Slippery Bill Haslam Caught in a Web of Lies

Bill Haslam and his billionaire cronies have a plan to privatize Tennessee state prisons, parks, higher education facilities and services, hospitals, and military installations, "including everything from security and custodial work to financial accounting and business operations.  

Today's News-Sentinel has more details on the Haslam plan, which is costing the state more for private consultants than the state employees assigned to come up with the implementation plan.  You might call it the Blackwater Model, after the corporate welfare contractors and mercenaries in Iraq who got filthy rich while military personnel could not feed the families back home.

From today's story:

NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam’s administration is paying more each month to three consultants retained to develop plans for privatizing management of all Tennessee government-owned real estate than it paid in salaries to four state employees assigned to the effort, state figures show. 

The team is operating under the title Strategies for Efficiency in Real Estate Management, or SEREM, and is led by Terry Cowles, who is director of the governor’s Office of Customer-Focused Government. 

It was set up earlier this year and has a goal of implementing a broad new outsourcing plan by July 1, 2016, according to SEREM documents initially obtained by WTVF-TV, though Haslam insisted last week the idea is to just explore options for saving taxpayer dollars and that he has no bias toward privatization. . . .

This news comes even as Haslam has repeatedly denied that any implementation plan has been approved.  Can an implementation plan exist without state approval??  

Haslam's Continuing Plan to Privatize Tennessee

Billionaire governor, Bill Haslam, has had his lawyers working overtime in the dark to develop a plan to Walmartize all state jobs in Tennessee.  A few days ago his team announced a wide-reaching Request for Information that allowed multinational service efficiency giant, Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL), to have the insider's track to land the contract.  Haslam's administration was cited in a state audit in 2013 for "conflict of interest" for insider dealings with JLL.

According to the Tennessean, the privatization scheme is focused on prisons, higher education, parks, hospitals, and the military:

There are 19 types of positions listed in the request, including everything from security and custodial work to financial accounting for business operations. An additional 10 "future potential components" that might be involved in any outsourcing include food services, project management and "master planning."

 And this from the Commercial Appeal:

News of the discussion was given to physical plant employees at UT Knoxville in an Employee Relations Council meeting last week, according to United Campus Workers, which represents campus facilities employees at some state colleges and universities.

The group said “the dizzying scope of the RFI threatens to affect public services and tens of thousands of jobs across every county in Tennessee.”

Tom Anderson, a purchaser in facilities at UT Knoxville, said in a statement released through United Campus Workers that the request for information’s scope “includes every person, and every job, for every building everywhere. Haslam wants to outsource our safety, health, and education to some for-profit, out-of-state company. All of the maintenance, all of the purchasing, all of the utilities, all of the human resources, all of the security, all of the cleaning, all of the administrative work in our schools, our courtrooms, our service agencies. It will hurt everyone.”

Governor Haslam Wants to Allow CorpEd's Barbic to Recruit Outside ASD School Boundaries

Tennessee's Achievement School District (ASD) was sold on the premise that its charter schools replace the lowest scoring public schools in the state, and in the process the corporate charters would raise the scores for the bottom 5 percent of public school populations up into the top 25 percent within five years.  State test score data would be used to label schools for "priority status," and the ASD would be free to use the list to target schools, beginning with those with the best real estate value, for shutdown and charter conversion.

A former CEO (Chris Barbic) of a Texas charter chain, Yes Prep, was hired to be the state's ASD superintendent in charge of handing out contracts to his buds around the country in the charter industry, with Tennessee taxpayers on the hook to pay the hundreds of millions to build this new corporate welfare operation.

Hitler once observed that a lie must be beyond mere exaggeration in order for people to believe that it must be true for, as the rationale goes, no one in his right mind would make up something that appears so obviously fantastical.  It must be true.  Well, we are now in year 3 of Barbic's grand lie of moving the bottom 5 percent into the top 25 percent within 5 years, and even those who wanted to believe such fanciful academic promises have come to realize what a outrageous lie that was from the beginning.

Unless, of course, Barbic gets lots of help to rewrite the rule and the reason for ASD's existence, to begin with.

Enter Governor Bill Haslam and Josh Edelman of the Gates Foundation to come up with a plan to help Barbic and his staff of former TFA robots to propose that ASD schools should be allowed to recruit students from outside the districts they were meant to serve and save.  Remember those lowest scoring community schools?

The proposal would permit select out-of-zone students — those who qualify for free-and-reduced lunch, who have failed statewide achievement tests, or whose parents or relatives work at an ASD school — to comprise up to 25 percent of students in any school operated through the ASD, most of which have been transitioned to charter school operators. Currently, only students who are zoned to a school in the ASD or another school in the bottom 5 percent are qualified to attend a school in the turnaround district.

With charter chains like KIPP and Yes Prep reluctant to come into situations where their brands could be tarnished by low test scorers, and with hundreds of million$ of public dollars on the table to run the corporate welfare charters that everyone in TN is excited about except the taxpayers, the ASD's reason for being, i.e., improving community schools, is suddenly not nearly as important as making ASD seem less than the crumbling failure that it is.

This latest move represents a clear sign of desperation among high rollers who wanted to make Memphis into another NOLA.  Parents and teachers across the state are calling for Barbic's bald head, and it seems to me that all of Haslam's horses and all of Haslam's men will not be able put the ASD back together again. 

Obama Visit to TN Calls New Attention to Haslam's Affluence-Assistance College Plan

Most of the kids who are applying for Haslam's "free" college tuition plan do not know they will get nothing if they are receiving Pell Grants already.  This clip from the NYTimes yesterday:

Tennessee Promise has been criticized by some who say it is structured to benefit middle-income students more than the neediest.

It is designed as a “last dollar” scholarship, paying only for tuition costs not covered by other programs. A low-income student who is eligible for a maximum Pell Grant of $5,730 would not receive assistance under the Tennessee program, because that amount would already cover tuition. A more affluent student, however, could get full tuition paid by the program.

 

Petition Demands Haslam Choose an Educator as New TN Commish

Haslam's army of TFA cult members are combing the Broad Foundation databases in search of someone with as little education knowledge, leadership, and social skills as Kevin Huffman.  Inside reports indicate no luck yet. 

Meanwhile, a petition is circulating urging Huffman to do what neither ideology nor politics tells him do:

We stand with Tennessee Strong, a network of education advocacy groups from across the State of Tennessee, and ask that you appoint a Commissioner of Education who exhibits transparency, inclusiveness, and open communication with all stakeholders in Tennessee. It is imperative that the next Commissioner of Education work openly with teachers, school leaders, parents, students, and communities to improve public education across the state. We ask that the next Commissioner appointed be a certified Tennessee public school teacher, with a minimum of 10 years experience including experience in the classroom, from a TN public school. 

The next Commissioner must focus on the critical work of creating a culture of open communication around all educational policy and potential education reform. The Commissioner should implement policies that foster the physical, behavioral, emotional, psychological, and educational well-being of all students in Tennessee. 

The ideal candidate for Commissioner will be proactive in promoting community schools and wrap-around services for all students and will strive to improve the morale and working conditions of Tennessee teachers. These taxpayers, parents, teachers, and community leaders in Tennessee respectfully ask you to appoint a Commissioner of Education who will strive for excellent public schools for every child in Tennessee.

Tennessee Strong includes:

Advocates for Change in Education (Hamilton County)

Concerned Parents of Franklin County (Franklin County)

Decoding Dyslexia Tennnessee (Statewide)

Friends of Oak Ridge Schools (City of Oak Ridge Schools)

Momma Bears (Statewide)

Parents of Wilson County (Wilson County)

SPEAK-Students, Parents, and Educators Across Knox County (Knox County)

Strong Schools (Sumner County)

Tennesseans Reclaiming Educational Excellence/ TREE (Statewide)

TNBATs (State branch of National BATs)

Williamson Strong (Williamson County)

Haslam Water Carrier, Jon Alfuth, Claims to Be the Voice of Teachers

Jon Alfuth has tapped in to the main artery of corporate welfare education reform schooling in Tennessee, with a blog up called Bluff City Education, where Alfuth leads a team of fellow TFA cult members in massaging and pasting up all the news that corporate education reformers want to frame for educator and parent consumption in West Tennessee.  

As a former drum major at UWisconsin-Madison, Jon is now leading the corporate reform school parade in Tennessee.  Who is Jon Alfuth?  

This is from his LinkedIn profile:

Jon has a post up today to announce the public portal that Haslam and his TFA Commissioner, Kevin Huffman, have offered for "public input" on what is wrong with the Common Core?  

This exercise in time killing and public spleen venting is based on the assumption that the rotted Common Core is innocent until proven guilty.  This clear sentiment is expressed in the seeping self-righteousness of Alfuth's announcement of the new site.  

This week the Governor unveiled the first step in his “full vetting of common core,” an online portal where any Tennessean can provide comments on the standards English or Math in any grade.

I took some time to complete the review process for my own content area (geometry) and wanted to provide a brief review of my experience with the portal. Overall I was very satisfied with the process. It is easy to use and puts the burden of proof on those who thing something needs to be changed. I truly believe that it should lead to a strong evidence-based review of our Tennessee State Standards.

First of all, it should be noted that Alfuth is a self-proclaimed math teacher, since none of this higher education coursework was in math education.   What he knows about teaching math, he learned on the backs of poor people's children at a charter chain gang in Memphis.

As for the “burden of proof” here, that load should be on the Governor and his corporate pals, who rammed through this untried and unstudied testing delivery system without a shred of evidence that any aspect of CCSS will have any positive effects on learning.

While the positive effects for technology companies and the testing-industrial companies will be too large to count, there have been no pilot studies conducted and no feedback gathered in early testing sites like New York, where 70 percent of kids failed the test in 2013. 

What percentage of failures would you predict in Tennessee??

If you want to understand the origins and likely outcomes of Common Core, get this documentary for just over $20.

Haslam Continues Ed Policy Based on Secrecy, Favoritism, and Dupliicty

Washington County School Board member Jack Leonard speaks Friday outside the district's central office as state Reps. Matthew Hill, Micah Van Huss and Tony Shipley listen. (Nathan Baker/Johnson City Press)

Bill Haslam is up for re-election this year, and if Tennesseans can see beyond the ends of the Obama-hating noses, they will send this anti-democratic oligarch back to the corporate offices of Pilot Oil.

His ongoing efforts to go around the public to implement CorpEd's privatization schemes now threatens to balloon into a major scandal.  This is part of a pattern that has characterized the actions of the secret and ethically-challenged Haslam:

Gov. Haslam reduced disclosure requirements for senior executive branch employees, including himself.

Since Gov. Haslam took office, the state has spent millions of dollars to buy a building from his former business partner. He signed legislation benefiting a former business partner, and used personal funds to pay a top political advisor who is also a registered lobbyist, shielding the payments from public records.

The latest from reporter, Nathan Baker, on Haslam's secret government:

July 25th, 2014 11:21 pm by Nathan Baker

Trust, and the lack thereof, was the topic of concern Friday afternoon among a group of teachers, legislators and a school board member gathered outside the Washington County School District central office before Gov. Bill Haslam and Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman arrived for a closed-door meeting with hand-picked school personnel.

The group, concerned that Common Core and other education reforms were being planned out without input from all stakeholders in the education system, held an outdoor press conference in the Jonesborough school administration building’s parking lot to call for openness and transparency from the officials.

“Tennessee’s teachers have trust issues when it comes to the implementation of Gov. Haslam’s and Commissioner Huffman’s initiatives,” Washington County teacher Jenee Peters said, listing the administration’s support of new accountability measures, school vouchers, charter schools and standardized testing, among others.

“He (Haslam) came here today to talk about the good things about Common Core, then he’s going to a barbecue to support a candidate who campaigned on the ills of Common Core,” Peters added, alluding to an invite-only Republican gathering at Washington County Mayor Dan Eldridge’s farm. “I don’t know how he can rectify that in his head.”

County school board member Jack Leonard said he first heard of the governor’s impending visit earlier this week from a group of teachers. When he inquired about the meeting to Director of Schools Ron Dykes, Leonard said he was informed that the governor’s office requested only a select few teachers, principals and superintendents from the surrounding counties and cities attend the informal discussion.

“The school board members were elected by the people to represent them in matters of education actions and policies we felt were right for the district,” Leonard said. “This meeting should have been open, so that we and the people who will be affected by these policies could share their concerns and hear the responses.”

Also among the crowd standing in the July sun were state Reps. Matthew Hill, Micah Van Huss and Tony Shipley.

Hill, who has garnered support this election cycle from teachers unions for his stand in opposition to a proposed and rescinded policy to tie teachers’ licenses to a calculated performance score derived from students’ test performance, questioned the process unfolding in the administration building.

“How do we know they’re getting all the information they should be getting?” he asked. “I believe in transparency. An open process is the best way, and it’s the way we do things in the Legislature.”
On Thursday, Haslam spokesman Dave Smith said the meeting Friday was one of 12 statewide seeking input from districts on the state of education in the state.

The guest list was kept small, he said, to help manage the direction and scope of the conversation.
Haslam and Huffman were whisked into and out of a side door at the central office by security staff, not offering a word to the group at the other end of the lot.

Near the close of the meeting, superintendents and staff from Johnson City, Elizabethton, and Sullivan, Carter and Unicoi counties filed out of the meeting room.

The last person to leave the building, Director Dykes spoke briefly with reporters, but would not comment on the purpose of the group previously gathered outside.

“All of this was organized and requested by the governor’s staff,” he said, noting collaboration between Haslam’s office and the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents to set the criteria for invitations to the meetings.

“He was seeking input from those in the trenches, he wasn’t seeking a particular group’s philosophy,” Dykes added. “He wanted a candid conversation about certain reform initiatives.”

Without discussion the content, Dykes said he believed the meeting was productive and achieved the governor’s fact-finding goal.

Follow Nathan Baker on Twitter @jcpressbaker. Like him on Facebook at facebook.com/jcpressbaker

Read more: Core concerns: Legislators, educators gather as Haslam meets with county school staff | Johnson City Press http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/article/119115/core-concerns-legislators-educators-gather-as-haslam-meets-with-county-board#ixzz38fsXOrZF

Haslam's Secret Meeting at Ground Zero of Secret Classroom Camera Project

Last year we were able to uncover details of a Gates-funded student and teacher surveillance plan that gathered classroom video data and dumped it into a corporate Cloud for sharing among, who knows?

Now it seems Governor Haslam is meeting undercover with a group of "educators" in Washington County to find out "what works and what's not."  Wonder if the Gov plans to keep it all to himself once he finds out.  Apparently, the real educators of Washington County want to know when the Governor learns it:

What organizers are calling an outdoor gathering Friday in the parking lot of the Washington County School District’s central office is intended to shed light on a closed-door meeting taking place inside between the governor and selected school officials.

The meeting is one of 12 planned throughout the state, said Gov. Bill Haslam’s spokesman, Dave Smith, each closed to the public and news media to allow candid discussion between the governor and invited teachers and principals.

“The governor wants to hear from those in the room about what’s working and what’s not,” Smith said. “Common Core usually comes up, so do assessments and whatever else is on their minds.”

But the group of teachers and parents planning the counter meeting, which they emphasized is not a protest but a way for all of the stakeholders involved in the education process to encourage openness and transparency, said they’re worried they may not be accurately represented in the private meeting.
“We’re just concerned that there won’t be an open dialogue,” Washington County teacher Jenee 
Peters said. “The people going into this meeting to represent us are not our true representation.”

Susan Kiernan, the county district’s communications director, who said she would be setting up the meeting room, but was not invited to the discussion herself, said she believed the governor’s office made out the guest list.

Smith, of Haslam’s office, said the list of personnel for the meeting was recommended to the 12 districts by the Tennessee Organization of School Superintendents.

“They’ve taken the lead in inviting staff, because we want to keep it to a manageable-sized group,” Smith said.

According to Smith, Haslam has already attended eight such meetings in the state.

Earlier this week, one of those meetings in Bradley County drew criticism from elected school board members, who were shut out of the event by administrators, then informed after the fact by an email that the governor required that neither the school board nor the media be advised of the meeting.
Planning to be present at the outdoor meeting are several Washington County Board of Education members, who said they were likewise left off the guest list.

“We certainly should have been invited,” board member Phillip McLain said. “It’s a meeting about education in the state and we’re the Board of Education.”

McLain said he may not be able to attend the event, but school board member Jack Leonard confirmed his attendance and Peters said David Hammond had also given a verbal commitment to be present.

State Reps. Matthew Hill and Micah Van Huss, both in the midst of campaigning for re-election, are also planning to attend the open event.

“I think we all agree that we’re happy the governor is visiting Washington County,” Hill said from the Jonesborough street corner opposite the old courthouse, where he’d spent most of the day encouraging early voters to mark his name on their ballots. “What we’re doing isn’t adversarial. Both myself and Rep. Van Huss have been getting calls and emails from people worried about this meeting who think they should be included, and we don’t feel their requests are unreasonable.”

Peters said the attendees at the gathering aren’t planning to confront Haslam, but will give speeches outlining their concerns with the way the state Education Department has put in place reforms in recent years.

Teachers from Washington and Greene counties are expected there, as are their counterparts from Johnson City.

The outdoor gathering is scheduled for 3 p.m., about 25 minutes before the governor’s expected arrival for the closed meeting.

Broadie McIntyre Demotes Top Ranked Principal to Make Room for Corporate Leadership Trainees

With an anonymous gift (is that a Broad smell or Gates?) and RttT money, UTK and Knox County Schools have been churning out corporate-trained school administrators since 2011.  Jim McIntyre, KCS Broad-trained Superintendent, needs to place these new and inexperienced administrators in order to satisfy the oligarch who is funding the "leadership academy."  Here is pic of Tennessee's oil executive governor with McIntyre and one of the "academy's graduating classes.

What do you do to make room for the newbies funded by the oligarchs?  If you are a professional a-hole like Jim McIntyre, you pick the top-notch experienced educator (23 years) and humane leader to demote and shove back into the classroom, even when that person has topped out on the state evaluation plan.  Level 5.  The local news in Knoxville won't cover the story, so we had to find where it was printed: in a local shoppers' guide (click story to enlarge):