| P E Y T O N W O L C O T T |
| Conservative commentary - Archives |
| H o w w e t a k e b a c k o u r c h i l d r e n s ' e d u c a t i o n : o n e p e r s o n , o n e q u e s t i o n , o n e s c h o o l a t a t i m e . Copyright 1999-2008 Peyton Wolcott |
Nov. 1- 30, 2007 3 major TX districts post check registers in 1 week 82 districts, 6 states, $34.6 billion; role played by San Antonio Express-News Texas SBOE says "NO" to McGraw-Hill's Everyday Math; pix from Nov. SBOE Texas Auditor clears education commissioner Scott of IG charges Andre Hornsby's mistried mistrial Questions for supes: Hector Montenegro (Ysleta ISD to Arlington ISD); Dana Marable (Marble Falls ISD to Longview ISD to Temple ISD) Montrose, MI bookkeeper Dana Bacon to prison: $1.2 million Marble City, OK supe Larry Couch: $500,000, not $100,000? Oct. 16-31, 2007 "Arresting" news: What would you do? Portland (ME) board birth-control decision Ohio ass't elementary principal's toddler/car/school lot Andre Hornsby's Maryland trial Robert Scott appointed Texas education commissioner Sept. 1-Oct.15, 2007 Please see links at right Aug. 28-30, 2007 Best practices: Check registers August 7/24, 2007 (Marble City, OK) August 1, 2007 July 11, 2007 June 1, 2007 - June 30, 2007 Apr. 16, 2007 - May 31, 2007 Mar. 14 - Apr. 15, 2007 Feb. 22 - Mar. 13, 2007 Jan. 16 - Feb. 22, 2007 Nov. 20 - Dec. 20, 2006 Sept. 26 - Nov. 11, 2006 Aug. 13 - Sept. 26, 2006 June 8 - Aug. 3, 2006 May 13-June 8, 2006 April 21 - May 3, 2006 April 4-19, 2006 Feb. 5 - Mar. 27, 2006 NOTE: Friends, there are older archives; will post them sometime in the future. For now, best way to look for something on my site is to use Google's search engine, with my name in quotes followed by your subject; more at far left in grey box. |
How we take back our children's education: one person, one question, one school at a time. |
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| Copyright 1999-2008 Peyton Wolcott |
| POP QUIZ: How easy is it to make contact with your supe? Is his/her email address on your district's website? If not, why not? After all, you're paying for his/her email. |
Although many commentaries have mentioned education lobbyists by name or client, this is a new series focusing on one of America's largest lobbying firms; Akin Gump Strauss Hauer Feld LLP has been active in Texas and has had a national impact, one example being Austin partner Sandy Kress, credited as being the architect of the No Child Left Behind Act. It's our schoolchildren who are affected by Akin Gump's lobbying and our tax dollars which are ultimately footing the bills. I have contacted Sandy Kress on multiple occasions and have also attempted to contact Akin Gump so that they might refute anything factually incorrect in any of these commentaries; to date, no refutation of the facts presented in these commentaries has been received. Akin Gump (Sandy Kress et al) Areva / Libya / Rice Akin Gump (Sandy Kress et al) Pearson Lobbying Akin Gump Washington, DC Lobbying Akin Gump (Sandy Kress et al) Texas Lobbying Related: |
| Recent edu-lobbying series: |
| Texas Monthly (p. 27, August 2007) Questions regarding the editorial choices behind this and other TM commentaries, including covers this year featuring Vice President Dick Cheney (January 2007) and our U.S. astronauts (July 2007). TAS/MUS Scrapbook (golfing superintendents) When Texas public school administrators decided to hold a conference at a resort to play golf with vendors on Friday of our state's accountability (TAKS) testing week, members of their staffs from across the state -- thank you all, you know who you are -- who thought this was neither a good use of taxpayer dollars nor their bosses' time contacted me privately. This is how I came to travel to a resort in Boerne, in the Texas Hill Country near San Antonio, on Friday, April 20, 2007 with my camera to take pictures on a golf course. Note the pix of the signs; these show that the golf-cart twosomes, one supe/one vendor, were pre-arranged and not accidental or "Oops." Also, veteran teacher Donna Garner has questions regarding the role of politics and money in Gov. Perry's choice of our next education commissioner; she also has questions about: o Sandy Kress and his TEKS stand in 1997 o John Stevens (late of Texas Business and Education Coalition) o Shirley Neeley's TEA Inspector General report. |
| Commentary archives by date |
| July 4, 2008 United States Declaration of Independence & Constitution May 22, 2008 - July 3, 2008 DC Examiner editorial re check registers "What was Alton Frailey [Katy ISD/TX] thinking?" Supe John Gratto/Sag Harbor, NY Mesquite (TX) championship coach Steve Halpin's "gambling addiction" - district's self-investigation Pennsylvania's public education leadership & Ridley School District's $573,792.71 loss..."Oops" Is Hillsborough, FL supe Mary Ellen Elia unlucky -- or should she be fired? Hats off to Bill O'Reilly, with a question Detroit Public Schools (MI): Way to go, Marie! And has Detroit's Jan. 2007 Sherry Washington Gallery investigation gone AWOL? Oregon: Former Stanford football star Irv Nikolai, worked as La Grande, Oregon's interim school superintendent until his arrest May 2 by Hillsboro police, FBI agents and Union County deputies at his office on four charges of first-degree sex abuse February 26 - May 21, 2008 Voyager/ProQuest Voluntary ethics pledges for school board candidates Florida - Hillsborough supe Mary Ellen Elia & 5 teachers' sexual misconduct with students Kansas - Great Bend Schools 428 Colorado - Colorado Springs School District #11 Maryland - Montgomery County Public Schools / supe Jerry Weast / principal Mo Carrasco Texas - Dallas ISD school board ethics Texas - Mildred ISD February 15 - March 25, 2008 Florida - Miami-Dade County Public Schools February 15-25, 2008 Florida - Miami-Dade County Public Schools February 1-15, 2008 Public school legal vendor Linebarger Goggan's marketing practices Robin Hood in Texas: "poor district" Edgewood ISD's employee fitness center 5-time dipping school att'y (Copiague, NY) New Orleans' $15,000,000-loss of school buses to Katrina: Who was responsible? TASA MidWinter - more here also Arlene Ackerman: Questions for Philadelphia, including Voyager Broad Foundation in Oklahoma City Texas SBOE's 2 RINO's: Former chair Tincy Miller of Dallas and Weatherford ISD's Pat Hardy have been voting solidly with the liberal Democratic education establishment January 2008 National School District Honor Roll: 145 districts, 13 states, $45 billion Miami, Florida CPS posts its check register online Oklahoma City Public Schools: Supe John Q. Porter ($326,530 payoff), board president Cliff Hudson quit; issues re Porter's former employer Montgomery County Public Schools (Maryland), Wireless Generation, Broad Foundation TASA MidWinter Conference Gordian Knot/lightbulb moment Capistrano USD recall Philadelphia (PA) - Questions for Arlene Ackerman re Voyager, contract buyout stand Voyager Texas ISDs: Argyle, Cleburne Dec. 1, 2007 - Jan. 6, 2008 2007 Year in Review National School District Honor Roll: 135 districts, 11 states, $39 billion Texas SBOE rejects McGraw-Hill's Everyday Math; former TEA science executive Chris Comer makes national news; Questions: Washington, DC: When will Michelle Rhee and Adrian Fenty put their schools' checks online? Kansas City supe Anthony Amato; OK supe Larry Couch: $100,000 missing now $500,000, cert revoked by OK SBOE; TX Dana Marable: questions follow from Marble Falls ISD to Longview ISD to Temple ISD; Rod Paige wants to help North Forest ISD -- why not do it pro bono? Other news: Teacher arrested - Argyle ISD (TX); trustee arrested - Mitchell SD (SD); NSDHR addition - Ysleta ISD (TX); SLAPP - Lake Travis ISD (TX), partying admin. in Mobile (AL); business mgr. embezzles $1.1 mil (IN); Andre Hornsby's mistried mistrial (MD); cafeteria worker embezzles $260,000 (CA); supe Joe Lewis and Beth-Meth principal fallout (PA). |
| LOOKING FOR SOMETHING? Friends, until I'm able to post more detail here regarding all of this site's 200+ pages, the best way to find something is to use Google. For example, if you want to know more about the Texas Association of Suburban/Mid-Urban Schools' golf tournaments where superintendents play golf with vendors at resorts on school days, you can Google "TAS/MUS" and "golf." Last time I checked there were almost 100 reports. As another example, a recent search for "online school district check registers" turned up 2.5 million Google reports (ten times more than just six months ago), with my site the first four entries. Here's another way you can use this site: Say you're a trustee in a school district and you're thinking about hiring a superintendent from another district. You could search MSN.com for that superintendent's name and mine with each in quotes, like this: "John Doe" and "Peyton Wolcott." Hope this helps. If not, please email me and I'll do what I can; there's a form on this link because the more information you can give me up front the better and quicker I can help -- if it's something I can help with. Peyton |
| Friday, April 18, 2008 TAS/MUS Spring Conference Horseshoe Bay, Texas |
| Your local school board meeting is one of the purest forms of local politics -- and an opportunity to view what is often your county's largest taxpayer-funded budget in action. |