I’m back. Did you miss me?

Hi guys!

I’m back from an outstanding cruise I did not warn you all I was taking for fear of being robbed whilst being out of town. Sorry about that, but I tried to keep my time away to a minimum and I had this planned for around 11 months.  I gave this to my wife as a Valentine’s Day present and since I attended I campaign event on our anniversary this year I really needed to make sure I followed through well on my pseudo-apology tour.

Fellas: I learned no matter how many times your wife tells you it’s okay to go to somewhere on your anniversary, even if you took her out the night before and bought her jewelry, it’s never okay. It’s a test and you are eternally doomed to failure if you believe her words and not your history together.  (If you catch yourself thinking, “wow, I never thought she would go for that!”  Chances are she didn’t and those clipped sentences and terse demeanor are your last warning before things go topsy-turvey –  so make sure whatever it is your are doing is worth the silent treatment and cold doghouse dinners you will be getting for a while.)

Ladies: we will probably promptly forget this advice for your birthday, my birthday, father’s day, mother’s day and some anniversary we met but we will ask you first and want to believe you are telling us the truth.  You can make this easier on both of us by just telling us “no.”  We probably shouldn’t have asked, but we really wanted to do whatever it was and want to believe you will tell us the truth.

Oh well, I doubt I’ve improved Martian – Venusian relations much, but I tried.

On the plus side, I may have had an impact on a local election.  Rickeem Jackson of the non-resident running for local elective office Rickeem Jacksons, who has never paid taxes or voted in an election prior to the one he was running for public office in, (I’m assuming he actually showed up and voted for himself – which might be a stretch.) has been defeated at the polls by an educator and pastor that actually lived in Jefferson parish, paid taxes and voted in elections.  Go figure!

http://ballotpedia.org/Rickeem_Jackson

I was planning on writing a piece on how ridiculous elections have become to have allowed someone so eminently unqualified to get elected based on his personal appearance and war chest, but I was pleasantly surprised.  This victory has flipped the Jefferson Parish school board away from the education Reformers.  Jefferson is/was LDOE’s biggest ally in the school reform movement.  They were given little oversight and wide latitude in how they operated.  Now that the Reformer superintendent has announced he is leaving, so this will mean the new superintendent will be selected by this new board.  I expect some hidden stories to be revealed that might explain Jefferson’s oft touted meteoric-rise in scores came to pass.  It appears the public does not buy the narrative education reformers are selling with hundreds of thousands of corporate and out-of-state of dollars.  The newspapers are reporting on thousands spent by Teacher’s Unions, they have been lax in their reporting of out of state billionaire’s and corporate funded Teflon child advocacy groups like the often sanctioned Stand For Children – which is run by former LDOE staffer Rayne Martin  I received this info from one of my regular sources. (Another source confirmed that Rayne Martin did run at least one Stand radio spot for Rickeem. It would not surprise me if this was not properly reported.)

We found some info about our old friend Rayne Martin’s Stand for Children outfit, and its support for Chamber of Commerce favorite Mark Jacobs.

·         Jim Walton and Michael Bloomberg contributed to the Stand for Children LA IEC in late October. Bloomberg gave $125,000 on October 20. Walton gave $25,000 on Oct. 17.

·         The biggest expenditure was $37,000 a few days after those contributions to Buisson Creative for a TV ad for the Jefferson Parish school board. Mark Jacobs, but not Rickeem Jackson.

·         We can track the spending a little further. The commercials ran on:

o   WWL  (~$15,000)<https://stations.fcc.gov/collect/files/74192/Political%20File/2014/Non-Candidate%20Issue%20Ads/Stand%20For%20Children%20La%20IEC/Stand%20for%20Children%20La.%2010-29-11-4-14%20%2814150520861707%29.pdf.>

o   WDSU (~$13,000)<https://stations.fcc.gov/collect/files/71357/Political%20File/2014/Non-Candidate%20Issue%20Ads/Stand%20for%20Children%20Amended%20October%2029-November%204%20%2814146084489527%29.pdf>

o   Not sure where the other $9,000 or so was spent. Probably on another station.

Also of interest, Stand for Children has been dinged recently (ahem, seriously reprimanded by government bodies) for campaign finance violations. Stand for Children, in its zeal to support pro-Common Core candidates, illegally attack Core opponents, failing to properly report its independent expenditures. http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/e7f9b1df42d14f10adb8ba67d0d3a633/OK–Education-Ethics-Violation/. I’ve also attached the file (3 files because it loaded one page at a time) with the actual settlement agreement so we have a primary source.. By the way, Stand for Children spent nearly $365,000 in Oklahoma and lost. Earlier this year in Oklahoma, Stand for Children was caught delivering a pro-Common Core petition with fake signatures:<http://www.news9.com/story/25071850/fake-signatures-found-on-okla-common-core-petition>.

Back in Louisiana, Stand for Children modified its WDSU request. At first, it had Stand for Children in the  “Candidate” line. One day later, that was whited out and Stand for Children was put in the “Committee” line with its address added. Also, the amended filing fills in a box that had been left blank: “Spot makes reference to vote for six Jefferson Parish candidates up for election primary on 11/4 because they are for children’s education.” This may have been a correction of an oversight, or it may have been an attempt to tighten up or cover up once they knew they were going to get hit with an ethics violation in another state.

So, Mark Jacobs is being supported by out-of-state billionaires funneled through the independent expenditure committee of Stand for Children, an organization that violated campaign finance laws in Oklahoma.

Are Jefferson Parish Judges Corrupt?

I thought I would provide an update to my Jefferson Parish School Board Race post. I received a lot of feedback from the public about how outraged they were as well as how fed up they were with the corruption in the parish. I honestly had no idea although I had my suspicions based on how Jefferson became the poster parish for education reform.

Education reform flourishes in corrupt places because of all the opportunities for money to change hands.

I have been working on a number of stories simultaneously, that are requiring a lot of research and interviewing. Some of the groups I am investigating have a record of suing or threatening to sue whistleblowers, so I’m trying to piece together public records and witness statements that back up my claims.  Incidentally I believe that intro segues into my next point and a comment from a reader from Jefferson Parish and what they had to say about my story on Rickeem:

This makes so much sense to me with recent experience I had with the group that runs the campaign for these guys who are clearly not qualified.

Byron Lee is the puppet master here and has his hands in everything and controls Mark Spears, (controlled) Derik Shepard and some judges.

Just research Byrons construction company and see how the money trickles through everyone’s hands due to awarded parish contracts. Byron lee and judges I won’t mention have control of all the churches and with money not accounted for and sheep following baptist church members, push these puppets into office.

Just check Adrian Adams'(newly elected judge) campaign report. He is affiliated with this secret group (Byron, Mark, Derrick Zeno) and to this day has not filed a campaign report that shows where he got over $25,0000 (in 15 days) to cover radio, tv, two billboards, several mail outs. It took him 3 months to raise that much and used at least that much more in the final two weeks of election.

So sad Jackson will win. This group will not be stopped. They almost control the black community as a whole because you have to listen to pastor and vote for who they say. Very sad and frustrating.

Will this reader’s comment be prophetic? I hear Rayne Martin and Stand for Charters have gotten on the Rickeem Bandwagon from this reader:

While traveling yesterday, I heard a radio campaign add for Mr. Jackson on WWL. Guess who paid for it? Stand on Children led by Rayne Martin. So predictable.

Below is a link to the judge that made the ruling in the Rickeem Jackson case, Judge Lee Faulkner Jr. He is also probably connected to Derrick Zeno since Faulkner replaced a “Melvin Zeno”, according to his bio. That seems like a unique name but I was not able to find much online. (Can anyone clue me in on the Zenos?)

http://louisianajudgesnoir.org/lee-v-faulkner-jr

 

Judge Lee V. Faulkner, Jr.

The Honorable Lee V. Faulkner, Jr., was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and is a life long resident of Jefferson Parish. He graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana and the Southern University Law Center in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

Following law school, Judge Faulkner entered into private practice, handling personal injury, criminal, civil and domestic cases.  He also served as a public defender for the Parish of Jefferson.

Prior to being elected as Judge, he was appointed by the Louisiana Supreme Court to serve as Judge Ad Hoc for Second Parish Court for the Parish of Jefferson.  He also served as a Traffic Hearing Officer for Second Parish Court.

He was elected as a District Judge in 2008, following the retirement of the Honorable Melvin C. Zeno.

He is a member of numerous social, judicial and legal organizations, including but not limited to the National Bar Association, American Judges Association, Past President of the Jefferson Bar Association, Louisiana State Bar Association and the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Incorporated.

I wonder if any reporters from Jefferson Parish will look into these tips?

I also wonder how Judge Faulkner determined his own “life-long” residency in Jefferson Parish? In Rickeem’s case he appears to have decided “intent” to live there is enough to meet the 2 year residency requirement for school board candidates.

For some reason this situation and these reports brought to mind this bible passage. Matthew 7:15 and 7:16

15”Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16”You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they?

Matthew is definitely my favorite apostle.

This seems an appropriate passage for Stand for Children and Education Reformers and the cess-pool of corruption I’m told Jefferson Parish has become. What fruits do you see them bearing?

Industry, not parents, are secretly deciding the what is best for our children

Please read this post by Mike Deshotels, one of my allies in the fight to protect our children, our teachers and our public education system. He details a private meeting among folks that see our children as nothing more than “Human Capital.” This is actually a department John White created at LDOE to describe teachers but it just as easily can be used to describe how these folks feel about our students. He even built a data system around this belief that we are not people, not individuals, just Human Cattle, er, I mean, Capital.

They don’t see children and parents as people, they see children as raw materials, and parents as “obstacles” to be overcome.

A small private meeting was held in Baton Rouge a couple of weeks ago including representatives of several highly influential power brokers who are dedicated to a major overhaul and privatization of our K-12 education system. These groups were very concerned that much of the Jindal reform legislation has either been declared unconstitutional by the courts or is still tied up in litigation. They are frustrated that the supporters of our public education system are fighting back against their sweeping “reforms”. They figure that they have only the rest of the Jindal administration in which to push through revisions of the law that will keep their reforms intact.

Groups that were engaged were LABI, CABL, BAEO, Stand for Children, New Schools for Baton Rouge, voucher and charter schools.

Stand for Children, LaBAEO, and New Schools for Baton Rouge were all groups created for reformers recruited to the LDOE to form pseudo parent groups to fool parents and educators into believe these initiatives are community and parent driven, when actually the opposite is true. They are all funded by out of state interests like the Walton Foundation, Gates, etc.

• Stand for (on) Children: Rayne Martin
• BAEO/LaBAEO: Kenneth Campbell
• New Schools for Baton Rouge: Chris Meyer

These folks all represent out of state interest, business interests, and opportunists, but now parents. They are meeting in secret to try and figure out how to deal with us.

As you can see from this new letter about Common Core from LDOE, Stand for Children has been playing the part of the shill for DOE policies and support for Common Core Curriculum and PARCC. This is the community involvement they claimed that made, but this is their own people!

Read this summary of Rayne Martin from Kathy on Diane Ravitch’s blog.

1. Kathy says:

   July 4, 2012 at 5:10 pm

   Stand for Children now has a chapter in Louisiana. They are making themselves more visible through the leadership of Rayne Martin. Rayne’s bio includes ties to the Recovery School District and the writing of reforms before joining as the Executive Director of the state chapter.

   In 2007 Rayne became the Chief of Staff at the Recovery School District in New Orleans. The RSD, created by legislation, transforms chronically low-performing schools through direct state intervention. A shining beacon of hope, the RSD schools have shown outstanding progress posting double gains in almost every grade and every subject.

   Rayne was lead author of the Louisiana Education Reform Plan, a 200-page strategic plan outlining initiatives designed to dramatically improve student academic outcomes statewide by ensuring an effective teacher in every classroom and an effective leader in every school. In 2010 she became the Louisiana Department of Education’s Chief of Innovation, managing a large department responsible for creating reform awareness and building district- and state-level capacity to implement human capital, school turnaround and district support best practices. http://stand.org/louisiana/staff/rayne-martin

   If Stand for Children has not been a player in your state, it will. It’s still quite new in Louisiana. Public school supporters hope to be able to muffle their voices, before they can add any more harm to education here that has not yet been done..

You are all being fooled by liars and shills. Do not let the Orwellian named “Stand for Children”, stand for you and your real children. Go to the BESE meetings, go to your local school board meetings, go to your legislators and demand to have your voices heard.