Kansas’ new education commissioner, Bob Corkins, will make a cool $140,000 per year. As the Lawrence Journal-World noted, that’s $36,300 more than Kathleen Sebelius makes yearly as governor of Kansas, and it appears to be well over $100,000 more than he made as director of two one-person conservative think tanks. State Board of Education chairman Steve Abrams said he offered Corkins $140,000 because that’s what former Education Commissioner Andy Tompkins was paid. But Tompkins was actually qualified.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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137 Comments
I wonder, would he be the fifth highest paid state employee after the KU & K-State football and b-ball coaches?
Who has a list of top level state employee salaries?
Just doing a quick check on KU only, they stated that 153 employees of KU make over $100,000
Football Coach gets $325,000
BasketBall coach gets a base salary of $129,380, plus two automobiles, membership in two country clubs, payment of reasonable in-state and out-of-state travel and entertainment expenses, permission to operate camps and make money off of that, payment of the annual premium on a $2 million term life insurance policy, regular health insurance, retirement and other fringe benefits.
All in all, the Basketball coach total compensation package for his first year is in the $1 million range.
“Football Coach gets $325,000″KU has a football team? I did not know that! Go cats! LoL
Many years ago, Italy’s Government was so loaded down with bureaucracies and high-paid bureaucrats that their legislature decided to create just one more. They formed a group of dedicated men whose only job was to root out waste, fraud and corruption and were given the power to cut-off their money. The bureaucrats were allowed to appeal that groups decision and show just cause to be reinstated.
It worked.
The group shut-down over 1700 bureaucracies, nearly two-thirds of the government, clipped salaries of those overpaid, with a “take it or leave it mandate” cleaned-out the “pork-barrel” and none asked to be reinstated { some were nothing more than a PO Box receiving a check }.
The four governments which are suppose to serve the people are Federal, States, County, and Local. They are all infected with the bureaucratic mind-set and sorely in need a team of dedicated house-cleaners.
A group of untouchables with the power cut-off their money. Government will never clean its own house, only the people can do that, and government will fight tooth and nail to stop that from happening.
The arrogant bastards have the nerve to call us “the private sector”
The time has come for “we the people” to show them who is boss. Game?
IF Bob Corkins was fired and his job was given to his secretary with no increase in salary, would education suffer?
The truthful answer is: NO
Beginning teachers in Kansas make about 1/5 of what Corkins will make, not including the $15K he wants to spend to hire a buddy to help smooth the waters at the KS Dept of Ed.
And this is a guy who was decrying wasteful spending in education?
Sounds like Connie Morris, and her don’t-spend-anything-on-schools-but-send-me-on-a -junket-to-Florida attitude.
You know what…maybe instead of us bitching about this guy, we should write some letters. This is OUR state. The federal government is clearly out of reach, but not the state government.It is time for a local letter writing campaign.
http://da.state.ks.us/phonebook/http://www.ku.edu/pri/ksdata/vote/20173.shtml (these are all the county representatives including the BOE)
Can anyone get his email address?
Let’s send him:
YOU MAKE TO MUCH MONEY..FIRE YOURSELF.
YOU MAKE TOO MUCH MONEY..FIRE YOURSELF
I checked. He is so new he doesn’t have one yet.
ED! The United States can use something like that (Italy model). The United States is a Socialist country. The largest employer in the US is government, and 35 out of 50 states recieve more federal tax dollars than it pays out. So that means 15 states are paying for the rest of the nations activity.
State government is the largest employer in many states, and government employment growth outpaces population growth. In most cases double the growth of population. For example, if a state grew in population by 3% in on year, the government employment would grow 6% that same year.
Including SS, SSDI, Welfare, and any other assistance program, the amount of Americans receiving a check from government for a living is probably in the 50% range of the population
Joe Williams: Your math might contain an error. Remember the Feds have the keys to the money printing presses so they can spend money as fast as the presses can spit it out.
This is scary. I’m agreeing with Ed completely.
Joe
When I first came to Texas the sales tax was 1.1% and now it’s over 8%.
The scary one in Dallas is DART { Dallas Area Rapid Transit }
When Peggy Oliver of Channel 4 investigated DART’s credit cards and found personal expenses all of DART’s advertising was pulled off Channel 4. I talked to her personally and she was shook-up. Her bosses pulled her off the investigation.
DART has {get this} 33 Board Members and I tried to get information about their budget, salaries etc. Available only in a form nobody can understand. They’re even able to tax my phone bill.
Like I said: Government is completely out-of-control.
The first thing DART did was to spend 1 million dollars on their meeting room, then when on a whirlwind tour of the entire world, for years, looking for information about transportation.
DART buses run empty around Dallas because { And I tried} to find out where they go. Nobody knows.
They have concrete benches to sit on in Texas heat and rain. The sign at the bus stop says 303 or some other number and that is suppose to tell you where it’s going.
Just for kicks I tried to get somebody at DART to tell me how to get across town. It was the stuff for Jay Leno.
Fisrt she said: Stand out in the street and don’t back-down or the Bus driver won’t stop. I ‘m not making this up.
I have an idea. why don’t we all gang-up and go get him. Lets get him fired!
We’ll make that our little nasty project.
We have to start somewhere. First let’s synchronize our watches. { just kidding}
Not kidding. Somebody get some email address and lets save Kansas 140,000 dollars, then we go after the rest of the bastards!
We need a name for our group. Submit some all we’ll vote on it.
How about:
The Screaming Eagles
{ That ought to get their attention, I’d hate to have them after me }
We don’t have to start a “club”. Just barrage everyone you can in Topeka with the same letter that is in your own words. If there are even 500 people doing this over a week…it can really shake them up.E-mails aren’t as effective as snail-mail.
I don’t need a wall to keep my neighbors from killing me because I don’t do the things that would make them want to.
{ A wall to steal their land }
But you do, don’t you “Ray”
There are a lot of good honest Jews willing to live in peace with their Arab friends and grud like Ray keep that from happening.
Notice that only good Jews are the ones who get blow-up while that never happens to the Zionist Likuds. Mossad makes sure of that.
They laugh up their sleves. Ray has to play the “Hitler Card” and the “anti-Semetic Card” to make his case.
The truth would set him on fire.
Some miscellaneous thoughts:
To Phillip Brownlee: Shame on you for rushing to such quick judgment concerning Corkin’s being qualified. Last time I checked, 8 of the nation’s 30 largest school districts had non-traditional superintendents without an educational background. Some are doing tremendous things. Give Corkins a chance.
To janabanana and Ed Friedemann: Of course he has an email address but I certainly wouldn’t post it here. I did, however, just forward this page on to him for review.
To All: Don’t be so quick to rush to judgment as Mr. Brownlee has done. Sometimes, it’s best to give people the benefit of the doubt and just sit back and watch for a while to see how situations play out. Things are not always as they seem!!
—————-
Things Aren’t Always What They Seem
Author Unknown
Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room. Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied…
“Things aren’t always what they seem”.
The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found thefarmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel, “How could you have let this happen!? The first man had everything, yet you helped him,” she accused. “The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let their cow die.”
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied.
“When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t findit. Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave her the cow instead.”
Sometimes this is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way we think they should. If you have faith in God, just trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not realize it until much later.
Notice how bureaucrats protect bureaucrats. There are billions of dollars at stake and they will always try to “circle the wagons” whenever their bureaucracies are under threat on exposure.
Success in outing them is to keep-up the presure. Exposure is their greatest fear. Send your letters, and tell your friends to send letters. Don’t stop until this first one is gone then start on the next.
This CKD clown is suggesting that because others are making mistakes in hugh salaries it’s alright: ” Last time I checked, 8 of the nation’s 30 largest school districts had non-traditional superintendents without an educational background.”
Why did he “check?”
They’re aready worried and the fight has just been suggested.
Don’t you just love to watch them sweat?
Welcome CKD. I haven’t seen you before. My first impression is that you are dangerously insane.
I’m in with this get Corkins campaign. I note with some relief that many noted conservative posters to these blogs are also on board. It is a good thing to know the other side knows when some of their own go too far.
Let’s do this. It aint about party in this case. This guy makes Republicans look bad. He is clearly incompetent and selected by incompetents.
Let’s drive this guy from office.
140,000 dollars a year is 2,692 dollars a week. That job is nothing more than a seat-warmer for greed.
Every school district has a board. They can’t handle school matters?They did before Government thought it needed to get bigger.That’s a waste of money by itself.
Who needs a State Board of Education or an Education Commissioner?
How about adding a President of Education and a V P as well?And a couple of hundred helpers with nice titles also?
The office of Commissioner should be disolved.
“Pitch Forks, get your pitch forks here…torches, get your torches!”
Ed Friedemann wrote: Why did he “check?”
The correct personal pronoun, in this instance, is “she.”
I checked because it’s a part of my job to stay on top of education trends and stories like this.
J R wrote: “Let’s drive this guy from office.”
Count me out. I spent a good portion of the past two weeks working to get him IN office.
J R wrote: “I haven’t seen you before. My first impression is that you are dangerously insane.”
LOL! Dangerously effective would probably be a better description.
No, I am not worried, and no, I am not sweating. I’ve been in the midst of issues like these for more than a decade. I’m doing what I usually do: speaking up for what I believe is right and good.
You probably have seen me before — even posting here in this forum on other topics in the past.
I’ll stand by what I posted earlier. It should be interesting and entertaining to check back here in a couple of weeks to see what people are saying at that time.
Corkins is a good man, and a very capable man. In time, I believe he will win over even many of his current critics.
If he and you are “good” then you should not have a problem disolving the unneccessay office of “Commissioner” and that wasteful expeniture of $2,692 dollars a week { 140,000 dollars a year of hard-earned Kansas taxpayer money }
If, however, you are the political hack you claim to be, then, of course, you don’t give a shit about the peoples’ hard-earned money, but rather, just getting the “money results” for your ill-chosen profession.
Or, if not, then what’s your end of this very expensive deal? {not meaning, of course, to imply or pry into “pillow-talk” as the case may, or may not be }
Excuse the wrong useage of the personal pronoun “he” instead of “she” as one can never be certain where the boundaries of professional secrets might merge with the “Feedom of information Act.” I would hope that “is” proper { “is’ meaning the same as }.
Notice the flippant arrogance that political hacks like CKD act-out when Government thinks it’s better than the people. When Fat-Government no longer serves people, but rather considers people as just a necessary evil to cough-up the money they need to squander.
The current Kansas Board of Education, which teaches nobody, has ten members and a head honcho ER, commissioner. I’m sure each member has oodles of staff with cars, and, of course, they all have to take “trips.” I’m sure meeting are scheduled at expensive restaurants and “meals” are charged to the State. A list of all the restaurants and hotels in all of the US cities and other cities in other countries visited would be less than easy to obtain.
I pulled-up their web-site and searched salaries and they gave me a good-ole-dose of gobbledygook.
Governor Kathlene Sebelius said:
“Leaner, Smarter Government.I believe we can make this government work smarter and more efficiently, do more with less, and make it more accountable to the people it serves.”
Well, Governor, you might want to roll-up the sleves for this one, things might just get a little sticky as CKD has your mind made-up for ya! And “she” doesn’t seem to like things the way you said.
One last expense should be charged the the Kansas Board of Education: The cost of the Tar, the Rail and the Feathers.
And now we have CKD who thinks he’s an important super secret operative in _____. (Put in what ever imposing name or initials you want). Don’t want to chill the discussion, but he just sent this page to Corkins (your names are all going on a list!) But this is what he does. Remember, he thinks he’s “dangerously efficient”!
XXX
He is a she. look up at her post.
Ah, CKD, the President of “Project Educate” weighs in.
Of course, you would be for Corkins. You’ve spent your entire life trying to destroy public education as we know it.
I thought we were finally rid of you when you left Wichita, but no . . .
By the way, who funds this crackpot activism of yours?
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/editorial/12857201.htm
http://blogs.kansas.com/weblog/2005/10/corkins_cashes_.html#commentsI hope everyone read both of today’s editorial about Mr. Corkins.
Personally, I don’t like being told not to have an opinion about something. It seemed like a threat that CKD was “watching” us and sent the link to Mr. Corkins.GOOD! This is a public forum where people tell it like they see it; and we often see things differently.It should frighten CKD and Mr. Corkins a little that on this thread there are republicans, democrats, moderates, liberals, religious conservatives, different ethnicities, racists, college educated, barely educated, crazies, men, women, etc., etc…and we are all agreeing that Mr. Corkins should not have been hired and hired at his exorbitant wage.
Janabanana,Great post! Thanks!
Galahad, thanks for the tipoff regarding CKD. And janabanana, a nice riposte.
Fellow bloggers,We should welcome the big fish swimming in our midst: CKD=Cindy Duckett, one of the more effective grassroots organizers of the contemporary religious right on a whole host of educational and family issues. We regular bloggers reach dozens–namely, each other; she reaches, literally, millions. She’s an inspiring example of what a plucky mom in tennis shoes can do! Very Horatio Alger, judging by her press.
Having said all that, I will now raise my basic objection that pertains to the thread: I reject the claim of Corkins (notably the Flint Hills Public Policy Think Tank whores), Duckett, and the State BOE that competition is the key to improving K-12 education.
To the contrary: introducing an adversial system of competition that picks winners and losers into the educational system is a basic threat to American democracy and political equality.
Ms. Duckett and Mr. Corkins, the ‘free market’ is not God. And if you think it is, you may want to rethink your theology.
Behind and beneath various battles over sex ed and the teaching of evolution is the effort to defund and privatize public education. We all know this. And placing a market apologist in the driver’s seat of Kansas education is a tremendous victory for the underlying market agenda to privatize education.
Bill Bennett, bless his racist, gambling, dominatrix-patronizing black heart, at least had the honesty to admit this. Cindy Duckett, in her unfailingly positive, yet slightly manic way, is a far more appealing soft-pedaller of this packet of initiatives. But since her whole career as an activist has been dedicated to delegitimating public education, she’s part of the same project.
To answer, finally, the little parable designed to put my mind at ease: why should I trust you, Ms. Duckett, and by extension Mr. Corkins, if neither of you will own up to your part in this large-scale ideological strategy?
CF
Right behind you.{ a little late }
http://www.ceokansas.org/CEO-News14.html
Cindy K Duckett is carrying some awful baggage. She is going for the big-bucks, and evidently Bob Corkins has agreed to supply all she wants.
This has got to be a bad as it gets.
I kinda doubt if we’ll hear from Ms. CKD anymore. She doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to debate and defend her policies in a wide-open forum like this one.
She prefers hand-picked audiences in friendly venues in which she can spout the right-wing line without fear of rebuttal with fact.
Hence, her homily little angel story and her veiled threat of “reporting” us to the authorities.
CF, Galahad, Jana, Jed, XXX,
If the Governor does not intervene and remove this threat to public education, Kansas will become a laughingstock of the nation.
This isn’t just some political hack, this is more than just bad-news, these two could destroy public education in Kansas and laugh all the way to the bank.
I meant “homely” in the post above. It was a homely homily.
BTW, if the angels were interested in justice, why didn’t they give the poor family the gold? When the angel of death came, why didn’t they give it the mean rich man instead of the poor family’s cow?
These are the powderized and deoderized myths that pass for fairy stories today. I prefer the real thing, like “Godfather Death” in which the poor man does not chose God as his son’s godfather, “for He gives to the rich and takes from the poor.” He choses Death as his child’s godfather, because Death takes all people equally . . .
Not quite as charming, but a lot more real, isn’t it?
Lawrence Journal-World reports, the guy is asking the Ks. Legislature for an amount, not to exceed 15,000.00, to hire an outside consultant, to ease his transition into this position.
Enuf said.
James,
Nice catch! I gather you are wagering on the soon-to-be-announced hire of Connie Duckett to the position of ‘outside consultant’ helping to manage the ‘transition’ of Mr.Corkins? Sounds like a safe bet.
Ms. Duckett, if you are offered this money, diverted from educating children to what is in effect political patronage, will you accept it? Or will you refuse to participate in such a quid pro quo?
Everybody:
It’s Cindy K. Duckett of infamous “Project Educate”
{ A misnomer for grap-the-money- and-run, only this time there’s too much money to leave }
If approved, this money will be misappropriated under false pretences. The Attorney General of Kansas needs to file charges, after a grand jury indicts.
Time for a wiretap, this is only the beginning.
The Six board members who put this clown in, what’s in their “closet?”
Ed,Sorry, The AG is already up to his eyeballs in this! He’s not about to file charges against his own agenda, no matter how many laws get busted. After all, they’re just man’s law, not god’s.
Jed
That is why we have Federal Grand Juries. There are still some clean FBI Agents who went after and busted AIPAC, so you know they’ll swim upstream.
OK guys and gals I’m counting on you here.
I don’t have your resources and I want more about this Cindy Duckett. I do not find her threat to send this page to Corkins. I am posting late and it may have been removed. Let me know how to get in touch with her and I WILL GIVE HER MY NAME.
Kudos for exposing her.
Hey Cindy??????Corkins is going DOWN. The board members that selected him are going down. And You Ms Cindy Duckett are going down. I trust you are familiar with the word CRUSADE? You just became my own personal crusade. Help me out folks.
For the Republicans on the right side in this I appeal to you. I was a Republican once. Such as Corkins and Duckett and Connie Morris and Abrams SHAME you. Let’s expose them and run them out!—–
Oh and if anyone has an adress for Corkins send it. I don’t need Cindy to whisper my name. I’ll shout it in his face!
JR,
Ms. Duckett’s comments are still upthread. Her posting name is CKD, which I presume are her initials.
And to everyone, left, right and center–nice job blogswarming Cindy Duckett! I, too, will be surprised if she shows her face here again. However, I will bet, dollars to donuts, that she’s lurking to see what we say about her.
Care to respond and to set the record straight, Ms. Duckett?
CF
Imagine the gall of Cindy Duckett and Bob Corkins to nail the commissioners job @ 140,000 and then have the gal to ask to ledg for 15 grand to show him how to do it.
And shame on the ledg if they give those two the money.
Ed, indeed.
These nutjobs only hate ‘Big Government’ until they hold the purse strings. Then it’s ALL about sloppin’ at the public trough. Rostenkowski, Corkins–they’re all the same.
Judging by the backlash, I think the BOE has overreached. But of course, we won’t really know until next year’s elections.
Let’s go after the 6 members who voted this slob in. If they do someting like this, you just know that they’ve got to be dirty elsewhere.
CFHow do we find out how the BOE voted?
CKD has gone quiet on us.
You wanna know how to shut a conservative up?
Ask who’s funding them.
I sent three e-mails to the Flint Hills (FAKE) Policy Institute asking them the simple question of who pays the bills.
I got three answers back–one, the president’s not here, but he’ll be happy to answer your question, two, ditto, three, ditto.
They don’t even lie well, do they?
CF Galahad
Google “Project Educate” and you’ll find Cindy K Duckett.
She’s been pumping money for quite some time.
Galahad, nice one! If there’s one thing mildew hates, it’s light.
Ed, indeed. CKD = shameless Wingnut money whore.
Cindy, prove us wrong!
Hey Duckie Bird,I haven’t had much opportunity to post on this thread, but please be sure to forward my name on to Corkie-poo too! Something about politics and bedfellows makes me wonder how strange your relationship is with this loser.To Jana, Ed, CF, Galahad, Et Al, If we need a name, how does “Darwin’s Dogs” sound?
Gee, I’ve always heard that it was the rabid, right-wing radical conservatives who were paranoid! I guess this forum must be filled with that type!! :)
I’ve never been shy about sharing my personal opinions and that’s not going to change now.
I haven’t been “lurking.” I simply don’t have the time to spend in this forum that others apparently do. By the way, using one’s own REAL identifying information would not be a very good idea for a really good “super secretive operative” – and especially not in such an open, public forum. :)
I will be glad to answer some of the questions raised here recently. Rather than responding to the vast amount of misinformation posted here myself, in many instances, I think I’ll let the words of others provide some answers for me. I’ll try to pull this all down into some logical sense with some order to it. Maybe I’ll even ask a few questions of my own.
ED WROTE: “…you don’t give a shit about the peoples’ hard-earned money …”
RESPONSE #1:
In this case, I tried to keep costs down while still trying to support the district and some improvements in areas where the greatest needs exist.
November 6, 1999Peterjohn, Duckett quit school committeeBy John EllisThe Wichita Eagle”That group does not really want to hear any other opinion than going forward on a huge bond issue,” Duckett said … Duckett, who is president of Project Educate — a local education group — said she would support issuing bonds to build schools in heavily black areas of northeast Wichita. Those students are bused for desegregation purposes…”
RESPONSE #2:WHO do you think broke THIS story that follows, in part? Remember the guy who was going to be hired as an assistant superintendent here … and the taxpayers were going to get stuck with the bill to ship his Cadillac here, pay for a nice place for him to live for a few months, send him on a little retreat, I believe I remember, to Hawaii, etc.? The same guy who headed up a school district in New Jersey that was SO bad that the state came in and took it over and ousted him???
You don’t think – surely – that one of our own local “investigative reporters” dug this huge Sunday, front page story up for our enlightenment, do you??? If you actually DO believe that, then you need to think again!! As I stated in an earlier posting, I’ve made it my job – my own personal mission — to keep up on educational trends nationwide for well over a decade.
It just happened that I had a meeting appointment with the then-superintendent on the Thursday afternoon before this story broke, front page, on Sunday. That superintendent introduced me to the following Mr. Campbell, explained that he would be joining the district, and asked if I would mind having him “sit in” on that particular meeting.I had been following the developments in Mr. Campbell’s school district online for months, and when I found myself in the position of having him standing in front of me, being introduced and shaking hands … I couldn’t believe what was unfolding right in front of my eyes.
That was one incredibly short meeting! As soon as I left, I placed a call to the education reporter at The Eagle and told her what I had just learned. I spent the next two days faxing her historical articles about this guy and providing her with contacts in New Jersey who were more than willing to talk to her to help provide further information for the following story.
As a result of that effort, there was a deafening public outcry. Mr. Campbell withdrew his name as a candidate for the assistant superintendency the following Monday – just prior to the board meeting when he expected to be hired.
That happened ONLY because I DO care about educational quality, about having good people in leadership positions, and about yours – and everyone else’s – “hard earned money.”
If you happened to have been living in Wichita at that time, Ed, I saved YOU and a whole lot of other people a sizeable sum of money.You’re more than welcome for those efforts!! :)(Sorry … I don’t happen to have this full article in an internet-friendly format. I only have the full piece in paper form.)
NO BANG FOR THE BOARD’S BUCKS WICHITA SUPERINTENDENT LARRY VAUGHN AUTHORIZED SPENDING PUBLIC MONEY UNDER THE ASSUMPTION THAT THE HIRING OF AN ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT WAS A SURE THING.
Source: Paola Banchero, The Wichita Eagle“When Wichita Superintendent Larry Vaughn offered an assistant superintendent’s job to a Newark, N.J., educator, he was confident he had found the right person. Vaughn needed strong administrators to replace those who had left the school district during the past several years. He wanted someone who cared deeply about children. He wanted someone who could serve as a role model to minority youngsters in the city schools. Vaughn was sure that Eugene Campbell, who had served as …”
Published on April 3, 1996, Page 1A, Wichita Eagle, The (KS)
ED WROTE: “I’m sure each (Board of Education) member has oodles of staff with cars, and, of course, they all have to take “trips…”
RESPONSE #3: None of the ten board members has any staff. Neither do they have taxpayer provided vehicles. They do occasionally take trips. I expect to see those being cut dramatically in the days ahead.
GALAHAD WROTE: “Ah, CKD, the President of “Project Educate” weighs in.”
RESPONSE #4: Darn! You caught me!! What gave me away?? Was it the fact that I chose to use my own genuine identifying information rather than hiding behind some cute little screen name??? To whom do *I* have the pleasure of addressing? If you prefer to keep the anonymity of your screen name, I’m SURE I will understand. :) By the way, Project Educate has been defunct for at least 5-6 years.
GALAHAD WROTE: “Of course, you would be for Corkins. You’ve spent your entire life trying to destroy public education as we know it.”
RESPONSE #5:Cindy Duckett: Doing Her Homework
By Cathy FeemsterEast Wichita NewsAugust, 2000
“…Another area that Duckett focuses on is educational standards and assessments. She praised Wichita superintendent Winston Brooks and assistant superintendent Mark Evans for their work in this area. “I am all for the concept of high-stakes assessments. I think that goes along with higher standards, and I’m on the District’s side on this issue,” said Duckett when asked about the graduation testing that has been put off because experts warned that disgruntled parents of students who were denied a diploma for failing the test would file successful lawsuits … I pat the administration on the back for this. They were right to step forward and rework [the test]. We need to take our time and do it right…”
RESPONSE #6:From the sidelines, education activist takes high-profile role in WichitaBy KATE BEEM – The Kansas City StarDate: 05/08/99
“…Last year Duckett joined forces with the United Teachers of Wichita, the district’s teachers union, and successfully lobbied the board to adopt the Core Knowledge curriculum for two public elementary schools. Core Knowledge is based on the theories of University of Virginia professor E.D. Hirsch Jr. that there is a body of knowledge that American children should know by the time they leave elementary school….”
HMMMM … joining forces with “the enemy” was probably a pretty dumb move on my part, huh???!! :)
RESPONSE # 7:Cindy Duckett: Doing Her Homework
By Cathy FeemsterEast Wichita NewsAugust, 2000
Duckett spotted this new (Core Knowledge) curriculum through her dialogue with educators on the Internet. “I was watching the results come in [on the national level], especially in some of the so-called low income schools. It was reaching those children, taking them up to the level where they should be. It was something I thought we needed to try here in Wichita. It’s not THE answer; it’s ONE of the answers.”
“Cindy was tremendously helpful in getting me the information [on Core Knowledge],” said Chip Gramke, a school board member. “She did a tremendous job. If you look at the test scores of these two schools, it works.”Gramke also noted that he has also been on opposing sides from Duckett over the years, but praises her for keeping to the facts and always doing her homework. “She keeps emotion out of it and sticks to the facts. Cindy, from my perspective, is someone with a tremendous amount of integrity. She always comes with all the facts and figures to back up her position. She’s a pretty big force in education, not only in this city but also in the state.”
Superintendent Brooks shares that respect. “My experience with her has been very good,” he said. “Cindy is someone who keeps public school systems on their toes. She isn’t bashful about challenging us or sharing her own philosophies. She is always extremely respectful. Although I don’t always agree with her, I respect her opinion.”
RESPONSE #8:Southwest Daily TimesLiberal, Kansas, January 19, 2001
“…Graves, however, pledged that education will be his administration’s top priority in its final two years and said he would listen to legislative leaders with expertise on the issue.
If so, Graves needs to start intense discussions with Senate President Dave Kerr, House Education Chairman Ralph Tanner and House Speaker Kent Glasscock who have devoted much of their political careers to education matters, who know what is going on in Kansas schools and who have sound ideas for reforming education.
In addition, the governor should be talking to such people as new Kansas State Board of Education member Carol Rupe, who has a proven record as a school reformer in Wichita, and Cindy Duckett, one of the most respected education activists in the state…”
GALAHAD WROTE: I thought we were finally rid of you when you left Wichita, but no . . .
RESPONSE #9:You need to find some better sources of information, Sir Galahad. I never left Wichita, and I most certainly haven’t been quiet. So … what caused you to believe otherwise? Is your other “information” equally flawed???
GALAHAD WROTE: By the way, who funds this crackpot activism of yours?
RESPONSE #10:I DO!! Did you want to make a contribution to “the cause?” :)
JANABANANA WROTE:It should frighten CKD and Mr. Corkins a little that on this thread there are republicans, democrats, moderates, liberals, religious conservatives, different ethnicities, racists, college educated, barely educated, crazies, men, women, etc., etc…and we are all agreeing that Mr. Corkins should not have been hired and hired at his exorbitant wage.
RESPONSE #11:I happen to believe that open discussion, and even passionate disagreements, are very, very healthy things – both in personal relationships AND in public dialogue. It would be a very boring world if we all thought alike at all times.
QUESTIONS FOR ALL: HAS Mr. Corkins been hired at the “exorbitant wage” amount being bandied around in the media? Last I knew, the “official” vote on his hiring wasn’t going to take place until sometime later this week. Did I miss something there? HAS Mr. Corkins publicly agreed to accept that entire monetary figure for purely personal gain? If so, then again, I guess I missed it.
AFTER an official vote is taken, and IF Mr. Corkins is hired, I just happen to believe that it would be fair to give the guy a couple of weeks to get up to speed and to formulate a plan. Maybe that’s just a silly little notion on my part, but I can remember “first days” on several jobs, and no matter how simple those jobs may happen to be, there are things to learn. What are the names of these people I’m working with? Where are the bathrooms? What is my new phone number at work? THOSE are some of the easier things to handle.
Put on your thinking caps, people. Let’s try to use some of those “critical thinking skills” that we want our students to learn. Everyone here has prejudged this man before he has had an opportunity to tell US what he’s going to do … and not do!
If *I* am wrong on THAT point, then would SOMEONE here PLEASE PROVE ME wrong???!! (I do mean PROOF – not just more conjecture.)
CF WROTE:“Fellow bloggers, We should welcome the big fish swimming in our midst: CKD=Cindy Duckett, one of the more effective grassroots organizers of the contemporary religious right on a whole host of educational and family issues. We regular bloggers reach dozens–namely, each other; she reaches, literally, millions. She’s an inspiring example of what a plucky mom in tennis shoes can do! Very Horatio Alger, judging by her press.
RESPONSE #12:Thank you so much for the kind compliment! I do not, however, wear tennis shoes. Yes, I do have a wide network of contacts.
RESPONSE #13:Parental Activist Calls on Schools to Enhance Reading and Introduce Rigor
by David AwbreyAd Astra MagazineJanuary/February 2001
“Cindy Duckett is Kansas’ first cyber-school activist. From the computer in her southwest Wichita home, she serves as a sounding board for school reformers across the state and as a primary research resource forjournalists, parents and others interested in educational issues.
In 1990, Duckett was one of the first Kansans to go on-line. Through chatrooms and bulletin boards, she created a network of committed parents suspicious that their children were getting an inferior education in the Wichita Public Schools. Organized as Project Educate, she and her allies challenged the Wichita schools to raise academic standards and demanded greater parental participation schools…”
RESPONSE # 14:Americans Go To War for Their SchoolsBy Robert Holland
Middle American NewsSeptember, 1997One of the busiest and most effective grassroots activists is Cindy Duckett, president of the pro-academics Project Educate. Ms. Duckett, a Wichita homemaker who daily uses the Internet to network nationally on education issues, has showed that citizens can be effective by carefully documenting their case and calmly presenting it. Her group has invited some of the nation’s most eminent education researchers to analyze the state’s OBE-style standards. This is part of what Sandra Stotsky, of Harvard and Boston University, wrote about the English (or “language arts”) standards:
The document is “written almost completely in unintelligible educationese…the language in this document often reads like an unintentional satire of politically correct pedagogy…Standards for demonstrating knowledge and skills are regularly mixed with standards that deal with behaviors, values, and attitudes…Incomprehensibly, students are expected to demonstrate ‘respect for differences in attitude, behavior, values and beliefs within formal and informal groups’ without any consideration of what and when the attitudes, behaviors, values, and beliefs of others may not be worthy of respect.”
Ms. Duckett distributed a news release, widely reported by Kansas media, in which she made the point that Ms. Stotsky’s evaluation justifies the move by five State Board members to abolish performance-based assessment. “If the standards are bad, the tests will be flawed, too,” she said.
CF WROTE:Having said all that, I will now raise my basic objection that pertains to the thread: I reject the claim of Corkins (notably the Flint Hills Public Policy Think Tank whores), Duckett, and the State BOE that competition is the key to improving K-12 education.To the contrary: introducing an adversial system of competition that picks winners and losers into the educational system is a basic threat to American democracy and political equality.
RESPONSE #15:NOW – FINALLY – we get to the crux of the real source of your irritation. You disagree with my position on the issue of school choice. You disagree with Mr. Corkin’s position on the issue of school choice.
Fair enough! Once upon a time, I believed as you do, and I argued as vehemently as you have, albeit much more politely. Thankfully, even in my “older age,” I have retained the abilities to listen, to try to keep an open mind, and to learned. It took years, and some very articulate people with keen minds to change my own position on that topic. There are still points about it that cause even me concern but I very definitely do now support at least the concept. The devil is in the details. Those would need to be worked through with great care and after a lot of public dialogue.Still, I now see school choice as the next great civil rights issue. I believe that it is the only way to level the playing field for ALL students.
I could write page after page on this issue alone, but I will resist that temptation. It’s a topic too large to deal with satisfactorily in this forum.As I stated before, however, I believe that discussion and differences of opinion are good things. I would welcome the opportunity to debate the issue at another time, in another venue.
CF WROTE:Bill Bennett, bless his racist, gambling, dominatrix-patronizing black heart, at least had the honesty to admit this. Cindy Duckett, in her unfailingly positive, yet slightly manic way, is a far more appealing soft-pedaller of this packet of initiatives. But since her whole career as an activist has been dedicated to delegitimating public education, she’s part of the same project.
RESPONSE #16:I’m not sure that I really understand the point you are trying to make with these comments. As to delegitimating public education, I see public schools as just as viable a choice as home schools, private schools, charter schools, vocational schools, and other types of schools that we haven’t even had the courage yet to consider. See some of the responses above concerning my efforts to improve public schools. The reality is – if every public school were to close down tomorrow – there simply are not enough available openings in all other types of schools combined to accommodate the vast number of students who would be left “homeless” in the absence of public schools. Public schools should continue to exist. For some, they serve a good purpose and provide a quality “product.” The problem is – those “good things” do not apply to ALL.
CF WROTE:To answer, finally, the little parable designed to put my mind at ease: why should I trust you, Ms. Duckett, and by extension Mr. Corkins, if neither of you will own up to your part in this large-scale ideological strategy?
RESPONSE # 17:I believe that I have just fairly stated my general position on the issue of school choice. To answer your question, however, you should NOT give me your blanket trust until I have earned that from you. The same applies to Mr. Corkins and to ANY and EVERY other “educational leader” out there among the pack!
Ask the “tough” questions. Insist on accountability. But at the very least, try to do those things with an open mind and with the polite respect that each of us should always try to extend to the other.
ED WROTE:“Cindy K Duckett is carrying some awful baggage. She is going for the big-bucks, and evidently Bob Corkins has agreed to supply all she wants. This has got to be a bad as it gets.”
RESPONSE #18:If you aren’t talking about a few extra pounds that I, too, would like to shed, please DO enlighten me as to what this “awful baggage” actually and specifically consists of! Further, please put forth your explanation as to how I have managed to gain the respect of even those who disagree with me on some issues if my “baggage” is truly “as bad as it gets.”
Finally, just for the record, Bob Corkins has not agreed to supply ME with ANYTHING – PERIOD – NO EXCEPTIONS.
GALAHAD WROTE:I kinda doubt if we’ll hear from Ms. CKD anymore. She doesn’t strike me as someone who likes to debate and defend her policies in a wide-open forum like this one. She prefers hand-picked audiences in friendly venues in which she can spout the right-wing line without fear of rebuttal with fact. Hence, her homily little angel story and her veiled threat of “reporting” us to the authorities.
RESPONSE #19:Surprise, surprise! Wrong again!! :) This is getting ridiculously long, but you all DID ask for it and I do try to make every effort to accommodate. As it happens, I love to debate. I look at those kinds of opportunities as a challenge. Too, forwarding the comments here on to Mr. Corkins was not intended to be taken as ANY kind of a “threat.” He needs to know what is on people’s minds. He needs to understand the perceptions he is facing – whether they are fair perceptions or not.
Every one of you are virtually anonymous, thanks to your self-selected screen names. As I said when I began this lengthy reply, I can’t remember ever being in a group of this size where paranoia has been so rampant. Frankly, I am dumbfounded by such reactions because I simply do not understand the kind of thinking that motivates them.
CF WROTE:“Nice catch! I gather you are wagering on the soon-to-be-announced hire of Connie Duckett to the position of ‘outside consultant’ helping to manage the ‘transition’ of Mr.Corkins? Sounds like a safe bet. Ms. Duckett, if you are offered this money, diverted from educating children to what is in effect political patronage, will you accept it? Or will you refuse to participate in such a quid pro quo?”
RESPONSE #20:Not a chance on this one! Besides, what would be the point in paying a willing volunteer???!! :) If you still want to wager on your “safe bet,” however, I will take you up on THAT!! How much are you willing to lose???!! :)
ED WROTE:That is why we have Federal Grand Juries. There are still some clean FBI Agents who went after and busted AIPAC, so you know they’ll swim upstream.
RESPONSE #21:Wow! You all just really CAN’T seem to “win” with any of your schemes. I’ve often wondered what leads people who are usually otherwise very kind and pleasant to “lash out” with all kinds of weird ideas when posting online or in emails. Perhaps it’s the anonymity provided from being able to hide behind a keyboard and a screen name.
At any rate, please do feel free to carry on as you will with whatever it is that motivates you.In the meantime – and even though this is not AT ALL a funny matter – I am finding it impossible to resist this wide open invitation to fuel even further paranoia – for the simple purpose of trying to make a very serious point.
You know those “clean FBI Agents” you’re counting on to come to the rescue? One of ‘em is my cousin. Some of the local ones like me, too, because I’ve spent the past year and a half helping THEM out, also.
EXHIBIT A:Posted on Thu, Dec. 16, 2004
Friend believes license is Fox’sThe driver’s license recovered by police and shown by the media this week looks to be that of BTK victim Nancy Fox, a former co-worker says.
BY TIM POTTERThe Wichita Eagle
It was minutes after 9 p.m. on Dec. 8, 1977, closing time at the Helzberg jewelry store in the Wichita Mall on East Harry. Nancy Fox, a part-time office worker at the store, and her female co-worker walked together to their cars on the chilly night. Hours later, the co-worker learned that she was one of the last people — possibly the last person other than the killer — to see Fox alive … Twenty-seven years and six days later, on Tuesday night, the former co-worker saw Fox’s face again — looking out from a Kansas driver’s license wrapped in a clear plastic bag. An image of the package — found in a Wichita park this week — had been broadcast on television and posted online. The former co-worker immediately recognized the face.
It was just as she remembered Fox looking in 1977. “That’s the girl I walked out with,” the woman told herself as she peered at the image. The former co-worker, who is not being identified because her family is concerned for her safety, said she also recognized the signature on the license. She had seen Fox sign documents at the jewelry store … She said two KBI detectives interviewed her Wednesday about Fox’s death.
EXHIBIT B:CNN NEWSNIGHT AARON BROWN
BTK’s Arrest
Aired February 28, 2005
BROWN: David, thank you, David Mattingly out in Wichita, Kansas tonight.
In 1977, three years after BTK killed his first victims, Wichita was still the kind of place where people sometimes left their front doors unlocked. Then police announced they were looking for a serial killer and life in Wichita changed fundamentally and in some ways forever. To live in that city meant living in terror. Sometimes the terror was as present as a new murder and sometimes it was more distant, the reality that the killer, whoever he was, was still out there. That’s the city’s terror.
Cindy Duckett’s terror was different. Until tonight, Cindy has only granted interviews in silhouette without allowing her name to be used. Tonight, she talks freely for the first time and she did to CNN’s Frank Buckley.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)EXHIBIT C:
Friend of Nancy Fox says Rader’s confession confirms suspicions
Kim WilhelmKWCH 12 Eyewitness NewsTuesday, June 28, 2005
For 28 years, a Wichita woman wondered whether her job had anything to do with her friend’s murder. Now as Dennis Rader sits in jail, she knows the answer because of his confession as the BTK killer. In court Monday, Rader stated “Nancy Fox was another one of the projects.”
That was only the beginning of Rader’s account of how he murdered Nancy Fox. Back then … Cindy Duckett worked with Fox at Helzberg Jewelers in the Wichita Mall. Duckett says she’ll never forget when police told her Fox had been murdered. “You walk in and they say this happened last night and we need to ask you questions,” said Duckett.
“This was a person I was just speaking with not 12 hours before. I don’t know how to put that into words.”
Since then, Duckett has wondered whether Fox’s killer knew her from the store. Rader himself provided the answer in his confession. “I found out where she worked,” said Rader. “I stopped by there once. Helzbergs. I kind of sized her up. The more I knew a person, the more I felt comfortable with them.”“He was there,” said Duckett. “I always thought that would be the case but to hear him actually say it was still shocking to hear.” In 1977, Jack Newport also worked in the mall and knew both Duckett and Fox. He’s since moved to another state but has kept in close contact with Duckett about the case.
“Cindy and I always had a feeling he had been at the mall,” said Newport. “How would he pick her (Fox) out at 10 o’clock at night and know what time she got home?” Rader’s confession provided some answers and opened up more questions for family and friends of the victims. Fox’s friends are keeping her memory alive as they begin to heal their hurt once again.
GALAHAD WROTE:I prefer the real thing, like “Godfather Death” in which the poor man does not chose God as his son’s godfather, “for He gives to the rich and takes from the poor.” He choses Death as his child’s godfather, because Death takes all people equally . . . Not quite as charming, but a lot more real, isn’t it?
RESPONSE #22:Based upon the above Exhibits, please do pardon me for rejecting the notion that “Death takes all people equally.” I think I know how you intended that passage, but apparently, my “reality” is very different from yours, and not at all charming. Please try to understand why I deliberately CHOOSE to find “charming” whenever, wherever and however possible. One lesson I do NOT need is a lecture about what is – and what is not – “real.”
THIS is the “very serious point,” referenced above, that I hoped to make. You all do not intimidate me. I am not going to shut up. I am not going to go away. I have seen death, and I have seen evil – up close, and very personally. From that experience, I learned that life is TOO short and TOO uncertain to waste on meanness, bitterness, revenge, and yes, even on paranoia. I have no agenda other than to do what *I* believe is “good” and “right.” I hope that even just a LITTLE BIT of that shows through in my willingness to address your comments and questions head on in this forum.
JR WROTE:“OK guys and gals I’m counting on you here. I don’t have your resources and I want more about this Cindy Duckett. I do not find her threat to send this page to Corkins. I am posting late and it may have been removed. Let me know how to get in touch with her and I WILL GIVE HER MY NAME.
RESPONSE #23:For Pete’s sake! Most of my whole life history has been laid out here. What else could you possibly want to know that’s pertinent to anything in this forum??? When I finish dealing with this ridiculous mess, I will send you an email directly so that you can contact me directly – or not.
JR WROTE:
“Kudos for exposing her.”
RESPONSE # 24:
Gee … THAT took a lot of professional sleuthing to accomplish! My life is pretty much an open book, as should be fairly clear by now. I am flattered to have been elevated to a position of such importance that I have become worthy of becoming a “personal crusade.” I can’t help finding it to be a bit sad, though, to think that you must sincerely believe that you don’t have something better to offer to the world around you. There are so many who are hurting, and so many who are in need in many, many ways.
It’s too bad that you can’t find a more productive use for your time and efforts.
CF WROTE:I, too, will be surprised if she shows her face here again. However, I will bet, dollars to donuts, that she’s lurking to see what we say about her. Care to respond and to set the record straight, Ms. Duckett?
RESPONSE #25:
It appears that you will not be alone in your surprise. I trust that you all will forgive me now, however, if I choose to spend me time in other ways and in other places. Yes, I may check back in occasionally, but definitely not regularly or frequently. I’ve done the best I know how to do to “set the record straight” from my own perspective. However, it bears repeating what I stated earlier: I am speaking only for myself – as one individual citizen.
ED WROTE:Google “Project Educate” and you’ll find Cindy K Duckett. She’s been pumping money for quite some time.
RESPONSE #26:If you have even a SHREAD of evidence to support that statement, please DO post it here!! Slander is serious business. People who live in glass houses should not throw stones. Therefore, I trust that you’re prepared to back up your statements with facts and proof. If you cannot do that, then I trust that you will have the decency to post a retraction of your allegations. If Project Educate ever raised even one thin dime, I certainly don’t remember when it might have been, but then it’s true that that organization has not even been in existence for even the past 5-6 years. Please do refresh my memory if I am wrong about that. Where did the money supposedly come from. Where did it go? How much was “pumped,” and for what purpose was it used?
CF WROTE:
Ed, indeed. CKD = shameless Wingnut money whore. Cindy, prove us wrong!
RESPONSE #27 – LAST REPLY:
I will repeat myself one more time. Slander is very serious business. I have replied to the many ugly things that have been posted here very openly and very honestly. You folks are the ones making the accusations. The burden of proof lies with you – and most especially now that I HAVE answered your questions. Either bring forth your proof – or be respectable enough to retract your accusations, please.
CKD,
OK, I’ll take back the last one. I don’t have the God’s eye view necessary to intuit your motivations. They may or may not be monetary. But they are certainly ideological.
I stand by the other items in my critique, particularly of the market-driven effort to defund and delegitimate public schools as a premise in the argument that ‘competition’ is what’s needed. Edison has failed, Ms. Duckett. Admit it. And as the parent of an 18 year-old, I can attest to the colossal waste of time that is high-stakes testing.
So if these ‘reforms’ aren’t accomplishing what’s promised but continue to be pushed by you and by others, there must be some motivation other than the educational and cognitive well being of children. And I’ll tell you what it is: the private sector wants in on the educational revenue stream. Duh. Dress it up in the language of ’school choice’ all you want. The real motive behind your allies, if not you, is this theological commitment to the manifest destiny of the ‘free market’ and the virtues of competition. And it’s a fiction and a pipe dream. “Empowering families to choose for themselves.” Please. Try ‘Coercing families with limited options to take the corporate money offered to them.’
Educating children costs money. And the money that’s raised is unequally distributed. But that’s an argument against disparities and carve-outs in public funding, not an argument against public funding and public education.
As I said in my inaugural post on this topic, we are but small fry in the presence of a genuinely big media fish. But Ms. Duckett, what you want to define as a ‘choice’, I instead see as a right. Children are owed the best we can give them. And this is not something the market, with its exigencies, winners, and losers, is set up to provide. The only value the market can produce is exchange value. I, for one, do not want to reduce the delivery of knowledge to the production of a commodity. Because if knowledge becomes a thing, so too does the knower.
And we aren’t things. We’re persons. Immanuel Kant distinguished between price and worth: and my conviction is that the competition you have in mind reduces education to a matter of price, rather than approaching it as a manifest, social demonstration that everyone has worth.
With that, I must go prep my afternoon course. I’m sure you’ll understand.
Those who use private schools as the “gold standard” need to keep in mind some important things. And, I can say these with great confidence, as I taught three years in the public schools and have taught the last tweleve in private schools.
First, the notion that private schools are cheaper is a bit dicey. At my current and previous school, which both do not have any church affiliation (and thus no hidden potential subsidies from said church like building and grounds costs), the tuition for full time students ranges from $5500-7800 at one school, and is in excess of $10,000 at the other. This does not include the costs parents have to pay for kids at these schools to participate in athletics and activities, which can add even more to the total cost of education at these institutions. Most schools like this also have an Annual Fund drive, as tuition revenue provides the basic operating cost and does not cover all capital improvements. FYI, our class sizes run 16-20 in elementary, around 20 in middle school, and typically under 20 in high school.
Second, we are able to keep administrative costs low because we are not shackled with tons of bureaucratic red tape from the state. We have our share, including our separate accreditation from the state’s accreditation, but it is nothing like what exists in the public schools.
Third, we have selective admissions, which for us means all of our students test at average or better. We do not accept students who score below average on our entrance examinations, with very few exceptions. We do provide some special services for kids who have certain learning disabilities like dyslexia and disgraphia, but its my understanding the parents pay extra for those one on one services.
Fourth, as teachers our job is not to do hours of paperwork for data that sits on the shelves of the monkeys in Topeka. Our job is to teach, prepare to teach, and stay in communication with parents.
Fifth, because our parents are of upper middle and above financial means, we do not have the usual problems associated with lower income families. We have kids and families with issues, especially ones that affluence masks well, but nothing like what a high poverty area school deals with.
Sixth, because our parents are by and large very actively engaged in their kids’ lives (partially because at least one parent has plenty of time to give), our students are generally well behaved and well adjusted.
So much for that character assination effort by all the paranoid and uniformed on here. I’m glad that Cindy took the time to respond here. As I have suspected, many of you make-up crap just because of your hatred and your paranoia.
Maybe a nice slander suit would do some of you some good.
Hey Duckie,If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, Baffle them with bullshit, eh? You need to find yourself a decent editor!
NoJoCo, you actually read all of it? I could only get through the first part. She is good at giving herself a big pat on the back.
CKD, None of what anyone says here is “slanderous” by any means. If you don’t want your feelings hurt, don’t jump into the political forum. If you have a public record in politics, it is open to interpretation. So a big tough shit is in order.
Okay, whoa, Cindy–
Now I regret asking you to respond.
1. You worked for new schools in NE Wichita so that “blacks would not have to be bussed.” In other words, so we could have de facto segregation. Oh, goody, here’s to the Old South!
2. You worked to get “Core Education” established based on the crackpot theories of conservative E. D. Hirsch. This basically a backlash against the idea of diversity and multiculturalism.
Hmmm . . . number two kinda goes with number one, doesn’t it.
Now let’s look at what a google search turns up on you–see the next post.
What pops up is a rogues’ gallery of right-wing and conservative Christian websites with links to CKD.
Here they are in the order I found them:
Christian Home Education Confederation of Kansas
http://www.kansashomeschool.org/html/college_links_and_advice.htm
Heritage Foundation”Also in 2000, Wichita education activist Cindy Duckett launched CEO Kansas, a program that gives poor families privately funded vouchers to send their children to private schools. CEO Kansas followed the model of programs throughout the nation that operate under the umbrella organization Children First America.”(15)
Children First ScholarshipsWord of Life Traditional School
Note the ubiquitous crosses everywhere.
http://www.ceokansas.org/2003AwardPhotos.html
The Jeramiah ProjectPolitics | Post-Christian Culture | Apologetics | Bible Prophecy | CultsDangerous Deceptions | Pro-Life | New World Orderhttp://www.jeremiahproject.com/prophecy/educate01.html
Answers in GenesisAnti-evolution site
http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/4189gc1-5-2000.asp
WICHITA — Cindy Duckett remembers the day she became an education activist.
After years of supporting the Wichita public schools, she had decided to abandon them because she disagreed with the curriculum.
She was explaining to a neighbor why she enrolled her son and daughter in a private Christian school. Her neighbor interrupted with a question: What about my child?
Duckett stopped short. She couldn’t turn her back on her neighbor’s children.”So an activist was born,” she said.
Even though her children are in a private school, Duckett, 42, has played a high-profile role in public-school affairs in Wichita.http://www.kcstar.com/item/pages/home.pat,local/30daf7f6.508,.html
Intelligent Design in the classroom? Of course, says CKD.
“The board’s chairman, Steve Abrams, said he is seeking space for students to “critically analyze” the evidence.
That approach appeals to Cindy Duckett, a Wichita mother who believes public school leaves many religious children feeling shut out.
Teaching doubts about evolution, she said, is “more inclusive. I think the more options, the better.”
“If students only have one thing to consider, one option, that’s really more brainwashing,” said Duckett, who sent her children to Christian schools because of her frustration.
Students should be exposed to the Big Bang, evolution, intelligent design “and, beyond that, any other belief that a kid in class has. It should all be okay.”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A32444-2005Mar13.html
On that corker Corkins–
“A lot of schools are beginning to buck the trend and go for non-traditional candidates like Bob,” says CEO Kansas’s Cindy Duckett. “It helps break up some of the status-quo the education monopoly and bring in dramatic changes and for the better.”
She’s supported Corkins for years especially because she runs the voucher program that Phillip uses.
She hopes Corkins will change schools so kids can run away with a better education.
http://www.kbsh7.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KBSH/MGArticle/BSH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785481190&path=
Strangely, CKD’s obsession with “core education” doesn’t extend to William FLIPPING Shakespeare!
“It began with Neil Simon’s The Gingerbread Lady. It has grown to include William Shakespeare’s Macbeth.
Craig and Cheryl Morgan objected when they found their daughter was exposed to the plays in an elective class at Campus High School in Haysville, Kansas.
The parents are being backed by the conservative group Project Educate.
It isn’t about censorship, says Cindy Duckett, a spokesperson for the group. “It has more to do with what’s appropriate and what’s quality. And this isn’t quality. There are so many other better materials. “http://reason.com/9911/brickbats.shtml
Yeah, that damn Shakespeare, next thing you know, it’ll be Milton and Donne!
Signatory to the “Separation of School and State”http://www.honestedu.org/view/display.php?state=KS
Separation of school and CHURCH, yes, but school and STATE? Hoo boy . . .
Pro-life, Catholic, and othershttp://www.priestsforlife.org/plgroups/atoesites.html
A few years ago, CKD publically complained about an assignment at Heights that asked paired “opposites” like white girls and black boys to go out on a date.
“To assume the very worst — it’s got to be bad, it’s got to be sinister — I don’t think like that,” said Steve Woodman, a 22-year teaching veteran at Heights High School in the Wichita school district.
Woodman found himself answering questions from his principal and central office administrators after Cindy Duckett, a conservative educationalactivist, got a copy of the assignment.
“My blood is boiling over it,” Duckett wrote in an e-mail message toSuperintendent Winston Brooks.
Ultimately, the assignment turned out to be a clash of differing views aboutwhat should be covered at school — and what should be left to parents toteach at home.
Although school officials said Woodman did not violate district policy, theysaid the assignment and what students are expected to do will be betterdefined in the future.
The assignment intentionally paired boys and girls who were opposites — forinstance, a black student with a white student, or a rich one with a poorone — who then go on a date. They learn about each other — their likes anddislikes, their families.
Duckett, president of Project Educate, saw it as treading on territory thatshould be left to parents.
Beyondtheillusion.com
*****
Thanks for putting the CON back in con-servative, CKD.
CKD=ANOTHER SELF APPOINTED SAINT.
Lastly, CKD, the Heritage Foundation says that you “launched CEO Kansas, a program that gives poor families privately funded vouchers to send their children to private schools.”
Surely you’re not going to claim that THIS doesn’t require “one thin dime.”
So . . . where does the money come from? And do you make anything on the deal?
Hey Galahad,If that don’t make Duckie duck, I don’t know what would! Sunlight destroys her kind! Thanks
So…CDK thinks it is up to the parents to teach tolerance at home, but Creationism should be taught at school. Did my head just spin around or is that a contradiction in her principles.
I don’t know why these extreme Christians think that heaven is like a pyramid scheme. Like there are points being tallied for every conversion you make. Who ever end’s up with the most points, gets the best “crib” in heaven.
I live by 3 commandments….Do Good…Be Good…See Good. That covers just about everything…even the whole “should we stone the sinner” question. CDK seems to be working for herself and to get as many “points” as possible. Very selfish motives.
I read each and every line of Duckies rant.
Can we now relegate Cindy to the longest winded ranter? Ed has got a lot of criticism in that area. But Cindy just outwinded him.
Tomorrow I will get to the links that Galahad provided. I look forward to reading them.
Ms. Duckett? Yeah there are those who keep their identity secret. In the world of George Bush and the patriot act (and a relative of yours in the FBI?) I don’t blame them. But you know my name and my email. You wrote me earlier. In fairness, I will be posting your email in this forum.
You have an agenda Ms. Duckett. And that agenda is NOT education, else you would not be advocating the hire of an incompetent (Corkins) as education commissioner and no doubt also encouraging the hiring of a fellow conservative in Mr. Harden to collect a fat consulting fee to hold his hand.
Cindy’s email (she writes to me) is CKDuckett@cox.net
If I stay up a whole lot longer I may encounter her! Note her posts in the small hours of the morning.
Now Ms. Duckett you post extensively and do a lot of patting yourself on the back. But you evade the question of this blog.
Now I know you have an agenda. I know that Abrams and the other conservative members of the state board share that agenda. We know also that Corkins shares that agenda.
To be true? I already got ya pegged. I look forward to reading the links that Galahad provided to better define you.Your protestations to the contrary, I’ve little doubt you have some sort of financial stake in all this.
Ms. Duckett? A well financed attorney and outspoken critic of public schools gets appointed Commissioner of Public Education by a board dominated by fellow travelers. His first act is to ask that one of his competitors for the seat……also a fellow conservative, be paid 15,000 dollars to consult him.
Ms Duckett? The 140,000 dollar salary that Mr Corkins will be paid is not really significant to him. He already makes a great deal of money doing what he does. The 15,000 dollar consulting fee that he wants for his helper is also fairly insignificant to that helper. Now failing simple economics Ms. Duckett, we are left wondering…….what is the agenda here? And we are wondering Ms Duckett what your stake is.
Now I guess the test of that would be your own answer to this simple question: If one unqualified man is appointed to a job and immediately asks for funding for a more qualified (ideolically oriented) man to help him in his work, remembering that neither of these men need the money, can you justify this?
I like allegories. Here is one for you Cindy. I hire a man to paint my house. He chooses the color (without consulting me) and says he needs an assistant who agrees on the color to do the job. And I got you on the side telling me I gotta just shut up and pay for it.
Defend that Ms Duckett. And if you can’t, then get back to your church which is your real agenda and leave the matter of education to those with something resembling an open mind.
CF wrote: Edison has failed, Ms. Duckett. Admit it.
REPLY: I was never an Edison fan in the first place, and neither was I surprised by its failure. It failed because they couldn’t deliver the achievement they promised. That’s as it should be. Interestingly, there are many public schools also failing to deliver achievement … but they do not fold. They just get more and more and more money. In essence, they are rewarded for failure. Am I the only one who sees a problem with that???!!
CF wrote: So if these ‘reforms’ aren’t accomplishing what’s promised but continue to be pushed by you and by others, there must be some motivation other than the educational and cognitive well being of children.
Reply: I can only speak for myself, but the educational well-being of children is my primary motivation.
Actually, I agree with several of the other points you raised in your post. I think that we probably share similar goals, but simply have a disagreement on how best to achieve those goals.
Thank you very much for a reasonable and thoughtful reply.
Janabanana wrote: None of what anyone says here is “slanderous” by any means. If you don’t want your feelings hurt, don’t jump into the political forum. If you have a public record in politics, it is open to interpretation.
REPLY: Slander has nothing to do with “feelings.” It is a legal term defined as the communication of false statements injurious to a person’s reputation; a false and malicious statement or report about someone.
I suspect that the people in charge of hosting this blog site know and understand the meaning of slander very, very well.
GALAHAD WROTE: You worked for new schools in NE Wichita so that “blacks would not have to be bussed.” In other words, so we could have de facto segregation. Oh, goody, here’s to the Old South!
REPLY: We already HAVE de facto segregation. Don’t take my word for that. There are plenty of data and a generous supply of diverse voices out there already addressing this issue – probably better than I can. Just a few references are cited below.
http://www.arc.org/C_Lines/CLArchive/story2_1_02.html
• The most intense school segregation happens in large Northern metropolitan areas surrounded by white suburbs. Students of color in rural areas and small towns are much more likely to attend integrated schools than those who live in large cities.• Big metropolitan areas maintain school segregation by having smaller school districts. The 1974 Milliken Supreme Court decision forbids desegregation plans that cross school district lines, so if the suburbs and the city have separate districts, their students won’t be able to attend the same schools.• Although recently increasing, black students in the South are only half as likely to attend intensely segregated schools as those who live in the Northeast.• By 1986, the proportion of African American students in intensely segregated (90 to 100 percent students of color) schools started to climb again, as did those attending schools with student of color majorities. By 1991, that proportion returned to the same level as in 1971, when the Supreme Court issued its first school desegregation busing decision.
Sources: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Educational Statistics; Rethinking Schools, Funding for Justice: Milwaukee, WI, 1997; Orfield and Eaton, Dismantling Desegregation: The Quiet Reversal of Brown v. Board of Education: New Press, 1997.
http://www.cato.org/research/articles/salisbury-040517.html
Today’s public schools are still highly segregated, while private schools are relatively well integrated.
Consider Atlanta: In nearly 80 percent of the city’s public schools, the student body is more than 90 percent minority. In contrast, only 60 percent of Atlanta’s 53 private schools are so highly segregated.
The situation is similar in other major cities. In Washington, D.C., public schools are 96 percent minority. Ninety percent of students in Houston public schools are minority. In Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago, public schools are respectively 90 percent, 85 percent and 91 percent minority.
According to U.S. Department of Education statistics comparing private with public schools, public-school classrooms are more likely to be almost all white or almost all minority. More than half of all public-school 12th graders are in classrooms where more than 90 percent or fewer than 10 percent of the students are minority.
In contrast, only 41 percent of private-school students are in such highly segregated classrooms. More than a third (37 percent) of private-school students are in classrooms where the racial mix of the students resembles that of the nation as a whole. Only 18 percent of public-school students are in such racially mixed classes.
If we are to ever see the day when children of all races have access to good schools, we need policies that let inner-city parents escape racially segregated and inferior public schools. The tradition of assigning students to a school based on their address must end. Instead, students should be allowed to select among public or private schools.
http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/American-Apartheid-Education1sep05.htm
Schools that were already deeply segregated twenty-five or thirty years ago are no less segregated now, while thousands of other schools around the country that had been integrated either voluntarily or by the force of law have since been rapidly resegregating.
There is, indeed, a seemingly agreed-upon convention in much of the media today not even to use an accurate descriptor like “racial segregation” in a narrative description of a segregated school. Linguistic sweeteners, semantic somersaults, and surrogate vocabularies are repeatedly employed. Schools in which as few as 3 or 4 percent of students may be white or Southeast Asian or of Middle Eastern origin, for instance—and where every other child in the building is black or Hispanic—are referred to as “diverse.”
In a school I visited in the fall of 2004 in Kansas City, Missouri, for example, a document distributed to visitors reports that the school’s curriculum “addresses the needs of children from diverse backgrounds.” But as I went from class to class, I did not encounter any children who were white or Asian—or Hispanic, for that matter—and when I was later provided with precise statistics for the demographics of the school, I learned that 99.6 percent of students there were African American.
http://www.civilrightsproject.harvard.edu/research/reseg03/resegregation03.php
GALAHAD WROTE: You worked to get “Core Education” established based on the crackpot theories of conservative E. D. Hirsch. This basically a backlash against the idea of diversity and multiculturalism.
REPLY: As a point of simple, but relatively well-known fact in most education circles, Professor E. D. Hirsch is, in truth, a political liberal.
In response to your inferred accusation of racism, I have just put up a very basic website for your perusal – and for anyone else who wants to take a peek.
It is available online at: http://members.cox.net/ckduckett/
I run a privately funded scholarship program in this area. Please DO take a careful look at the beautiful rainbow of color represented in this group of students I am so very, very proud of.
Finally, the last photo on that page is a picture of one of my three grandsons. That photograph is as proudly on display on the entry wall into my home as are the other photographs of all of my children and grandchildren.
Please do try to rein in your apparent desire to try to pigeon-hole me with the “race card.” You’re barking up the wrong tree on that account.
GALAHAD WROTE:
Heritage Foundation says that you “launched CEO Kansas, a program that gives poor families privately funded vouchers to send their children to private schools.” Surely you’re not going to claim that THIS doesn’t require “one thin dime.” So . . . where does the money come from? And do you make anything on the deal?
REPLY: Someone already posted a link to that website further up on this page, but I will be glad to post it again.
For general information, see the home page at: http://www.ceokansas.org/
For information concerning the donors who support this program, see the page at: http://www.ceokansas.org/CEO-Supporters.html. We have just completed some significant grant funding requests. I anticipate adding more names to the current list – probably by the first of the year. If you are familiar with these names, it should be a simple thing for you to recognize that they represent a wide diversity of political perspectives.
Finally, in referring back to another of your postings focused on racial concerns, please DO note (at the bottom of the main page) our proud display of our affiliation with HCREO: the Hispanic Council for Reform and Education Options (http://www.ceokansas.org/CEO-Supporters.html) and with the Black Alliance for Educational Options (http://www.baeo.org/).
In the event that your information on this topic is as misinformed as it was concerning Professor Hirsch’s political leanings, it might interest you to know that Black and Hispanic families support the idea of school choice in significantly greater numbers than white families. Public Agenda put out an EXCELLENT study with those statistics a few years ago but there is similar data available from other sources as well.
If you want to know some of the genuine “bigots” in this city, believe me – I could name some names that might really surprise you. One, in particular, would almost guarantee that this posting would be yanked from this forum.
It’s VERY difficult to listen to someone say: Sure, I send my kids to the best private school in this area but I’m not going to support what you’re doing. I’m only going to support public schools. I pay good money for my kids to go to the school I’ve chosen for them and the kids you’re working with won’t fit in there. I don’t like that idea one bit. Let those other kids stay where they belong.
If you think I know nothing about racism and bigotry … think again. I confront it regularly.
JR WROTE: But you know my name and my email. You wrote me earlier. In fairness, I will be posting your email in this forum.
REPLY: I have no idea what your name is. Your email address was only available by clicking on the “JR” at the end of your postings.
I sent you my contact information as a courtesy reply to your request — because you asked for it in expressing a desire to contact me to tell me who you are.
I really don’t CARE who you are, but I think it’s fair for other readers here to know that your blustering about wanting to “make yourself known” has been just exactly that — bluster.
I do not care that you posted my email address in one way. It’s widely available from many forums and sources. It is also my primary contact address for a variety of purposes, and not my private one.
If you would have asked me if it would be alright to post that information, I would have given you my consent.
That you made such a posting without the courtesy of asking permission to do so speaks VOLUMES about your level of personal integrity, however.
With a few noted and appreciated exceptions, the level of simple civility in this forum is overwhelmingly but sadly lacking.
It’s no wonder that many here are unable to influence no more than a small handfull of others similar characteristics.
CKD,You are sparring with a handful of unrecoverable blogaholics whose priorities and worldview are, in varying order and intensity:======1. I am the smartest person in the world.2. I am better than everyone else.3. Get us out of Vietnam.4. Gore is president.5. I hate Bush.6. Big government is good.7. The welfare state is good.8. Howard Dean is a conservative.9. The media are hopelessly conservative.10. No conservative ever did anything right, ever.11. Public schools are perfect.12. Freedom of choice (in murdering the young and the old and the weak) is good.13. Freedom of choice (in schools) is bad.12. All taxes should increase, except mine.13. All CEOs should go to jail.14. Homosexists should get to do whatever they want, wherever, whenever.15. The poor widdle terrorists just need our understanding.16. All motor vehicles and production should stop in case it might help the environment.17. All religion is bad, except Islam.18. Jews deserve more holocaust.19. Moral relativism absolutely trumps dogma, because I said so, damn it.20. Any tactic that furthers my compassionate ends is good, but don’t you try it, you hypocrite.21. Your stinking language sucks, m* f*.22. I like to waste your time, because you will never convince me of anything.=======
Do not expect to change their minds, or even to inform them. They are impervious to it. They have minds like a steel trap — closed and locked.
As you have discovered, your having different views only irritates them. Your being right infuriates them. They will choose to hate you instead of learning anything.
Good luck in your efforts. Thanks for the information you have provided.
Andy this is about the state’s business, not who’s an idiot on a blogsite.No matter how much smoke you two try to blow up our asses, the guy’s STILL NOT QUALIFIED!
BTW, your post proves you’re exactly like the people you bitch about.
1. In the plethora of non-information that CKD provided, note that she did not answer the simple yes or no question of whether she personally profits from the foundation that she runs.
2. Regarding the de facto segregation of schools, just because its already a problem doesn’t mean we should make it worse.
3. Folks, E. D. Hirsch is NOT liberal. But thanks to common sense, this educational fad has died, he’s wholly irrelevant anymore. It was part of that Dinesh D’Sousa “culture wars” thing that is now passe.
4. I don’t give one rip about duplicitous rascals that want to control public schools while sending their kids to private ones. My three children went to public school in Wichita. My oldest daughter graduated from KSU with a good degree and a good job. My son graduated from an Ivy League college and is now working in Washington, DC. My son’s best friend from high school recently got accepted to medical school. My youngest daughter is currently at KU and studying this semester in Paris and Florence.
They are proof that Wichita public schools can turn out students of the first rank. I think people who don’t believe enough in public schools to send their own kids there, don’t have the right to make radical revisions in public educational policy.
5. Lastly, CKD, what have you got against Shakespeare?
Andy–
Look up the “straw man” argument (also called the “weak opponent”).
Once you understand it, perhaps you can stop using it.
Thanks,
All the other bloggers here
Hey Duckie,Let’s get down to brass tacks here. After looking over your various posts and press releases and websites, it’s remarkably apparent that your only interest (and I assume Corkie’s as well) in education is in controlling it.You want access to my grandkids so you can prosletize and indoctrinate them in your religious and political extremism. Education, at least in the sense of learning to think rationally about the issues of the day, is what you oppose!Our public schools are for educating our children. They are not your recruiting office for your army of god! Please go away!
Pithy and well said, Jed.
My feelings precisely . . .
I’m in a rush, so just one quick reply for now. I’ll get to others as I can find the time.
I have nothing against Shakespeare, Sir Galahad. I enjoy Shakespeare. His writing are a part of the literature included in the Core Knowledge curriculum I whole heartedly endorsed.
The article you are referencing was an inaccurate one. A retraction was printed about that, but unfortunately, when you pull these things up on the internet, the retractions don’t also pull up. I’m not implying any “conspiracy” by the media on that point. That’s just the way it is.
There is one BTK-related article floating around out there with many factual inaccuracies in it, too. I have the email from the writer acknowledging those inaccuracies, but again, unfortunately, that kind of thing does not pull up on an internet search.
Regarding the many other links posted above, I want to make two pertinent points.
First, there are at least three others with my same name who will pull up in an internet search. One is also an education activist — in Wisconsin. Another is in South Carolina. I’m not sure where the third is located. That’s the one that pulls up with a DUI reference — and that is not me — she is at least 15 years younger than I am. Make sure that you don’t confuse the names.
Second, there are a number of web pages where my writings — or writings about me — are posted — but they are pages I have no knowledge concerning who publishes them. The Jeremiah Project was one of those that I recall. Never heard of them. I don’t have any idea who they are. There was another Catholic web page where I am apparently referenced. I am not Catholic and I don’t know who publishes that web page either.
Anyone can pick up things about another and publish it on a web page. I am not responsible for those kinds of “associations.”
Does anyone here know what “primary sources” are??? :)
CINDY, WHERE’S BOBBY?Can’t he defend himself without another consultant?
1. So you’re saying that you think Macbeth is completely appropriate for a high school class?
2. You don’t have to endorse the links, CKD. The point is that these people think you support THEM.
You have come out in favor of “intelligent design,” have you not?
That would put you in with the nut-case Christian fundamentalists like the Jeramiah project whether you wanted to be or not.
3. Do you personally profit from giving “voucher scholarships” or not?
1. So you’re saying that you think Macbeth is completely appropriate for a high school class?
2. You don’t have to endorse the links, CKD. The point is that these people think you support THEM.
You have come out in favor of “intelligent design,” have you not?
That would put you in with the nut-case Christian fundamentalists like the Jeramiah project whether you wanted to be or not.
3. Do you personally profit from giving “voucher scholarships” or not?
Duckie? I asked you a question. I invited you to defend the selection of a KNOWN opponent of public education to the office of commissioner of public education, and his subseqent request that a fellow candidate for that office (who is ideollogiically of a like mind to said selected commissioner) be hired as a consultant to said selected education commissioner.
I questioned the agenda behind this. I questioned your agenda in supporting this.
No arguement? ???????
I still gotta read Galahads links on you lady but I already got you figured out. You dance between the raindrops.
You want my name? the whole blog knows it. I posted it before. I’m Jay Rimel. And unlike you (already spinning that posts found by search attributed to you may not be your own) no blogger here on either side can question MY voracity.
Oh and as to posting your email? I am not sorry. You make great celebration of the effects that you have on the education policies in this state. That makes YOU a public figure with a voice that you use (right or wrong) to influence decisions that affect my kid and lots of other people’s kids. That alone earns you some portion of scrutiny and critique.
In short Ms Duckett, you got on the stage. So don’t run from the spotlight. Further, you came into this blog. And while your posts are defensive, unproven, ( I will read your links) and self-promoting, you voice yourself well. Many others here do as well. The difference between “us” and you is that we don’t claim to have God as a mandate.
Now I gotta go read Galahads links. I gotta know you better Ms Duckett. Clearly you have a force in the education of our children. There is nothing that is more important. If you believe that as I do than you should WELCOME the arrows you draw.
In doing that I would like you to remember something. I think people like you believe that “if God is with us, who can be against us” But Ms Duckett? God is absent this debate. He has not weighed in (propensity of such as you to speak for him aside) You can’t count on thunderbolts from on high. You gotta win this one on the merits. So far it aint looking good.
I gotta be long winded. I can’t post links.
Andy,
Thanks very much for your list, and for the encouragement.
I especially appreciated numbers 10, 19, 20 and 22. I find number 21 to be the most offensive and the least acceptable.
Your observations are probably correct, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. I tend to be a hopeless optimist, so like the Energizer Bunny, I also tend to just keep going … and going … and going.
Regarding number 10 on your list — it reminded me of an email I received from a current local school board member a while back.
Perhaps you will enjoy the humor in it. I think I will keep the identify of the board member to myself and just leave this hanging out there and open to still more speculation and/or paranoid tirades. :)
—————————–I thought you might like this :)Subject: A man in a hot air balloonA man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced altitude and spotted a woman below. He descended a bit more and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a friend an hour ago I would meet him, but I don’t know where I am.”The woman replied, “You are in a hot air balloon approximately 30 feet above the ground. You are between 40 and 41 degrees North latitude and between 59 and 60 degrees West longitude.”"You must be a Conservative,” said the balloonist. “I am,” said the woman, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is technically correct, but I still have no idea what to make of your information, and the fact is I am still lost. Frankly, you’ve not been much help so far.”The woman below responded, “You must be a Liberal.”"I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”"Well,” said the woman, “you don’t know where you are or where you are going. You have risen to where you are due to a large quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you have no idea how to keep, and you expect me to solve your problem.
The fact is you are in exactly the same position you were before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my fault.”
JR WROTE: “…get back to your church which is your real agenda and leave the matter of education to those with something resembling an open mind.”
REPLY: I’m not sure what religion has to do with any of this.
Actually, I would have to think really hard to remember the last time I attended a church service that was not for a wedding or a funeral.
Still, it is absolutely true that I am a Christian.
MY version of Christianity is summed up very well in the following piece.
————————-When I say…”I am a Christian”I’m not shouting “I am saved”I’m whispering “I get lost!”"That is why I chose this way.”
When I say…”I am a Christian”I don’t speak of this with pride.I’m confessing that I stumbleand need someone to be my guide.
When I say…”I am a Christian”I’m not trying to be strong.I’m professing that I’m weakand pray for strength to carry on.
When I say…”I am a Christian”I’m not bragging of success.I’m admitting I have failedand cannot ever pay the debt.
When I say…”I am a Christian”I’m not claiming to be perfect,my flaws are all too visiblebut God believes I’m worth it.
When I say…”I am a Christian”I still feel the sting of painI have my share of heartacheswhich is why I seek His name.
When I say…”I am a Christian”I do not wish to judge.I have no authority.I only know I’m loved.
If anyone is wondering, I have chosen to NOT respond to ANY of the postings from TRACY until he/she learns to clean up his/her language.
If he/she is genuinely educated (the topic of this entire discussion) then he/she can demonstrate his/her vocabulary in a way that is better suited for a public forum like this one.
He/she can continue to post whatever he/she chooses to write, of course. My only point here is that *I* have chosen to not dignify his/her writings with a reply.
Oh Duckie,That joke’s been around for at the very least, twenty years, and wasn’t all that good then! But of course, as a conservative, you aren’t interested in anything new or good, so just spare us the jokes altogether. OK?
Hey Duckie,We call ‘em as we see ‘em around here. If strong language gets to you, don’t inspire it! A hint; stupid, stale jokes and cutsie sayings don’t help your cause and just take up space and add irritation. Dispense with them and actually state your case. If that’s too rough for you, you might try the Disneyland site. It’s more your speed anyway!
Oh, and one other thing, If it takes more than 4,000 words to state it, put it in a book! This is a blog; short and sweet is what cuts it here. And go easy on the bullshit. Most of us here have developed a good nose for it, and you’ll get called on it.
FOR GALAHAD:
I will address your numbered posting below, one point at a time. I will type my answers in all caps to distinguish them from your questions.
————————1. So you’re saying that you think Macbeth is completely appropriate for a high school class?
YES! I ABSOLUTELY THINK THAT MACBETH IS VERY APPROPRIATE FOR A HIGH SCHOOL LITERATURE CLASS. I READ A NUMBER OF SHAKESPEREAN WORKS DURING MY OWN HIGH SCHOOL YEARS. I ENJOYED ALL OF THEM. THEY ARE “CLASSICS” THAT ARE A PART OF THE CONCEPT THAT MAKES UP THE CORE KNOWLEDGE CURRICULUM THAT I STRONGLY SUPPORT.
THE “ANTI” QUOTE ATTRIBUTED TO ME IN THE PIECE ON THE INTERNET WAS ACTUALLY MADE BY SOMEONE ELSE. MY NAME WAS ATTACHED TO THAT QUOTE IN ERROR — A “TYPO,” I WAS TOLD. A CORRECTION WAS PRINTED A FEW DAYS LATER BUT UNFORTUNATELY, THAT CORRECTION NEVER SHOWS UP IN AN INTERNET SEARCH.
2. You don’t have to endorse the links, CKD. The point is that these people think you support THEM.
THAT IS NOT MY PROBLEM … OR MY RESPONSIBILITY. EVERYONE HAS A RIGHT TO “THINK” WHATEVER THEY WANT TO THINK, BUT THAT DOES NOT MAKE THEIR OPINION A FACT.
You have come out in favor of “intelligent design,” have you not?
NOT EXACTLY. I HAVE SUPPORTED THE REVISED SCIENCE STANDARDS THAT WILL “ALLOW” — BUT NOT “REQUIRE” — THE TEACHING OF A VARIETY OF VIEWS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE AND OF MAN.
MY THOUGHTS ON THAT, AGAIN, MIRROR THOSE OF PROFESSOR E. D. HIRSCH. I DON’T WANT TO SPEND THE NECESSARY TIME DIGGING FOR HIS EXACT QUOTE THAT I’M THINKING OF BUT I THINK I CAN GET VERY CLOSE TO IT WITHOUT LOOKING IT UP. STILL, I’LL CALL THIS A PARAPHRASED VERSION — JUST IN CASE I MISS ON ONE OR TWO WORDS.
ESSENTIALLY, WHAT HE WROTE WAS THIS: BEFORE YOU CAN TEACH STUDENTS TO THINK CRITICALLY, YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE THEM WITH THINGS TO THINK CRITICALLY ‘ABOUT.’
That would put you in with the nut-case Christian fundamentalists like the Jeramiah project whether you wanted to be or not.
SEE ABOVE REPLY.
3. Do you personally profit from giving “voucher scholarships” or not?
AS THE DIRECTOR OF THE PROGRAM, I DO DRAW A VERY SMALL SALARY. IT IS A PRIVATELY FUNDED PROGRAM, AS OPPOSED TO BEING A PUBLICLY FUNDED ONE, SO WHAT THAT SALARY AMOUNTS TO IS REALLY NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS — OR ANYONE ELSE’S.
STILL, I DO NOT MIND DISCLOSING THE DETAILS ABOUT THAT FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION.
I WORK FAR MORE THAN FULL-TIME AT THAT JOB. I HAVE TWO HELPERS WHO WORK OCCASIONALLY — BOTH ON A LIMITED, PART-TIME BASIS — AND BOTH AS VOLUNTEERS BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT TO BE SADDLED WITH THE TIME INVOLVED IN THE MANY TASKS THAT MUST BE TAKEN CARE OF REGULARLY WITH AN ORGANIZATION OF THIS NATURE.
MY GROSS ANNUAL SALARY IS $6,000. A SIZEABLE PORTION OF THAT AMOUNT COVERS ONLY REIMBURSEMENT FOR WHAT I SPEND OUT OF MY OWN POCKET FOR A VARIETY OF THINGS INCLUDING OFFICE SUPPLIES, POSTAGE, ETC.
I REINVEST ANOTHER PORTION OF THAT AMOUNT BACK INTO THE PROGRAM TO PAY FOR A SCHOLARSHIP FOR ONE STUDENT PER YEAR MYSELF.
BELIEVE ME, I AM ‘NOT’ GETTING FINANCIALLY ‘RICH’ FROM THIS PROGRAM. IT IS A LABOR OF LOVE.
THE ‘REAL’ PAY-OFF COMES FROM THE SATISFACTION I GET FROM SEEING CHILDREN MAKING PROGRESS: ACADEMICALLY AND SOCIALLY.
AS I POSTED YESTERDAY, YOU CAN SEE THE FACES OF SOME OF “MY KIDS” AT: http://members.cox.net/ckduckett/
I WISH I KNEW HOW — AND HAD THE EQUIPMENT — TO TRANSFER VHS TAPE TO FILES THAT COULD ALSO BE POSTED ON THE WEB SO THAT YOU AND EVERYONE ELSE COULD HEAR THOSE STUDENTS — AND THEIR PARENTS AND FAMILIES — SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES ABOUT THE DIFFERENCE OUR PROGRAM HAS MADE IN THEIR INDIVIDUAL LIVES.
TYPICALLY, THEIR COMMENTS LEAVE ME WIPING AWAY TEARS BECAUSE THEY ARE SO POWERFUL AND SO MOVING. THEY ALWAYS LEAVE ME FEELING INCREDIBLY HUMBLE. THEY ALSO LEAVE ME FEELING RE-ENERGIZED AND MOTIVATED ENOUGH TO WORK THROUGH ANOTHER YEAR.
WE ALWAYS AWARD IN THE SUMMER MONTHS AND IT IS AN EVENT THAT IS ALWAYS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND TO THE MEDIA. YOU SHOULD ATTEND SOMETIME AND LISTEN TO THESE VOICES FOR YOURSELF.
THEN — I WOULD DARE YOU TO STAND UP BEFORE THAT AUDIENCE AND SAY THAT WHAT I AM DOING WITH THIS PROGRAM IS A ‘BAD’ THING.
FOR JR:
Just because Bob Corkins has DARED to question (and sometimes criticize) educational practices, spending, etc. — that does NOT make him an “opponent” of public education any more than I have been an “opponent” of my own now-grown children when I have questioned (and sometimes criticized) their judgments and decisions during their growing up years.
Thank you for having the decency to at least identify yourself.
Please do show me — in this forum or from any other — where I have made ANY claim about having “God as a mandate.”
I did not bring religion of any kind into this topic. That has been done by others. I have, however, posted replies to some of those comments today in an effort to clarify things.
I am positive that I have never, EVER claimed that I have spoken “for God.” THAT is not my place. Never has been. Never will be. The God I know can “speak” for Himself — in many ways — and far better than *I* could ever hope to do.
You wrote: “Clearly you have a force in the education of our children. There is nothing that is more important. If you believe that as I do than you should WELCOME the arrows you draw.”
Actually, with this point, I ALMOST agree with you completely.
The only point I differ with you about is the part about “arrows.”
As I stated earlier in this thread, I enjoy a good debate and I happen to believe that differing opinions are healthy.
HOWEVER, I also believe that we can all be better “problem solvers” when discussions take place in a civil and respectful fashion.
“Slash and burn” dialogue is not at all “my style.” It only serves to inflame and to more deeply entrench one “side” against another “side.”
I have noticed over the years that the people who tend to engage in the “slash and burn” style do so because it’s the only way they know how to try to “win” in any debate. They are usually ill-informed and/or they do not know how to articulate their positions in any kind of a logical way.
They typically tend to believe that their harsh rhetoric makes them look “big and bad” and “smart and right.”
In reality, the perception that they broadcast to most thinking people is exactly the opposite of those things.
The only “fans” that they are able to attract are those with similar minds, abilities and aptitudes.
For what it’s worth … I intend for those observations to apply across political and religious boundaries. I’ve seen people at both ends of the spectrum in each of those areas who engage in that type of thing.
I hold little to no respect for any of them — INCLUDING the ones who may happen to agree with my views but who choose to conduct themselves badly. Such behavior always makes me want to ask THOSE people to — PLEASE — go join the “other side.”
I don’t need that kind of “support.” I don’t want that kind of “support.”
I also do not deserve that kind of opposition.
I expect to be treated with the same kind of civility that I extend.
One last post — for Jed — and then I’m calling it quits for this day.
Jed wrote:
“You want access to my grandkids so you can prosletize and indoctrinate them in your religious and political extremism. Education, at least in the sense of learning to think rationally about the issues of the day, is what you oppose!”
THAT IS ABSOLUTELY, CATEGORICALLY FALSE. THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THAT TYPE OF THINKING THAT I FULLY UNDERSTAND, BUT MAYBE YOU DO NOT, SO I’LL TRY TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOU.
IF *I* CAN GAIN THE POWER TO PROSLETIZE AND INDOCTRINATE — TODAY — (POLITICALLY “OR” RELIGIOUSLY), THEN SOMEONE ELSE WITH A VIEWPOINT VERY DIFFERENT FROM MY OWN COULD GAIN THE VERY SAME POWER ON ANY FUTURE ELECTION DAY.
I AM 100% OPPOSED TO INDOCTRINATION — NO MATTER WHAT PERSPECTIVE HAPPENS TO HAVE THE RULING POWER OF THE MOMENT.
Jed wrote:
“If that’s too rough for you, you might try the Disneyland site. It’s more your speed anyway!”
Jed ALSO wrote:
“And go easy on the bullshit. Most of us here have developed a good nose for it, and you’ll get called on it.”
PLEASE CLEAN IT UP AND CUT WITH THE INSULTS. IF THAT’S THE BEST YOU HAVE TO OFFER, I’M NOT INTERESTED.
I WILL BE GLAD TO AT LEAST ATTEMPT TO CONTINUE DISCUSSION IN THIS FORUM WITH THOSE WHO ACTUALLY KNOW ‘HOW’ TO ENGAGE IN A REAL DISCUSSION — AND EVEN WITH THOSE WHO SHOW SOME SIGNS OF PROMISE THAT THEY MIGHT BE ABLE TO LEARN TO ENGAGE IN CIVIL DIALOGUE.
I HAVE NO INTEREST IN CONVERSATION WITH THE VULGAR TYPES OR WITH THE “SLASH AND BURN” TYPES.
FINALLY, IF YOU DO NOT WANT “4000 WORD” REPLIES, IT WOULD BE BEST IF THOSE POSTING DIRECTLY TO ME COULD COME TO A COLLECTIVE AGREEMENT TO STOP POSTING 4000 WORD QUESTIONS AND ACCUSATIONS AT ME.
THIS TOPIC IS ONE THAT IS VERY COMPLEX. IT IS NOT ONE THAT CAN BE ADDRESSED IN 30 SECOND “SOUND BITES.”
THEREFORE, I WOULD SUGGEST THAT YOU EITHER GET UP TO SPEED — OR ADJUST AND GET OVER IT — OR USE YOUR LITTLE SCROLL BAR ON THE SIDE OF YOUR SCREEN TO SKIP OVER MY POSTINGS ENTIRELY — JUST EXACTLY AS I INTEND TO DO WITH SOME WRITING HERE.
Okay, CKD, I appreciate your taking the time to answer my questions.
First, none of Andy’s points accurately reflect the position of any of us on the left. He knows that, you know that, so quit with the disingenuous posturing.
Second, you run a foundation that pays kids to abandon public schools, you belong to an organization that wants schools to cut ties with public gov’t, you actively worked to put in place a superintendent who also believes in vouchers and who worked for Koch Industry’s anti-tax faux-think tank, the Flint Hills Policy Institute, yet you claim to harbor no animosity toward public schools and you just want to “help” them.
That doesn’t meet too many people’s definition of “help.” That sounds more like cutting off their funding, cutting off their traditional base of support, and subjecting student to radical marketplace forces.
Finally, you never responded to my contention that people who don’t believe enough in the public schools to send their own kids there (YOU) have no right to tell us that do how those schools should be run.
My kids got a great education in the public schools. I trusted their teachers to choose materials and activities that they believed they could get the kids interested, whether it was a Neil Simon play or a multi-racial date. I didn’t constantly harass and harangue.
Let me put it to you this way, CKD. If I did to PRIVATE schools what you do to the public ones (even though I don’t really believe in private schools and what they stand for and don’t send my own kids there), would you call it “helping”?
Galahad,I have to both agree and disagree with what you said:Sending children to private schools is not indoctrinating them. I went to a private school (Catholic) for twelve years. I received an excellent education. Yes, I also received a religious education as part of the curriculum, but the education I received in the three “R’s” was second to none.I consider myself as open minded, and more so than most, as anybody. I directly relate that back to the Private Education I received. Indoctrinated? I don’t think so.It is obvious that there is a problem with public schools in many areas. The NCLB tests more than prove that. I read CKD’s blog, and I both agree and disagree with his positions also.The voucher programs that have been put in place in many parts of the country have been a resounding sucess. That flies in the face of the “indoctrination” theory.If questions about the problems with education in the public schools are not asked, than there will be no change for the better, as no answers will be forthcoming.Questions about public schools are a good thing as it is the PUBLICS money that is being spent on it. Trying to stifle any meaningful discussions about the subject is totally wrong and counterproductive.CKD has every right to ask any questions he wishes, as it is also his money paying into the public schools.If the public school system could provide the education he thought necessary for his childrens needs, might not he send his children there? (Religious issues aside). Remember Bill Clinton? What school did he send his daughter to? Did he not have any say as to the public school system?
What a cop-out.Someone writes the words ASSES or BITCHES (as verbs, not nouns) and you’re way to good to respond.
I’m soooo bad.Please substitute ASSES with BUTTOCKS, and BITCHES with complains.
If that ain’t clean enough take a hike and ignore me always.
On second thought, I can’t even believe I responded to you and your condescending attitude.
I don’t have any need to be corrected by you. No response is required. Bye-bye.
JM–
Gee, that’s nice . . .
When Corkins was named, some lawmakers began talking about passing a proposed constitutional amendment allowing voters to decide whether they want to abolish the elected board.
“If there is a backlash to this, it most likely will be questioning anew whether the Board of Education should be disbanded and replaced by a secretary of education named by the governor and confirmed by the Senate,” said Senate Majority Leader Derek Schmidt, R-Independence.
Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Jean Schodorf said it’s beyond “likely.”
“I promise you it will be back in the next session,” said Schodorf, R-Wichita.
Duckie,You object to some of the language used here. I’m sorry about that, but a minced “Oh, Shucksie-poo” simply fails to express my feelings about some of your outrageous statements and threats, and unlike you, I’m a straightforward kind of guy.You’ve already stated that you’re forwarding our names and comments to your boss for some kind of enemies list. Considering that some of the good christians in your camp have already offered to shoot me and/or send me bombs to alter my views, that sounds just a bit gestapo-ish. Such veiled threats don’t intimidate me; they make me damned angry! You want “civil dialogue,” then dispense with them. They are anything but civil! They are an attempt to censor your opposition.You tell us you’re against religious and political indoctrination in the schools, yet you ally yourself with people who have categorically expressed that intent. That rings more than a bit disingenuous!As I said before, if you’re going to bullshit us, expect to get called on it!
Thank goodness for Schodorf, the only Republican I ever voted for.
Ms Duckett you remind me of my 11 year old son in a way. He tends to talk about 2 audible levels above normal conversation level. I repeatedly tell him that shouting his words does not make them more valid. The same I could say to you. Just because you post long winded does not make your arguement more valid.
Now ms. Duckett, I have posed twice now my perception that the Corkins appointment is agenda oriented. In your last post to me, you partially addressed this. You basically told me to give this a chance, sit back and wait….etc. etc. You backed away from any suggestion that you might be part of that agenda. That is not debate ms. Duckett that is spin. I was particualrly disappointed by your use of the tired conservative hot air balloon story.
Ms. Duckett? I have attacked posters in these blogs. We get some real flame wars going on in here sometimes. But my experience is that any arguement made in an honest manner is respected. So far, those outed as dishonest have tended to be conservatives………your side. I cite the many faces of B August, (Andy?) the Nathan/Hank duality. YOu just got here so you have not seen it.
Point is CKD, the jury is still out on you. You still have yet to answer any direct question in a direct manner. Oh it’s a nice strategy to address point by point the questions put to you. But in doing that, you define yourself only in terms of your opposition. It does not expose you or what you hold true. It only lets you shout what you are not while you should be posting what you are and what YOU believe.
You don’t like JED or TRACY’S language? But you can’t call TRACY a liar can you? Can you out JED for dishonesty? Is it easier to “recoil” from coarse language. These folks are known quantity’s here. Ignoring them does not speak well for you or anything you have to say.
That said I INVITE you to keep posting. I do currently see you as an enemy and it is most important to know the enemy. From what position of respect I may hold here, I ask other bloggers to treat you with respect so long as you afford them the same.
When I’m wrong, I admit it.
I just got to Galahad’s links. I should have done that earlier, I would have saved myself some time.
Cindy Duckett? You are demonstrably a right wing idealogue with a personal faith based interest in your activities in the field of public education. I am sorry only that I wasted valuable time validating you with open minded debate.
Duckie? (and the insult is intended as I frown on dishonesty) Duckie? What this blog needs from you now is a confessional.
I don’t know about anyone else here. I do not speak for others. But for me I need this from you:
You need to say openly that you are a fundamentlist Christian. You need to point out your desire to introduce religion into public education and your justification for that. You need to answer concerns that the majority of the Kansas Board of Education has a similar agenda as yours and justify that agenda. You need to explain how the nomination of Corkins does anything more in the way in public education than further that agenda.
Failing that Duckie, you are just another lying idealogue. And we got them all the way from top to bottom. The difference is Duckie, I can’t confront pResident bush. “my” senators brownback and roberts hear only the beat of your drum, not my interests. My “representative” in the house also hears your screed not mine. And even my kid is gonna be subjected to standards that your fellow travelers in the board of education dictate and pursue.
I can’t address them Duckie. You put them over and beyond my voice. But Dear heart I can tell you just what I think of you and yours and you can send it uphill to them if you like. You do have my name. People like you and them leave me with not a whole lot to lose. So here it is: You all got yourself some funny “god” that so needs you to use him to justify your own personal pejudices. You deliver that message “upstairs” For now and for me Cindy K Duckett you are unfortunately relevant, but not very rational.
JR: I can see that I am wasting my time and efforts here, so it’s likely that this will be my last posting before I move on to more important things where my efforts will matter.
I will not address your last two postings, point-by-point, as I have attempted to do before.
Instead, I will address only the few “new” things I’ve read today that probably do deserve a reply.
Before I do that, however, I want to say that believe it — or not — I have found you to be one of the posters here I have most appreciated. I don’t agree with many of the things you write, but at least I get a sense that you are passionate, honest and well-meaning.
I appreciate and respect that but I do wish you could get over your penchant for rushing to judgmental conclusions before all of the evidence is in.
I am going to answer the one point you say that you “need to hear” from me but I’m going to answer it honestly, and not with the words that YOU chose to “put in my mouth.
Yes, I am a Christian. I posted that fact earlier in this forum.
Am I a fundamentalist Christian? I honestly don’t know if I am or not. I would need a definition (your definition) of that label before I could properly reply.
What I do know is that there are probably many who think of me as a “lousy” Christian. I’m not good at church attendance and I rarely participate in church and/or religious events.
My faith is a personal and mostly private one. I don’t wear it on my shirt sleeve but you will never find me denying it, either. I try to live and demonstrate my beliefs through my actions. Sadly, I frequently don’t even do that as well as I should.
What I do believe is summed up very well in the piece above titled, “When I Say I am a Christian.”
For me, it really IS as simple as that. Is THIS what you mean by defining myself in terms of what I hold true? If not, then I’m not sure what it is that you’re looking for.
As to introducing religion into public schools — again — believe it — or not — but I probably have as many fears about that as you do, but very possibly for different reasons.
Public schools are taxpayer funded and government controlled. Beyond Biblical literature study and basic Comparison of Religions classes (both of which already exist in the public sector) I have many, MANY qualms concerning “government approved” religion classes that go beyond the two mentioned above.
When it comes to the issue of prayer in schools, I could support a moment of silence — but NOT a “government sanctioned” prayer.
I have “issues” on THAT topic, even in the private school setting. Contrary to what someone posted somewhere up above, all 4 of my children HAVE attended public schools — a fact I had posted before someone implied otherwise. (I guess some people don’t read all available information before jumping to their own conclusions.)
Our oldest two attended public schools from K-12 and graduated from them. Our youngest two attended public schools through their elementary years and were transferred to a private school for their older grades from which they graduated.
Without ANY question, the youngest two are FAR better educated in the basic subjects than the older two. Child #3 (a son) earned his BA in May and will begin work towards a Master’s Degree in the next semester. At this point, unless he changes his mind, it is his intent to “stick with it” until he has earned a Doctorate degree. His area of interest is sociology and human development (cradle to grave).
Having said all that, I have to add that even the private school setting was not a “perfect” one for either of those youngest two.
I will never forget my son’s 6th grade teacher who declared “The Living Bible” to be “The Dead Bible,” and that the King James Version is the ONLY “credible” version for any “real” Christian.
I had a problem with that. I would STILL have a problem with that. In a private setting, however, I had options … and a lot more power and influence … because I could easily take my kids — and my money — to move to a more suitable setting.
With persistence, that issue was eventually resolved but it made me very, VERY aware of the “power” that some people are willing to use in their efforts to coerce others to believe exactly as they believe.
Both ends of the political, philosophical and religious perspective are capable of attempting to use the power of their position and authority.
That DOES scare me, as I suspect that it also does you. From what I can gather, you fear a “push” of religion of ANY kind. What I fear is a “push” of specific kinds — or of only ONE “correct” perspective.
The sense of frustration and feelings of irrelevance that I pick up in your posts, and from others, genuinely saddens me.
Anyone can make a difference if they truly want to do that — but it takes a lot of time — a lot of dedication — and a lot of credibility.
I could have (would have) taught any of you some of the basics involved in becoming relevant — if any of you had cared enough to ask and to listen. My impression, however, is that most here really don’t care ENOUGH to make a move in that direction. Most seem very content to have their little audience of just a dozen or so.
In making the choice between being a little fish in a big pond or a BIG fish in a little pond, it appears to me that most here genuinely enjoy being one of the BIG fish in a little pond.
That’s not for me. I prefer being one of the little fish in the big pond.
So … I’m going to leave you all now and go back to whatever “relevance” I can accomplish. I’m working on a project now that I believe has far greater potential for making an impact than I can ever make posting in this forum to minds that are already make up. If that works out, maybe I’ll pop back in for a minute to let you know about it.
Until then, for those who feel SO threatened by me that they believe that I need to be watched, it is my understanding that I “may” be quoted in tomorrow’s Wichita Eagle.
The interview that I did for KWCH last Thursday (and that was replayed on Kansas Week, KPTS on Friday) is available online, complete with video, at: http://www.kwch.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KWCH/MGArticle/WCH_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031785481190.
I’m sure there will be other opportunities between now and then, but for now, the next “definite” date that I am aware of when you can “catch me” is on December 18, MSNBC, in a documentary about Wichita that will air nationwide. I have not yet been informed about the time for that broadcast.
If anyone wants further dialogue, my email address is posted somewhere up above.
Bye, now. It’s been fun! You can all carry on now as before. I’m sure it won’t take long for you to find a brand new target in your little bitty pond. :) It must feel incredibly gratifying to feel like such very BIG fish. I hope that you can continue to find pleasure from your efforts.
Best wishes to all — REALLY!! :)
Some people belittle others while smiling and dripping with honey and sugar.WELL, ISN’T THAT SPECIAL!
And whom is pretending to be a big fish?
RIGHT ON ED!That last paragraph really showed her BUTTOCKS, didn’t it?How phony, er um I mean disingenous.Thank God she gave us loosers her permission to carry on.(in our little bitty pond)
Tracy
No “paragraph” can handle that.
OMG, what a condescending bitch . . .
As if none of us are involved in our own activism, although I must say I don’t have Koch fricking Industries bankrolling me.
I’ve really got to start “helping” private schools the way CKD has “helped” public schools.
Thank God and Greyhound she’s gone . . .
Let the record show that this question CKD ignored–
If I did to PRIVATE schools what you do to the public ones (even though I don’t really believe in private schools and what they stand for and don’t send my own kids there), would you call it “helping”?
Thanks for your comments, Ed & Galahad.I just hate people who’s attitude seems to be all about making me feel guilty for being who or what I am. She’s a legend in her own mind, a self appointed saint.I don’t need her or any human for my own personal salvation, I’ll work that out on my own!
I feel dirty. I mean that.
I did my best to get that sanctimonious self righteous bitch to address directly the posts in this blog. In the end, she essentially dedicated her parting shot to ME?
Let the record show that Cindy K Duckett never adressed the true question in this blog (the qualifictions of Corkins) beyond simply saying “believe in him”
The right calls liberals “elitist”? Cindy K Duckett DEFINES ELITISM. She ends her parting shot with a commercial for her upcoming MSNBC appearance.
We have seen, Liberals and honest conservatives the depths of self genuflection and arrogance that currently define this party in power.
I ask those on the “right” are you proud of “Queen” Cindy? She certainly holds you in little regard. She is off to play and get paid in “the big pond” You folks on the right ought to be offended. Who the hell is she to speak for you or for Kansas?
Cindy’s Email is CKDuckett@cox.net
Duckie said she didn’t know if she was a fundamentalist or not, but she did say not to question Corkie, just believe in him. If that ain’t fundie thinking I don’t know what is! I, for one, won’t miss her that much, I just feel sorry for whatever ponds she scums up. Bye bye, Duckie!
I just emailed saint Cindy. I told her that she should not presume to speak for Kansas. I told her that if she does go on MSNBC that she does not represent me or Kansas. I told her that her comments here were a matter of record, and that her summary dismissal of this blog and her fellow Kansans spoke well to her agenda.
Forgive me CF. I told her that “if you do get on hardball and you won’t face me on “hardball” maybe she would rather face CF.
A few days ago Ms Duckett arrived here. She played around abit with all of us…….on both sides. For whatever reason she has access to a bigger voice. But does anyone here want her speaking for us? She played us ALL and departed with insults. Now I don’t know about you but I’m not willing to let that stand.
Ha! Listen to you guys sputter!
Ms Duckett cleaned your rude, arrogant, ignorant, frothing, fever swamp plows – and left you all in her dust.
If you had cogent points, your immaturity greatly overshadowed them. Now your impotent anger betrays your loss. Too bad you’re all too self-posessed to understand it.
You guys have run off a lot of good thinkers and writers with your unyielding adolescence. So you can now just talk to yourselves. You certainly deserve it.
Anon,
Apparently we’ll have to work a little harder to get rid of you.
Anon, your post was ALL those things you listed.
And we do have a cogent point that doesn’t take volumes of BS to get to.The point is that many Kansans feel that this is terrible abuse of the power they were intrusted with. They’ve turned our state education system into a three ring circus, and now feel the need to have this very competent lawyer within earshot of their workstations.You don’t percieve any problem with all of this?If you need an administrator, why bring in a lawyer?Your only point was that you hate the folks who disagreed with ckd and therefore disagreed with you.How “cogent”!Why didn’t you just copy a couple of paragraphs from Cindy and then repost it.
Now, if you want to be cogent and logical let’s do it!If this were the mental olympics, your last post failed to bring home a medal.
TRACYWhat makes you think I like having Corkins in that position? He’s overpaid, and who knows what kind of a commissioner he will be? Whether they want a lobbyist, an administrator, or a leader, I don’t see much evidence of those skills in his background.
But if so many of you keep posting like immature teenagers, you will have no one to talk to but other immature thinkers and writers.
We all had a chance to learn something of the workings of government and the politics of making a difference. But most of you would rather score a few hollow points for the sake of rudeness.
Yes, I’ve done it, too.
Too bad that being right so often has little to do with being convincing.
Anon,
This religious great awakening will pass too, just like all the others. The republic has been strong enough to avoid all the veiled and not-so-veiled attempts to insinuate a particular religious world view on the citizenry. And when those in power become so cock-sure of themselves that government becomes an inbred little clique you can be sure that we’re at a cusp where a change in governance and party is imminent.
I didn’t read all of CKD’s posts – only the last one. I tghought that post was more insulting, self-righteous and egocentric than anything I’ve read here in a long time.
You are indeed correct that being “right” is different from being convincing. In this particular case I have no idea if CKD had any valid points to make but she certainly convinced me that she she looks down upon those with a different perspective with a condescending sneer and dismisses them with a wave of her hand. I’ll be more than happy to see the BOE, and her implode in the next few years. As to Mr. Corkins, we should all be so lucky to be appointed to a position of high esteem, authority, and influence, while having no apparent qualifictions for the job, with the exhortation “trust him and God and everything will turn out all right”.
Brian,Yeah, “This religious great awakening will pass too, just like all the others.” You and I, and many others, are just trying to get us through it with the barest minimum of witch burnings possible. Thanks!
Anon (Trans.= Nobody)Duckie cleaned nobody here! We’re still here, as gritty as ever, and she’s slithered back down the drain to be with her friends. Wanna be next?
I think Cindy’s “descent” into “our little blog” is very illustrative of folks like her and also Anon.
I have been in Email discussion with Ms Duckett. Her Email is CKDuckett@cox.net.
She aquitted herself no better in personal email than she did here.
We learned alot from Cindy. At least I did. So much is made of “liberal elitism”. Folks? I think you saw enough of Cindy to see some Conservative elitism right here in her posts. If you did not see enough I’ll try to get her last email to me on here. I’m not sure how to do that. But suffice it to say that this woman is WAY full of herself. One wonders if she knows what her bible says about Pride.
Corkins is universally seen as an INCREDIBLE mistake. No doubt the next school board election will reflect this.
The GOOD thing about fighting folks who say that “GOD is on our side” is when “god” does not weigh in.
Run, run, away Cindy Duckett. The light of truth will destroy you and you know it. But thank you for making us aware of you.
We will be shining the light in your direction. You are on the radar now.
JR–just highlight the e-mail text, go to “edit” on your tool bar. You get a drop-down menu, one choice is “copy.”
Click “copy” and then “paste” to the blog.
Galahad,
I’m on webtv. I don’t have the resources to direct paste Cindy’s email to me here. Maybe that’s why she picked up on me, cause I didn’t have the resources to fight back.
That’s illustrative I think, of her and folks like her. If you thought her “farewell” letter here was condescending, I got to show you some excerpts of her final email to me. I will write them down and post them here if this blog stays active.
Ducky did not get my reply to her final email. She blocked me and that’s ok. In my email I asked her not to reply. What I told her was that while she was well spoken, she never did address the point of the blog. She never expounded on HER agenda or just why it was that we all should accept Corkins on faith. But I told her I expected no more and that I had been fighting folks such as her all my life. I ended my email to her (which she did not see) with this: And as I am sure in her arrogance she is still reading, though not posting here that she will see it. I told her,
YOU WILL LOSE
She has blocked me. Cindy Duckett can be reached for questions on her agenda at CKDuckett@cox.net
If you reach her? Tell her Jay Rimel says “Cindy? YOU WILL LOSE!”