The Echo

Dear Christina,

Despite the insinuations of Voices for Delaware Education Action Fund that Shirley Saffer is at fault for the heavy-handed behavior that DOE and Gov. Markell dealt to Christina last spring for Christina's Board of Education's attempt to address failures in the implementation of our state-approved plan for hiring teachers in our PZ schools, I refuse to allow Mrs. Saffer to take all the credit.

A year later, I continue to be proud that I took a stand on the issue of fidelity and accountability for my Christina constituents and in that spirit I offer to you the words I published last April after the revote that restored the funding.  To this day, changing my vote to allow a failed process to stand continues to be the one vote in my three years in Christina that I regret.  While I will own that I changed my vote to allow funding to flow again, I am more sure than ever that I should not have; I buckled to the bully in the school yard.  I should have demanded more from our Department of Education to compel all school districts to implement Race to the Top and PZ plans with more than substantial compliance, but with FIDELITY!  And in that regard, Christina, I failed you.  It is a mistake that I will not make again.

Reprint from April 30, 2011

My very deeply personal statement to Christina constituents. This is my opinion and only mine.

Dear Christina,

Tonight, I ceded to the political coercion thrust upon our district through the media manipulation and propaganda campaign purported by the Governor of Delaware and his Department of Education to cripple our board's good faith action to rectify what I truly believe was the poor implementation of the PZ teacher selection process.

I voted with my fellow board mates to rescind the April 19th board action to retain and retrain our teachers at their current campuses. There has never been a more tortured dilemma before me. I continue to believe that the Department of Education failed to promote collaboration when they chose to freeze our funding without expressing their concerns directly to the board and giving us the opportunity to re-evaluate and initiate corrective action.

The spirit of collaboration is now dead. There is no "kinder, gentler DOE," as representatives have so publicly proclaimed. There is no desire to learn and share best practices. There is only their way or the highway. Christina, for my naiveté, I am deeply sorry. I will not rest well tonight. The weight of this failure weighs much too heavily in my heart. While I am committed to continue the reforms that our community has supported, I will forever know that my vote on April 19th was right, appropriate, fair, and in the best interest of our students.

The vote I cast tonight, Christina, was for you, to walk the path delineated by the Department of Education, if Christina is ever to reclaim the $11 million stolen from our children. The future is in their hands. Apparently, it always has been.

Jack Markell for President, he'll be right at home in Washington D.C.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth