There are plenty of press releases on the Web of U.S. school boards espousing glowing praise for IB and voting to spend untold millions of taxpayer money. The purpose of this section is not to replicate the rhetoric and unwise decisions, but rather to feature press releases and Trustee opinions opposing IB. This will be a section Under Construction. TAIB hopes to be able to provide numerous cites for parents seeking to prevent IB from entering their districts to use as resources.
Meet Mort
As a longtime participant in the Washington Post's online forum moderated by Jay Mathews, I had frequent interaction with another poster by the name of researcher2 (we'll call her R2 for short). Now R2 and I don't see eye to eye politically on just about everything. The one thing she and I did agree on is that IB costs a lot of money.
Recently, R2 mentioned she was trying to get information on the IB expansion taking place at the Middle School level in the Alexandria, Virginia district, which led to her mentioning controversy surrounding Sherman. Apparently R2 had tried to get Jay Mathews to bite on this story, but he blew it off because of some vague excuse that he mostly deals with national issues. Perhaps if we dig deep enough, we will find that the consultant happy Dr. Sherman hired Mathews in to speak at some point in time. It wouldn't surprise me in the least.
The reason I am putting this article under School Boards should be obvious. This man would never have had a job in no less than five school districts in four states in 20 years, if it wasn't for a series of school boards agreeing to hire him. Alexandria appears to be a very Liberal district with a high poverty rate. I can't muster a whole lot of sympathy for a district that subscribes to Progressive ideology. They've landed themselves a penultimate Progressive with Morty. One with legal complaints against him, and all.
HERE is Mort's resume' pre-Alexandria. Let's take a Google trip down memory lane, back to the early days of Mort's sterling career.
Going back to Mort's very first stint as a Superintendent, we find that two complainants argued that Dr. Sherman:
By letter dated December 13, 1991 and filed on December 16, 1991, the complainants appealed to the Commission and alleged that the respondents denied their requests to examine Docket #FIC 91-391the requested records.The complainants also alleged that the respondents' requirement that the complainants put their request in writing violated the Freedom of Information ("FOI") Act.In addition, the complainants asked the Commission to impose civil penalties against the respondents.
Oh, now see that's not good. Trying to withhold public information right off the bat. Strike One. So then, Morty moves on to New York to the South Orangeburg district where he gets another Commissioner's Appeal filed against him:
Now this one is even dicier, because while the Commissioner gives Sherman a mild tongue lashing, nothing of consequence results from the decision. Sherman had authorized a contract of $565,000 over three years, to a company called Cimple, without getting his Board's approval. Here is the summary of the decision:
Although I am constrained to dismiss the Cimple contract claim as untimely, I am deeply disturbed that a contract in excess of one-half million dollars was signed without review by the district's attorney and apparently without formal authorization by the board, that the district contracted to pay a pre-performance installment of $195,000, approximately 35% of the entire contract, with no justification for such advance payment provided in the record, and that such fiscal practices were justified by the board on the basis of a purported need to put these services in place as soon as possible.
Although respondents assert that Dr. Sherman was authorized to "sign" the contract on the board's behalf, respondents provide no evidence of such authority or the means by which such authority was delegated to Dr. Sherman.
Respondents also provide no proof that the board actually performed its duty to evaluate the three proposals and determined that the Cimple proposal would be in the taxpayers' best interests, as required by General Municipal Law §104-b, prior to execution of the contract. Respondents similarly provide no evidence that the board or superintendent conducted sufficient inquiry to assure that Cimple was capable of performing the contract (Appeal of Brau Bus Corporation, 22 Ed Dept Rep 76, Decision No. 10,886). In addition, although respondents assert that the board was aware of Dr. Sherman's negotiations with Cimple, they provide as purported proof of such knowledge only one set of minutes dated two months prior to execution of the Cimple contract, which contain a recommendation to award the contract to another party, and admit that the district's attorney did not review the contract prior to execution. Respondents further provide no explanation of or justification for the very large advance payment prior to any performance of the contract.
I am encouraged by Dr. Kolk's acknowledgement that the board has subsequently reviewed its procedures to ensure that in the future the district's attorney reviews contract documents before execution, that such large payments are not made before services are provided, that specific board approval is obtained for contracts involving a large amount of money, and that the district is not subjected to avoidable financial risk such as occurred with the Cimple contract. I urge respondent board to review its internal policies and procedures, as required by General Municipal Law §104-b, to ensure that all procurements made without public bidding are made in a manner to assure the most prudent and economical use of public moneys.
Strike Two. But Mort has just begun his journey of Progressive corruption and destruction. Next, Mort is off to Cherry Hill, New Jersey, a lovely, upscale district which Mort decides will benefit tremendously from IB. Here he wastes the taxpayers money on outrageous consultant fees for his long time pals and embroils the community and staff in an IB battle that really received very little press at the time. We have a couple of articles about Cherry Hill HERE. So it's out of Cherry Hill to nearby Tenafly. Very little info can be found on Mort's stay in Tenafly from 2005 to 2008 but that sure sounds like a non-contract renewal to me.
So it's off to Alexandria, Virginia, where they welcome him with open arms and they are just so impressed with his celebrity association with the Goldie Hawn Foundation. But it looks like Mort was perfecting his old tricks as he ramped up those "consultant" fees and somehow lost the ability to communicate with the community. One local blogger ran a great series of articles on Mort:
Mega kudos to virginia.watchdog.org for those articles!
Suffice it to say that Sherman's highest paid consultants are both far-left ideologues, one of whom was an Obama consideration for Secretary of Education. Sherman's ties with these people go way back, four decades in one case. This is crony socialism at its finest.
I hope everyone remembers this man's name and face, because he may be one of the finalists in YOUR district in the near future. Old Progressives don't retire. They just collect pensions from as many states as possible. Mort - from the Latin morte meaning 'death'. Why would any mother name their child Mort?
Manchester School Board opts to not participate in Washtenaw International High School Consortium
THE VOTE:7-0 to not be a participant district in the Washtenaw International High School.
(received from Debra Niwa, author of IB Unraveled)
Peoria Unified School District #11 – Glendale, AZ
Governing Board Meeting October 14, 2010
Agenda Item 15-K - Consideration of reauthorization of the International Baccalaureate Program at Ironwood H.S.
Comments made by Governing Board Member Diane Douglas in opposition to continuation of IB Program in PUSD.
I don’t think it is any secret that I am a huge proponent of school choice and educational options for all children.I have supported and encouraged efforts to have this district move away from “one size fits all” education and provide different programs and magnet school opportunities to meet the varying needs of all our students.However, this is one program, one option to which I am vehemently opposed.
I could talk about the fact that, with the IB program, we, as the elected representatives of this community, are relinquishing our local control to an international organization – not just our own federal government but rather to an international organization; that the IB teaches how to “think about” Science and Math more so than how to DO Science and Math; that we have no real control over the curriculum and testing and that IB tests are sent all over the world for evaluating and grading; that the IB is an expensive program for the district and our families – more so than A/P. And all that bothers me but not so much as the goals and mission of the program itself
I believe, as elected officials, responsible for the oversight of a public school system in the AMERICAN education system, our duty is to educate our students to be productive, well-educated AMERICAN citizens.
IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization) and UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) – websites state IB is an “International System of Education.”IBO says its curriculum is "the best possible" because IB teaches the beliefs and values of the UN as defined in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR]. These are the rights recognized or “granted” by the United Nations – not the God given rights recognized in our Declaration of Independence and protected under our United States Constitution.
From page ix of Implementing the IB Diploma “The IBO is an independent organization unfettered by individual national demands.” The IB Program has a separate Governing Board.THIS Governing Board, elected to represent this community, gives up our local control over the curriculum and grading with this agreement.And I see that our board packet doesn’t include the contract – the terms and conditions to which we are agreeing – exactly what authority we are relinquishing.
The IB's goal to advance global governance and promote world citizenship over U.S. citizenship is made very clear by the words of its directors. "International Baccalaureate school curriculum remains committed to changing children's values so they think globally, rather than in parochial national terms from their own country's viewpoint", stated retired IB director-general George Walker.
The IB program doesn’t want to teach our children HOW to think but rather WHAT to think.
When Government, especially a “world government” as the United Nations envisions, becomes the grantor rather than the guarantor of rights then we are all in danger of losing our God given rights as American citizens.That is what the IB program and the United Nations would have us teach our children.
If our community’s goal is for us to take their best and brightest children and turn them against the greatest country on earth – the one that has brought more freedom and greater economic prosperity to our own citizens and others throughout the world – then we should vote to continue the IB program in PUSD.But I don’t believe that is what our community expects of this Governing Board.I believe they would have us be knowledgeable about and protect their children from such programs.
In my opinion, the International Baccalaureate program should have NO place in the AMERICAN education system.I believe that continuing this program is a breech of the oath of office each one of us swore upon taking our positions as members of this Governing Board that is - to support and bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of the United States.I will vote “NO” to continuing this program.
