Even though this is addressed to the parents of Harrison, NY and NYC, it is for all the parents of New York State and the USA.

Lexington and Concord. The first battle in the American Revolution in 1775, almost 240 years ago.

The Journal News. Saturday, September 28, 2013, the first battle in the Revolution to Take Control
Back of Our Children's Education. All led by a humble reporter, Gary Stern.

I predicted this revolution back in June of last year.

I walked into Vassi's Deli on Underhill Ave in West Harrison this morning to get my breakfast and coffee. My son just had a hitting lesson and we were looking forward to spending some time together. I grabbed my copy of the Journal News and on the front page saw the headline. "Critics: Test Scores Failing, Not Students," by Gary Stern.

What a joy it was to read an honest and thought provoking education article by a reporter that has not been tainted by the poison of Uncle Mike Bloomberg;

Is it possible that 56 percent of sixth-graders in Bedford are not proficient in math? How about 70 percent of eighth-graders in Dobbs Ferry? Or 75 percent of seventh-graders in Nyack? 

Could 50 percent of seventh-graders in Irvington not be meeting expectations in English/language arts? What about 58 percent of eighth-graders in Ramapo Central? Or 80 percent of sixth-graders in Port Chester?

 
This, parents of Harrison is our reality. Not just yours, but mine, your neighbor's, your friend's, and your enemy's. Wake up, this is what has become of education in New York State thanks to the millions our elected officials in Albany have collected from such organizations as DFER and Students (oops!) MichelleRheeFirst.

My son got 2's on both ELA and Math. This after receiving 3's in ELA and 4's in Math from grades 3-5. Some putz who decides what goes on the tests, how to score it, how to take it is telling me my son is not proficient in Math or ELA?

At this past Thursday's parent-teacher meetings I handed out hundreds of fliers sharing with parents of Harrison the dangers and evils of the Common Core Standards from a fantastic organization, Stop Common Core in New York State. I could not believe how, UNINFORMED the parents of Harrison NY are. One parent actually believed that Bill Gates is a great person!

But then again, Governor Andy, Uncle Mike, NYSED, and John King (No link to who John King is. You have a child in school, then you should know. GOOGLE HIM!) all want you uninformed. They want ignorance, they want compliance, they want servitude. This is what is happening in NYC right now and across all urban school districts nation wide. You probably heard about it in passing, saying to yourself, "Well, why should I care, it doesn't effect me or my children."

But guess what? NOW IT DOES!!! It's time to wake up and see the corporate and Federal takeover of education is now in your backyard.

Bill Gates, the Lord and Savior who blessed us with the Common Core, let's see what he said the other day; 

“It would be great if our education stuff worked, but that we won’t know for probably a decade.”

What you talking about, Willis, I mean Bill?

He does not know if it will work? Bill Gates feels it is OK to experiment on THE CHILDREN OF HARRISON? Why didn't Bill test it out on his kids?

Know that teacher you love at your child's school? Well, thanks to Bill Gates and Governor Andy, 40% of their evaluation is based on assessment (TESTS)! Two years without growth, that teacher is rated ineffective and you can say goodbye.  Opt your child out of the NYS tests! You can and it is time!

Parents of Harrison, did you know that EngageNY (No link to EngageNY. You have a child in school, then you should know. GOOGLE IT!), a subsidiary of NYSED is not only in control of your child's school data, but personal information as well and plans on selling it to InBloom (No link to EngageNY. You have a child in school, then you should know. GOOGLE IT!)? What you don't know this? Well, you need to now.

Fight back. You are your child's best advocate for his or her education. Not a politician, not someone who works on Wall Street, not a hedge fund hack, YOU ARE.

And while you are at it, by Diane Ravitch's new book, "Reign of Error," and see how education is being taken over in this country by those who only wish to enrich their wallets.

And please sign this petition  to Assemblyman Al Graf.

I leave you with a clip of George Carlin's take on education today.

I did it. I emailed EngageNY asking to to opt out my son of any and all data collected and/or to distributed. I had first called (518-474-5922) the office of Curriculum and Instruction at NYSED. I asked whom can I speak to in regard to my request. After several minutes of being put on hold I was told that EngageNY could only be contacted by email ([email protected]). OK, so I emailed;

To whom it may concern:

My son is currently a student in the Harrison Central School District. I would like to have his data wipe and not shared at all. Also, I would like to know how I can go about seeing what data has been collected.

Thank you in advance.

Peter Zucker



Several hours later I received a reply;

Thank you for contacting the EngageNY Help Desk. Your ticket information is below. If you have any additional information to add to this ticket, please feel free to call the Help Desk at 1-855-252-6900

The Help Desk's normal business hours are are 9AM to 5PM Monday through Friday.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Name: [email protected]

Ticket Number: 265

Date Reported: 9/20/2013 4:04:32 PM

Problem Request: Mr. Zucker wanted to know how can he have his kid's data wiped out of inBloom he also wanted to know which data has been collected.

Message to Caller:


​Hello Mr. ​Zucker,


Thank you for contacting the EngageNY Portal Help Desk.


Only school districts can determine who has access to student data and for what purposes. InBloom is not authorized to alter or remove student records from its data store; those records are owned and controlled solely by the school districts. You should contact your child’s school district to inquire about their policies.


To answer your question, the Portal will include student demographic, enrollment, attendance, behavior, course performance, and state and formative assessment information.
In order to make the Portal data dashboards most useful to teachers, students, and parents, districts can add local data for their constituents (and only their constituents) to view. Districts and the state decide what data are shared with contracted vendors under strict contract
terms consistent with FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974). No social security numbers or photos are collected or shared.


Please visit https://www.inbloom.org/faq and http://www.engageny.org/resource/engageny-portal-faq to learn more.

So I am told to contact the Harrison Central School District when in fact back in June a big wig at HCSD told me to contact the NYSED.  Confusion.

So I called the number they had given me. It was the number for the EngageNY help desk. I asked the young lad who answered to whom can I speak to concerning my request. She told me she does not know and besides, the help desk number that I called is for people that need technical support. So why then was I given the number?

I asked for a supervisor and a rather pleasant, yet confused woman came on the line. She explained to me that there was nothing she can do and suggested to email again. I then asked her, "Who is in charge there?"

She replied, "Well, me, of course."

"No, no, not the help desk. Who is in charge of EngageNY?" I asked.

"I don't know."

"Is there another phone number besides the toll free number I can call to speak with someone?"

"No," She replied.

I thought to myself, no? How can that be, every single department at NYSED, even the custodian,  has a phone number, why not EngageNY?

I decided to try another tact. Since we were getting dangerously close to an Abbott and Costello routine I decided to try that tact.

"OK, explain this to me about no phone numbers. What happens if someone there at EngageNY is working and his wife wants to call to ask him to stop by Stewart's to bring home eggs and milk? What number do they call?

"They just don't"

UGH!!!!!!!! OK, I asked her who is in charge of EngageNY.

"Commissioner King," she said.

"No, I know that, technically he is, but who is in charge of that department? Who makes the decisions in that department?"

Her answer, "I have no idea."

I explained to her this is so Kafkaesque. That there is more secrecy at EngageNY than there is at the CIA. I said thank you and I hung up.

Where is the accountability? Better yet, where are the humans?

I emailed the person at HCSD in charge of this and await a reply this Monday. There is a school board meeting Wednesday, and back to school night on Thursday so I look forward to getting some answers.