I spoke to two state Senators as regards my recent Delaware Legislative updates. Turns out there ARE Republicans voting on Opt-out and Senator Lopez explains his position on this “military connected” bill. Also, though not the Delaware legislature, I rant on Stephanopoulos who I have often lambasted in this very Blog.
Senator Lopez Explains his co-sponsorship of SB94-this “military connected” thing
Senator Lopez, representing Delaware’s senatorial district 6, responded to my email and then called me up. He’d read my concern about this SB94, referenced in my Blog post HERE .
This Act requires the Department to develop a regulation for the identification of a “military-connected youth”. The Act further provides that this identification is not a public record, is protected by the federal Family Educational and Privacy Act and shall not be used for purposes of determining school achievement, growth or performance.
The verbiage goes on to state that the purpose of the bill is:
is to ensure the necessary individuals at the school level are aware of any military connected youth for services and supports.
I had some problems bringing up the verbiage of the bill in an HTML format and to make sure I was not imagining things, I checked if I could get the text on another bill and it showed up, no problem. So I tried to get the text of SB94 via a Word document and two little page icons popped up, so small, totally unreadable. I managed to copy and paste the little letters but it seems obvious that there is an attempt to hide this verbiage from curious eyes.
Ernesto told me he understood my concern with identifying certain children as having deployed parents. Lopez told me that legislators were advised of a disciplinary situation with military connected students and….well let me stop here.
The major argument Lopez makes is the Adjutant General National Guard’s request that such a regulation be made that teachers know from the start of the school year which children are military brats, yon reader should excuse the expression. “Tardiness is a big problem, ” Senator Lopez tells me.
I looked up this Adjutant General, Francis Vavala, Indeed it is his job to apprise the Governor, who he reports directly to, any issues with the military in Delaware.
I told Senator Lopez that my gut is to not consider military brats as normally being discipline problems, that I had doubts as to the truth of the statistics. What is the percentage of military brat disciplinary problems as completed to those without deployed parent(s). Why are “military connected” students in need of this state-legislated notation as opposed to, say, children of cops?
Ernie too expressed his understanding of my concern and pondered why the need for a state law. But he said he endorsed this bill 100 percent and it has a lot of support.
Obviously Senator Lopez must follow his convictions and please his constituents. He is not my Senator, more on his take later.
I suspect that Senator Lopez will be giving this bill a close look over and that’s all that I can ask.
Senator Pettyjohn correct me about this student testing opt-out bill
HB 50 is the House bill which allows parents to opt out of the so-called Smarter Balanced testing assessment system. Smarter Balanced is aligned with that dreadful Common Core and Delawareans (along with the REST of the country) are doing anything to get out of this mess.
I lamented that no Republicans were signed on to this proposed bill. Senator Pettyjohn informed me that there are many Republicans aligned with this bill and that he, himself, would probably vote for it. I do know that Kowalko , Bennett, Baumbach, Keeley, Matthews, Spiegelman, Williams, Henry among others were co-sponsors. In due course I should grow wiser because while I saw these names, I do not know which are Republicans.
Senator Pettyjohn did have some concerns about about HB50 and was considering adding an amendment of his own that would remove any now mandated notation in a student’s file about the choice to opt-out. Brian would prefer parents can opt their children out and that be the end of it.
Still and so he supports the bill as do many of his Republican colleagues so let me make this clear.
George Stephanopoulos-Who Should Be Surprised?
Every week I write a column about the Sunday political talk shows. I cover Stephanopoulos’ program-“This Week”. And I always point out this fellow’s obvious closeness to the Clinton Crime Family and now everyone is surprised?
In fact I wrote about the show where George interviewed the writer of “Clinton Cash”, Schweizer, and goodness, what nerve that midget creep had grilling that author of a book written about an alleged charity to which Stephanopoulos “contributed” to.
We all know the Clintons charge for “access”. Stephanopoulos claims he was hoping to cure the world of Aids and help victims of natural disasters. So he donates $75,000 to the Clinton Foundation? His former employers? He never heard of the Red Cross?
He must think we were all born at night….LAST NIGHT!
Don’t tell Rob Arlett that Rich Collins beat him to the punch
It was on a recent Sussex county council post that I noted Rob Arlett’s “promotion” to trash czar. Rob vowed to chair a campaign to encourage locals to clean the highways and byways of trash, make a fun thing out of it.
State Representative Rich Collins, district 41, recently got HB13 passed:
A RESOLUTION OBSERVING FIRST STATE CLEAN-UP WEEK IN DELAWARE AND ENCOURAGING ACTIVITIES TO HELP RID OUR STATE OF TRASH AND DEBRI
Heh.
In Honor of Amtrack?
HB14, passed by our hero Pete Schwartkopf, got through the following:
RECOGNIZING MAY 11-15, 2015 AS “INFRASTRUCTURE WEEK” IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE.
And what honors and celebrations abound during this infrastructure week?
Other Big Days Named in Delaware legislature.
RECOGNIZING MAY 15-17, 2015, AS “GRAND PRIX WEEKEND” IN THE STATE OF DELAWARE.
A1GP 2007/08, Rd 8, Mexico City…Adrian Zaugg (RSA), driver of A1 Team South Africa and Jonny Reid (NZL), driver of A1 Team New Zealand lead at the rolling start of the Sprint Race.
A1GP, Rd8, Mexico City, Mexico, 16 March 2008.
RECOGNIZING MAY 8, 2015 AS VICTORY IN EUROPE DAY IN DELAWARE.
And finally, what would we do without this?
RECOGNIZING THE MONTH FROM MAY 15 TO JUNE 15, 2015, AS “TOURETTE SYNDROME AWARENESS MONTH” IN DELAWARE.
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NEXT :The Sunday Political Talk show post coming up. Tune in this week as we watch Stephanopoulos very closely.
