That event was the catalyst for many of us who arrived as parents and left activists that night. He cancelled events, sulked and began a tirade of personal attacks and assaults against those of us who spoke accusing us of being special interest group zealots.

My alarm turned to anger and then outrage at King’s behavior in the days after the Poughkeepsie Town Hall. I was startled and disappointed when I spoke from the heart only to have King summarily dismiss my valid concerns in a callous manner. I researched the issues for hundreds of hours and stood before King with an articulate and well versed argument against Core and flawed education policies. We each had 2-3 minutes, I believe, before King had enough of us and walked off the stage. I was one of the 7 parents permitted to speak at the microphone. You cannot blame parents for being upset with children caught in the common core/testing muck and mire.ħ5 people had signed up to speak that night but only 7 were actually allowed to approach the mic. Parents and teachers had alot of pent up frustration after we had been completely ignored and left out of the reform agenda process. Our concerns over student data, testing, APPR and InBloom among other things were scoffed at and summarily dismissed by King.Ĭoncededly, people spoke out of turn and got loud that night. The forum drew a massive crowd of hundreds of parents and educators who had alot to say to King despite the fact that our concerns fell on deaf ears. This event really changed the landscape for parents and teachers advocating against the flawed common core, HST and Regents reform agenda.īilled as an opportunity for parents to ask questions and get answers from the Commissioner regarding common core, student privacy, InBloom and teacher evaluations among other things, the event was anything but. Today is the one year anniversary of the nefarious NYSPTA Town Hall incident where parents from Poughkeepse New York gave Commissioner King an earful.

An earful parcc prompt