Congratulations, America!   What a way to introduce Sunshine Week, March 14-20!  The check
register rosters are now updated, and at least 810 school districts in the United States are posting their
check registers online.  Given that when we started this grassroots movement in October 2006 it
consisted of all of a few names in a few states--back when the list was more roots than grass--our great
nation's embrace of school district transparency in just over three years is encouraging:  At least 36
states have at least one district posting, including all of Alabama and Delaware; Miami, the nation's 4th
largest district whose budget is larger than that of all Iowa public schools, is online as are the two largest
here in Texas, Houston and Dallas.  With 408 districts participating, Texas still has the greatest number
of school district check registers online, and more than the other 49 states combined.
                                             Peyton

Yesterday TEA offered some facts in the form of a press release (below); hopefully Fox
will want to read them.In the interests of fair and balanced reporting:
Texas Education Agency, Austin
?  Last night they even labeled
SBOE member Pat Hardy of
Weatherford as "Pat Henry."
What's so surprising is that on so many issues Fox News has been a lone beacon offering fair and balanced news and in many
cases the only national coverage at all, as with last year's Tea Party movement.  And remember the study earlier this year showing
with hard facts -- not just your daddy's opinions -- that the major networks gave President Obama more flattering early-on coverage
than they gave Presidents Reagan, Clinton and George W. Bush, all of whom received roughly three times more bad press than
good from those same broadcast networks.  

This episode with the Texas State Board highlights the general lack of investigative reporting in public education by news outlets,
driven as they are by the need for those rock 'em/sock 'em 20-second sound bytes.  For example, look at the reporting of last
night's historic vote by the Kansas City, Missouri school board to close half of their schools.  Is anyone going to mention detailed
coverage of their decades of court-mandated Spend-O-Rama practices.  Things do not occur in a vacuum.  Seldom if ever does an
event spring from nowhere.  
Here's this morning's Kansas City Star's lead photo (above)
and its caption today:  "After the meeting ended, Christine
Taylor-Butler (left), a district parent, gives Nancy Haynes, a
teacher at Faxon Montessori, a hug. Faxon's program will no
longer exist, as the students will be split into two different
schools and other students will move into the building. In a
5-4 split, the Kansas City School Board voted to approve the
largest school closing in the district's history. The Right-sizing
plan, recommended by Superintendent of Schools John
Covington Wednesday, Mar. 10, 2010, at the Board of
Education Building in Kansas City, resulted in the closure of
26 district schools. JILL TOYOSHIBA/The Kansas City Star."
WHO'S ATTENDING
YOUR SCHOOL
BOARD MEETINGS?
Follow the money
in our vendor-driven
schools:  
15 vendors & special
interests to look for at
your next board meeting.
P E Y T O N   W O L C O T T

How we take back our children's education:
one person, one question,
one school at a time.
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ATTENTION EDUCATORS AND ADMINISTRATORS:
Every attempt possible has been made to verify all sources and information.   In the event you feel an error has been made, please contact us immediately.  Thank you.
NOTICE: All individuals mentioned on this site are presumed innocent unless they have been found guilty in a court of law.
Copyright 1999-2010 Peyton Wolcott

"Walk softly
and carry a big stick."
-- Teddy Roosevelt

"Trust but verify."
-- Ronald Reagan
Just because you can
doesn't mean you should.
H o w   w e   t a k e   b a c k   o u r   c h i l d r e n ' s    e d u c a t i o n :    o n e   p e r s o n ,  o n e   q u e s t i o n ,   o n e   s c h o o l   a t   a   t i m e .
PEYTON WOLCOTT'S
6 SIMPLE
SUGGESTIONS
FOR SCHOOL
SUPERINTENDENT
S: How you can rebuild
public trust and save at
least $75 per student
this next year.

1.  End discretionary
spending.
Set an example for your
staff; let them know you
mean business about running
a tighter ship:  No trips, no
conferences, no meals, no
credit cards.  If you want to
learn more about something,
use Google.  Do a webinar.  
Read a newsletter.   No golf
games with vendors, ever.  
No chauffeurs, no rental
cars.  Stay home, do your
work and keep your nose
clean.

2.  Reduce administrative
costs.
Go through your
administrative staff roster
and cut every other job,
starting with getting rid of all
PR and marketing.  No
advisors, no consultants.
Learn how to really read a
budget.  Put your check
register and all wire transfers
online.

3.  Ethics.
No nepotism.  Let your wife
and kids earn a living in a
field other than education.  
No board members' spouses
working in the district.  
Conduct all discussions with
vendors and potential
vendors in the open; invite
your public to watch and ask
questions.  Throw away
your contract and work year
by year.  Move your chair
off the dais at board
meetings.  You're not a team
member with your elected
trustees.  You're not equal to
them.  They're your boss.

4.  No construction.  
If you're the rare district
truly experiencing sufficient
growth to justify building
new schools, splinter off that
population and let them start
their own new school district
or charter school.  They
might be able to take over an
abandoned church or office
building for much less than
the Taj Mahal you had in
mind.

5.  Back-to-basics
curriculum.
Math table (1st grade: add,
2nd grade: subtract, 3rd
grade multiply, 4th grade
divide) daily drill.  You made
sure your own kids learned
the basics at home or with
tutors; why shouldn't all
children have that same
opportunity?  Ditto for
phonics.  Classical literature.  
History, not social studies.  
No more block scheduling.  
Daily P.E. for all. Emphasize
individual effort and
accomplishment.

6.  Attitude.  
You're a public servant, not a
Third World dictator.
Practice humility and
gratitude.  Remember when
your employees laugh at
your jokes or tell you you're
cool or vendors marvel at
your every utterance that
they're all sucking up to you.
 Remember why you got into
education to begin with.  Sell
your house in the gated
community and buy one in
the middle of a real
subdivision like your average
parents and taxpayers can
afford.  Let yourself be
driven not by the latest
platitude you picked up at the
latest education conference
but by the same wonderful
noble desire to educate kids
that got you into this field.
Terms & Conditions:  
Sorry to have to include this;
 some groups--God bless
them--have copied my
research and published
it as their own.
Robin Hood & 22 'equity'
failures: MALDEF's 22
Edgewood districts cost
Texans billions in failed
academics & extravagance.
How to persuade your
district: Friendly works
best-- take the Golden Rule
with you when asking your
schools to post checks.  
Testimonials:  issues &
concerns solved.
Welcome, America -- glad you're
finding this no-ads website useful!  
#1 on Google & Yahoo of
256,000,000!
Texas Hill Country - Mesquite and Wildflowers
Boerne
WELCOME, Washington
state! Public school
checks now online in 34
states, 600+ school
districts, in 3 years!
05.29.09
Questions reporters
& others ask most:

Q1:   When did this grass-
roots check register
project start, and why?
A1:  We compiled the first
national roster on October
1, 2009.  There were
several precipitating
incidents, including this; it
was clear that
administrators, lobbyists
and vendors didn't like
public records requests.

Q2:  How many school
districts are now online
in how many states?  
A2:  As of March 2010
there are over 800 in 36
states.  

Q3:  How quickly has this
grown?
A3:  When we first started
asking districts to
voluntarily post, there
were only a handful in a
handful of states posting.  

Q4:  How can I find out if
my district is online? Are
any in my state online?
A4:  You can look them up
on these rosters:
o  Alabama
o  Alaska-Louisiana
o  Maine-Tennessee
o  Texas
o  Texas financials
o  Utah-Wyoming

Q5:  How do I make my
district put its checks
online?
A5:   Unless we're
dictators we can't make
anybody do anything -- but
we can persuade.  Here
are some easy to follow
directions based on
treating your schools as
you'd like them to treat
you.  (The Golden Rule
really does work.)  Just
like in baking or anything
else involving special
skills or plans, the steps
we've found that work are
successful 100% of the
time when followed as
scripted; as with making
pastry, shortcuts lead to
failure.

Q6:  Why don't you just
pass a law?
Q6:  Have you ever tried
getting a law passed?  As
the Texas Public Policy
Foundation and similar
groups elsewhere have
learned, the folks who
stand to benefit the least
from public ed financial
transparency are a very
active lobbying force,
especially in larger states
where more money is
involved in public
education.  (With just 17
school districts, only
Delaware has a state law
requiring schools to post
their checks online.)
Fox News mention
Texas Education
Service Centers
posting check
registers
Most of Texas' 20
Regional Education
Service Centers are
now posting their
check registers online.
Hats off to the
following:
Region 10 - Richardson
Choose your month here:
www.region10.org/administrators/C
heckRegisterPosting.html
Region 8 - Mt. Pleasant
Choose a month here:
www.reg8.net/default.aspx?name=a
dmin.checkregister
CONSERVATIVE:  ABOUT     EMAIL      ARCHIVES       FOLLOW THE MONEY       NATIONALIZATION        INTERNAL CONTROLS         PR FOR THE ANGRY & THE POSITIVE         STATES         SCHOOL DISTRICTS
Public Ed Commentary
Here they are: the
updated US rosters!


  • Beyond FOIA:  Why it's
    more effective to
    persuade your local
    school district than to
    demand; why it's better
    for schools to post on
    their sites than for you
    to FOIA check registers
    then put them on your
    private or 501c website.

  • Is 'equity' equitable?  
    More about MALDEF &
    Robin Hood

  • Printable flyer to share
    with your board; print at
    100%. Testimonials
    from school leaders
    who have already
    successfully posted
    their districts' checks
    online countering all
    usual opposition points
    (cost, technology, etc.).

  • Special interests in your
    district and at your
    board meetings:  Do
    you know who they are
    and what they have to
    do with spending?

  • If there was a major
    precipitating incident
    behind the check
    registers, this was it.
CHECK REGISTERS
Are your district's checks on their website?
If not, why not? More than 810 are, in 36
states, in just 3 years. Simple how-to.here
works 100% of the time--if no shortcuts.
Friday
March 12, 2010
Click here for Lou Gerstner's Let's nationalize
our schools, Mr. Obama WSJ manifesto
ED PHOTO OF THE WEEK:
2 PRESIDENTIAL
TELEPROMPTERS IN  
ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
CLASSROOM (VA)
President Barack Obama,
accompanied by Education
Secretary Arne Duncan, speaks
to the media after a discussion
with 6th grade students at
Graham Road Elementary School
in Falls Church (VA), Tuesday,
Jan. 19, 2010. (AP)
Only Texas -- thanks to Governor
Rick Perry, Education
Commissioner Robert Scott, and
our State Board of Education -- all
supported by those who cherish
individual freedoms and local
control of our school districts -- has
had the courage among the 50
states to stand firm against the
power grab by the United States
Department of Education, the
school equivalent of what Mr.
Obama's crew is trying to do with
healthcare.  As with healthcare,
Race to the Top's national
curriculum standards have less to
do with education and more to do
with being a vehicle for increasing
federal control.
Bringing you the information and tools you need in order to improve public education and lower taxes and spending; during the past two decades of the voucher debate an entire generation has grown up in the public school system.  
If you don't think this is important look at the Nov. 2008 election where folks voted based on emotions and hope rather than facts.  Let's put a stop to the school-to-prison pipeline -- and keep our public schools locally run, strong and free..
Region 7 -  Kilgore
Public Information
www.esc7.net/default.aspx?n
ame=pub_info
P.S.  Here are some of the leaders in U.S. school district check register transparency; you can find out
more about them by going to each of the state links--that's Texas Gov. RickPerry and  Commissioner
of Education Robert Scott at top left.  
For names, right click on images, choose "Properties."
Updated Wednesday, March 3, 2010 / 8:33 a.m
Quick:  You've got 20 seconds to tell us about
the Kansas City closings, the Texas SBOE and
the feds' race to nationalize our schools -- and
don't leave anything out
By Peyton Wolcott
Thursday, March 11, 2010 / 12:07 a.m. - Updated Thursday, March 11, 2010 / 8:01 a.m.

The misreporting earlier this week of the current social studies curriculum
standards cycle in Texas' elected State Board of Education's textbook
adoption process by Fox News (and every other network) highlights the fact
that such reporting is from the news business, not from the news hobby.  
And the TV news business is driven by 20-second sound bytes which feed
the stream of fast food, erectile dysfunction and other ads.  

The need for speed results in an emphasis is on the easy quick hit, the
emotional 'human' aspects of stories -- at the expense of facts.  For example,
the Kansas City Star's coverage of last night's Kansas City, Missouri school
board vote to close half of their schools focuses on a sense of loss as with the
photo at right.  Fox this morning hasn't yet mentioned that it was Judge
Russell Clark who ordered Kansas City taxpayers in 1985 to open their wallets
to the schools and let the schools take as much as they wanted.  Predic.  
Texas Education Agency
Press Release / March 10, 2010

Fox inaccurately reporting State Board of Education action

AUSTIN – AUSTIN – The Fox Network in recent days has repeatedly broadcast highly
inaccurate information about the State Board of Education’s efforts to adopt the new social
studies curriculum standards.

Here are the facts. The direct quotes come from the March 10 broadcast of Fox & Friends.

Fox: “Texas board of education begins hearings today on proposed changes to textbooks…”
The truth: The State Board of Education today is expected to take a preliminary vote on updated social studies curriculum
standards. The standards detail what teachers are to teach in each class. New social studies textbooks are not scheduled to
be selected until 2011.

Fox: “So one of the proposed changes is to start history class in the year 1877.”
The truth: Texas has and always will teach U.S. History from the beginning until present day. U.S. History through
Reconstruction is taught in the eighth grade and those standards can be found in the middle school standards, which are
called Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS). Here is a link to the middle school standards: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.
us/teks/social/MS_TEKS_amended.pdf. U.S. History since 1877 is taught in 11th grade.

Fox: Abraham Lincoln and George Washington have been removed from the textbooks.
The truth: The standards, not textbook, are before the board this week. Lincoln is required to be included in the first and
eighth grade history classes, as well as in the U.S. government class. Washington is required to be taught in kindergarten, first
grade, fifth grade and eighth grade. Here is a link to a document detailing those historical figures, including Lincoln and
Washington, who are required to be taught as part of the standards: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.
us/teks/social/AlphabetizedList_including.pdf. There is another list of individuals who are suggested for inclusion and it can be
found here: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/teks/social/AlphabetizedList_such_as.pdf. Additional modifications are still possible to
both lists as the board debates the standards during its March and May meeting.

Fox: Independence Day and Veteran’s Day are being deleted from the textbooks.
The truth: Again, the new history textbooks have not been written yet but they will be based on the curriculum standards
adopted by the board. The standards currently under consideration cover Independence Day in kindergarten, second and
fifth grades. Veteran’s Day is included in kindergarten, first, second and fifth grades.

Fox: References to Christmas have been deleted.

The truth: A TEKS review committee briefly recommended removing Christmas from a list that mentioned one major holiday
for each of the world’s religions. The committee recommended leaving Easter in the document. The State Board immediately
rejected this idea and a reference to Christmas was restored in the standards months ago and can be found in sixth grade in
standard 19(b).

Fox: Textbooks adopted in Texas will be used classrooms across the country.
The truth: Each state has its own textbook selection process. Publishers may offer other states the Texas edition of a book
but they are not required to select it.

Citizens can read the standards for themselves at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/index2.aspx?id=3643. A live webcast of the
meeting, which begins at 11 a.m. today, can be viewed at http://www.texasadmin.com/cgi-bin/tea.cgi.
Fox and Friends
BEYOND SOUND BYTES & HEADLINES
The myth of the 'experts':  Why it's important that elected State
Board of Education members approve curriculum standards in Texas
By Peyton Wolcott
Friday - March 12, 2010 / 8:47 a.m. - Updated 4:33 p.m.
SBOE member Mary Helen Berlanga (left) of Corpus
Christi chats with the press in the Texas Education Agency
lobby after her "in a huff" exit from the still-ongoing SBOE
meeting; that's Fox News' Peter Doocy at far right.
Why was SBOE member Pat Hardy,
a social studies consultant at  
Weatherford ISD who recently ran
for reelection to the State Board of
Education in the Republican
primary, spending so much time
conferring with Dan Quinn (right),
of the Texas Freedom Network?  
TFN calls itself "a mainstream voice
to counter the religious right" -- but
is it?  Dan turned down a previous
request for information regarding
the source(s) of TFN's monies; we
note that Linebarger Goggan
founder, attorney Dale Linebarger,
occupies the post of treasurer on
TFN's board of directors.
Oh, this is interesting.  GuideStar, based on the Form 990 Texas Freedom
Network Education Fund filed with the Internal Revenue Service, categorizes
TFNEF as: Civil Rights, Social Action, Advocacy / (Civil Liberties
Advocacy).   Does that sound "mainstream" to you?
Before we get into whether or not the Texas elected State Board of Education members should or should not blindly follow the dictates of academics, here are two panoramic
views of the SBOE board room last night, the first at approximately 8:30 p.m.; at a time when matters of great importance were being decided on the board's preliminary pass
through the social studies curriculum standards adoption process, very few people were in the room.  Absent from the meeting entirely by then were board members Rene
Nunez and Mary Helen Berlanga; absent often was Laurence Allen.
Starting at left: Texas
Education staffers (below)
providing back-up for the
meeting.  SBOE members
Bob Craig and Geraldine
'Tincy' Miller stand for a
moment.  Mavis Knight (in
pink hat) returns to her seat.
At right rear, empty chairs of SBOE members
Rene Nunez and Mary Helen Berlanga.
Above, SBOE members Don
McLeroy and Barbara Cargill.
The SBOE board room at about 5:30 on Thursday,
March 11, 2010.  That's the board in the large burgundy
wing-back swivels in the center of the room; at far left
is the TEA backup (general counsel David Anderson
and the parliamentarian against the rear wall.  To the
left of the door to the SBOE break room (to the left of
the American flag) are the TEA staffers taking minutes
and providing other support.  To their immediate right is
general seating, often reserved for testifiers.
Below, the press table.  To the right of the
camera is Fox's Brian Wilson; Dallas Morning
News' Terrence Stutz (grey hair) sits in the
middle, and at far right is TEA communications
director Debbie Ratcliffe, a former reporter.
A few hours earlier, about 5:30 p.m.:
The audience had mostly left; the only folks occupying the empty
folding chairs in the center were Jonathan Saenz of the Liberty
Institute, Texas Eagle Forum's MerryLynn Gerstenschlager, and me.
The right side of the room was also
spotty; Texas Freedom Network's Dan
Quinn (below) anchored a spot to the
right of the entrance and the blue
recycling bin; the arm to his right
belongs to TFN executive director
Kathy Miller.
Above, SBOE
member Mavis Night
hurries back to her
seat.
8:30 p.m.:
After the last gavel, just before 10 pm, from left:  SBOE members Don McLeroy, Terri Leo and Barbara Cargill with SBOE chair Gail Lowe.  Middle, SBOE member Ken Mercer with
MerryLynn Gerstenchlager of the Texas Eagle Forum.  To their right, Liberty Institute's Jonathan Saenz.  At far right, the night in 2007 when I met Jonathan; it was very late at the Texas
Senate; the folks at Texas Public Policy Foundation had given up on their check register bill and gone home to celebrate the holiay weekend -- but not Jonathan and Houston
constitutional lawyer Kelly Coghlan (at far right with Jonathan) the night they persisted in getting HB 3678 passed; the School Children's Religious Liberties Act, also known as the
Religious Viewpoints Antidiscrimination Act which guarantees that Texas public schoolchildren can pray at school if they wish.  Kelly had worked on this legislation for the prior twelve
years; I learned a lot that night about the importance of only doing what we believe in so much that we are willing to persist, no matter what.

Developing . . . . more coming . . . .