#rl16

[iampenlau]

USWNT 30 Days Challenge - Day 6: Favourite Newbie

Not a newbie anymore, but always a Newbie, if that makes sense.

Ladies and Gents, the future of the USWNT, Rose Lavelle: skills and nerdiness!

Bonus: Rose with Tobin, on a pitch, at sunset. Magical.

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Frankie Crocker on 1600 WWRL New York |1968

 WWRL 1600 New York – Frankie Crocker – 1968  Courtesy: Rob Frankel This aircheck features WWRL, one of New York’s AM R&B stations. Thought the 70s, the station competed head to head against 1190 WLIB, but in the early 1980s, WLIB  decided to go in a direction to serve New York’s West Indian & Caribbean population, playing Reggae, Calypso, Soca, and other sounds from Jamaica,…

Frankie Crocker on 1600 WWRL New York |1968

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The ghosts of HB 1234

Voters may have rejected Referred Law 16, but parts of that omnibus reform package are making their way back before the Legislature this year.

First there was Senate Bill 187, letting school districts opt out of "continuing contract" or teacher tenure.

Now Sen. Tim Rave is sponsoring Senate Bill 233, creating a scholarship for teachers in critical-needs fields.

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Daugaard: referred law defeats didn't change his style

In discussing the newfound spirit of camaraderie around the South Dakota Capitol, several people pointed to the difference in gubernatorial initiatives between this year and the past two years.

Last week, Daugaard unveiled his criminal justice initiative, which has drawn almost universally positive responses — there's some arguing over details, but almost everyone supports the intent of the package.

That's a very different story from 2012, when Democrats closed ranks against HB 1234, his education reform proposal. Or in 2011, when Daugaard's large project development fund made Democrats almost as angry as his budget cuts had them.

The education reform and development fund proposals both were developed inside the Daugaard administration, with some consultation with Republican leaders and friendly interest groups, but not Democrats or constituencies that might be hostile or skeptical. Both passed the Legislature with only Republican support, were referred to the electorate and handily defeated on Election Day, 2012.

Then two months later Daugaard unveils his criminal justice initiative, which was produced from a process involving extensive consultations all across the political spectrum.

Had the governor changed his approach to be more bipartisan after seeing two of his initiatives rejected by voters?

The governor says that's not the case. He hasn't changed, he said, and doesn't have regrets about how he developed and passed those two legislative packages.

He's taken a more bipartisan approach to the criminal justice initiative, Daugaard said, because it's a more bipartisan topic.

"In this case, there was no natural opposition that would fall along party lines," Daugaard said. "It made sense to reach out to all the stakeholders and try to evolve to a solution that would find support at the outset."

He contrasted this with the education reform package, which he said he knew would draw fierce opposition.

"Most of those parts I knew would find opponents," he said. "To reach out to stakeholders toward somehow dissuading them from that opposition, really would not make sense."

There wasn't that much common ground on the issue, Daugaard said. He was skeptical that bringing opponents to the negotiating table would actually "produce a product that would be supported by both parties."

"At the time, I thought that it made more sense to try to put together a package that is in keeping with my philosophy, and try to make the case during the legislative session," Daugaard said. "I'm not sure whether that's the right decision or not, but it's the decision I made at the time."

Meanwhile, work on the criminal justice initiative began more than a year ago — before the education reform package was developed, Daugaard said. He argued it's a mistake to view them sequentially, when they actually developed at the same time — one with a smaller group of stakeholders involved, the other with a bigger group. Rather than reflecting a governor changing his style, Daugaard said, the two measures show two sides of a style he already had.

[notdistrictdialogue]

S.D. fails Michelle Rhee's school reform report card

StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee's education reform outfit, issued an F grade to South Dakota and 10 other states today in its first ever state policy report card.

With B-minuses, Louisiana and Florida got the top grades. So much for grade inflation.

StudentsFirst contributed $50,000 in defense of Gov. Dennis Daugaard's reform bill, HB1234 or RL16, which voters rejected last year.

Here is their summary of South Dakota education policies:

Currently, South Dakota's education policies do not prioritize great teaching, empowering parents with quality choices, or using resources wisely to raise student achievement. The state legislature enacted legislation in 2011* to strengthen efforts to attract and identify excellent teachers, but that legislation failed to pass a voter referendum. Unfortunately, South Dakota educators are still without meaningful evaluations and their performance does not play a role in any personnel decisions, including tenure, dismissal, and salary decisions. Seniority still drives layoff decisions, leaving effective teachers at risk. South Dakota also does not provide parents with meaningful  information regarding school or teacher performance, and parents have no educational options when their children are trapped in  low-performing schools. Finally, South Dakota should establish state authority to intervene in low-performing schools and districts and should offer teachers a more attractive, portable retirement option.

* That should say 2012. They also identify the state as North Dakota twice on the report card.

Notably, South Dakota gets an F on empowering parents to get their kids out of low-performing schools. It's hard to compare policies across all 50 states, but you'd think Students First would have recognized and given credit for South Dakota's open enrollment policy.

Another thing to consider is South Dakota generally supports local control, so it's rare - although less so in recent years - for the state to get involved in things like teacher compensation policy or class size mandates. Reformers would like to see the state legislature step in and say, "We know what's good for you."

The New York Times quotes Richard Zeiger, California’s chief deputy superintendent, as calling its F rating a “badge of honor.”

“This is an organization that frankly makes its living by asserting that schools are failing,” Mr. Zeiger said of StudentsFirst. “I would have been surprised if we had got anything else.”

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Supporters of the rejected laws, winning

The two referred laws on the ballot were overwhelmingly rejected by votes on Tuesday.

What happened to the lawmakers who voted for those measures the voters didn't like?

By and large, they won reelection.

Myself and Josh Verges compiled the fates of these legislators.

Of the 28 senators who voted for 2011's HB1230, the large project development fund that became Referred Law 14, seven chose not to run for reelection. Two, Tom Nelson and Jim Putnam, lost in primaries. One, Art Fryslie, lost in the general election. Eighteen will be serving in Pierre next year.

It was a similar picture in the House. Of the 49 representatives supporting HB1230, nine did not run. Six lost in primaries: Gene Abdallah, Lora Hubbel, Tad Perry, Shawn Tornow, Mark Venner and Mark Willadsen. Two lost in the general election: Bob Deelstra and Kent Juhnke.

Overall, that's 11 of 61 yes votes on RL14 who sought reelection and lost. But only three of those lost in the general election; eight went down in this year's fierce GOP primaries.

Supporters of HB1234, which became Referred Law 16, had similar luck.

In the Senate, four of the 22 yes votes to education reform didn't run. Nelson lost in the primary. Fryslie and Juhnke (a House member in 2011, a Senate member in 2012, which messed up my spreadsheet for a long time until I noticed) lost in the general. Fifteen will be there next year.

In the House, six of the 36 yes votes didn't run. Four -- Perry, Venner, Willadsen and Val Rausch -- lost in primaries. One, Dave Scott, lost in the general. Twenty-five of them won.

Overall, eight of the 58 yes votes for HB1234 lost. Setting aside members who didn't run, that's eight of 48 going down. Five lost in primaries, three of 48 in the general.

I am possibly wrong on some of my accounting of what happened to what lawmaker. You can review and check my work here. Post any corrections in the comments.

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Another $160,000 for RL16

Bob Mercer notes that the National Education Association, having already spent more than $500,000 to defeat Referred Law 16, last week gave another $160,000 to the cause. That's $678,000 total to defeat this education reform law, a top priority of Gov. Dennis Daugaard.

There have been no supplemental big-dollar donations reported for the pro-Referred Law 16 camp since the deadline. It's raised $113,000.

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NBP: Referred laws in trouble, divided IM15

Some interesting news from the Nielson Brothers on the ballot measures. Again, the usual caveats about these pollsters apply; we can use these last-minute polls to judge the firm's accuracy come Election Day.

NBP found:

Initiated Measure 15's support is within the margin of error over the opposition, with 43.3 percent in favor and 42.8 percent against. Compared to NBP's past polls, support for this tax increase has plunged -- during a time when Moving South Dakota Forward has dominated the airwaves. If this is accurate, we could be looking at a new benchmark for wasted political money in South Dakota.

Referred Law 14 is trailing significantly: 24.1 percent say they support the law, 39.8 percent say they're opposed. 36.1 percent are undecided. This is another measure where the side dominating TV ads is losing; the Democrats opposing RL14 didn't even bother to form a ballot committee.

Referred Law 16 is getting trounced. 24.6 percent support the measure, and a full 51.6 percent oppose it. 23.8 percent are undecided.

Depending on how things go, Nov. 6 could be a very bad day for Gov. Dennis Daugaard. If this poll is at all accurate, two of his signature policy initiatives could be in deep, deep trouble.