Steve Newton hits a homerun with his enlightening thoughts about the recent turnover at the Delaware Department of Education under the new leadership of Sec. of Education Mark Murphy -
There is, naturally, a lot of editorializing and opining as to what it means that since Lillian Lowery left DOE for greener (but, honestly, equally toxic) fields in Maryland, her "team" has been scrambling for the exits as quickly as possible--last but not least Deputy Dan Cruce. . . .Steve makes a point of reminding us that the changing of the guard always brings with it exodus and new appointments. More importantly, he charges observers with remembering that Mark Murphy was not appointed to charge direction, but to further a plan in place and he comes to us with substantial exposure to the plan and with influential backers'.
In other words, when a new SecEd came to town there also used to be a period of public discourse and even relatively thoughtful debate on "Where should we go from here?"
Not this time. Mark Murphy's selection was an advance decree of exactly what the agenda will be in the second Markell term: more Race to the Top, more Vision 2015, more centralized educational policy-making, continued emphasis on high-stakes testing, and continued erosion of local control of our public schools.
It's a great discourse in the lessons of Delaware Sec. of Education History. Go check it out for yourselves... http://delawarelibertarian.blogspot.com/2012/08/when-guard-changes-at-delaware.html
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