find now much of the American ideal as a nation of self-employed shopkeepers and farmers, folks sufficiently able to think for
themselves that they can be their own bosses.  Kids graduating from high school who can't tell you what eight times nine is without
a calculator and who have never studied Shakespeare or Marcus Aurelius or Milton are not in a position to start let alone
successfully run their own businesses.   Talk now you hear is of a skilled American workforce --  people chained to a desk or an
assembly line doing mind-numbing work for other people.

Fertile as my imagination might be, I didn't make this up, folks.  

Please take a moment to read former IBM & RJReynolds chair Lou Gerstner's prophetic op-ed (at right in the grey box) published
just over a year ago in the Wall Street journal where he's laid out the lead-up starting with his suggestion that Mr. Obama convene
the nation's governors and impose national standards on all of America's local public schools, both of which have already occurred.  
From Lou Gerstner's mouth to God's ears, you might say.  Mr. Gerstner also proposed in that same op-ed a consolidation of all
15,000 American local public school districts into one per states plus another twenty for the largest urbans.  Imagine 70 Detroits.
Q:  Why has the progressive
socialist movement succeeded in
taking over public education?

A:  One, they went through the back
door via the feds; nobody voted to
approve their efforts.  Two, while
good conservatives were working
hard and minding their own
business, sending their kids to
private schools when the public
systems went loony, the
progressive socialists driven by
zeal and the promise of access to
taxpayer dollars had the passion to
persist.  They also had big money,
the kind of billions such as
inherited-wealth David
Rockefeller's, big money with not
only muscle but staying power, not
unlike his company ExxonMobil's
mascot, Tony the Tiger.  
Lou Gerstner's Lessons From
40 Years of Education 'Reform'
Lou says:  Let's
abolish local school
districts and finally
adopt national
standards.
Wall Street Journal
Op-Ed
December 1, 2008
By Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.

While the economic news has
most Americans in a state of
near depression, hope
abounds today that the country
may use the current economic
crisis as leverage to address
some longstanding problems.
Nowhere is that prospect for
progress more worthy than the
crisis in our public education
system.

So, from someone who
realized rather glumly last
week that he has been working
at school reform for 40 years,
here is a prescription for
leadership from the Obama
administration.

We must start with the
recognition that, despite
decade after decade of reform
efforts, our public K-12 schools
have not improved. We can
point to individual schools and
some entire districts that have
advanced, but the system as a
whole is still failing. High
school and college graduation
rates, test scores, the number
of graduates majoring in
science and engineering all
are flat or down over the past
two decades. Disappointingly,
the relative performance of our
students has suffered
compared to those of other
nations. As a former CEO, I am
worried about what this will
mean for our future workforce.

It is most crucial for our
political leaders to ask why we
are at this point -- why after
millions of pages, in
thousands of reports, from
hundreds of commissions and
task forces, financed by
billions of dollars, have we
failed to achieve any significant
progress?

Answering this question
correctly is the key to finally
remaking our public schools.

This is a complex problem, but
countless experiments and
analyses have clearly indicated
we need to do four
straightforward things to bring
fundamental changes to K-12
education:

1) Set high academic
standards for all of our kids,
supported by a rigorous
curriculum.  [Questions
from Peyton:  Who
writes the standards?  
Will you require
teachers to teach fuzzy
math? Social studies
rather than history?
Whole language instead
of phonics/phonemic
awareness?]

2) Greatly improve the quality of
teaching in our classrooms,
supported by substantially
higher compensation for our
best teachers.

3) Measure student and
teacher performance on a
systematic basis, supported by
tests and assessments.

4) Increase "time on task" for
all students; this means more
time in school each day, and a
longer school year.

Everything else either does not
matter (e.g., smaller class
sizes) or is supportive of these
four steps (e.g., vastly improve
schools of education).

Lack of effort is not the cause
of our 30-year inability to solve
our education problem. Not
only have we had all those
thousands of studies and task
forces, but we have seen many
courageous and talented
individuals pushing hard to
move the system. Leaders
such as Joel Klein (New York
City), Michelle Rhee
(Washington, D.C.) and Paul
Vallas (New Orleans) have
challenged the system, and
elected officials from both
sides of the political spectrum
have also fought valiantly for
change.

So where does that leave us?
If the problem isn't "what to do,"
nor is it a failure of
commitment, what is stopping
us?

I believe the problem lies with
the structure and corporate
governance of our public
schools. We have over 15,000
school districts in America;
each of them, in its own way, is
involved in standards,
curriculum, teacher selection,
classroom rules and so on.
This unbelievably unwieldy
structure is incapable of
executing a program of
fundamental change. While we
have islands of excellence as
a result of great reform
programs, we continually fail to
scale up systemic change.

Therefore, I recommend
that President-elect
Barack Obama convene
a meeting of our
nation's governors and
seek agreement to the
following:

- Abolish all local school
districts, save 70 (50 states;
20 largest cities). Some states
may choose to leave some of
the rest as community service
organizations, but they would
have no direct involvement in
the critical task of establishing
standards, selecting teachers,
and developing curricula.

- Establish a set of
national standards for
a core curriculum. I
would suggest we start with
four subjects: reading, math,
science and social studies.

- Establish a National Skills
Day on which every third, sixth,
ninth and 12th-grader would
be tested against the national
standards. Results would be
published nationwide for every
school in America.

- Establish national
standards for teacher
certification and require
regular re-evaluations of
teacher skills. Increase
teacher compensation to
permit the best teachers (as
measured by advances in
student learning) to earn well
in excess of $100,000 per year,
and allow school leaders to
remove underperforming
teachers.

- Extend the school day and the
school year to effectively add
20 more days of schooling for
all K-12 students.

I can predict that three
questions will be raised about
these measures:


First, how can we set national
standards when we have a
strong tradition of local school
autonomy? The answer is that
the American people are way
ahead of our politicians here:
Poll after poll shows
they support national
standards.  [Question
from Peyton:  which
polls? funded by whom?]

Second, won't this take many
years to implement? No, if we
follow a focused, pragmatic
approach. While ideally we
want all 50 states to
participate, we can get started
with 30. The rest will be driven
to abandon their "see no evil"
blinders by their citizens as the
original group achieves
momentum and success.
Moreover, we do not have to
start from scratch on the
national standards. Experts
can quickly develop an initial
set just by drawing on existing
domestic and foreign
programs.


Third, how do we pay for all of
this? In three ways: We will
save billions by consolidating
the operations of 15,000
school districts.  [Question
from Peyton:  What proof
do you have that
consolidation will save
any money long term?  
This is a false claim as
there is none.]  The U.S.
Department of Education can
direct all of its discretionary
funds to this effort. And we
need to drive into the
consciousness of every
American politician that
education is not an expense. It
is, rather, the most important
investment we can make as a
country.

H.G. Wells remarked that
"history is a race between
education and catastrophe."
For the first time in America's
history, we may be losing that
race. We can win, but we have
to act quickly and decisively.

Mr. Gerstner, a former CEO of IBM,
was chairman of the Teaching
Commission (2003-2006), which
reported on ways to improve the quality
of public school teaching.Sat
WHO'S ATTENDING
YOUR SCHOOL
BOARD MEETINGS?
Follow the money
in our vendor-driven
schools:  
15 vendors & special
interests to look for at
your next board meeting.
P E Y T O N   W O L C O T T

How we take back our children's education:
one person, one question,
one school at a time.
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Copyright 1999-2010 Peyton Wolcott

"Walk softly
and carry a big stick."
-- Teddy Roosevelt

"Trust but verify."
-- Ronald Reagan
Just because you can
doesn't mean you should.
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 .
PEYTON WOLCOTT'S
6 SIMPLE
SUGGESTIONS
FOR SCHOOL
SUPERINTENDENT
S: How you can rebuild
public trust and save at
least $75 per student
this next year.

1.  End discretionary
spending.
Set an example for your
staff; let them know you
mean business about running
a tighter ship:  No trips, no
conferences, no meals, no
credit cards.  If you want to
learn more about something,
use Google.  Do a webinar.  
Read a newsletter.   No golf
games with vendors, ever.  
No chauffeurs, no rental
cars.  Stay home, do your
work and keep your nose
clean.

2.  Reduce administrative
costs.
Go through your
administrative staff roster
and cut every other job,
starting with getting rid of all
PR and marketing.  No
advisors, no consultants.
Learn how to really read a
budget.  Put your check
register and all wire transfers
online.

3.  Ethics.
No nepotism.  Let your wife
and kids earn a living in a
field other than education.  
No board members' spouses
working in the district.  
Conduct all discussions with
vendors and potential
vendors in the open; invite
your public to watch and ask
questions.  Throw away
your contract and work year
by year.  Move your chair
off the dais at board
meetings.  You're not a team
member with your elected
trustees.  You're not equal to
them.  They're your boss.

4.  No construction.  
If you're the rare district
truly experiencing sufficient
growth to justify building
new schools, splinter off that
population and let them start
their own new school district
or charter school.  They
might be able to take over an
abandoned church or office
building for much less than
the Taj Mahal you had in
mind.

5.  Back-to-basics
curriculum.
Math table (1st grade: add,
2nd grade: subtract, 3rd
grade multiply, 4th grade
divide) daily drill.  You made
sure your own kids learned
the basics at home or with
tutors; why shouldn't all
children have that same
opportunity?  Ditto for
phonics.  Classical literature.  
History, not social studies.  
No more block scheduling.  
Daily P.E. for all. Emphasize
individual effort and
accomplishment.

6.  Attitude.  
You're a public servant, not a
Third World dictator.
Practice humility and
gratitude.  Remember when
your employees laugh at
your jokes or tell you you're
cool or vendors marvel at
your every utterance that
they're all sucking up to you.
 Remember why you got into
education to begin with.  Sell
your house in the gated
community and buy one in
the middle of a real
subdivision like your average
parents and taxpayers can
afford.  Let yourself be
driven not by the latest
platitude you picked up at the
latest education conference
but by the same wonderful
noble desire to educate kids
that got you into this field.
Terms & Conditions:  
Sorry to have to include this;
 some groups--God bless
them--have copied my
research and published
it as their own.
Robin Hood & 22 'equity'
failures: MALDEF's 22
Edgewood districts cost
Texans billions in failed
academics & extravagance.
How to persuade your
district: Friendly works
best-- take the Golden Rule
with you when asking your
schools to post checks.  
Testimonials:  issues &
concerns solved.
Welcome, America -- glad you're
finding this no-ads website useful!  
#1 on Google & Yahoo of
256,000,000!
Texas Hill Country - Mesquite and Wildflowers
Boerne
WELCOME, Washington
state! Public school
checks now online in 34
states, 600+ school
districts, in 3 years!
05.29.09
Questions reporters
& others ask most:

Q1:   When did this grass-
roots check register
project start, and why?
A1:  We compiled the first
national roster on October
1, 2009.  There were
several precipitating
incidents, including this; it
was clear that
administrators, lobbyists
and vendors didn't like
public records requests.

Q2:  How many school
districts are now online
in how many states?  
A2:  As of February 2010
there are over 800 in 36
states.  

Q3:  How quickly has this
grown?
A3:  When we first started
asking districts to
voluntarily post, there
were only a handful in a
handful of states posting.  

Q4:  How can I find out if
my district is online? Are
any in my state online?
A4:  You can look them up
on these rosters:
o  Alabama
o  Alaska-Louisiana
o  Maine-Tennessee
o  Texas
o  Utah-Wyoming

Q5:  How do I make my
district put its checks
online?
A5:   Unless we're
dictators we can't make
anybody do anything -- but
we can persuade.  Here
are some easy to follow
directions based on
treating your schools as
you'd like them to treat
you.  (The Golden Rule
really does work.)  Just
like in baking or anything
else involving special
skills or plans, the steps
we've found that work are
successful 100% of the
time when followed as
scripted; as with making
pastry, shortcuts lead to
failure.

Q6:  Why don't you just
pass a law?
Q6:  Have you ever tried
getting a law passed?  As
the Texas Public Policy
Foundation and similar
groups elsewhere have
learned, the folks who
stand to benefit the least
from public ed financial
transparency are a very
active lobbying force,
especially in larger states
where more money is
involved in public
education.  (With just 17
school districts, only
Delaware has a state law
requiring schools to post
their checks online.)
Fox News mention
Texas Education
Service Centers
posting check
registers
At least some of
Texas' 20 Regional
Education Service
Centers have already
begun posting their
check registers online.
Hats off to the
following:
Region 10 - Richardson
Choose your month here:
www.region10.org/administrators/C
heckRegisterPosting.html
Region 8 - Mt. Pleasant
Choose a month here:
www.reg8.net/default.aspx?name=a
dmin.checkregister
CONSERVATIVE:  ABOUT     EMAIL      ARCHIVES       FOLLOW THE MONEY       NATIONALIZATION        INTERNAL CONTROLS         PR FOR THE ANGRY & THE POSITIVE         STATES         SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Public Ed Commentary
Here they are: the
updated US rosters!


  • Beyond FOIA:  Why it's
    more effective to
    persuade your local
    school district than to
    demand; why it's better
    for schools to post on
    their sites than for you
    to FOIA check registers
    then put them on your
    private or 501c website.

  • Is 'equity' equitable?  
    More about MALDEF &
    Robin Hood

  • Printable flyer to share
    with your board; print at
    100%. Testimonials
    from school leaders
    who have already
    successfully posted
    their districts' checks
    online countering all
    usual opposition points
    (cost, technology, etc.).

  • Special interests in your
    district and at your
    board meetings:  Do
    you know who they are
    and what they have to
    do with spending?

  • If there was a major
    precipitating incident
    behind the check
    registers, this was it.
CHECK REGISTERS
Are your district's checks on their website?
If not, why not? More than 810 are, in 36
states, in just 3 years. Simple how-to.here
works 100% of the time--if no shortcuts.
Tuesday
March 9, 2010
Lou Gerstner's manifesto
published in The Wall
Street Journal, Dec. 2008
From top:
Lou Gerstner;
Chairman Mao
& Adolph Hitler
told us what
they wanted to
do ahead of
time.
Mr. & Mrs. Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.
ED PHOTO OF THE WEEK:
2 PRESIDENTIAL
TELEPROMPTERS IN  
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CLASSROOM (VA)
President Barack Obama,
accompanied by Education
Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks
to the media after a discussion
with 6th grade students at
Graham Road Elementary School
in Falls Church (VA), Tuesday,
Jan. 19, 2010. (AP)
Only Texas -- thanks to Governor
Rick Perry, Education
Commissioner Robert Scott, and
our State Board of Education -- all
supported by those who cherish
individual freedoms and local
control of our school districts -- has
had the courage among the 50
states to stand firm against the
power grab by the United States
Department of Education, the
school equivalent of what Mr.
Obama's crew is trying to do with
healthcare.  As with healthcare,
Race to the Top's national
curriculum standards have less to
do with education and more to do
with being a vehicle for increasing
federal control.
Former Roslyn supe Frank Tassone out!
By Peyton Wolcott
Thursday, February 4, 2010 / 8:11 a.m.
Already!  Early release for good behavior! But is his
taxpayer-funded facelift (note snug jawline) still
intact?  His til-death-us-do-part New York pension
is, thanks to superintendent lobbyists.  Former
Roslyn resident Chip Osman weighs in on former
supe Tassone & Roslyn's $11.2 million scandal:
"I was seething about this guy this morning on the train. We
lived in the Roslyn school district in East Hills during his
“reign”. It is just infuriating. To think that we worked as hard
as we did to pay our school taxes so our kids could have a
great education and find out that they were financing a
construction business and taking the Concorde to the UK?!?
We gave up things that we could have had to pay taxes and
they took our kids money. They should all have to do
extreme community service for the district like being a
custodian for no pay! Letting this guy out with his $175,000
pension to boot is an insult to the area residents. We have
since moved out and would never consider going back.  It is
important that every school district have both internal
auditors working for the Board and external auditors do
legitimate audits of the bookd and records.  Do your due
diligence every day. You never know who is smiling and
doing a great job and robbing you blind behind our back.
The faces of
Frank:  Mug
shot, 2006
trial, hospital
bed, orange
prison jumpsuit
Good news, America !  Looks like the 49
states except Texas (even Alaska's DOE said
last month they're going to apply for the
second round) who blindly went along with
Messrs. Obama's and Duncan's Race to the
Top scheme are waking up.  

The National Conference of State Legislators
(report here) and the National Association of
State Boards of Education now know that RTTT money comes with actual
strings including not the 85% they'd understood but 100% acceptance "word
for word" of whatever standards the feds finally come up with.  Hahaha
Department or Arrrgghh, your call:  How circular is this, the NASBE
meetings are funded by a $450,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation--the driving force behind RTTT, pole vaulters over all opposition.
Edu-Cowboys-in-Chief
Speaking of which, is there any edu-related group
in America the Gates haven't given money to?
There's the national PTA .... National Student
Clearinghouse .... La Raza (Melinda's NCLR
heart-to-heart here detailing the Gates' actual visit
to a Texas border colonia whose illegal immigrant
inhabitants complained to her about their kids' free
U.S. taxpayer- funded educations) .... Education
Writers of America (their VP is Gates' foundation's
Bill & Melinda Gates
senior policy officer) .... Nieman Foundation for Journalism
at Harvard .... plus billions more.

Let's end on a cheerful note, death and taxes: How serious
is the IRS about collecting their money?  Here's their
purchase order for 60 Remington 12-gauge pump-action
shotguns.  Must be preparing for next-gen Untouchables.
Robert Stack as IRS
agent Elliott Ness
(Posted Thursday, February 4, 2010)
RACE TO THE TOP SHOULD BE
CALLED "RACE FOR CONTROL
OF THE NATIONAL DATABASE"

RATCLIFFE'S TIES TO
MICROSOFT - BILL & THOMAS
MENTION THAT

BILL PUSHED LAPTOPS

LOBBYISTS SHOULD NOT BE
ELECTED TO THE SBOE
THEIR COMMERCIAL
Shouldn't Race to the Top really be called "The
Race for Control of the Nation's Student Database"?
By Peyton Wolcott/ Thursday, February 4, 2010 / 8:56 p.m. - Updated Saturday, February 6, 2010 /  11:26 a.m.
In the olden days, like most of America, I rested complacent in the assumption that everyone
involved in school reform was doing so out of the purity of their pea-pickin' little hearts.
L to R: Microsoft's Bill Gates, long-
time Texas Microsoft lobbyist Thomas
Ratliff, film critic Roger Ebert
Here it is, word for word, plus
a few questions from me,
Peyton, as you read along:
Back then in those kinder gentler days I would have
thought, "Oh, my!  What wonderful people Bill &
Melinda Gates are, and so generous!  There can't
possibly be any connection between on the one hand
Bill's holding shares in Microsoft which is in the
business of gathering and assessing student and other
data and on the other his push for public school reform
via the Obama administration's Race to the Top
Bill & Melinda Gates (PHOTO--Kjetil Ree)
Gates' presidential giving

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Two of the
world's wealthiest charitable
foundations are bankrolling a $60
million initiative aimed at making
education an issue in the 2008
presidential campaign.
Philanthropists Bill Gates and Eli
Broad are hoping their "Strong
American Schools" project will
goad the presidential candidates
into taking bold stands on educati
About that closed door, any time public schoolchildren and public tax dollars are in play explored the public needs and deserves full
access.   Further, as a general rule whenever we see a lot of dollars being thrown around and/or latched onto in public education it's
a good idea to follow the money:  What does this person look to get out of their public ed involvement?
Alan Bersin (L) , Michael Milken
(PHOTOS--Getty, Globe and Mail)
Part of what is so disturbing
about Milken's predatory move
into education is that the popular
press has hailed it as redemption
for a man with a tainted history.
In reality, Milken's predatory
financial activities, which bilked
the public of billions while
making him a billionaire, are
continuing in education.  In his
defense of privatization, Milken is
suggesting that he is helping
children, giving them
opportunities within a corporate
future where the competition will
make it increasingly difficult for
them to participate in the
economy:  Education must
address individual needs. Rapid
corporate evolution and frequent
restructuring - including
downsizing, rightsizing and
outsourcing - mean an employee
can no longer rely upon a "job
for life."

We believe that those who have
the ability to learn and apply
new skills are most likely to
achieve career success and
personal fulfillment. - Milken's
"Knowledge Universe Vison
Statement"

Corporate culture claims to solve
the problems of schooling by
remaking the school in the image
of the corporation. What Milken
is not saying is that he himself is
actively sponsoring and building
that cutthroat future with no job
security, low pay, and
exploitative work conditions.
What is in fact a hostile takeover
of education as a vital public
good is being sold to the public
as philanthropy.
Interesting reading re
Michael Milken & education:
DePaul University professor
Kenneth J. Saltman
Entire article here.
Political/idealogue agenda
In addition to the money angle and mundane day-to-day politics there's something
else to consider, the longitudinal ever-continuing march towards the progressive
socialist ideal that's gone on here for over a century with part of the game plan
being a concerted effort to dumb down our schools in order to produce
German-style a compliant easily led labor force.  

Look around you, think about the people you know and are related to.  Hard to
Oprah with Bill and Melinda Gates
Ratliff’s Microsoft ties should be of
particular concern to voters because it is
Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft who
are behind the Race to the Top, an effort
by the federal government to take over the
public schools with national standards,
national tests, national curriculum, and a
national database. The national database is
where Microsoft could make a fortune. It
will be interesting to see who will win that
bid for the national database.
campaign which focuses on the gathering and assessment of student data!  Nah, no connection
here, move along folks."
Connecting the Race to the
Top dots: national student
database ... Bill Gates ...
Microsoft Texas lobbyist
Thomas Ratliff ... and, of
course, film critic Roger Ebert

Developing . . .
In fact was only thanks to a closed-door Bill
Gates-funded meeting last week in Austin of Texas'
Big Eight urban school districts in which they shared
student database information that I started paying
attention to the idea of a national student database --
along with its possible uses and misuses -- at all.  
Obama-Gates-Oprah-Eli Broad, let's focus on a smaller scale,
what' let's see what we can uncover about the Gates and
Microsoft here in Texas the first place to look is at the Texas
Ethics Commission lobby lists.

Who are the RTTT/Gates/Microsoft players in
Texas? What are their motives, strategery?
U.S. DOE Secretary Arne Duncan & Eli Broad at Broad's
inaugural party celebrating Mr. Obama's presidency.
Did you have the same reaction I did
when junk bond king and convicted
felon (98 counts) Michael Milken's
post-prison foray into public education
was announced a decade ago, a reaction
along the lines of what did Mike know
that the rest of us didn't?  At about that
same time Angeleno Alan Bersin made a
big career change from running a
lucrative Los Angeles law practice to
running a lucrative public school district
in San Diego.  What did Alan know?

And there's the bigger question:  Is all
so-called school reform only about
dollars or is there more at stake?  
Along the way many of the old Republican/Democrat and liberal/conservative
monikkers and assumptions have fallen by the wayside along with outdated
notions that big business and big banks are run by conservative Republicans; for
the first few examples that come to mind, there's Lou Gerstner at IBM, most of
Goldman Sachs and AIG's top-tier management, Eli Broad (Sun Life & The Broad
Foundation) -- you can go on and on, all of them donors to liberals and liberal
causes promoting big government out of which they have some reasonable
expectation of profiting.

So this makes the new big American internal debate look something like this:  Big
versus Little as in big labor unions against little shopkeepers, big teachers unions
against small taxpayers.  The individual versus the mammoth.  Freedom and liberty
versus slavery
Which do you want first, the good news
or the bad news about public education?
By Peyton Wolcott
Tuesday, February 16, 2010 /  2:30 a.m.
Growing up in Texas a joke was told about a wildcatter who also happened to be our neighbor.
The joke went something like this:
Both wildcatter Jim Bob Robb's petroleum landman and his accountant come running into
his office, barely able to contain their excitement.  Breathless, his accountant says, "Jim
Bob, we've got a hot update for you on that new field, that parcel with the diapiric shale
uplifts we've been looking at in South Hidalgo County.  Which would you like first, the good
news or the bad news?"  The wildcatter was having a tough day so he says, "I can use
some good news, boys."  The landman says, "We can get it for only $5 million, all rights,
boss."  To which Jim Bob replies, "Wow, that is good news.  Where's the bad news in
that?"   And the accountant tells him, "But they want a $5,000 cash down payment."  
Clockwise from top left: Marc Tucker,
David Rockefeller & Hillary Clinton
So, taking a cue from our friend Jim Bob, let's hear the good news first about public education,
and it's that we've seen more financial transparency in the past few years than ever before.  I'm
almost finished updating the national rosters and the numbers surprised even me, and I tend to be
an optimist.  More in the next few days.

The bad news is that while conservatives have been minding their own business and raising
their families themselves, thank you very much but no thank you, Mr. Gub'ment Man, the
progressive socialists have spent this past century taking over our public schools and other
governmental entities with the result that not only are we as a nation bankrupt and beholden to
the Chinese who hold our Treasuries but also we have a dumbed-down populace unable to tell
you what eight times nine is without a calculator, the same populace who went for that "hopey-
changey thing" in November 2008.  There's good news even in this; conservatives are beginning
to wake up to the fact that we are after all our brother's keepers.  There's a kind of populist
wave emerging.  Question is, how can capitalists and the free markets find a way to be kind to
others without the socialists insisting that Mr. Gub'ment Man do it for us?  How can conserva=
tives show that liberals are the real "Party of No" as in "no self-discipline" and "no backbone"?  
Bottom line:  How can we again be free of the Chinese and our other creditors?  And how can
we return to the sound proven traditional vendor-free curriculums that worked for centurties?

Developing . . . .
Bringing you the information and tools you need in order to improve public education and lower taxes and spending; during the past two decades of the voucher debate an entire generation has grown up in the public school system.  
If you don't think this is important look at the Nov. 2008 election where folks voted based on emotions and hope rather than facts.  Let's put a stop to the school-to-prison pipeline -- and keep our public schools locally run, strong and free..
Region 7 -  Kilgore
Public Information
www.esc7.net/default.aspx?n
ame=pub_info
Congratulations, America!   What a way to introduce Sunshine Week, March 14-20!  The check
register rosters are now updated, and at least 810 school districts in the United States are posting their
check registers online.  Given that when we started this grassroots movement in October 2006 it
consisted of all of a few names in a few states--back when the list was more roots than grass--our great
nation's embrace of school district transparency in just over three years is encouraging:  At least 36
states have at least one district posting, including all of Alabama and Delaware; Miami, the nation's 4th
largest district whose budget is larger than that of all Iowa public schools, is online as are the two largest
here in Texas, Houston and Dallas.  With 408 districts participating, Texas still has the greatest number
of school district check registers online, and more than the other 49 states combined.
                                                        Peyton
P.S.  Here are some of the leaders in U.S. school district check register transparency; you can find out
more about them by going to each of the state links--that's Texas Gov. RickPerry and  Commissioner
of Education Robert Scott at top left.  
For names, right click on images, choose "Properties."
Updated Wednesday, March 3, 2010 / 8:33 a.m