Pandemic… Divisive Politics…and Now War!!! Issues impacting the lives of our children…everyday…
And because of this, right here in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis, along with many of his republican followers…
Are doing all they can to restrict what are children learn in history… a school’s freedom the choice to wear masks; and prohibiting the rights of children who may be gay, to talk with their teacher about their concerns; In addition, now promoting cameras in classrooms to watch what is happening!!!
Here in my former school district, We were so fortunate to have a strong advocate for our children… Our school superintendent, recently got fired because of her outspokenness for advocating for our children’s freedom…She stood up to our governor…
I pray for the children and people of Ukraine… And the other countries of the World who struggle with their freedoms through war… How will this “time in our history” affect our children
Now is the time!!! We must give our children better opportunities…Yet, because of all the divisiveness these circumstances make it extremely challenging…
We must vote, and speak out… And give support to those who Advocate for our Children.. Our President can not do it alone…
The U.S. Department of Education is warning the Florida’s Department of Education it could face sanctions if it continues to penalize school districts that implement mask mandates.
The political divide affecting our school’s health and safety during these most challenging of times is requiring the U.S. Dept of Education get more involved…
Our local school district here in Alachua County, Florida has always put the safety needs of our children first and continues to stand firm…
Since Carlee Simon’s quick appointment to the Alachua County school superintendent job, she has captivated the district with her strong and unorthodox leadership and unwavering stance during the COVID-19 pandemic…
U.S. Dept of Education threatens state education leaders over school masking By Jake Stofan Published: Oct. 26…
The U.S. Department of Education is warning the Florida’s Department of Education it could face sanctions if it continues to penalize school districts that implement mask mandates…
The letter is the latest escalation in a continued back and fourth between local governments, the state and feds over masking in schools.
The letter from the U.S. Department of Education comes in response to the state vowing to withhold additional money from school boards if they backfill their salaries with federal dollars...
Alachua Superintendent Dr. Carlee Simon told us her district never took the federal aid.
But we are watching, and in the event that we needto draw down funding from the federal government, when we do, we will let the commissioner know,” said Simon.
The letter threatens enforcement action, but the state isn’t backing down.
In a statement, the Florida Department of Education called the letter ‘legally hollow’ and said it would continue forward, ‘lawfully, as we have this entire time’.
“Governor DeSantis is in the catbird seat,” said State Representative Randy Fine.
Fine, who chairs the House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee, said while it’s not clear exactly what the feds are threatening, he sees no reason for the state to worry…
“It ends when California and New York taxpayers pay for education in Florida, which I think would be an outstanding outcome and I hope President Biden does it,” said Fine.
The school masking debate is expected to enter the halls of the Capitol in an upcoming special session, and it’s a Republican State Senator from Alachua County who is leading the charge.
Senator Keith Perry’s bill would make any school mask mandate null and void…
Dr. Simon called the proposal shortsighted.“Right now we’re talking about COVID… What about other future viruses that might come about?” said Simon.
And Rep. Fine told us beyond the legislation, school districts that fought the state over masking should expect additional punishment saying he doesn’t think they will have a good budget year…
Rep Fine also said he believes local officials that implement mask mandates should face criminal charges, but the legislation currently on the table does not include any specific penalties…
We must be vigilant and strong for our children’s health and safety… Especially when there is such divisiveness between local and state governmental controls… Speak out!!!
Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to assist local law enforcement to investigate threats to school officials on Oct. 4, 2021…
In the past, historically, school board members are elected by a community to make important decisions about our schools…They have a local authority… Their meetings are open to the public…to discuss issues that may be concerning…
However since the influence of our political divisiveness…These meetings are being attended by an outside influence of political activists who utilize threats of violence…
WH aided school board group’s ‘domestic terrorism’ letter before Garland sicced FBI on parents By Samuel Chamberlain
October 21, 2021…
In a letter to the president last month, the head of the nation’s largest school board association reached out to the Biden administration before suggesting that parents who object to mask mandates and the imposition of critical race theory in classrooms are engaging in “a form of domestic terrorism,” the emails show…
Garland announced on Oct. 4 that the FBI would take the lead on probing what he called “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”
Arguments over education and cultural issues are nothing new, said Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, recalling debates on how math is taught and the Common Core… But this year is different.
“There have always been disagreements that were discussed, if not necessarily amicably, at least respectfully,” Domenech said. “The climate is very different now, what we’re seeing around the country. School board meetings that actually turned violent, where the police have to be called, people that are disrespectful, they’re shouting and shoving.”
“It’s something that we have not seen on a scale that we are seeing it now,” he said.
So very proud and inspired by the voices of our children from my former district in Alachua County, Florida; advocating for their own health and safety; trying not to get Covid…
This message from them should inspire all of us to wear that mask…and get vaccinated for our children…
#DemandBetterFL
Please listen to their message advocating for themselves… Their lives…
Never before have I been so concerned and extremely frustrated with a school year…than the present…
Having had such hope with President Biden funding our schools though the AmericanRescue Plan….
However, because our Country is so divided… Republican controlled states are causing such chaos between state and local school districts… over the safety of our children due to the new delta variant…
This new variant is causing children to be hospitalized and even dying…
And we here in Florida have our Governor Ron DeSantis, who does not care!!!
His hashtag being known as… #DeathSantis…
We must #voteblue 2022
Because… He is making reckless decisions based solely on his political aspirations, appealing solely to his base rather than the safety of our children…and the people of Florida…
Especially…prohibiting the mandate of wearing a mask…And refusing to mandate those older than 12 to get vaccinated… these necessary, safety protocols….
#DeathSantis does not want school districts to provide the necessary safety protocols!!!
And will even go to great lengths to withhold funds…
Many of our districts are rebelling…They know wearing a mask is essential to protect our children hospitalizations and deaths…And DeSantis is not allowing a true count of how many are really affected!!!
There are those citizens here in Florida litigating his authoritarian mandates…And if there was a remote possibility, even recalling him would definitely be an option…
Our only real option is to continue with #goodtrouble…As the late Representative John Lewis had said…And pass John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act… Before it is too late…
Do not get lost in despair…We will be hopeful…💕🙏🏼🌈😷🇺🇸
Not since the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the candidate who would have prioritized our children, and their right to a strong public education….
And Donald Trump becoming President…a staunch supporter of the privatization of schools, and his choice of Betsy Devos…an unqualified supporter of privatization…as his secretary of education…
Because of their intent….Our schools are in crisis…Our children and public schools are systematically being dismantled… We have a critical teacher shortage due to unrealistic demands like arming teachers….and poor pay….And our public schools lack resources for necessary programs because their funds being diverted to…
Charter Schools…Profit and Non Profit… schools that do not have the oversight and same regulations and standards that public schools must adhere to…And our tax dollars fund…
With the upcoming presidential election in 2020, we certainly have a crucial opportunity to change all this for our children!!!
We have a strong chance to save our public schools if we elect a democratic candidate… one who supports our children who count on a public school education…There are now about 24 candidates who are in this race…
It is important to listen to the candidates, and how they plan to prioritize our children…with policies that will strengthen our public schools…And I do have my eye on a few…
One candidate that had impressive educational credentials…yet virtually unknown is Michael Bennet…a former school superintendent and senator from Colorado…
He was superintendent of Denver Public Schools from 2005 to 2009…Bennet was closely tied to the education reform movement;
Closing low-performing Denver schools ; changing the district’s merit pay system in a way that favors newer teachers. Both were decisions unfavorable to veteran teachers and some students….but he has since realized these mistakes …
During the Obama administration, as a senator, Bennet did help author the Every Student Succeeds Act, the overhaul of No Child Left Behind….
Bennet is a vocal opponent of Education Secretary Betsy DeVos!!!
Where he now calls for preschool for all…
Another strong candidate choice is Joe Biden…former vice president…As Barack Obama’s vice president, Biden is tied to the many education policies that Obama encouraged…
Although many of which were detrimental including: evaluating teachers in part through their students’ test scores, the expansion of charter schools, and common standards for what students should learn… President Obama has since regretted these policies, and did enact the Every Student Succeeds Act in December of 2015…
Biden’s plan is to implement more funding into public school education; tripling Title I funding, implementing universal pre-kindergarten, and doubling the number of health professionals in schools…
Biden also said he doesn’t support any federal funding going to for-profit charter schools…However his education platform doesn’t mention charters…
Another concern I had, although happened so long ago, was revealed during the first debate by California Senator Kamala Harris, asking Biden if he was wrong to oppose busing back in the sixties and seventies…
Biden’s answer…“I did not oppose busing in America,”… “I opposed busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed.”
Relating to my own personal experience, as a young teacher during those critical years…I knew busing was the only solution to integrate our schools and federal intervention was most definitely needed!!!
His stance has evolved, and recently expressed in reinstating Obama-era desegregation guidelines that were repealed by the Trump administration in July 2018…
Biden has stated, the first thing he would do as president is to appoint a teacher as education secretary!!!
I have always thought highly of Cory Booker, the senator from New Jersey…. However he not always advocated for public schools…
Booker too has been a leader in the school choice movement.. promoting charter schools, test-based accountability for low-performing schools, and ratings for teachers linked to student performance…Healso has supported private school vouchers, a policy few Democrats favor. He is currently a cosponsor of a bill to reauthorize the federally funded D.C voucher program…
However… Booker has evolved too as many of the candidates…. even plans to run “the boldest pro-public school teacher campaign there is,” noting that his state’s teachers unions had previously endorsed him…
Booker now states… “I’m a guy who believes in public education and, in fact, I look at some of the charter laws that are written about this country and states like this and I find them really offensive,” !!!
Booker has also stated he wants to provide better health care access to low-income communities in order to give those children better health care, so they would be more successful in school…
Pete Buttigieg, is the young mayor of South Bend, Indiana and an up and coming… candidate…Who may be lacking in years of experience however an ageless wisdom that accentuates hisintelligence…
He too, as many of the candidates indicate wants higher teacher pay… More Federal funds allocated to Title I schools… Wants debt free college…Does not believe for profit-charter schools as part of his vision…And he strongly opposes Florida’s guardian program, which gives districts the option to arm their staff.….“It’d be such an enormous, condemnation of our country if we were to to become the only developed nation where this is necessary.”
Julian Castro former secretary of housing and urban development…is another candidate with strong ideas for children and public schools…and whose wife was a former public school math teacher for many years….
As mayor of San Antonio, Castro expanded Pre-K acess, having more children in high-quality early childhood programs…If elected president, Castro wants to create a grant-funded, universal “Pre-K for USA” program…
He’s even created a ” People First Education” platform which will fund $150 billion to grow technology in schools…. ending tuition in public colleges….Raising teacher pay by $10,000…and ideas for safety and policing in schools…
He would promote school integration through efforts to integrate housing and “voluntary busing.” … recalling from his own personal experiences…“Today we’re still grappling with so many of the same issues that we were grappling with 30, 40, 50 years ago.”
One candidate who is one of my favorites...Kamala Harris, a former prosecutor, now a senator fromCalifornia…who strongly advocates for our children and publicschools…
One of her education ideas is to propose federal funding to boost teacher salaries by an average of $13,000…and supports an increase school funding…Stood up for better working conditions in her state when California’s teachers went on strike…She has criticized Betsy Devos and has rejected the education secretary’s suggestion for arming teachers…
She is also proposing more federal funding to boost scholarships, research, and grants to historically black colleges and universities…And as a prosecutor, has prosecuted cases involving charter schools and truancy…
Amy Klobochar, senator from Minnesota…is one to watch…She was a front runner, but has fallen behind…
She too is a strong advocate for public schools….She wants in increase infrastructure by a trillion dollars to repair schools, increase teacher pay, make community colleges free, reduce rates on student loans, and expand Pell grants…
She is against private school vouchers and hold higher standards to charter schools…
Beto O’Rourke has become quite popular…He is a former representative from El Paso, Texas…He ran against Ted Cruz in 2018 for his senate seat…And now a vocal advocate gun reform…
He does support non-profit charter schools; believing they enhance innovation…Vocally opposes vouchers and taking funding away from public schools…
Beto’s children attend public schools and his wife was a former public school teacher…Now recruiter for new charter schools and launched a dual-language charter in El-Paso…
He is against high- stakes testing…Funding our schools with $500 billion that will help close the racial barrier inequities, and increase teacher pay … And for those teachers having at least taught for five years… debt forgiveness on their college loans…
Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont…is one of the most popular candidates espousing many of the progressive policies for the democratic platform…And was very powerful running in 2016 against Hillary…
Sanders has developed a 10-point platform called A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Education… outlining his program will include tripling Title I funding, and spending $5 billion on summer and after-school programs. He also proposes using federal funding to promote school integration…He has proposed making community college free for all…
He too has supported the teacher strikes…by paying them a starting teacher salary of at least $60,000… Restraining charter school growth by eliminating federal monies…and ban profit charter schools (which presidents do not have the authority)…
As a senator he voted against the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001. In June, he introduced student loan forgiveness, expand what Pell grants can pay for, and eliminate tuition at public four-year colleges and universities.
Last is Elizabeth Warren another of my favorites…She is a senator Massachusetts…An advocate for progressive policies… although supports non profit charter schools…
Warren’s platform is progressive…She wants free community college…and student loan forgiveness…Her Pre-K plan will have a sliding scale for tuition, and those in poverty, tuition will be free… As of yet Warren has not shared her K-12 policy plan… In the past….She formally supported accountability testing…Which Warren now believes an education is not about testing…
She has shared she will appoint a public school teacher as her secretary of education…and has definitely stated her disapproval for the current secretary of education… Betsy Devos…
I have included Marianne Williamson, author and activist to be extremely interesting because of her philosophical ideas and approach to a political run for president…
Williamson believes that undereducation is a form of oppression…And wants a change…A whole-person educational system…and less testing…
These eleven candidates may be strong possibilities, and have some beneficial ideas for our children and public education… However there are thirteen more…We have our next debates on September 12 and 13… And there may be changes until those dates…and some may not qualify for the debates…
But the one critical factor I am counting on is …
Our children and their right to a strong public school education…must be that priority… 💙🇺🇸🍎
It will be up to all of us…united to support a candidate that will make that happen…
When will educating all our children be a priority?
At the beginning of my teaching career in the early seventies… schools were finally integrated and and the funding of federal programs such as Head Start…were in place to provide the necessary resources to help with educating all children that were in need ….
I was so inspired and hopeful to be a part of this moment…We were giving our children opportunities they never had before….
However, progress slowed down in the nineties due to the enactment of “No Child Left Behind”… by then Florida Governor Jeb Bush…
This policy would continue through the millennium and into the present….
Even with the Obama administration, who too, was a proponent of privatization and the charter school movement…Monies that had once been allocated to our public schools were now being funneled back into private schools with our tax dollars; Affecting many of the necessary resources and programs that had been in place, providing our children… a chance for that strong, public education….
We in turn began utilizing into the curriculum, thanks to Bill Gates and his Foundation… Core Curriculum, a developmentally inappropriate curriculum; which included the use of a sophisticated battery of standard testing…
Trying to bridge this learning gap associated to those children who struggle …
Now resulting in an inappropriate program with more objectives and standards for children to master…With fewer resources to meet those standards!
Then, just before President Obama left office, finally realizing our children in public schools deserved more opportunities to achieve success, he signed:
The Every Student Succeeds Act in December 2015 that governs the United States K–12 public education policy. This new law was to replace , the No Child Left Behind Act, …This was to be that wonderful opportunity for all children…
Mary Towers has been an inspiration to both; my professional and personal life…
Our story begins when I was hired by Mr. Bill Irby, principal of Alachua Elementary School, in Alachua, Florida; in the fall of nineteen seventy-three… I was hired for a paraprofessional position…
Before then, I had been a beginning teacher at Browning Pearce Elementary, in Palatka, Florida… traveling ninety miles daily… Alachua Elementary was fifteen miles from my home; so I accepted this position… I was assigned to tutor first grade students who needed extra support…Hoping that if a teaching position would become available…I would be hired…
Mary was one of the five teachers I was to assist in an open classroom; Learning Community A… LCA, as it was called; housed five classrooms, four of which were first grade and one was kindergarten; with over one hundred students separated only by partitions…I was to be placed with my small group, in the middle of this very large room divided by furniture and mobile chalkboards… Believe it or not, it it was not all that noisy…
On my very first day, I will never forget how I met Mary… I was walking through the unit, being introduced by the team leader, Chris Hirsch, to the teachers of the team in LCA… Mary being one of them, was very busy with a particular student…A little girl in her class was in the bathroom dealing with intestinal worms, and Mary was taking care of this most challenging situation…How impressed I was by how Mary was managing such a situation …
It was then, after a year, my wish came true…I did get reassigned to teach a first grade class!
And then, opening up the very next year in nineteen and seventy-five; one of the most special of my teaching opportunities opened up!
I was to team with Mary Towers, a professional relationship lasting nine years…. ending in 1984…when Mary retired…
This special opportunity arose in the summer of seventy-five, when Mr.Irby, offered me a co-teaching position with Mary, in a newly federally funded, early childhood education program called ECPC… The Early Childhood Preventative Curriculum Program...
This innovative program was designed as an intervention for diverse, young children who were screened in kindergarten, exhibiting difficulties with their learning…
This center based program was designed with no more than sixteen students, assisted by a full-time aide who would be responsible for the reinforcement associated with specific activities; that would build upon the deficits, diagnostically determined through pre and post tests through the child’s auditory, visual, kinesthetic, and tactile learning styles…
Mary and I each had our own group of children assisted by our full time aide.. Our class was housed within the large classroom in LCA…which now had mobilized walls separating each of the five classrooms; providing the children less distractions…
Our morning time was devoted to four specific centers that incorporated the curriculum:
Reading; Follow Up Reading, and Language Arts activities: Listening; and last “Willy Worm” an aide directed center with specific activities prescribed by the pre and post testing…
The reading curriculum utilized, the SullivanProgrammedReaders…a successful program of the time…. teaching children decoding skills in reading context within a linguistic progression of sound-symbol relationships...
Teaching those nine years with Mary really flew by!!…Sadly both our Team and ECPC Program ended with Mary’s retirement... Mary and I can look back and be quite proud of what our children accomplished from the Early Childhood Preventative Curriculum Program…
Many of our children went on to have successful lives; some going into local politics and a few playing collegiate and professional football…
Mary made this for me…when she retired…1984….
As I have reflect on our years together, this special relationship provided me the knowledge and experiences I learned from teaching with Mary…enabling me to evolve into a strong teacher…
Not only has Mary been such an influence on me professionally…Personally, Mary has been a guiding support even more so…
Having lost my mother when I was a senior in high school…I always felt a little lost…Mary was close in age to what my mother’s age would have been…And having such a warm connection with Mary…I always believed my mother, placed Mary in my life for a special reason…I have felt blessed to have Mary in my corner for these forty plus years…
Through the many years I have learned so much about Mary’s beautiful family; especially now that her husband’s recent passing,..Her four children never leave her side…
Mary will be one hundred this year, and she still lives in the same house that she and her husband built after World War II; on land that has been in her family for generations … There are always family gatherings with her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, other family members and close friends …
What I dearly appreciate truly about Mary is about service and sacrifice, pertaining to her husband Frank Towers ….their story; how they met and married during World War II…Frank was a true hero of the War…He was a commissioned officer in the 30th Infantry Division during the Invasion at Normandy and helped in the liberation of the Jewish Holocaust survivors on a train from the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp….
Mary was still actively involved in my life even in her early nineties…The years passing we have kept our special lunches just to keep in touch…
Then when I began teaching at Idylwild in 20O7…She and her husband offered to assist me in my move to be closer to Idylwild…Utilizing their large van and Frank’s technological skills….with my computer…
Mary would even volunteer in my classroom…I so loved and appreciated her help…
She did so much: she would help any child that needed assistance with their math or reading; at home she would make all the children flash cards for reading practice; bring in much needed school supplies; make our individual math packets… Our children and Idywild loved her…And in 2011 Idywild nominated Mary for “Volunteer of the Year…
With my retirement in 2015…I have moved to Palm Coast, to be closer to the ocean…
I am still loving and appreciating Mary…
And… so looking forward to coming back to Gainesville; spring and fall…celebrating our friendship with our special lunch dates…
Not since the defeat of Hillary Clinton, the candidate who would have prioritized our children, and their right to a strong public education….
As I have reflect on our years together, this special relationship provided me the knowledge and experiences I learned from teaching with Mary…enabling me to evolve into a strong teacher…
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 