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Slow to act
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Economic Opportunity, News /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonPost haste it is not. I received a few days ago a letter from a friend in DC. She had apparently cut out a newspaper article from May 2nd and sent it to me. Now, I don’t know what blue plate special it got stuck under, but it took almost two months for me to get it. Speaking of slow to act, how about the contents of said article? Let’s start with the title of the article in The Current: “Old convention center site to host 700 housing units.” Seems that the 10-acre parcel southwest of Mount Vernon Square where the Washington Convention Center was (New York Avenue and 9th, H and 11th streets) is being redeveloped as a Town […]
An even happier Fourth
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson… and perhaps an unhappy fifth. The deed is done. I made it through the Arnold Mills four-miler far faster than I had thought, executed with aplomb and a fine Pioneer-esque strategy. I gave due consideration to the Greek psychology (mine), which is based primarily on avoidance of shame. I thought of what was achievable and paced myself. To be specific, I made my way to a place within eyeshot of a teenager, who I had overheard telling her dad how she was training but just couldn’t take it seriously. Music to my ears. I stayed throughout the race within eyeshot and came away right smack in the middle of the 500-plus runner race. I feel good, red-faced and ready […]
Jim on WGBH – Housing
/0 Comments/in Blog, Housing, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonAt 7 p.m. sharp (in three minutes), with David Wluka of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and a developer who is seeking to use the market to produce housing for folks in the 65 to 80 % of median income range. Discussion covers: the continued impact of regulations that restrict supply; the arguments made by municipalities (impact on property values and, ugh, we cannot afford the schools costs that come with kids!); and how cities can address these issues (long-term contracts with municipal employees, pension reform, and insuring employees through the Group Insurance Commission). Munis, if you have problems, come to Pioneer. We have the solutions. Just look at what Springfield’s been able to accomplish. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
Give me a break – and a Happy Fourth
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonOver the weekend, someone was on the T griping about how people have started to say “Happy Fourth!” in that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed American way. I am sure my fellow rider was impressing her Eastern European-sounding interlocutor. Perhaps it is better to say “Enjoy the time off,” “I hope you enjoy the 4th with your family,” or something similar. But give me a break: Why not “Happy Fourth”? We are constitutionally constructed around the ideal of the pursuit of happiness as defined by citizens, so I think it is absolutely great to have a happy 4th, and I intend on doing just that — back in li’l old Cumberland, RI. Happiness on the Fourth in Cumberland means: A 4-mile footrace in […]
Revenge of the status quotists
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonIn his letter to the editor (“Ed board shuffle: a lesson in irony,” July 2, 2007), Dan French trots out a number of myths long perpetuated by supporters of the status quo in education. He contends that Governor Weld packed the Board of Education, overlooking the fact that changes on the board had strong support from a Democratic Legislature alarmed at what was then the slow pace of education reform. Weld appointed John Silber as the chairman of the Board, who, notwithstanding the views some may have of him, was the largest vote-getter among recent Democratic gubernatorial candidates until Governor Patrick’s election last year. He contends that five of the nine members had ties to Pioneer or other free-market think […]
Progress after Education Reform
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonSo the “revisionistas” (a.k.a. status quotists, special interests, etc.) are trotting out the view that Massachusetts’ school system was always the best in the country, even before the Ed Reform Act of 1993 (and before standardized testing, accountability and innovation through charters). As my 6th grade American Civics teacher used to say in his baritone drawl: That’s mullarky! See my previous post on the NAEP scores. How about Massachusetts’ performance on the SATs? As former Senate President Tom Birmingham, one of the architects of Ed Reform, noted at a November 06 Pioneer event entitled “Has Education Reform Stalled?” If you had told Weld or Roosevelt or me on that hot day in June 1993 that more than 90 percent of […]
Wrong again, Glenn – PI is for one accountability system (4 of 4)
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonFinally, in his letter to the Globe editor Glenn talks of districts balancing the state’s largest educational regulatory burden — a 14-tiered system of accountability, assessments, and accreditations — against severely restricted local budgets. He goes on with the preposterous: Pioneer cheerlead[s] for the bureaucracy that burdens the nation’s most overregulated public schools. As everyone knows, generally (though not always) Pioneer agrees with the view that micromanagement of localities should not be the state’s first course of action. There are too many mandates on the use of state funding (on HMOs, on businesses, etc.). Pioneer supports a single accountability system: the independent, district-wide and school-based accountability assessments performed by the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA). This morning we […]
Micromanaging the Courts
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe conference budget came out last Friday. There’s plenty of grist for the mill there, but I direct your attention to the following section: SECTION 26. Section 58 of chapter 218 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 76, the words “an assistant clerk” and inserting in place thereof the following words :- a first assistant clerk and 3 assistant clerks. Its worth your while to take a look at the law in question. It lays out in precise and excruciating detail the staffing levels and salaries of a large portion of court personnel. Section 26, above, mandates that the particular district court in question hire 3 additional clerks. Pioneer has long […]
What Glenn gets wrong – Ed Reform and progress (3 of 4)
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Healthcare, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonI remember a rally in front of the State House when my daughter Teruha was only one or two. I lived on Beacon Hill back then, in a five-floor walkup. My legs were stronger, as were Ritsuko’s. Teruha was a champ and at that age would sleep on tables whenever we went out to eat, which was too often because I love to eat out, especially in the summer. It was hot out — I think it was June. My calm lass in my arms, I was headed to the Commons to play with a ball. But the open area was crowded with protesters, and the tract of Charles Street between the Public Garden and the Commons was lined with […]
What Glenn glosses over – GIC and better coverage for teachers (2 of 4)
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Healthcare, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonOdd that, in his letter to the Globe editor (6/30/07), Glenn glosses over the part of the bulk purchasing proposal for teachers’ health insurance through the state Group Insurance Commission that should matter most to teachers. Here’s that (2) left hanging from the previous post: Purchasing teachers’ health insurance through the GIC = Better coverage for teachers Hate to raise that significant (for teachers) and perhaps pesky (for Glenn) fact, but as Allison Fraser and I pointed out in our Globe op-ed: smaller districts often have just one or two health plans, while GIC offers a dozen. Not a small matter for the folks who play an important role in how our kids do in school.
Where Glenn Koocher agrees – GIC cost sharing (1 of 4)
/1 Comment/in Better Government, Blog, Healthcare, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonIn a letter to the Globe editor yesterday, it seems that Glenn Koocher, ED of the MA Association of School Committees, thinks he disagrees with an op-ed (An avoidable teachers strike) published on Tuesday in the Globe by Allison Fraser and me. But he writes: Cost sharing of health insurance, a most contentious item, is but part of the task. Taking it off the bargaining table camouflages the real health and educational problem. Containing health costs at the provider level and managing inappropriate use of healthcare resources are equally effective strategies for controlling insurance costs. Exploring short- and long-term disability coverage can also help manage sick leave costs. So, it seems to me, he agrees that cost sharing is part […]
When you are wrong
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonDoes the PTA really represent parents? After the PTA’s support of teacher strikes across the country in the 1960s, there was a significant drop in support for the organization. Across the country the number of PTA members has declined by more than half since the early 1960s from over 12 million to less than 6 million. The political bent of the PTA is not common knowledge to its membership, but as it becomes known–especially the PTA’s opposition to school choice, charters, and school reform–their membership has furthered declined. In the Commonwealth there are 1 million kids in K-12. There are 20,000 members of the PTA (down from a high of 100,000 in the 1960s). Only 3 percent of Massachusetts schools […]
When you are wrong, you are wrong. When you are right, you are right.
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonOn NewsNight (NECN) last week, I wanted to communicate that the PTA is, as Jim Braude summarized, “a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA.” He got my point, but I got my facts wrong. And I hate that. I said that the PTA headquarters was co-located with the National Education Association (NEA) HQ. In fact, as Lisa Guisbond pointed out to me in an email, the PTA HQ is in Chicago, not in DC like the NEA’s. I was referencing the fact that the PTA rented space within the NEA HQ from 1920 to 1953. I was off by 54 years – no small matter. And I apologize for the mistake. The context for this mistake was a discussion about the […]
The heart of the Pioneer Valley
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonTip of the hat to Heather Brandon at Urban Compass — a great place to get up to the second news and updates on shops and the heartbeat of Springfield.
They call it Pioneer Valley for a reason, 2
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Economic Opportunity, News /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonSo what has all the reform in the City of Springfield led to? Hundreds of jobs in the pipeline and tens of millions of dollars in private investment. You want to see the cold, hard facts on the progress? Good. Click here. Hard to imagine just a couple of years ago that we can now say without any possibility that someone would laugh – the City of Homes is the best managed large city in the Commonwealth. And with Ed Flynn at the helm of the Springfield Police, there is confidence that the public safety issues are going to be given the right kind of attention. If you are tired of the traffic, want access to great open space, and […]