Bill Cirone: Envisioning a Bright New Year for the County’s Children

» Art on 01.08.09 @ 07:06 AM

In the spirit of “the circle of responsibility,” perhaps Bill Cirone will now call off all those friends of Sarvis who continue to divert attention from the problems in the Santa Barbara School District by “pointing the fingers of blame” at Bob Noel. And get to work on solving the district-wide problems, because they are affecting our children—now and into the future.

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» "You Know" on 01.08.09 @ 06:22 PM

To ART, the first blogger:  Please contact me on http://www.sbschooltalk.ning.com, or e-mail me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

Sincerely,

“Lehl”

“He who knows not and knows not that he knows not
is a fool, shun him.

He who knows not and knows that he knows not
is a child, teach him.

He who knows, and knows not that he knows,
is asleep, wake him.

He who knows, and knows that he knows is wise,
follow him.”

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» David Pakter david@OldMasterPortraits.com on 01.12.09 @ 02:08 PM

The book, “WHITE CHALK CRIME” is a shattering expose of how the multi-billion dollar world of education in America has been turned into a business. This seminal work by an expert who has spent an entire life in the field of education pulls back the curtain and exposes the almost unbelievable degree of corruption that exists in the Wizard of Oz world of educating our nation’s children.

It has become less about what is good for children and more about how tens of thousands of people, reaching to the highest levels of government have found countless ways to skim and milk the system of money that should be going towards helping educate children in the classroom.

Teachers nationwide who dare to expose this corruption, that manifests itself in countless different forms, (both within schools proper as well as inside the labyrinthian bureaucracies that control the funding), are dealt with swiftly and harshly.

I myself was one such Whistleblower who attempted to report massive corruption, financial mismanagement and ongoing Federal Civil Rights violations occurring in schools in New York City. My reward for doing the right thing was that I was removed on trumped up allegations and found myself fighting a “David versus Goliath” legal battle for the past four years and counting.

Should anyone wish to know the real reason/s I was removed from my position, it is only necessary to visit the United Federation of Teachers website:

http://www.uft.org/news/teacher/top/axed/

There one will see a photograph of me being decorated by former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in New York’s City Hall as a “Teacher of the Year” for Exceptional Achievement in Education. I had designed, built from the ground up, and personally funded, the first premiere Medical Illustration Program in the United States for gifted Minority students. The goal of the program was to serve as a launching pad to propel those highly intellectually gifted students from socio-economically deprived backgrounds into Ivy League Universities and into careers including Medicine, as Physicians and research Scientists.

The success of this unique program was such, that it attracted the attention of Pulitzer Prize winning Journalist, Clara Hemphill.

But once I became a Whistleblower the New York City Board/Dept of Education went after me with a blistering degree of vengeance and retaliation not witnessed in decades and has led to the Legal arm, known as NYSUT, of the United Federation of Teachers, filing a $30,000,000 (thirty million) NOTICE OF CLAIM against schools Chancellor Joel Klein, Esq. and the New York City Board of Education on my behalf.

My case, in the way the press and other assorted news media have reported the above story, in the most skewed and distorted manner possible, makes the case one of the poster children of Karen Horwitz’s amazingly factually detailed book, White Chalk Crime.

Ms. Horwitz recounts dozens of stories, like my own, all part of an ultimately shocking and illuminating expose of how the world of Education has become a form of billion dollar “piggy bank” for those in a position to raid and feed at the trough of publicly funded Education budgets.

The countless stories of the fates that have befallen teachers nationwide and the abusive, often sadistic and illegal methods that have been utilized to retaliate against and silence teachers who have tried to report egregious wrongdoing and outright theft of taxpayer money is ultimately heartbreaking but a story that must be told.

This is a landmark and seminal book, painstakingly researched over a decade, that will hopefully serve and assist the long overdue need to expose the rampant theft of the enormous financial resources that are intended to educate our children.

This monumental work will also hopefully call the public’s attention to what has happened to the lives and careers of hardworking, dedicated educators nationwide, who at great personal and professional risk to their careers, have spoken out about WHITE CHALK CRIME: The REAL Reason Schools Fail.

David Pakter, M.A., M.F.A. Artist and Instructor of Medical Illustration
http://www.OldMasterPortraits.com .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

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