Politicking In Our Schools: Olde Providence Elementary

Posted on November 3, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

I’ve written about Olde Providence and their penchant for politicking using school resources before and they are doing it again.
This time it is in an email blast which went out to parents on the 30th.  See below.

From: Olde Providence Elementary School <oldeprovidence.pta@cms.k12.nc.us>
Date: October 30, 2014 1:07:16 PM EDT
To: XXXXXXXXXX.net
Subject: Special Blast
Reply-To: oldeprovidence.pta@cms.k12.nc.us

Top 10 Things Olde Providence’s PTA wants you to know about the Sales Tax ReferendumThe Mecklenburg County Board of County Commissioners voted to put a proposal for a quarter-cent (one-fourth of a penny) sales tax increase on the ballot November 4.

If this passes, it will bring in about $35 million in additional revenue. 80% of this amount (about $28 million) will go to Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools with the rest going to public libraries, CPCC, and the Arts and Science Council.

Although the N.C. General Assembly gave some teachers a salary increase, it was not an across the board pay increase.
Therefore, our veteran teachers did not see much of a pay raise at all. N.C. continues to lag behind other states in terms of teacher salary.

59% of CMS employees make less than a living wage
for a family of four.

The tax increase would help increase salaries for CMS employees including teachers, custodians, bus drivers
and cafeteria workers.

The tax increase does not apply to groceries, gas or medicine.

The tax will amount to 25 cents for every $100 you spend.
That means $1 per every $400 you spend.

You cannot make a difference unless you vote on or
before November 4. The sales tax will be towards the
bottom of the ballot. It will ask if you want to vote for or
against the sales use tax.

For more information on the sales tax referendum, go to the CMS website or go to http://www.together4meck.com
There are many ways to help including sharing information
on social media, putting up a yard sign and greeting
voters at precincts.

The Charlotte-Mecklenburg School Board and the Mecklenburg PTA Council endorse the sales tax.
We support our teachers and school employees and the wonderful work they do every day for our children.
We hope you will vote FOR the sales use tax on November 4.

Please educate yourself and decide what is best for
you and your family.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION | 1 Comment

Chamber Watch: High Achievement NY Coalition

Posted on November 3, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Government here to help common coreChamber Watch: Keeping an eye on the Chambers of Commerce Core

Today’s Article: Coalition Supports Common Core

Related Read:  High Achievement NY: Common Core Must Work Because We Don’t Want to Face Arne

 

“BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – With the Common Core taking a hit during an education-heavy campaign season, a coalition supporting the learning standards has released an analysis that concludes repealing them would be a costly mistake.

The High Achievement New York coalition includes several chambers of commerce and community groups around the state.”

 

So who is High Achievement NY Coalition?

Basically multiple local chambers of commerce peppered with the usual Gates funded suspects like America Achieves, Council For A Strong America and Center for American Progress.

High Achievement NY is a mirror image of the “Hire Standards” coalition set up by the NC Chamber of Commerce.

 

Why We Keep An Eye On The Chambers Of Commerce Core

Image Courtesy of RestoreOKPublicEducation.com

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is heavily vested in promoting and pushing Common Core. As push back has grown, Department of Education Secretary Arne Duncan has been pushing the US Chamber to apply more pressure. State and regional Chambers have followed this lead, blanketing papers with op-eds, running television ads and billboards. In North Carolina, the NC Chamber of Commerce has been documented as a clear supporter of Common Core and have created a special education initiative called “Hire Standards” to push Common Core.

How big and hard is the NC Chamber pushing Common Core? Public Schools Forum NC board member and former NC Legislator, Gene Arnold, said outright on local television show, NCSPIN, that the Chamber would choke off campaign contributions to candidates who did not support the Common Core. Direct quote:

“The big stick the business people are using is the threat with campaign contributions could slow down.” – Gene Arnold, NCSPIN 5/15/14 (video)

 

Read about the US Chamber of Commerce:

Read about the Chamber in North Carolina:

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Common Core | Tagged | 1 Comment

Where In NC Is Clay Aiken?

Posted on November 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

UPDATE: Welcome Carolina Plott Hound Readers!

Well, Bill Maher knows where Aiken is on his lack of campaigning with Obama, but where in NC is Clay Aiken?  Literally, where in NC does Aiken actually live?

Take a walk through time with me?

November 2009
Aiken forced to remove himself from Wake County voter rolls. He was registered to vote at his mom’s address in Chatham county. (Related – ABC 11 – 2009)

March 2010 Through November 2012
Aiken registered to vote in Durham in March 2010. He then used that Durham address to vote through 2012, yet his mailing address was in Los Angeles, California. (See Image One)
Did he vote in both places?

March Through August 2010
Aiken has 3 political contributions listed in 2010. His address on these contributions is in California. (Source – OpenSecrets.org, as of 9/26/14) (See Image Two)

November 2013
Aiken has his North Carolina voter registration card mailed to his Los Angeles, California address. (See Image Three)

January 2014
Aiken registers his campaign committee for Congress using a P.O. box in Cary, North Carolina. (Source – FEC) (See Image Four)

March 2014
Aiken registers to vote in Chatham County, March 19, 2014. The address is 804 Water Hickory Drive, Cary, NC. (Source – Nexis) (See Image Five)

Three important things to note about this Mary 2014 activity:

1. Aiken does not own the house at Water Hickory Drive. (See Image Six)
2. Aiken lists the mailing address for his voter registration as: 8608 Langtree Ln. In Raleigh, North Carolina. (Nexis.com Public Records Search, Accessed 9/22/14) 
3. This Address Does Not Fall Within The Boundaries Of The Second Congressional District.

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), Democrats, ELECTIONS, Voting | Tagged | 2 Comments

Narrative Collapse: Teacher Turnover Declined In Wake County

Posted on November 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Remember the big hoopla that teacher turnover in Wake County was just amazingly high? Remember that this narrative was pushed by Moral Monday, Democrats and NC DPI itself?

Yeah. Not so much.  That turnover so decried apparently decreased statewide and also in Wake County.

 UPDATE 11-6-14:

DPI waited until after the election to announce this news:

Lynda Fuller <Lynda.Fuller@dpi.nc.gov> Wed, Nov 5, 2014 at 9:42 AM
Reply-To: Lynda Fuller <lynda.fuller@dpi.nc.gov>
To: For NC Media <ncmedia@lists.dpi.state.nc.us>
* Teacher Turnover Rate Decreases in 2013-14
The number of teachers leaving North Carolina public school classrooms was down slightly from lastyear according to the 2013-14 Annual Report on Teachers Leaving the Profession just presented to State Board of Education members. In 2013-14, 13,557 teachers left their local school districts resulting in an overall state turnover rate of 14.12 percent. This was down from the 14.33 percent reported in 2012-13. To read more, as well as access district data, please visit www.ncpublicschools.org and look under “News.”

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), EDUCATION, June Atkinson, NC DPI | Tagged | Comments Off on Narrative Collapse: Teacher Turnover Declined In Wake County

Project Veritas In NC Leads to Investigation by State Board Of Elections

Posted on November 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Another shoe did indeed drop. Porject Veritas and James O’Keefe swept into North Carolina and uncovered multiple campaign workers encouraging illegal immigrants to vote for Kay Hagan. This activity has prompted an investigation by the NC State board of elections

For several years now, the Voter Integrity Project in North Carolina has been doing the heavy lifting of identifying people who should not be on North Carolina’s voter roles. VIP has even developed a tool citizens can use to see if a ‘phantom voter’ lives at their address.

So – Ask yourself, do you get mail for someone who does not live at your address? It can be as little as a few times a year you might receive mail for someone else. This may indicate a phantom voter. If you do get such mail, go to PhantomVotes.org, hit the SEARCH link at the top and follow the prompts to see if you have a phantom living at your location. Then follow the steps to challenge that person on the voter rolls.

Even if you don’t get weird mail — go check out your address. You might be surprised to find a phantom in your house.

Candidate for NC House 16, Molotov Mitchell had VIP’s Jay DeLancy stop over to his house to demonstrate the PhantomVotes.org site for him. They found that a phantom voter was indeed listed for Mitchell’s home address.

Watch the video here and note the opening sequences in which the father of Mitchell’s opponent, Josh Stein, breaks election laws and is electioneering well beyond the designated area.

I hope a complaint has been filed. That’s ridiculous given the clear signage stating where you can and cannot campaign past.

Meanwhile, the NC NAACP is warning their supporters to stop putting election guides in mailboxes because it’s “a federal offense”. Paging the State Board of Elections….

Related Reads: 

Posted in ELECTIONS, NC NAACP, Reverend Barber, Voting | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

NC Media Memory Holes Critical Hagan Story

Posted on November 2, 2014 by A.P. Dillon

Charlotte Observer memory holed a story about a legal review involving Kay Hagan and the evolving stimulus scandal that surrounds her family.  The Charlotte Observer put up a story citing a WBTV report that was rather damning in the opening paragraphs.

Phil Kerpen nailed it:

 

Well, this blatant media bias and journalistic malpractice won’t stand.

Go read the story via this cache link.  I copied the entire story into a word document for safe keeping. Pathetic that I had to do that using a cache link.
Update: Cache link doesn’t work now either.  
Update: View the pulled Hagan story here.
Update: Carolina Journal has the DENR report.

The opening paragraphs  alone speak volumes; emphasis added:

State officials say a stimulus grant given to a company run by Kay Hagan’s husband needs “further legal review.”

WBTV obtained a memo written by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources which includes a letter to the state’s auditor from last month.

The memo states that NCDENR is looking into potential conflict of interest claims involving Senator Kay Hagan.

NCDENR says they have reviewed grant records and found conflict of issue claims warranted further legal review. Kay Hagan’s husband manages one of the companies in question, who received an energy efficiency grant money in 2010.

 

By the way, the sister paper to Charlotte Observer that operates in Raleigh? The News and Observer? They’ve been doing their own bit of journalistic malpractice with their selective editing of a Kay Hagan rally video.

The News and Observer inserted still frames where DREAMERS literally upstaged Hagan in protests and were holding signs that said ‘Friends don’t deport friends’. Hit the bottom updates of this article for the first edited video that N&O pulled.

It was Banana Republic propaganda style editing.

What’s worse, is the New and Observer edited the footage not once but twice.

The News and Observer knows best what you should see, citizen. 

Posted in A.P. Dillon (LL1885), ELECTIONS, Media Bias | Tagged | 1 Comment