Homeschooling numbers are up again in North Carolina.
The number has jumped by 11,415 more students than the previous year and represents the largest number of students homeschooling in the state history. That’s a 10.7% increase over the previous 2014-15 school year.
A report via Jon Camp at ABC 11 details that Wake County Public Schools are looking to cut bus routes again this year. The report says they want to cut out around 3,000 of the current 25,000 routes.
Quick excerpt:
“Even though we’ve had more students riding the bus, we’ve been able to make the routes more efficient, getting more students per bus and still getting them to school on time,” Poston said.
But some parents have already seen the downside of fewer routes. Here’s one at a year-round school complaining on a neighborhood Internet chat site about a “major change”in a bus route, turning a possible 3-5 minute ride into a 45-minute haul each way.
“What we’re trying to do is build a system that sufficient for the entire county,” Poston said,”and sometimes that means somebody might have to ride a little bit longer to get to school. But it still a service that we are offering to get your kid from your door to school.”
Fewer routes also mean fewer buses. Last year, there were about 820 school buses on Wake County roads. This year the goal is about 760. And the district says it has about 760 drivers.
Wake County is the 16th largest school district in the nation and the largest one in our state. The district has over a billion dollar budget, but yet they can’t manage that or busing for the third year straight.
@JonCampABC11 I read your Wake Bus article.
I can speak to ‘delays’. We experienced 40-50m delays for months & I emailed WCPSS board.— A.P. Dillon – LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) August 2, 2016
On a personal note, I can sympathize with the parents who complained because long delays and waiting around an HOUR or more for a 2-mile bus ride were exactly what happened to our family.
I documented each late pickup and return for two weeks. It was the return trip that was mostly the problem. Not a single day for two months did our bus leave the school on time or arrive when it was supposed to. Not one.
On our route, my kids are one of the first few stops and the school is well under two miles away. There is no excuse WCPSS can give me when the school dismisses at 3:45 pm and my children are getting home at any random time between 4:30 to 5:30 pm.
When these late drop-offs continued for a month, I wrote to the Wake School Board. Bill Fletcher, Christine Kushner, and Susan Evans responded. All of them asked for the school and bus number.
Evan’s response was longer, however blaming lack of bus drivers and ‘budget constraints’:
from: Susan Evans <sevans5@wcpss.net> 9/28/15
to: meMs. Dillon,
Can you please supply your child’s elementary school and their bus route number, so that I can ask the transportation department to see if any improvements can be made? Please know that I do not think our current transportation scenario of having to use fewer buses, less stops with more students is perfect by any means. The budgetary constraints and lack of available bus drivers in the past three years has driven this streamlined approach. Nonetheless, the transportation department does consider that the majority of students buses are currently picking students up and delivering them in the afternoon within the time frame communicated as a success in consistency. I know they will be continuing to review routes to make them as efficient as possible, so I am happy to pass along your particulars when you share them.
Thank you,
Susan P. Evans
Wake County Board of Education
District 8
(Apex/Holly Springs/SE Cary/W Cary/ N Fuquay-Varina)
As I wrote last year, miraculously our school was given three new buses a while after I complained.
By the end of the school year, however, several of those buses were pulled from our school and parents on those routes saw the wait times return. Our school sent out a flyer to parents not long after with a list of ‘route schedule changes’.
Our route was bumped back from a 4:10 return time to a 4:22 return time. Again, our stop is one of the very first on the return run from a school that is less than 2 miles away. For contrast, consider that four years ago my child was returning from school every day like clockwork at 4:05 pm.
I was semi-vocal about this last year, but if it happens this year I won’t be quietly emailing behind the scenes.
The 2016-17 routes don’t appear to be posted yet but get your act together, WCPSS. Stop blaming budgets and drivers. Stop cutting routes to save money at our student’s expense because you can’t work out a billion dollar budget.
The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction released the latest Free and Reduced Lunch thresholds late last week. The threshold for eligibility has been raised for seventh year in a row.
For example, for a family with one child, the threshold for the free lunch has been raised from $14,079 dollars in 2010-11 to $15,444 for 2016-17. That’s an increase of $1,365. The reduced price lunch rose $1,942 dollars for the same time period.
A full comparison chart by year going back to 2009-2010 is below.
Related Reading:
Did News and Observer Do The Free/Reduced Lunch Math? (2015)
The next North Carolina State Board of Education (NCSBE) meeting is slated for August third and fourth.
The agenda for the upcoming meeting can be found on the NCSBE website under the ‘meetings‘ tab.
The NCSBE meetings are live streamed for those who cannot attend in person. Whose wishing to listen in will need to download RealPlayer if they do not already have it on their device.
Nowhere in the two-day agenda is the revision of Common Core math for High school or Elementary and middle school grades mentioned.
Of note on the agenda for August 3rd:
A. 1. a. BSOP 1 – Legislated Non-Recurring Reduction to the Department of Public Instruction
III. C. 1. b. EICS 2 – Charter Application Recommendations for Schools Opening in 2017
Other Charter documentation:
III. E. 2. a. – Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Update
Documentation:
Of note on the agenda for August 4th:
II. 9:05 AM — WELCOME TO NEW NORTH CAROLINA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION MEMBERS AND ADVISORS
These new appointees are Todd Chasteen and Amy White. Also being introduced are the new Superintendent Advisor, Dr. Freddie Williamson, 2016 Wells Fargo Principal of the year, Melody Chalmers and the 2016 Teacher of the Year, Bobbie Cavnar.
VII. B. BUSINESS OPERATIONS COMMITTEE – (Mr. Greg Alcorn, Chair, and Mr. Todd Chasteen, Vice Chair)
Of note under business operations is adjustments being made to licensure fees. The report documentation says that DPI is expecting to spend “$2.4M in Licensure operations during FY 2016-17”.
Licensure Documentation:
VII. B. 3. – Update on Contracts
There are 28 contracts listed for the August report. The report nor any of the agenda items for the two-day meeting mention NC New Schools, the Gates Foundation backed Non-Profit which shut down earlier this year without warning and was given millions in both state and federal grants.
Contracts documentation:
Contracts of note include:
R + M, Inc., a public relations firm, for $22,500 in state dollars.
Peter Eversoll Photography to “serve as a Regional Recruiter for the Migrant Education Program for the Northeast region of the state, identifying and recruiting migrant children and youth into the Migrant Education Program.”. The cost is $42,840 in Federal dollars.
Rafael Ruiz and Luis Libreros, to ” serve as a Regional Recruiter for the Migrant Education Program for the Northwest part of North Carolina, identifying and recruiting migrant children and youth into the Migrant Education Program. ” The cost is $42,840 in Federal dollars each.
Project Management services for the P-20W database with Computer Aid, Inc. for $173,118 Federal dollars and $310,285 state dollars.
NC State for extending “Digital Learning” initiatives for $13,091,899 state dollars, $9,232,842 Federal dollars with $234,090 in receipts to date.
EdMetric LLC for $48,600 in state dollars. Apparently EdMetric will be taking over local administered benchmark assessments. The previous outfit, Thinkgate, shut down out of the blue last year. Thinkgate took millions in Race To The Top grant money.
SAS Institute for Cloud computing services at $1,909,650 in Federal dollars and $70,000 in state dollars.
North Dakota Dept. of Public Instruction for the continued multi-state collaboration on the Kindergarten Entry Exam (KEA). The contract states, “The purpose of the EAG award is to enhance the kindergarten entry assessment North Carolina is currently developing as part of a kindergarten through third grade formative assessment process.” The cost is $25,000 in Federal dollars.
Read about the KEA:
Parents of rising Kindergarteners, YOU CAN OPT YOUR CHILD OUT of the invasive and subjective data collection. I did it. Click here for a form to bring to school with you on the first day.
The Durham county school board has apparently considered changing its meeting attendance policies in order to accommodate members choosing to engage in activist events over board meetings.
The Center for Digital Ed’s report reiterated Wake County School Board ‘making history’ with the “remote participation in board meetings”. The Center for Digital Ed’s article continued, noting that the Durham school board also had members who participate in meetings remotely, but “they do so without the benefit of such a board policy.” and that “Durham board members utilize the state’s Open Meetings Law,”.
One of the main reasons Durham appears to be considering official policy changes with regards to meetings is over the lack of attendance by member Sendolo Diaminah. It appears that Diaminah, who in 2014 campaigned on the claim he would be a voice for the community, is literally ‘phoning it in’ when it comes to his school board obligations.
According to the article Diaminah missed the majority of the meetings (9 of 16) due to being a Black Lives Matter organizer:
“Diaminah told The Herald-Sun that he has missed meetings due to out-of-town travel as part of his work as a national organizer with the Black Lives Matter movement.”
According to KeyWiki, Sendolo is a, “black, queer communist” who is “living and organizing in Durham, North Carolina.”.
This description lines up with Sendolo’s author bio at Huffington Post:
Sendolo Diaminah (aka Lola) is a butch queen organizer and aspiring movement strategist who has been practicing organizing and studying social movements/transformation for ten years. His work has been focused mainly on democracy and the public sector, specifically public housing and public education.
KeyWiki continues, stating that, “Sendolo Diaminah is General Secretary of Freedom Road Socialist Organization and an organizer with People’s Durham, a new organization committed to building a participatory democracy led by low-income people and people of color.”.
Sendolo is also active in the NC NAACP’s Moral Monday movement and was cited by The Nation as a “Community Organizer” with the Black Organizing for Leadership and Dignity.
Sendolo was part of a ‘documentary series’ called “Truth. Be. Told.”. The series “seeks to reclaim the birthright of Queer Black visionaries within our families and communities by providing a platform for out, Black LGBTQ people to tell their personal stories of challenge, radical self-inquiry, transformation, and triumph.”. View the trailer.
Both Freedom Road Socialist Org and People’s Durham appear to be mainly financed by the Institute for Southern Studies.
People’s Durham is known as the Durham People’s Alliance. The organization is affiliated with the Durham Solidarity Center, which maintains a bail money fund for those arrested at Black Lives Matter protests.
Other affiliates of People’s Durham include the ‘school to prison pipeline’ protest outfits like Youth Organizing Institute and the communist group, World Workers Party.
On July 21st, World Workers Party teamed up with dozens of Left leaning organizations to take part in a Black Lives Matter protest hosted by ‘Durham Beyond Policing’. Many of these organizations appear to have the same people running them and much of their staff seem to overlap as well.
Parents and voters may want to question Sendolo. who was elected in 2014 with 44% of the vote, on his priorities as his attendance would indicate that the schools of Durham county do not appear to be one of them.
By his own admission, Sendolo has no children of his own and his resume does not appear to have any education background. In fact all background information gathered points to Sendolo as mainly a professional protester/agitator.
Only about four months ago a lower court judge, U.S. District Judge Thomas D. Schroeder, upheld North Carolina’s Voter ID law. That ruling was overturned by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday.
This makes the 4th time in 6 months the 4th Circuit has made a ruling directly against North Carolina or a ruling that has implications for the state.
The 4th court panel included judges Diana Gribbon Motz, Henry F. Floyd and James A. Wynn. Motz wrote the opinion and was appointed by former President Bill Clinton. Both Floyd and Wynn were appointees of President Obama. Judge Schroeder is a George W. Bush appointee.
The ruling mainly hinges on the idea of statistical ‘disparate impact’ on African-American voters, yet seemingly ignores the statistical evidence indicating that African-American voter registration and voting have not declined since enactment of the North Carolina Voter ID law, but those numbers have actually increased. After the 2015 ruling in favor of North Carolina’s law, the National Review Online had an article which laid out the same statistics driven strategy being employed in the current 4th Circuit ruling.
The 4th Circuit ruling cites the elimination of same-day registration, pre-registration of 16 to 17 year olds and out-of-precinct voting as all being discriminatory. The 4th Circuit opinion characterized the law’s alterations as being, ” multiple restrictions on voting mechanisms disproportionately used by African-Americans”.
When discussing the number of early voting days being reduced, the 4th Circuit appears to toss out the fact that while the number of days were reduced, the overall number of early voting hours were not. In other words, there is no loss of hours in early voting; the polls are simply open longer on the new set of early voting days.
Of note, a Precinct Chair from Buncombe county was cited in the opinion in a manner indicating he played a role in the North Carolina law, which he didn’t. Not only is Don Yelton only a simple precinct chair in a western county of the state, he was not involved in creation or defense of the Voter ID law — at all.
In fact, citing Yelton served no purpose other than to prop up the 4th Circuit’s main thesis. To add insult to injury, this might very well be the first time a Federal Court has mentioned Comedy Central’s ‘The Daily Show‘ as a citation backing their opinion.
WWNC’s Pete Kaliner dedicated his entire radio show on Friday to Don Yelton. It’s well worth one’s time to listen to.
Read Kaliner’s 2013 article on Yelton, excoriating him for even going on the Daily Show and allowing the video slice and dice masters of the Daily Show to make a fool of him and of the North Carolina. Yelton is a former life-long Democrat who turned Republican not long before his appearance on the Daily Show and then was kicked out for his behavior.
Buncombe County GOP responded to the ruling in a press release, which was almost entirely about Yelton. In the release, BCGOP Chairman Nathan West said, “Yelton and hiscronies are like a chronic case of hemorrhoids: a real pain in the ass that you can never seem to get rid of.”
Read the full 4th Circuit Ruling.
Read the Voter ID law, HOUSE BILL 589.
The law had survived two challenges in U.S. District court, one in July 2015 and the other in January 2016. Both were overseen by Schroeder. North Carolina’s voter ID law lined up with that of over 20 other states.
Governor McCrory’s statement was short and to the point, “Photo IDs are required to purchase sudafed, cash a check, board an airplane or enter a federal court room. Yet, three Democratic judges are undermining the integrity of our elections while also maligning our state. We will immediately appeal and also review other potential options.”
An appeal to the Supreme Court is already in the works according to the joint statement made by House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Cleveland) and Senate Leader Phil Berger (R-Rockingham):
“Since today’s decision by three partisan Democrats ignores legal precedent, ignores the fact that other federal courts have used North Carolina’s law as a model, and ignores the fact that a majority of other states have similar protections in place, we can only wonder if the intent is to reopen the door for voter fraud, potentially allowing fellow Democrat politicians like Hillary Clinton and Roy Cooper to steal the election,” they said in the statement. “We will, obviously, be appealing this politically-motivated decision to the Supreme Court.”
The bombastic Moral Monday leader and NC NAACP President, Reverend Barber gave a statement, which opened up by saying that “We are happy today that the 4th Circuit’s Court of Appeals’ decision exposed the racist intent of the extremist element of our government in North Carolina,”.
This ruling comes in succession with the overturning of similar laws in three other states including Kansas, Texas and Wisconsin.
This is a feature, not a bug.
Republican-Authored Voting Laws in Wisconsin, Kansas, North Carolina Overturned https://t.co/Ym4Ym1POx6
— A.P. Dillon – LL1885 (@LadyLiberty1885) July 31, 2016
Related Reading:
4th Circuit Specific:
LL1885 
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