How to Win an Election? SuperPAC Edition

By Elizabeth Scheinberg

Yeah, okay, I was endorsed by the DSEA and the CEA. Let's just get that out of the way. I have a BA in English/Journalism, a couple of kids, a penchant for opening my mouth and inserting my foot, and a real desire to help kids - not adults - succeed. For some reason, the union and their PAC, then the only game in town, felt I was what they were looking for in a candidate. I took their $600 and put it to use - however I did it, or they did it, or whoever did it - I won the election based on my values and ideas. In July 2009, while my children wreaked havoc, I was sworn in and put to work. Of course, that was 2009. That was before...

Race to the Trough...a Biden Bump into 1st round winnership...a dream deal for the green Gov with a blue print for education based upon a businessman's union-busting vision quest...

If you can remember way back to Ruth Ann Minner, before we knew about the private jets and the secret land deals, there was that story in the News Journal about some boat guy's disappointment (no, not capano, totally wrong boat guy) b/c his foundation didn't get enough money from the state budget. Oh yeah, Vision 2012-15-Foundation. They asked Ruth Ann to fund it and she didn't fully ante-up and they weren't so happy. So Ruth Ann's term comes to an end, and state treasurer Jack Markell sails past the shoe-in Lt. Gov. in an upset to take the helm.

The Jack. He's here and he's got friends that have a score to settle. Recession hits and the first thing to go are the Minner Units - reading specialists? Taste that revenge. Kids don't need to read. They need to be obedient workers. Balancing the state budget will be done on the backs of our school children as education funding is raided again and again to keep the general fund stocked. And all of this is neither here nor there until a handful of local school board members, independent of each other, vote against signing an MOU with the state that would require districts to spin gold from hay or give up the first born of every tax payer. Ouch!

Now, those board members, they never had a chance. They knew they would lose the vote. (I knew I couldn't stop the freight train from coming, but I refused to vote to de-stabilize my schools with reforms that lacked longitudinal data supporting their success - damn! When did the stay-at-home momma get her smart on? Even DSEA Signed off on the MOU!) But, they certainly couldn't have realized that they were charting a course to become public enemy Number One!

So the Trough really does two things - it promotes these turnaround models that don't have longitudinal data behind them and it gives birth to a new industry, the eduformers, your basic deal of the day consultant run amok. You know the kind - they used to sell cars, then cell phones, then mortgages. Now they know how to fix your persistantly low-achieving school. They've never done it before? But, they've studied how it was done it in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and Chicago and for a gross sum of your Trough money, they can apply those models to your schools and 1..2..3... Magic... So the carpetbaggers descend on Delaware, promised room at the inn by the well-connected and well-to-do.

Just one problem - Race to the Top, PZ, Vision (which finally found it's home in the Gov's mansion) can't silence those dissenting board members. I suppose when you don't get paid for your voluntary civil service, there's really no reason to go along to get along. And two years into the fray, those board members are starting to bring others into the light. All that Trough money hasn't funnelled into the classroom and it was never supposed to. That funding was to pay the consultants and the data coaches, the experts on school reform. The Trough Team sold this plan to US DOE with great assurances that the state had 100 % buy-in. Only that was a lie. And now the public is actually starting to listen and ask questions.

SO, IF YOU'RE A VISION-ARY SKIPPER IN DELAWARE AND OWNING THE GOVERNORSHIP AND THE SECRETARY OF EDUCATIONSHIP IS NOT ENOUGH "SHIP" FOR YOU - YOU BUY SCHOOLBOARDSMANSHIP. AND HOW DO YOU DO THAT? YOU HIRE THE SAME FIRM THAT HELPED SPRINT OBAMA INTO THE WHITE HOUSE - WWW.NEWPARTNERS.COM - TO RUN YOUR SUPER PAC. FOR THOSE WHO ARE WONDERFING HOW I KNOW THIS? I ASKED GREG HARRIS, THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF VOICES 4 DELAWARE EDUCATION AND VOICES 4 DELAWARE EDUCATION ACTION FUND LAST WEEK. THANKS GREG, I REALLY APPRECIATE THAT YOU TOOK THE TIME TO TALK WITH ME. I WON'T HOLD IT AGAINST YOU THAT YOU WORK FOR BUNCH OF SELFISH, MISGUIDED, GRUDGE-HOLDING BLOWHARDS WHO COULD CARE LESS ABOUT WHAT PARENTS WANT AND MORE ABOUT WHAT BETTER SUPPPORTS THEIR BOTTOM LINE.

Stunning isn't it? Do you think the people that branded Obama come cheap? Not. This is Delaware. These are school board members. Are the businessmen, round tables, foundations, and chambers that afraid of a stay-at-home mom and a couple of other independent thinkers that they need to bring in the Obama guns? What's wrong with this picture?

I hate to tell you Skip, but I think your ship is taking on water...

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