company. The new company served as the sole direct mail fundraising firm for the Bush/Cheney campaign in 2000 and coordinated the get out the vote and direct mail efforts in several key battleground states. 
And from the Texas Ethics Commission website:
Believe it or not, the lobbyists above account for less than half of SFC-TX's army: they also hired five lobbyists from The Graydon Group. Two more people, including SFC-TX's executive director, are registered as lobbyists for the group.

SFC-TX already has a "Great Texas Teachers" campaign, and they've expressed support for two bills: SB 4 and HB 1587. The former bill requires that half a teachers evaluation be based on "standardized achievement data of the teacher's students, including the assessment instruments administered under Section 39.032". The latter bill recommends performance evaluations "which must include student performance on assessment instruments administered under Section 39.023 and other student learning objectives and outcomes," which is ever so slightly more benign than the language in SB 4 (but would likely result in the same result: a heckuva lot of value-added nonsense).
I guess someone has to carry the Dubya legacy. Looks like we have have found that illustrious torchbearer.

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