Tip of the cap to Whitney Tilson for directing me to this article by Wayne Barrett of the Village Voice, who calls on mayor Bloomberg to “roll the union.” My, how far attitudes toward charters have changed on Left. Everywhere, that is, except in Massachusetts. If Bloomberg wins this year, it will be the fifth consecutive time that a Republican candidate has carried a 5-1 Democratic city. This time, the mayor isn’t running as a registered Republican—as he did the first two times—and he wants us to believe that he is an Independent with a Democratic tilt. Democrats just can’t take back the big office in Gotham, and the Union of Federated Teachers has learned new tactics to gain the […]

No, silly. There is not going to be a lawsuit just because the President isn’t going to nominate His Excellency the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts (HETG to the BlueMassGroupies, see line 3). It’s that HETG has not once, to my knowledge, ever recognized charter schools during National Charter School Week. And below follows the proclamation made by POTUS. Hmmm, perhaps HETG v. POTUS is a catchier title for a blog entry. While pondering such imponderables, let me cue the presidential proclamation: Improving our schools is the collective responsibility of all Americans—business owners and workers, educators and parents, students and their communities. We must ensure that all students receive a high-quality education that delivers the knowledge and skills needed […]

Shawn Regan reports in the Eagle Tribune that “the greatest myth in the [Haverhill] school district” is “that city schools have been losing dozens of teachers every year due to budget cuts.” Not so. But in truth, the number of teachers in the district has grown by four in each of the previous three years, according to information provided by the Haverhill teachers union — figures school administrators don’t dispute. Several School Committee members who have voted to eliminate teachers for several years in a row said they were surprised by the revelation. “The community and certainly the School Committee has believed teachers are going down every year because we’ve been cutting them,” School Committee President Scott Wood said after […]

That’s all it took. We wait years for pension reform. Years for the state to reform the health care purchasing regime. Decades for them to loose the embrace of public employee unions. All that takes decades. And it isn’t done. But an increase in the sales tax? All it takes is a day. On this one the Governor is right. His letter yesterday certainly offended House members, in a way U.S. interference in a Central American election would offend that country’s population. The Governor’s letter was certainly an act of political gamesmanship, but what is wrong with that? Yes, he got the gospel late in the game, finally insisting on reform first. But the Senate only talked a great game. […]