Post election must reads

Dem victory in NC county election ends high-profile battle over control of Wake school board

"Incumbent Wake County school board member Kevin Hill defeated challenger Heather Losurdo in a runoff tonight to complete a Democratic election sweep that knocks Republicans out of power after a turbulent two-year reign."

Speaking of Education Rocket City Bloggers on Education is a must, must, read.

Education is an amazing, miraculous process of communicating, uncovering and connecting with our brothers and sisters who are passing through this world with us. It is, to steal a line, our last, best hope of co-creating a world in which we would all want to live.

Union-busting, homophobic Michigan state Rep. Paul Scott narrowly recalled If only Alabama had Recall. Sigh

Scott was dragged kicking and screaming onto Tuesday's ballot, filing multiple challenges in court, but not only did his opponents collect enough signatures to trigger a recall despite having just two weeks to collect them, he lost repeatedly in court

Virginia is the new Alabama. You get the BatS#it Crazy you vote for.

86 votes in a low turnout (!!!!) election. And yes, there have been voting anomalies.

The state Board of Elections said there had been “isolated issues” at some polls but characterized them as “normal Election Day issues.”

In the Washington region, some counties reported only a handful of problems on Election Day, but others experienced dozens of baffled voters at individual polling places. That was most often the case in Fairfax County, due to redistricting.

But local elections officials characterized the problems on Tuesday as minor.

Russell Pearce Wanted Illegals Out, Now He’s The Out Snicker You hear that Mo and Scott?

2011 Ohio Election Results, some wrong, some right pun intended.

Well, Ohio still can't seem to get it right on federal health care, but never the less Ohioans did get it right more often than not, in this off year election last night. Issue 3, was largely a symbolic vote against what the GOP calls Obamacare. It was really on the ballot so that the GOP/teabags can mount a court challenge to health care. Issue 3 spoke to the mandate requiring that all Americans have health care.
If the federal health care mandate is wrong...then so is the requirement for having insurance, in general, Right? Think the business driven GOP is going to kill one its staunchest allies, the insurance industry? I think not, in the long run. So we will have these skirmishes until SCOTUS rules.

Election Lesson: Republicans Learn That Americans Aren't Quite as Crazy as They Are: Warning this is from the rude pundit so it raw but real.

Unjustifiable

How can such religious wealth and opulence possibly be justified when there are so many starving children in the world? And I'm not just picking on the Catholics. The $1000 suits, Cadillacs, and mansions of many evangelical and mainline protestant ministers are just as bad. Can this possibly be justified by the gospel of Jesus they claim to believe in?

Update~Just how much of a bonus should Dr. Wardynski receive for his work this year?

According Geek Palaver this was the hot topic at last nights Huntsville City School Board meeting. For those who don't know Wardynski is the new Judge, Jury and Executioner hired by the south Huntsville City School Civic (sic) Association to;
Casey you have to break the mold and prove you're not afraid of minorities, democrats, liberals, aclu types and the entire entitlement crowd! Do that, and you'll be doing the job you were hired to do! Oh yeah, not to mention striking down all racial transfers. And that includes allowing not allowing whites to racially transfer either. If you don't like where your child goes to school, move to where they can be zoned into a school of your preference, that's what I had to do!

Now this is how the School Board *cough cough* dressed it up. h/t Geek Pavaler

In case you missed it, tonight the board had yet another discussion about how to evaluate Dr. Wardynski. The board has proposed five goals by which Dr. Wardynski will be evaluated. These are:
Accelerate Learning at All Levels
Increase Flexibility in the General Fund Budget While Preserving Educational Programs
Build Bench Strength Though Strategic Staffing
Improve Capital Infrastructure
Meet Department of Justice Requirements to Deserve Unitary Status

Board VP David Blair opened the bidding at$10,000 which was supported by his south Huntsville Civic (sic) Association sidekick Dr. Jennie Robinson, who believes that he deserves a bonus because he’s refusing to hire teachers, aides, and other support personnel. Ain't that a dip?

In any event the discussion of a bonus is *ahem* moot IMHO because Dr. Wardnynski isn't going to meet the goals set forth by the south Huntsville Civic (sic) Association via the School Board. I guess they've forgotten, the certified instructional leader is sitting at home drawing a salary.

What is his plan to accelerate learning for all levels and how in the world is he going to accomplish this without certified teachers and support personnel? And the United States Department of Justice has already told the Huntsville City School System not to even think about being granted unitary status.

The District’s 2007-2008 overall student enrollment was 43.1% black and 48.7% white. However, the majority of the District’s 47 schools were racially identifiable black or white due to the composition of their respective student bodies.

The only goal I see him accomplishing is Building Bench Strength Though Strategic Staffing, translation hire more high paid consultants from out of state while firing local teachers and administrators and balancing the budget on the backs of students.

The Board was so busy trying to figure out how much of our tax dollars to give Wardynski they didn't have time to answer any irritating unanswered questions.

Why is the superintendent, with 11 months experience, making $55,000 above the minimum posted salary?

Why is the deputy superintendent making $7,000 above the maximum posted salary?

Why is the new CSFO making $130,000 a year (or $16,000 more than the previous CSFO)?

Why have all three of the senior members of the central office all come from Aurora, Colorado?

Why has the board unanimously approved 142 of 147 recommendations, most without discussion? (Only 5 have received any dissenting votes. All 147 recommendations from January through August have been approved.)

Why is the board discussing bonuses for the Superintendent and senior staff when they have frozen everyone else’s salaries?

Why are there different policies for hiring administrative staff and teachers where administrators get to name their own salaries, while teachers cannot be hired for more than the state-minimum?

Why is the special education budget being cut from FY2011 to FY2012 by $7 million making up 61% of the total savings projected in the budget from FY2011 to FY2012?

Why have 25 special education coordinators/therapists been moved out of the central office?

Why is the only standard for success used by the board that, “we’re not being sued?”

Why was the FY2012 budget approved before responding to public questions?

Why does the superintendent need so many aides?

If you care about the future of the Huntsville public school system you will get involved.

If you want the best school system possible for all of our kids, including yours, you will get involved.

If we all work together we can win this war just like they did in Wake County (Raleigh) North Carolina.

In a beautiful reversal of fortunes from the 2009 Wake County, NC School Board elections, the people of Raleigh / Cary and greater Wake County turned out and elected 4 new Democratic School Board members. Not only that, but they also took down long time conservative board chairman Ron Margiotta! The dismantling of the Nationally recognized and applauded Wake County diversity plan will now slow and begin some reversal as well.

More on how voters fought the corporate take over of the school district in North Carolina.

Voters in Wake County, N.C. headed to the polls yesterday in high numbers to reject a slate of conservative Republican Board of Education candidates who opposed a longstanding diversity policy aimed at avoiding high-poverty and racially-isolated schools.

The big win for Democrats and desegregation represents a big loss for conservative benefactor Art Pope, who served as the architect of the 2009 school board election that saw an anti-diversity Republican majority win control of the officially nonpartisan body, and who along with his political network backed yesterday's losing candidates. Pope is one of the most influential money men in North Carolina politics and is a close national ally of the billionaire Koch brothers through his role as a national director of the conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity, which backs school privatization and whose North Carolina chapter helped Republicans in the 2009 school board race.

Education is the HOPE of the republic.