Scott Isn't Increasing Education Budget.

If you're following the story in the news, you might believe that Governor Rick Scott is increasing the education budget by a whopping one billion dollars.  And there's a reason you might believe that; it's what The Miami Herald is reporting:

TALLAHASSEE -- Gov. Rick Scott opened the annual legislative session Tuesday with a State of the State address punctuated by a vow to not sign a new budget unless it increases school spending by $1 billion next year.

But in fact, he's not increasing spending.  He's only restoring most - but not all - of the money he cut away from the education budget last year.  And in fact, The Herald does include this information, but sort of blows past it as it re-affirms the fictional increase:

Scott last spring signed a budget that cut school spending by $1.3 billion. But in a series of meetings with parents across the state, he said they resoundingly favored more money for schools...

Are you doing the math?  Just in case you can't slip your shoes off to count your toes, if the legislature gives Scott what he wants, he will have reduced the education budget by 300 million dollars since he's taken office.

The Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel did a better job of reporting the matter:

With anti-Scott protestors crowding the Capitol halls, the Republican governor used his 34-minute State of the State speech to a joint session of the Legislature to reiterate his demand that lawmakers boost classroom spending by roughly $1 billion – after cutting $1.35 billion last year.

Makes it a little easier to see the chicanery in action, doesn't it?  And look, they didn't round down an additional $50 million like The Herald did.

The bottom line is that Rick Scott is spending $350 million less on education than his predecessor did.

And how is Governor Scott getting this $1 billion dollars, since he's slashed taxes and other sources of revenue  in order to give tax breaks to corporations and a thousand or so of the wealthiest Floridians?

He's taking it from the poor.

Scott's budget calls for cutting $1.9 billion from the $21 billion Medicaid program that treats nearly 3 million poor, sick and elderly.

I guess the ran the company that committed the largest Medicare fraud in history figures that if you're poor, sick, and dying, what's a little more pain and suffering matter?  Or perhaps this is a clever attempt to lower the unemployment rate; dead people don't show up as unemployed!

Nah, I'm sure that's just a happily opportunistic coincidence.

At least some Democrats are paying attention:

"To say we're adding money is disingenuous," said Senate Minority Leader Nan Rich, a Weston Democrat who complained cutting health care to fund schools was a bait-and-switch. "The same people are ending up paying the cost of what he's asking for."   - The Sun-Sentinel

So under Rick Scott's plan, Dick and Jane might still be able to go to school, but Mom and Dad might be too sick to help them with their homework, and might even die. 

Maybe then Dick and Jane can get into foster care!  They might not be among the thousands of children who are abused and neglected, and there hasn't been a case of foster parents killing their wards in months!

Oh, wait, Govenor Scott gutted THAT agency, too.  He fired 14% of the DCF workforce in order to create more jobs.  So how is an agency that was already overwhelmed supposed to improve?

“I believe in the protective power and prayer and hope,” Governor Rick Scott’s Department of Children and Families Secretary David Wilkins said at a stop in Miami last week. - CBS4 Miami

Dick and Jane are so boned.

And we have Frank Paruas to thank.

Loveland High School: Unwarranted Intrusion

If you want to find an example of unwarranted government intrusion, you need look no farther than Loveland, Ohio's high school.

Dozens of teens, including many honor students, were reprimanded this week for wearing yoga pants to Loveland High School.
- WLWT news

The school's dress code, in regards to girl's clothing, simply states that "revealing clothing" is prohibited, and students are not permitted to wear clothing that is "deemed to be distracting."

The school district's dress code is worthless.  It's vague beyond any standard of reason, and only a pinhead would use this poorly constructed mess to punish students.  There's nothing defining "revealing" or "distracting."  By some standards, showing a women's face is "revealing," and wearing anything with color could be "distracting."

Just so you understand the issue in its entirety,
here's an example of yoga pants:

Yoga is about range of motion, and these pants are stretchy, to allow freedom of movement.  But they're not really all that tight and clingy.  They're just really comfortable.

What they are not is particularly revealing;they are loose, and are always fairly flared.

Compare them to current trends in blue jeans, which are permitted:


And certainly they show a lot less than the average skirt:




Personally, I am not opposed to school uniforms; it ends all the ambiguity.  Everyone knows what's acceptable, and it ensures that no one can arbitrarily decide that a fashion they don't approve of is verboten on a moment's whim.

But there is no uniform code.  In that case, a reasonable set of guidelines should be provided. It wasn't.

It's ludicrous that students were suspended for violating a set of rules that don't actually determine anything measurable. These suspensions should be reversed, and whoever approved them should be reviewed for competence, because this action sure doesn't indicate its presence.

Whatever idiot decided that yoga pants are an issue is disrupting the process of education far more than a pair of pants ever could.

Why Johnny Can't Read

Forget everything you've read previously. The real reason Johnny can't read? Because his parents think watching the Superbowl is more important than his education, and schools agree. From a WTAE 4 story:

Classes in the Pittsburgh Public Schools will be pushed back from the normal start time on Monday. The district is hoping to reduce absenteeism after Super Bowl XVIII on Sunday night.

That's right kiddies; forget about responsibility. Showing up on time? Totally unnecessary! Stay up late, stay out, party 'till the cows come home! Deadlines? Why, that's so 20th century!

Remind me to avoid hiring people from Pittsburgh; there's no guarantee they'll show up.

St Lucie County School Board: F-

I've written about Wendy Portillo before. She's the teacher who humiliated a five-year old autistic boy in front of his classmates, back in May 2008.

A month later, I followed up on the story. By this time, we had access to the police report, and it wasn't pretty. According to her statement to police, she told the rest of the class that she would protect them from Alex Barton "like a mother bear defending its cubs."

And what did she report he was doing to warrant this? Throwing crayons and hiding under his desk.

In September, I looked into the story again. And I found Portillo was still employed by the St. Lucie County School District. Basically, they were dragging their feet.

So here it is November, and the St. Lucie County School District has finally taken action in the case: they suspended Portillo for a year, and then she will placed on a yearly contract.

Board members acted on a recommendation by Superintendent of Schools Michael Lannon, who also recommended that Portillo be put on an annual contract -- Portillo had been tenured -- and plans to ask the state Board of Education to revoke her teaching certificate for one year.

That is actually a demotion: Portillo had tenure before traumatizing one of her students.

Lannon wrote Portillo a letter stating that her actions "caused community and, in fact, worldwide outrage and condemnation."

That is true, but what about the damage she did to Alex Barton and his classmates? Does a year suspension and a loss of status make up for the damage she's done?

Lannon cited as mitigating circumstances Portillo's positive evaluations by five different principals during 12 years of teaching in St. Lucie County schools.

That's all well and good. But frankly, that shouldn't count in this at all. What if she had thrown him over her knee and given him a whuppin', or sexually abused Barton? Would we look at past performance to mitigate the damage she's done? I certainly hope not!

Lannon wrote a letter to Portillo, explaining his actions:

"Causing 5- and 6-year-old peers to pass judgment on one of their own, to state the reasons for their 'vote' and then to act on the outcome is a true failure to apply professional judgment at best," Lannon wrote. "Very often we, as teachers, provide the safest and most protective environment many children have. We cannot abandon that duty."

Of course, Portillo is completely unrepentant, and her lawyer informed the school board that they intend to contest the recommendation with the Division of Adminstrative Hearings.

Alex Barton has never returned to school; he is now in a home-schooling program. While I normally have nothing against home-schooling, it's not conducive to helping a child with mild autism learn to cope with the world. His mother certainly isn't satisfied:

"This woman needs to be fired," she said. "There is no reason for someone with that mentality to be around children. I think nothing less than her being terminated needs to happen."

The Bartons have informed the School District that they intend to file suit against the district, and legal experts generally concur that the case has merit.

According to TCPalm:

Jack Scott, director of the Florida Atlantic University Center for Autism and Related Disabilities, called the board’s action “a slap on the wrist.”

Scott said the board’s action shows the system dealing with students’ rights is not strong. There might be an undue concern for teachers’ employment rights, he said.

The sad part is that School District has not only failed Alex, but it's continuing to fail its students:

Port St. Lucie autistic student's parents say son abused at Oak Hammock K-8

The parents of an autistic boy claim in a lawsuit filed this week against the St. Lucie County School District their then-7-year-old was battered and abused by his behavior analyst at Oak Hammock K-8.

The St. Lucie County School Board either didn't conduct an investigation or didn't conduct a meaningful or thorough investigation, even though employees knew of the incident, the 18-page complaint says.

St. Lucie County obviously isn't a place to send your kids to school. And with weak-willed adminstrators and school board members, it's unlikely to improve any time soon.

Following up on Wendy Portillo

When Wendy Portillo asked Alex Barton's classmates to pass judgment on the autistic boy, she had no clue that she was unleashing a firestorm. Some would say that she simply had no clue.

Comments made on various websites fell into two large camps, with a minority camp attempting to find a middle ground.

The largest camp: Wendy Portillo should be run out of town on a rail, or at the very least fired and barred from teaching.

The second camp, smaller but vitriolic, claims that the teacher is a hero for taking a stand against the practice of placing autistic and special needs children in with the mainstream population.

The smallest camp holds that we should wait until "all the facts are in." This position is best represented by Anthony Westbury, Associate Editor of TC Palm, the service that broke the story.

"I don't know the answers to any of these questions, and (I suspect) nordo you. Perhaps we should put this witch hunt on hold until we do."

He glosses over the fact that his news room posted enough facts for some conclusions to be drawn. The breaking story reported that the police had confirmed the basic facts in the case: the teacher did stand Alex in front of his classmate, she did ask them to tell him why they didn't like him, she did ask them to vote on whether or not he should stay, and she did honor that vote by sending him to the nurse's office for the rest of the day.

In fact, in the same edition he wrote his editorial, TC Palm not only published a story specifically describing how the central facts of the story were confirmed, they also provided a link to the police report.

“Portillo said she explained to them that the students in class were all her priority and she would protect them like a ‘bear defending her cubs,’” the report said.
-- TC Palm, May 29, 2008

Read that statement again: a kindergarten teacher is telling her class that one of their classmates is something they need to be protected from. She's just declared a student to be of less worth than the body as a whole. She cast him out.

And what activity was young Mr. Barton engaged in that made him a menace to his fellow students?

"Throwing crayons on the floor. Kicking a table. Hiding under desks."
-- TC Palm, June 1, 2008

Remember that Alex Barton is five years old, and that he is developmentally challenged. And Wendy Portillo knew this. She knew that he was undergoing evaluation for autism, and she knew that autistic children are neurologically different than the rest of her students. She was part of the discussions being held to create an education plan for Alex.

Personally, I find it irrelevant that Alex has autism. To me that simply makes it worse. You see, I've been Alex Barton. I was a kid who was on the outside at school. Kids liked picking on me; I was small, and easily upset. It was relentless.

In fourth grade, one of our classmates was Frank Charvet. He was French, and physically larger than the rest of us. He wasn't fat, he was just big. I think he was actually older than the rest of the class, but placed with us because that's the level of English he spoke.

The other kids discovered that Frank was desperate to fit in; he would do anything to fit in. So a group of kids decided that Frank should beat the crap out of me if he wanted to be their friend. They grabbed me at recess and dragged me around the side of the building. Even then there weren't enough teachers to monitor the students.

It wasn't much of a fight: Frank was twice my size. He probably didn't want to beat me up; he didn't punch me or hit me, he tossed me around a little bit, threw me to the ground, and jumped on me. I was scrambling, trying to get out from underneath him, and he sat on my back an pinned me in place. He started bouncing on me, and he was laughing, and the other kids were cheering him on, and I was scared shitless.

So I bit him. It was the only thing I could do. I couldn't lift him, I couldn't hit him( and when I could it didn't hurt him.) So I did the only thing I could I grabbed his leg and bit him has hard as I could.

That got him off of me, and ended the fight.

The bite, of course, required a visit to the nurse, and wasn't something Frank could hide from his parents.

But I was the one who was punished. I was the one who was forced to stand in front of the class. It didn't matter that Frank was twice my size, that I was scraped up and had tears in my clothes. "You shouldn't have bitten Frank," said Mrs. Adkins. When I pointed out that I wa pinned, she only repeated "You should have found another way."

I had to write a letter of apology to Frank and his parents. My mother, told that I either wrote the letter or I got suspended, caved in without much of a fight. Maybe she did fight it, I don't really know. What I do know is that I wrote the fucking letter, and had to face the class, and had listen to that lying piece of shit Frank tell me why I was a bad person.

I will be honest with you; it's colored my perception of the school system in the US, and not in a favorable way. Scarred? You bet I've got scars. And I learned that teachers not only can't be trusted, not only won't help you, but that they will turn against you. I learned that there is no justice available to students. Teachers not only don't know everything, but they usually get it wrong. Thanks, Mrs. Atkins.

And it's why I have no problem sacrificing one Wendy Portillo to save one Alex Barton.

This is why I think that Wendy Portillo should be fired:

• Wendy Portillo taught Alex that the world hates him. Remember, he's five, and he can't see the larger world like you or I. He has just been shown that nearly every one in his world thinks he's disgusting.
• Wendy Portillo taught the rest of her class that you must fear that which is different; and that you deal with developmentally challenged people by passing judgment on them and banishing them from your society so that you don't have to deal with them.
• She had the chance to teach her students about how some people are born different, and that just because they are different doesn't mean that they are bad or evil. Instead, she chose to reinforce ignorance and prejudice.
  

This brings us to the very vocal group of bigots who believe that children who don't match their view of normalcy should be cast out of society and relegated to special institutions where "normal people" won't have to put up with them.

The central question is why anyone would put challenged kids in with typically developed kids; wouldn't they be better off with other challenged kids?

The thing is that autistic kids CAN learn, and they DO learn. Their brains don't make the same connections as you or I, or doesn't make them the same way, but like any human being, they will emulate the examples that surround them. Place an autistic child with typically developed children, and they eventually shape their behavior to reflect the behaviors that they see. Place them with other autistic children, they only become "more" autistic.

And the other reason is that there are a lot of autistic children; one in every 150 children has it.

The exceptionally ignorant argue that the disease is diagnosed in order to excuse poor behavior. The reality is that it's a difficult disease to diagnose even now, and it was harder to identify the farther back you go. The incidence of the disease hasn't climbed; the incidence of diagnosis has. There have always been one in 150 kids suffering the disease. We just didn't know what it was back then, and we did simply write them off as "bad" or "retarded" or "mentally deficient."

Should her school have done more? Possibly. But remember, Morningside Elementary was working on a study program for Alex; it's not like he was just dumped in her class. There were meetings, and consultations with therapists.

We do need to do more to ensure that autistic children can fit into mainstream classrooms without disrupting the education process for the other children. We need to educate our teachers better, and that means paying them more. Teachers shape our future; they should be among the best paid people in a given community. The current pay scales and education processes only ensure that "those who can't do, teach."

Our children deserve better. They deserve teacher who care about all the students.

Wendy Portillo has shown that she does not.

Wendy Portillo: Scum of the Earth (updated 5/27 5:30pm)

Getting along in school can be difficult; kids can be very cruel. Children divide themselves into cliques, and those who don't fit in are the target of verbal and even physical abuse. It's even harder when a child is markedly 'different' in some identifiable manner.

5 year old Alex Bartonis being evaluated for Asperger's Syndrome, a form of autism.

Common symptoms of Asperger's Syndrome include social problems, vulnerability to sensory overload, awkward posture, and a tendency to take many figures of speech literally.

Alex is - or rather was - in Wendy Portillo's kindergarten class at Morningside Elementary School. Like many AS sufferers, he has problems getting along in classroom environments, and often has disciplinary issues. He spends a lot of time in the principal's office. His parents have had many meetings with the principal, and with Ms. Portillo. They were working to create an educational plan to address his difficulties.

That's why what happened to Alex is so shocking. According to the Palm Beach Post:

A 5-year-old kindergartner was "voted out of" his classroom at Morningside Elementary on Wednesday when his teacher asked his classmates to take a vote on whether they wanted him in class, police say.

"The teacher decided to bring him in front of the class and let the other kids tell him what they didn't like about him, kind of ridiculed him," said officer Michelle Steele, spokeswoman for the Port St. Lucie police.

After all his classmates stood and told him why they didn't like him, or why he was a bad person, he was sent to spend the rest of the day in the school nurse's office. That's where he was when his mother came to pick him up after school, and that's when she first heard about Portillo's actions.

Portillo has confirmed these events, but won't comment on them.

Alex has something to say, and he keeps repeating it over and over: "I'm not special, I'm not special, I'm not special..."

His mother says he hasn't been back to school; he starts screaming when they approach the school.

As abhorrent as this clear-cut case of abuse is, it's apparently not actually against the law. Police won't be pursuing charges. And that is criminal.

It's not just that she has scarred a five year old boy for life: it's the lesson that she has taught her other students. She was taught them to be intolerant. She has taught 16 children that the way to deal with people who are different than you is to gang up on them, say terrible things about them, and then drive them out of your society.

5 year old Alex isn't a bad person; he suffers a debilitating disease. Portillo, on the other hand, really is a bad person.

Portillo should be forced to stand up in front of all of us, so we can show her what it feels like to have the vitriol dumped on her. We can tell her how we feel about her, and tell her why she's a bad person.

And then she should be voted out of the Education field. We can't vote her out of the country, of course; we have laws that protect individuals from the "tyranny of the majority."

Just as she was supposed to protect Alex Barton.

Wendy, you truly are scum.

UPDATED MAY 27 8:00AM

No word on weather Wendy still has a job, but there are some other links:

WPTV channel 5's story

TCPalm's original article that broke the story.

An excellent blog that outlines the Florida laws and regulations Portillo has likely violated. (Thanks to Alex at Miami & Beyond for the link)

Another blog, this one with all the contact info for the school.


An excellent analysis at the Daily Kos, from someone who's been there.

Wendy Portillo's crime was not that she had a student with whom she could not cope. That is no crime. It was not punishing him for his behavior. That is no crime. It was foregoing the clearly enumerated process in order to take matters into her own hands and incite her students to subject a young boy to the schoolyard equivalent of a jeering mob.

UPDATED MAY 27 8:00AM

Wendy "Lady of the Flies" Portillo has been removed from her classroom, but hasn't yet been fired.

The St. Lucie School Board released the following statement, according to WPTV News:

"The St. Lucie County School District received a complaint about a kindergarten teacher, and is investigating the incident to determine if there is any violation of policies, procedures or ethics. The teacher has been reassigned outside of the classroom at the district offices until further action is determined."

The Board had better be very transparent and open about its investigation; the world is watching, and we shouldn't have to wonder if our children are safe from their teachers.