Way To Go, Educrats

By Scared of the System on November 24th, 2008 at 6:37 pm

The deadline to apply to another school because the school in your district is failing is in the middle of December. I guess I can assume they are still failing.

By Katherine Jenerette on November 24th, 2008 at 9:38 pm

All four of my children have attended South Carolina Public schools from my first-born starting kindergarten in 1998 until today, with him in High School. All of them can be only seen as ‘products’ of a system that varies greatly from county to county around our state.

Every teacher I have dealt with during those years and every principal of their schools have been dedicated and goal oriented to providing the ‘best’ education to my children possible. But, here is the big ‘but’ – these excellent and dedicated teachers and principals were forced to operate in a structure with rules, both state and federally mandated that ‘tied their hands’ on the ‘front-line’ of education that nearly always ensured ‘mediocrity’ as the outcome for the majority of our public school students and failure for many others.

The deck is already stacked in the schools before the first day of classes. Funny, we would never fight wars like this and tie our front line commanders and junior officers up in a bureaucratic minefield; why would we educate our children in a bureaucratic wilderness system like the one we have now?

Make no mistake; South Carolina’s education systems coupled with the Federal ‘No-Child-Left Behind’ mandates has translated into a ‘Not-Many-Children-Can-Get-Ahead’ game of ineffectiveness and the kids get screwed royally for a lifetime.

The only solution to the South Carolina education starts with letting teachers teach and move the bureaucrats out of the day-to-day classroom business. We need to let principals have more autonomy in the structure and selection of both teachers and curriculum and to allow real school choice, Public – Private –Home Schooling, to all parents – not just to those parents that can afford it.

A mixed education option to parents means more opportunity for success in the education of their children. Diversification applies in the scheme of education as it applies in the marketplace and in society in general.[Read: No Bailout]

When evaluation is made of anything, public or private, this rule holds true: Whoever make the rules and designs the structure will determine who can really participate and ultimately determines what the outcome will be.

If you think our education system got to where it is by accident, look again at who set it up. That’s where the blame-line is.

By BIN News Editorial Staff on November 24th, 2008 at 11:03 pm

K.J.

Army Strong, Girl! Nice toes in that photo, but get the bunion fixed. sic(k) willie will dream about your bunion and may be calling tomorrow.

Our CIB staff members reviewed your bio and are (not)impressed by your “Marksman” Badge. Long way from Expert. The “Military Journalist of the Year” award is stunning! “Military Print Journalist of the Year” is also impressive!

Most impressive is “Marshall Cavendish Scholarship (American Library Association), first alternate.” First alternate? Yawn.

Boiler plate: “Jenerette is part of the military’s highly specialized Civil Affairs teams which forms the nucleus of the Army’s Civil-Military operations expertise for both Army Special Operations (SOF) and conventional forces across the full range of military missions including U.S., joint, interagency and multi-national operations. As a Civil Affairs Team Leader and Officer, Jenerette’s responsibilities include commanding and controlling Civil Affairs team operations and combined armed forces in a combat theater of operations.”

All that and awarded “Military Journalist of the Year,” too? Yawn. Did you ever get a Good Conduct Medal? Get a P.R. person to help with your bio.

Did you know Mark Sanfraud is a Lieutenant in the Air Force Reserve. He’s just an Air Farce Lieutenant. You could share a military P.R. person.

BIN News Editorial Staff

By BIN News Editorial Staff on November 25th, 2008 at 12:20 am

Katherine,

BTW. You do have nice toes. You do not have bunions. But your post about public education is full of Howies’s cr@p. We are making a note to see how much of his carpetbugger money you took in your failed attempt to get elected.

You actually wrote this cr@p: “The only solution to the South Carolina education starts with letting teachers teach and move the bureaucrats out of the day-to-day classroom business.” Bad grammar and meaningless cr@p.

You also wrote this cr@p: “Funny, we would never fight wars like this and tie our front line commanders and junior officers up in a bureaucratic minefield.”

Katherine, your pretty little toes have never been been near a real minefield. Maybe in sand but not near real mines or hostile fire. “Military Journalist of the Year” awards are earned for typing. Stop pretending.

BIN News Editorial Staff

By no more bull from Jenerette on November 25th, 2008 at 1:00 am

“The Secret life of Van Jenerette” is the blog to go read for the story of Van and Katherine Jenerette. Kate was taken out of the title when the auther (Van’s daughter) began believing she was just a stupid victim of his. By the way he is up for trial for something like sexual assault of his 7-8 year old daughter. How is that for a great family values platform for the next campaign.

You set out as if you are a scholar on education issues to say that our teachers and pricipals “have their hands tied behind their backs by rules ect”. You say the deck is stacked” against the system and that you could not fight a war this way. You wont fight a war any way as a civil public affairs person. You might write a press release. So you Ms Jenerette are writing because you dont think students, teachers, pricipals, and schools should teach a specific curricculum and be held to an outcome based test by it. Other than you Katherine the only people I hear complaining about this are those “front line’ teachers ect you write off that dont like the fact that for the first time ever they are being held accountable for their performance or lack of.

This was all statred by Gov Beasley and reform minded House members like Tracy Edge who knew that measurements to compare students, teachers, classes, and schools had to be designed. No longer could a teacher teach nothing or whatever. Thanks to these visionaries our plan was in place before No Child Left Behind came about which largely mirrored the SC plan with teaching a pre determined specific curricullum with a measurement in the form of end of the year testing.

Finally people would be held accountable for their jobs, beloved principals, schools, and, districts. State funding for k-12 education also rose a whopping one and a half billion dollars for these programs from 1998-2008 with the per pupil average of spending now at $12,255 per year.

So Katherine, you speak of a system of bygone years where nobody had jobs to do or were not measured in them. This reform system in its early years has shown that SC is improving at a fast rate but is still way behind. Before thei there would be no way to know, we also know that Horry County is out performing much of the nation by using the detailed testing data of which you disdain because of being wedded to old ways of education.

Instead of pontificating on an issue you know nothing about why don’t you seek the help of someone in your area like Tracy Edge who is furthering school choice along further than anyone ever thought and is considered a leader in the education reform movement.

Your spoutings about No Child Left Behind are nothing but rhetoric of teachers and principals who do not want to do their jobs. Tell you what, I know a couple of principals that could do their job better if you would pick up your kids before sundown.

In 1998 the State passed the Education Accountability Act which laid down objective standards, tasks, and curricullum for teachers to teach and be measured upon by testing. Finally teachers, students, pricipals , and schools would be held accountable for job performance with tests and measurements by which to judge success and failure.

I’m also on Th Board of the South Carolina Policy Council who chose tracy edge as our Legislator of the Year for his efforts to advance shool choice among other reforms. You could benefit from his knowledge and skill as a successful innovator by seking out his judgement. Being neighbor of you (before you lost your house) and friends with Tracy its obvious you are jealous of his success, You should put that behind you to work for the good of our state. If you don’t you will continue to lose at whatever you seek.

And finally Katherine, no one in our town (NMB) is going to ever respect you again until you get home and repair your family and be a mother to your chidren. THEY NEED YOU.

By Katherine Jenerette on November 25th, 2008 at 11:30 am

Dear BIN

Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight. At least part of the record for now.

With regards to Education, here is what is a lot of cr@ap; in South Carolina the education is last in the nation and there are only two explanations:

(A) First explanation; South Carolina has the most ‘collectively stupid’ students in the nation, worst teachers in the nation and the worst parents in the nation or (B) the Second explanation; South Carolina has the most ‘collectively stupid’ legislators in the nation because they have set up, through legislation the Public education system that is in place today. So, make a pick and the correct answer may not be both A and B.

With regards to my bio; I don’t need to pretend anything. It’s all real, even my ‘just-a-marksman’ with the M-16 rifle. If you paid as much attention to the time period of events in my bio as you did my toes you would have noted that my journalism background and awards were left back in 1990; that’s about twenty years ago. This is 2008, I am a Army Lieutenant in the Reserves, my branch is Military Police and I am a Team Leader of a Civil Affairs team assigned to an Airborne unit that falls under Special Operations and my blood type is Red-White and Blue +.

Like I said, I don’t need to pretend, I’m just a simple Carolina Girl who believes in doing more than talking about stuff.

I know this is probably a stupid question but, is it to late to get you on my side? (Just kidding) or maybe you’d just like to add me to your Christmas card list or maybe you’d like to vote for me in 2010?

For now, I’d like to get back to the issue here – South Carolina’s problem that starts with not being able to teach our kids how to read and write and do some basic math and for starters we could ‘let teachers teach’ by getting out of their way with red-tape mandates.

Got to run!

Thanks for the compliments on my toes. That means a lot to me; remember, I really do wear combat boots.

Katherine

By thelma on November 25th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

BIN — I’d be willing to bet you aren’t even old enough to have seen SNL — “Live.”

Please, please tell us it is so.

By nosiree on November 25th, 2008 at 3:16 pm

Competition is not the way to better public schools. Perhaps if you want to do away with them entirely, that might be the thing. Think of it, no more tax hassles, no more complaints about how they don’t measure up- just get rid of them entirely.

But competition within the public school system? It’s a joke.

By baker on November 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm

First of all, Will doesn’t make it exactly clear, but the Education Oversight Committee is not part of the State Department of Education. It’s a separate entity that answers to the state legislature. To his credit, Will doesn’t specifically link this one to Jim Rex, but for those who might not understand how all this works, it is important to note that the EOC isn’t part of the organization FITS and others like to hammer so much of the time. Of course, this isn’t to defend either outfit altogether….but when the anti-public school crowd starts with this “educrat” stuff, they’re usually painting with such a broad bruch that it would be easy for their readers to be confused.

Anyway, I’m sure Ms. Jenerette is an intelligent and well-meaning person. But “nope” is essentially correct. This business of “choice” isn’t nearly as easy and delightful as it sounds. Ms. Jenerette touts choice for all families, but how is she going to guarantee that a poor, struggling student will be admitted to the school where Gov. Sanford’s children attend? Can she guarantee that a poor, struggling student with no transportation will have even ONE private school option in Bamberg or Clarendon counties? The public schools may be struggling mightily in those places — for sure — but creating false choices isn’t a logical answer at all.

Speaking of false choices, her question regarding whether we have the most “collectively stupid” students or the worst legislature is another example of her poor logic on this issue. We may have a system that leaves much to be desired — and I could talk all day about ways I think we could make our public schools work better — but we have challenges based on our population, too. Does that mean SC kids are DUMB? No. But we have very high rates of poverty, some of the nation’s worst healthcare numbers, bad unemployment statistics, on and on. I think it’s plainly ignorant to think that these factors don’t have a relationship to the preparedness of our state’s children to succeed in school.

By BIN News Editorial Staff on November 25th, 2008 at 9:11 pm

Sorry: “than”

By no more bull.... on November 25th, 2008 at 10:32 pm

As always Jenerette never addresses direct criticism such as that provided from NO MORE BULL FROM JENERETTE above. She knows that NO MORE…. knows who she is and that she can’t fool her. She can fool the rest of you, or I should say she thinks she can. You see today she changes her story yet again. She is NOW MILITARY POLICE. That is a change from yesterday. Those of us who have access to her history knows that she is a glorified PR person in the Army and IS NOT IN COMBAT AT ALL. She couldn’t pass the security clearence to be what she says she is.

Back to her “political career”. Tell us about your family values platform? How about education? Don’t claim to speak any deeper than the flowery speech you give on education. You might further embarrass yourself. How come you are never invilved in your County or City GOP events. Are you too big for that now that you are all Washington Style.

Run for something else as soon as you can so it will be 5 losses in a row without a win. Why do people not vote for you? You only got 14% in the NMB City Council race and was beaten by that big gov’t liberal Bleeker Cannon for School Board?

Get a real grip on you and your soon to trial husband.

Go read the blog “THE SECRET LIFE OF VAN JENERETTE” an learn all about Katherine as well. That political star won’t shine too bright after you all read it.

By rick on November 26th, 2008 at 9:31 am

Perhaps the attention should be put to those counries that tie education funding to the student with the right to parental choice. These countries educational achievement seem to far surpass that of our state. Competition has always lead to better products and services delivered to the customer. Look at the big three when they had no competition, they delivered a lousy product. Because of their lack of attention, they’re now in trouble. All across this planet we can find examples of why competition is good. Behind all the whining about the wealthy abandoning the schools….just a whine against the free market principles that made this country great.

By no more bull... on November 26th, 2008 at 1:37 pm

Hey War Hero:

You still talk in politician type terms. Bring it down to the level of the people by explain what you are mumbling about.

1. HOW is public education Rationed?
2. Since you seem to know WHO gets WHAT in education, WHO are you speaking of and WHAT do they get? HOW does POLITICS decide anything. Are we to thik since YOU are SUCH A POLITICAL HEAVEYWEIGHT that your kids get more education than others?
3. BRUTALITY? Education is given as something brutal? HOW?
4. WHO DENIES people education? Give us names! Especially since education funding has increased a billion dollars in 4 years as reported by FITSNEWS! Your daughter is in the BETA Club (did you know that?) so she is allowed an education by someone. Maybe its allowed by the local Warlord.

You seem to side with some lazy teachers that don’t like being held accountable by testing as the measuring tool. You would do away with this. HMMM, thats the point of view that the NEA has. It’s comforting to know you subscribe to their views.

This is one of many reasons you can’t get elected to even the school board against liberal Bleecker Cannon. You are SO SO SMART that the average voter who drives a truck, takes out the trash, and is a Mother of 4 (hey that sounds like your BS) can’t understand you because YOU can’t relate to them. YOU’RE just too smart for us.

After you handle these questions, which you can’t, then we’ll talk about your “tough on crime” platform with regard to abusers.

By baker on November 26th, 2008 at 3:35 pm

It’s funny, I guess…..I see things somewhat differently. The “bottom-up” concept is of course wonderful. But I think that’s more likely a reality in communities where there is strong support for public education….and where people hold their elected school officials accountable, get involved in their local schools, etc. Now, that can be tricky, too, as local politics and school politics can get nasty. But in communities where people are involved and care about their public schools, I think there’s much more real accountability and more of a reflection of local values and interests in schools than in communities where all the middle-class and wealthy folks have left.

I understand that some people see things differently, and that’s fine. Reasonable people can have disagreements. And, in all honesty, I would agree that there is much room for improvement, including lessening red-tape, etc. What I don’t put stock in is the easy answer of false choices.