STEVE BELLONE: LUIS MONTES AMAYA HISPANIC ADVISOR
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
City Councilman Robert Jackson spoke out at the Save The GED Rally At City Hall in New York City. He said you have to work hard and you have to study hard. That was excellent and anything less than that is the old, old, old message that keeps people back. Even Chancellor Matthew Goldstein of the City University told an audience years ago that this is the age of using your brain not your back. People in Suffolk are still in the Dark Ages. Please see my You Tube account mygedhotline. You will see that Marvin Thompson, the brother of Jam Master Jay, was the keynote speaker at this important event. Sean Bell's father, William Bell, has been a keynote speaker at my event in the Fifty Cent Garden in Jamaica. Why? We fight the violence and killings in our community through preventions, interventions, and GED power. Suffolk County keeps making the wrong moves, the wrong walk. Also see the Today Show of a few weeks ago on www.thegrio.com but type Walmart Jimmie Edwards Today Show and find thegrio there. This is an amazing story of hope that we should have been seeing eleven years ago when I started this GED campaign. The opening of the new annex can be accessed by looking in You Tube under the account martinezamro. Thank you Angel!
If 1,200,000 youth dropout of school each year and only 200,000 or so of them earn the GED in a year, you can see that GED programs and testing are actually helping about one-sixth of the youth. The GED testing helps about one out of every hundred people each year. Those Latino teachers and others who have spoken out against the GED are ignorant. The parallel in herbal medicine is sometimes classic. When someone gets pneumonia, that person has to take antibiotics or possibly die. I have seen that happen to people that I know. And what makes things worse is that those schools where there are Hispanic youth dropping out of school, those Latino teachers wash their hands of the youth, forgetting about them in their daily routines and their philosophy that helps just a few. They talk the talk and that is basically it, limiting their successes. If we all unite, we can deliver to this country a stronger community and nation.
This is a story of a large county that did not focus on one of the civil rights issues of our time. I thank Reverend Al Sharpton for speaking about the GED on his Saturday Show soon after I spoke to him about the GED and the role it has to play in civil rights. The GED, especially for the youth and minorities is critical to the future success of our nation. This is the story of the failure of people to get the kind of help that government, community, and corporate and philanthropic people are supposed to help provide by working together. Now the GED takes a back seat to job creation, which there will be little of. The booming economy of the Reagan and Clinton periods are taking place in other countries, as new world powers are emerging. We really have to be thankful that Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were Americans and their patents helped American businesses, otherwise things would have been much worse a long time ago.
Please see the rest of the article by clicking the link.
"STEVE BELLONE: LUIS MONTES AMAYA HISPANIC ADVISOR"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:18 AM
FOUR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES GONE AND STILL NO GED PARTY
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
I have never heard from one. I spoke to one. One is gone. But here is what I realized while writing this article. They will give tax credits to the small business so that they can create jobs and they will reduce the minimum wage by taking your money away from you. College students, high school students and all others will have money taken away from them. Then you the parent will have to put up the difference to support your loved ones. So you lose, too. The children lose and you do, too. See the write up about Michelle Bachmann and there are others who either feel the same way or who will quickly take sides if they see the idea catches on. You know what here is information from Wikkipedia. Fiscal policy of Senator Bachmann. Eliminating the minimum wage is what Milton Friedman stood for. See the You Tube videos of Milton Friedman, the well known economist.
If we are going to wipe out unemployment by redistributing wealth to others, we can democratically redistribute it from the rich to the middle and lower class. See what Michelle Bachmann is about.
In the Minnesota Senate, Bachmann opposed minimum wage increases.[155] In an interview in late June 2011, Bachmann did not back away from her earlier proposal to eliminate the federal minimum wage, a change she said would "virtually wipe out unemployment."[156]
Here is how the Bachmann's have received federal subsidies and enjoyed all of the benefits of it. In personal financial disclosure reports for 2006 through 2009, Bachmann reported earning $32,500 to $105,000[44] from a farm that was owned at the time by her ailing father-in-law, Paul Bachmann. The farm received $260,000 in federal crop and disaster subsidies between 1995 and 2008.[49] Bachmann said that in 2006–2009, her husband acted as a trustee of the farm for his dying father and so, out of "an abundance of caution", she claimed the farm as income in financial disclosures, though it was her in-laws who profited from the farm during that period.[50]
"FOUR REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES GONE AND STILL NO GED PARTY"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 10:55 PM
TRADE GUNS FOR GED
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Trade guns for the GED should be the theme in communities that have been hit hard by gangs and violence for years. Wyandanch is clearly one of them. Communities have to learn more and one of those things is that the schools are not entirely responsible for the GED. Over half the people who take the test say they have had no preparation (this costs New York State a lot of money as about half of them fail). Also, the Boys and Girls Club has an important GED project with the Justice Department outside of New York. Mayor Bloomberg has his $127 million dollar project which is outside the school jurisdiction. I taught in the Consulate of El Salvador and that had nothing to do with the school district. After being involved with the community over the years, the community has to take a long, hard look at itself. I hope to see change and people thinking outside the box now. There are good things going on in the Town of Babylon, but they could have been much better. Elected officials, community organizations, and churches must take responsibility for not providing the very best to communities. Back in my day, people would joke around about politics. "What is a conservative," we were asked. The reply was a "liberal who gets mugged." And there was obvious truth in the response. I recently heard a conservative talk show host using that material. But there is obvious truth to this too. What is a liberal? A conservative who gets mugged. This should show people that we in we are in all this struggle to keep communities safe together. There are liberal answers that conservatives are employing all over our nation. All of us must help the at-risk youth on Long Island and employ much better ideas than current and past administrations have used. A quick example is that every recreation center needs a GED program.
Profesor Martin Danenberg 11:00 AM
SCHOOLS : NEEDS IMPROVEMENT
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
This is about Long Island, New York.
My plan for neighborhood and school improvement has gone out and the response has been good, but in my own community the picture is different. Schools that need improvement near my home are Central Islip High School, Charles A. Mulligan School, Ralph Reed School, Brentwood High School, East Middle School, Hemlock Elementary School, Laurel Park Elementary School, Loretta Park Elementary School, North Middle School, Northeast Middle School, South Middle School, and West Middle School. Of course there were schools that are in better school districts on the list, too. Particularly alarming are Amityville's Edmund W. Miles Middle School, Brentwood High School, West Middle School, Central Islip High School, Charles A. Mulligan School, Ralph Reed School, Martin Luther King Elementary School, and Milton L. Olive Middle School in Suffolk. Those schools got a category 3 for all student groups falling short.
"SCHOOLS : NEEDS IMPROVEMENT "
Profesor Martin Danenberg 09:32 AM
DO NOT PASS GO, GO STRAIGHT TO GED AND NOT STRAIGHT TO JAIL
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Conservatives on the radio still refer to the failure of the War on Poverty and to high spending in schools that has not improved things much. Sure there were failures and progress has not been what most people expected. There are reasons. Yes the War on Poverty could have been much more successful and the truth is that I was not in a position to help then, but I know that I can help now and bring all reasonable people together. Andy Rooney has passed on and it happened only days after his retirement announcement. I have my complaints just like this great journalist had his and my complaints are focused on the schools and the their communities. Television can do much more to transform schools and communities. I am thankful that I had a chance to talk to Joe Frazier years ago and he has a place of honor on my website because of the wonderful discussion about the GED. In that photo the champ was throwing a right hook at my midsection.
"DO NOT PASS GO, GO STRAIGHT TO GED AND NOT STRAIGHT TO JAIL"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 01:07 PM
THE PIPELINE TO PRISON NEWARK NEW JERSEY
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Gang related shooting on Brighton Beach boardwalk in New York City last week. Teen killed.
Gang related shooting in East New York, 20 shots fired, one person killed and at least eight wounded. Gang members arrested all over New York City, including Far Rockaway where 18 were locked up after a 14 month investigation. Juan Otero was shot in the hand last year, but killed last week and it was reported that his family says he was involved in a gang. Eighty-four gang members arrested in Far Rockaway last year and of course among them were members of Far Rockaway and South Jamaica Public Houses (I was the last GED teacher in the South Jamaica Public Houses). Youth who could have gotten a GED and gone on to college ended up in gangs in the South Jamaica Public Houses. I was making decisions that the administration could not handle back then. I transferred a student from South Jamaica to Far Rockaway. Yes to Far Rockaway. He was upset at first, but he soon came back and thanked me because he was able to earn his GED faster the way I chose. Honestly, I never even expected that youth to come back to see me, but he did and that tells you how we can transform disruptive youth. All of the GED programs should be reopened in those public houses now to help communities and not just help the twenty or so students in classes. My ideas can produce much greater results than ever before!
Newark has 23 gangs and 2,600 gang members. Wow! Operation Snug is on the streets of New York City, but tell me this. How many people has Operation Snug helped earn the GED or get back into high school? Where is the evidence that they have helped in this critical age of education or is education in the 21st century about teaching youth only about the hazards of a life of crime and gang banging? You see that Operation Snug told the New York State Assembly in meetings that they were going to get the youth back into studying during meetings there. Has that promise been kept? Let's do the "right thing" for a change. Even District Attorney Kathleen Rice had a GED component in her initiative in Nassau County, an initiative that has had some success. Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hines, I have been told, is interested in my GED initiative, and I plan to move forward to make things work and help Brooklyn. SNUG could have been much better from the start.
Even in the great GED year of 2001 when there was a national increase of 39.2 percent, New Jersey had only a 1.6 percent increase. There were 43 states that increased more than New Jersey. As a GED teacher in New York City, I taught youth who had been incarcerated, youth who had shot a gun at people, and a three time loser called a "menace to society" by a judge. I taught GED in New York City Housing projects and I was sometimes alone. There were lots of comments made to me about shoot outs in the projects at that time. I know someone who hired an ex-convict to teach GED in D.C. and someone else who announced a GED class in Wilmington, Delaware for his barber shop and 300 people applied for the class (and he shot and paralyzed weeks later). It is time for America to step up to the plate to help and prove that education is the key to success. Guess which candidate for president in 2008 wrote about the 4 million disconnected youth who were unemployed, underemployed, and who had no diploma? What happened to that? Where does Mayor Cory Booker fit into this? Did he have a GED plan on day one? Is he ready to cooperate and tell all of the other mayors in the United States where things have gone wrong?
"THE PIPELINE TO PRISON NEWARK NEW JERSEY"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 01:37 PM
EDUCATION NEWS ABOUT LONG ISLAND
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Here are the new numbers for perhaps the schools that are doing the poorest on Long Island. There may be progress or even good progress, but there is a lot of work to be done. A closer look at what the schools are doing will be helpful, but the communities probably need much greater help. Hempstead has returned to higher crime after the FBI was called in, for example. The FBI did not give any guarantees that things would remain better and they did not.
Freeport, Hempstead, Roosevelt, Uniondale, Westbury
Graduation rates for each 71%, 46%, 54%, 67%, 78%
Advanced regents passed 23%, 4%, 2%, 22%, 13%
State regents mark 18%, 5%, 9%, 20%, 15%
Two year college admission 27%, 24%, 35%, 41%, 44%
Four year college admission 28%, 41%, 29%, 40% 40%
Amityville, Brentwood, Bridgehampton, Central Islip, Copiague, Wyandanch
Graduation rates for each 78%, 72 %, 90%, 58%, 79%, 52%
Advanced regents passed 20%, 21% 15%, 9%, 24%, 3%
State regents mark 20% 21%, 15% 15% 16% 5%
Two year college admission 45%, 43%, 30%, 42%, 49%, 50%
Four year college admissions 46% 21%, 50%, 25%, 28%, 24%
As you can see some areas are weak for these high schools and other areas are better. I guess people can pick or choose what the determining factors are. Will it be the low passing rates on regents or graduation rates or college admission rates. The greatest weight for me was passing the regents.
MARTIN N. DANENBERG
7 BLAZER DRIVE
ISLANDIA, NEW YORK 11749
631-348-1341
martin@mygedhotline.com
New:
www.mygedhotline.com
www.geocities.com/gedhotline
www.ahorre.com/ged
www.ahorre.com
www.aspira.org
Profesor Martin Danenberg 08:41 AM
DELINQUENCY IN NEWARK HURTING BUSINESS AND LIFE
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
I want to thank Juana Edmond for inviting me to Newark and introducing me to the youth in her boxing gym over a week ago and to lots of business people and community leaders on Friday. Let us form the Generation of Sports and Education together with players from the Texas Rangers and other professional teams. Let us make sure that all recreational programs have a GED component for those youth who have dropped out of school.
766 people took the GED in Spanish in 2009 in the entire state of New Jersey and probably 450 passed. That's it! That's it! 26 percent of passers were Hispanic compared with 42.2 percent for White people. Remember this when you read the rest of the article, because there will be more explained there. Newark's leadership has failed its people for forty years or more and it is failing the people as I write this article. It is time for change. Es el momento! There are probably 800 people who should take the GED in Spanish in Newark each year. The communities affected by delinquency can triumph as gang members are led to GED acquisition and/or their return to high school and English language acquisition. Bad decisions are hurting life in Newark and no amount of rhetoric by President Obama, Governor Christie, or Mayor Booker can help get the city of Newark out of the mess. I would be happy to address the solutions needed, solutions other than locking up everyone. Something that is not going to happen.
"DELINQUENCY IN NEWARK HURTING BUSINESS AND LIFE"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 08:51 PM
THOMAS SOWELL - THOMAS MAHONEY ECONOMIC REPORT
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
It was difficult to educate many African-Americans under gross racial discrimination and it is difficult to educate many of them under a system that is largely different. It has been difficult to educate other ethnic groups as well. I could rewrite history, including Black history, with my knowledge of GED. Just as the Jews wandered in the desert for 40 years and Blacks looked for 40 Acres and a Mule, the last 40 years have really been a great disaster for a large fraction of the Afro-American community. The lack of GED diplomas and getting on the wrong side of the law have driven the "pipeline to prison" as much as Black NBA stars have driven to the hoop to dunk or rap artists have affected our youth worldwide. We do not have to rewrite the history, but we have to do much more to change that written history through the cooperation of those who write it. I hope that my efforts are sending a new, powerful message out across America and I am thankful to everyone who is helping get the word out. I thank Champions 4 Champions and other organizations.
"THOMAS SOWELL - THOMAS MAHONEY ECONOMIC REPORT"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 11:08 AM
NEW YORK EN ESPANOL: SYMPOSIUM
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Except for the fact that African-Americans are citizens of the United States and undocumented immigrants are citizens of other countries, is it not a fact that elected officials should protect all of the rights they have in this country and protect them from being harmed or abused?
The GED was not part of this symposium. It could have been. It should have been.
Thanks to Ed Roldan of the Long Island Latino Teachers Association, I was able to attend this important event. I almost fell off my chair when Ed mentioned Martin and the GED, Ed telling the audience that he, Ed Roldan, does not push the GED. Only qualified people should push the GED on communities because there is great danger, great danger because people do not want the youth to drop out of school. I am sure that Ed can find a way, the right way to push the GED.
"NEW YORK EN ESPANOL: SYMPOSIUM"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 02:55 PM
SOMOS EL FUTURO THE ONE-HALF COMPROMISE ON GANGS
By Profesor Martin Danenberg
"El Quijote del GED"
The tape of my question to Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his response will be available for people to listen to and learn from, and I mean all over the country. There are over 900 gang members studying GED in a city in Texas through the Boys and Girls Club there.
The table in the Schuyler Report shows that 35,000 people in New York took the GED test without preparation programs and that only 20,000 took the test because of preparation programs. Could you imagine 35,000 students taking the Regents exams without courses? This my friends in government and in power positions is where your pipeline to prison has been. Where? In the elimination of GED programs and providing hope to people in communities (by not expanding programs). There is little or no hope. GED Practice Testing my way is the solution to this great problem. Those statistics are sick! I may have a big powerful announcement about a pending GED project that will finally put New York State on the right track. The last nine years have been terrible for communities.
The GED system has been restructured under the Department of Education a couple of times, quality of instruction was assured the City Council in testimony a few years ago (it seems that quality was not the real quality and the city is looking again for the quality), and GED programs that were in communities where there was great need were closed down in favor of centrally placing GED programs away from the community. Assemblywoman Carmen Arroyo, in her style of provoking racial and ethnic thought, accurately protested a year ago as people from another section of the Bronx reported their findings about GED. We may object to her style, but the lack of GED services to her community may be either fatal to people or costly (if the youth are entering the criminal justice system in great numbers) to the state or both.
If the United States governments and its people are truly serious about education, the GED should be funded by the federal government with guarantees that as many people who want to take the test can take the test. In other words, fund the testing in fifty states, Puerto Rico, and territories so that we can help tens of millions of people earn the GED within a decade instead of having around 4 million diplomas in a decade. This will require more GED testing centers in depressed areas of cities and states and the test will be given in all states and in all centers in English, Spanish, and French.
There is a lot of powerful information to share here and to show to Republicans, Conservatives (any Tea Party elected officials in New York), Democrats (including progressive-liberals), and others in the community. I was able to attend one workshop and was I glad I walked into this one. This workshop was put together by the office of Attorney General Eric Schneideman and Senator Adriano Espaillat (my mistake in calling him senator years ago instead of assemblyman will be duly noted here, but he got there anyway) was one of the moderators of the workshop. I had the opportunity to provide some new news and some general information that should impact on the rest of the New York State Legislature and Governor Cuomo's office (Cuomo's office has known about this for several weeks). I told the audience that I called in to the John Gambling Show yesterday and I got to ask Mayor Michael Bloomberg "Why can't we mobilize the gang members into GED testing seats faster than anyone in the state," keeping in mind that this is an important budget item as youth move into the very costly criminal justice system. The mayor told me that we cannot get most of them into preparation programs. I, then, told the audience in Albany that we don't have enough preparation programs for the general population, explaining that one out of every hundred people earns a GED in a year (about 13,000 out of 1.6 million in New York City and only about 28,000 out of 2.85 million in the state). For gang members it may be about a half person per one hundred. I hope my readers learned about the 2/3 compromise in United States history (sometimes called American history). A slave was considered less than a whole person and here we see that gang members may be a 1/2 of a person statistically. I have done this part to emphasize just how bad it may be to remove gang members away from crime and drugs and into education, jobs, and college. The pipeline to prison and the gangs are part of "New Jim Crow" of America.
"SOMOS EL FUTURO THE ONE-HALF COMPROMISE ON GANGS"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 11:09 PM
CUOMO AND THE BUDGET STILL BAD FOR NEW YORK
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
A conservative is a liberal who gets mugged.
Interesting and sometimes people even laugh.
A liberal is a conservative who gets mugged.
The police cuts and the additional crime that often follows are nothing to laugh about and education is the key to solving the puzzle.
"CUOMO AND THE BUDGET STILL BAD FOR NEW YORK"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 11:41 PM
UNIVISION Y ES EL MOMENTO
Por Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Cuando Va A Promover La Casa Blanca La Educación De Todos, pregunté en El Imparcial en Chicago en 8-18-2004 y el día está llegando. Tenemos un nuevo presidente y un nuevo director de la Comisión Especial de la Casa Blanca y todo esto es importante. Necesitamos una conferencia internacional por la comunidad hispana ahora. Es mi intención de dar esta conferencia porque tengo una visión mucha más amplia y creo que podemos transformar muchos países dentro de 10 años. Ya estoy muy involucrado con la República Dominicana en muchos niveles haciendo esta tarea. Hay más de 1,200 instituciones participando con la Casa Blanca este lunes con la Universidad de San Bernardino en California. El mensaje de esta conferencia llegará a 6 millones de personas. El mensaje de la conferencia National Latino Congreso llega a muchas menos personas. El Presidente Barack Obama tiene su propia conferencia el lunes con Univisión. Sí la Casa Blanca está promoviendo la educación y sí es el momento.
CUANDO VA A PROMOVER LA CASA BLANCA LA EDUCACION DE TODOS?
Por Profesor Martin N. Danenberg “El Quijote del GED”
En el año 2002 había un tremendo descenso en el número de diplomas del GED en inglés (predije todo esto en 2001 y compartí mi punto de vista con la directora del GED en los EE. UU.) y ahora mismo que es el primer año del nuevo examen en español estoy casi seguro que la comunidad hispana que toma el examen en español va a tener la misma experiencia. Es malísimo para ambos comunidades pero es peor para los hispanos. Porque es peor? Los hispanos necesitan un nivel más alto de educación muchos más que ningún otro grupo. Los inmigrantes deben tomar el examen en español, su idioma mejor. Aunque los jóvenes normalmente toman el GED, alrededor de cincuenta por ciento de los candidatos son adultos y con menos diplomas en las manos de inmigrantes hay menos esperanza para un futuro mejor.
Profesor Martin Danenberg 05:30 PM
JAPANESE NUCLEAR DISASTER NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL DISASTER
By Profesor Martin Danenberg "El Quijote del GED"
Mayor Bloomberg has been misled for years by people in education and he is now paying the price in lower approval ratings. What those people did not tell him is this. As mayor and as mayor in charge of the school system, he had to make education better in the schools and outside the schools by educating the adults in those communities at monumental levels. Communities that are experiencing violence are the result of the sum total of the impact of his administration. Take a look at the video made outside City Hall in my You Tube mygedhotline account. The video says Save The GED Test Rally At City Hall and a youth speaks out. This youth is telling about his friends who want to get involved in criminal activities. He has failed at both, but his own attitudes prevent him from recognizing it. He is responsible for it all and nobody was able to guide him properly. His fall is not about the Cathie Black appointment, as some suggest.
I have opposed many of the things that have been going on for years in New York City and around the nation. Neighborhoods have not been improved by my standards, parental involvement has been minimal, and schools have suffered because of these decisions. Now the police force may be reduced at a time when we need even more police. Crime has increased a lot in many places and it may be inching its way up or escalating in areas of New York City. In my eyes, the chancellor failed because his plan was weak. Teaching to the test is really not hard. I know how to do it well and other GED teachers knew how to do it long before elementary and intermediate school teachers were trained in the process. That process has probably taken way too long and the whole system has suffered. Blame the people in charge. A report could be written on the evolution of teaching to the test over these years and you will see what I mean. That evolution in teaching to the test was written about in the Geoffrey Canada book about the success of the Harlem Children's Zone.
"JAPANESE NUCLEAR DISASTER NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL DISASTER"
Profesor Martin Danenberg 09:09 PM
