Don't count me among that group.
Put me with the people who never understood why Gov. Jay Nixon appointed someone with so little past success to such an important position. He could have found someone better by drawing names from a hat. (Note to self: Check and see if Jay Nixon picked Nicastro by drawing her name from a hat. Second note to self: If he did, buy Jay Nixon a new hat.)
Sure, she was a superintendent, but not everyone who holds that position is qualified to run the education department. And she was not considered to be a successful superintendent.
Since her arrival in Jefferson City, she has done nothing but sell out the students, parents, and teachers of Missouri public schools to the highest bidders.
Through a Sunshine Law request, Missouri NEA obtained DESE e-mails which showed Nicastro was rubbing slippers with retired billionaire Rex Sinquefield on his plan to eliminate teacher tenure and tie teachers' job evaluations to student scores on standardized tests.
The Turner Report has noted numerous times, the stealth operation through which Nicastro has installed Common Core Standards throughout Missouri.
But even those things, as nefarious as they are, pale in comparison with the sabotage Nicastro is inflicting on the Kansas City School District. A group called More-2 uncovered the truth that everyone knew was out there- that Nicastro was throwing the Kansas City School District under the bus in an effort to curry favor with some of the big spenders who have corrupted the word "reform" by associating themselves with it. More-2 shared the truth with the Kansas City Star. The e-mails More2 obtained included numerous revelations:
The electronic trail exposes a rushed bidding process, now criticized, that ultimately landed Indianapolis-based CEE-Trust a $385,000 contract to develop a long-range overhaul for the district’s failing schools.
Summer discussions in emails reveal Nicastro’s wish for a statewide district to gather poor-performing schools under new leadership, with an office for innovation and charter school expansion.
The Star's story naturally concentrates on CEE-Trust's connection with Kansas City's Kauffman Foundation, but as the Turner Report has noted the CEE-Trust's major benefactor, and this should come as no surprise to anyone, is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. CEE landed the job of advising Missouri about its failing school districts by winning a rigged bid that no one else but CEE could have possibly won.
The Kansas City School District threw a monkey wrench into Nicastro's scheme by making big enough improvements under the state's scoring system that the district should have been moved from unaccredited to provisionally accredited, but she made sure that did not happen.
According to the Star article, a plan was already in place to move one of Nicastro's old superintendent buddies, Norm Ridder of Springfield, into a new position as a superintendent over failing school districts. Ridder announced his retirement from the Springfield school system about the time the plan was drafted.
Nicastro's attitude was spelled out perfectly in this passage from the Star article:
In an internal email Aug. 21 regarding media interview requests for (CEE Head Ethan Gray, Nicastro wanted him to tread carefully around the question of charter schools.
“He needs to know to take a ‘middle of the road’ and/or neutral position on charters,” she wrote. “Charters are fine as part of the solution; they are here and not going away. They must be high quality. They will try to paint them as the outsiders, funded with private money, determined to privatize all public education, yada yada.”
“He needs to know to take a ‘middle of the road’ and/or neutral position on charters,” she wrote. “Charters are fine as part of the solution; they are here and not going away. They must be high quality. They will try to paint them as the outsiders, funded with private money, determined to privatize all public education, yada yada.”
No, Ms. Nicastro, it is not CEE that will be painted with that picture; that was done long ago.
You are the one who has shown, with your swooning infatuation with people like Rex Sinquefield, Bill and Melinda Gates, and the upper crust foundations from Kansas City, that you are determined to privatize all public education.
Having someone with so little regard for public education and such a penchant for underhanded behavior in charge of our state's education is a disgrace.
It's time for Chris Nicastro to hit the road.
(CORRECTION Since writing this post, I discovered that Chris Nicastro is appointed by the State Board of Education and not by Gov. Nixon, which does explain some other things I have been hearing, but which I will not go into at this time. My apologies to Jay Nixon. It also means that I will have to buy hats for everyone on the State Board of Education.)
(CORRECTION Since writing this post, I discovered that Chris Nicastro is appointed by the State Board of Education and not by Gov. Nixon, which does explain some other things I have been hearing, but which I will not go into at this time. My apologies to Jay Nixon. It also means that I will have to buy hats for everyone on the State Board of Education.)
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5 comments:
This Kansas City teacher thanks you. I'll gladly make a donation to your hat fund.
Thanks for your blog on this issue... We are rallying tonight with AFT-Local, KCPS members, parents, students and our faith community. 5:15-6:00PM 13th/ Grand in KC if anyone else in this area is reading. Just for the record, our organization is Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity "MORE-squared" but it's hard to make an exponent on a key board. ~Lora McDonald
You may wish to take a look at Mayor James new education director and her ties to Kauffman Foundation and who is paying her salary of over $175K. The foundations have decided to ignore the legacy of Mr. Kauffman and destroy public education.
What are Nicastro's views of the Gulen (Hizmet) schools? Readers that have never heard of Gulen schools should examine the CBS 60 Minutes, New York Times and Philadelphia Inquirer coverage of Gulen schools. In Missouri, they call themselves Concept Schools. Does she want Normandy, Riverview Gardens and KC students to all go to Gulen schools? Missouri already has several Gulen/Concept/Hizmet schools.
Mayor James' Ed. person's salary is reportedly 75K per year and she does in fact come from Kauffman...but so did Dr. Green and many other great folks in the community. Nonetheless, we are very interested in learning more about this newly created Kauffman funded Kauffman alumni seat in our mayor's office.
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