Sunday, January 12, 2014

Besides the Baudy Silliness, Why NYSED's 'S**y B***h' Link Raises Serious Issues for King, Cuomo and Mulgrew --the inBloom Factor

*NYSED couldn't protect its own site *Can you trust its choice for housing your child's data?
*S**y B***h hack = a scandal of poor site security, John King's BridgeGate-sized Epic Fail
*Update: Syracuse teachers president endorses Iannuzzi's no confidence call vs. King

As broken by a parent's blog, Schools of Thought and its "Commissioner King Endorses “Sexy Bitch” Quizzes as Fun Test Prep For NY Students!," the New York State Education Department's site linked for much of a day this week to a salacious site called S**y B***h. Clearly, this demonstrated the NYSED's site hackability.

This incident, plus the Target massive security breach now up to 100 million customers' card data, plus the recently reported Nieman Marcus breach, plus the Sachem district, Suffolk, Long Island, breach of 15,000 students' records, dramatically demonstrates ONCE AND FOR ALL that sites can be hacked. More to the point, the NYSED's site's hackability is of looming significance because one would expect any site associated with NYSED should have iron-clad security, but this has been broken obviously. This bodes badly for the inBloom student data system. Yes, it will be run privately. But if NYSED cannot protect its own site, how can it vouch for inBloom's security. [As of blog press time, the NYSED is still down.] If Target and Nieman Marcus, who rests on credit or debit card use, cannot guarantee system security, how can parents have faith in inBloom?

NYSED's sites plug Common Core --this is a central objective for the sites at this point. This scandal of lax site security cannot help but steer more attention to Common Core and its flaws.  King, Cuomo and Mulgrew must be breathing sighs of relief as the New Jersey Governor Chris Christie BridgeGate scandal roils on and on and on, devouring media attention, and preventing more attention to present New York State scandals, as opposed to past New Jersey scandalous acts.
Toward the end of the parent blog breaking the story the parent adds:
King’s Sexy Bitch Quizzes are to NY what Christie’s Traffic Problems are to NJ!
"Damned straight" we can say to that!
No voters chose John King; Regents did. Maybe that's why he acts like a king.

I bring in NYSED Commissioner John King in first, as Common Core and inBloom are his pet projects. And as he in desperate moments falls into "besides federal law" requires CC and student data tracking, repeating Gatesean myths.

No Common Core, no need for souped up NYSED sites. No CCSS-linked tests and data collection, no need for inBloom. Make no mistake, this is the central project for John King and Merry Tisch.

Just as this week has been the epic fail for Chris Christie with his widely panned press conference performance, this site hack has been bad news for ed deform cheerleaders and NYS.

Now to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo: he cannot smell the coffee: parents hate Common Core; they loathe John King for his haughtiness. King must go. Yet Cuomo doesn't get the urgency. Parents noticing the NYSED site hack will no doubt spread the word as another collossal blunder by Cuomo, and implicit demonstration of his failure to tackle the human representation of the Common Core cancer, John King.

Remember it's not just his obnoxious aloofness to parental concerns at the Common Core town meetings. King:
*Repeatedly threatened to remove control of the Buffalo School District from elected representatives, his most recent threat here; and ally Cuomo's bullying rhetoric here, alleging that the District and the union's APPR restrictions were an "ethical and legal fraud"
*Blanket-characterized Common Core opponents as Tea Partiers

Next, Michael Mulgrew, UFT president. In a week in which NYSUT president Dick Iannuzzi boldly called vote no confidence move against John King, from Mulgrew, silence, crickets-only silence. Iannuzzi's proposal goes before the state union's 80 member board of directors on January 24 to 25, and then to a larger membership vote if the proposal passes the first stage.
Breaking: Syracuse Teachers Association President Kevin Ahern backs Iannuzzi's no confidence measure against King. Will UFT's Mulgrew join him?

Make no mistake, teachers will notice.  Some hard questions for Cuomo and Mulgrew
And questions: let's give up for a moment asking why JK is into CCSS.
Why is Cuomo so committed to John King? Passing the buck to the Regents or the legislature doesn't cut it. Cuomo is supposed to be the political leader of New York State. Sounds a little like Chris Christie: blame lots of allies; but assume no accountability yourself.
Why is Mulgrew so committed to Common Core? (And mere gripes for a better curriculum don't suffice.)
Why won't he absolutely draw a line in the sand against the inBloom program?
Why on earth is Mulgrew probably the most enthusiastic labor backer of Cuomo?
Why cannot Mulgrew get it that teachers in New York City --not to mention NYS for that matter-- are not happy with John King or Common Core?
So Mulgrew is trying to steal the MORE caucus' motto, Our working conditions are our students learning conditions? He should heed notice that Common Core is part of kids' learning package and he is part and parcel part of the hell for a learning experience that King and Tisch have imposed on young minds in NYS.
But note that when the Common Core Gospel of Faith traveling show came to Manhattan, it was only MORE caucus supporters (not Mulgrew-allied Unity caucus reps) among UFT members that spoke out against the Common Core. And remember that the tour was supposed to come to Queens and Staten Island. Could the delay against scheduling be that those boroughs are a little bit more "suburban"?

(Remember: the Common Core - student data linkage is essential, according to main architect, David Coleman. Read the article, "David Coleman Lauds the Use of Student Data.")

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