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Let Me (Try to) Explain — Property Tax Increases
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by(Blog series so named for William Bulger’s admonition about the three most deadly words a politician can say: Let me explain.) The gubernatorial candidates are sniping at each other over property tax issues. And Blue Mass Group poster “JohnK” has weighed in with a measured assessment of the claims and counterclaims, entitled “CHARLIEBAKERFAIL” or some such thing (they must be using a template at this point). The latest salvo comes from the Patrick Campaign, which is trying a very delicate semantic pivot — that property tax increases have decreased under the GOV. They put up this chart, which I can’t recreate. But from this DOR data, I get directionally the same results. (I’d note that I’m using “Total Tax Levy” […]
How did I make it without a black box theatre?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by(I guess this is my introduction to middle age — this is a ‘back in my day’ post) Now, I take a back seat to very few people in the privileged upbringing department — leafy green suburbs, high quality schools — but the new Newton North high school does give one pause. I respect the desire to have the best for your kids (although I’m not happy with the negative incentives that ‘free’ state money provided), but this school is a bit much. Look at all the stuff: A regular theatre and a ‘black-box theatre’ (whatever that might be)? The large flat screen TVs at various stations? Two gyms? Elliptical machines? and on and on. I hope the edifice complex […]
Ho-hum to the Guv on education
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, Related Education Blogs /byThis morning on the Todd and Tom show on WRKO, Joe Battenfield (who was sitting in for Todd Feinburg) noted that the Governor’s office is claiming that Pioneer’s view of the national standards issue is a result of politics. What they are suggesting is that because Charlie Baker was Pioneer’s first executive director 20+ years ago, we are running defense for him. You can listen to the whole interview here (it’s not too long, clocking in at 10 minutes). My response was Ho-Hum. What I noted was that it’s hard to say that when on the day of the Board of Education’s vote to scrap the state standards, we did a press release with Tim Cahill — not Charlie Baker. […]
Massachusetts gets Race to the Top grant
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Common Core, Blog: Education, Jim Stergios, Related Education Blogs /byThe Race to the Top grants have been made and Massachusetts will receive a total of $250 million, to be distributed over a four-year period. That’s good for MA. Very good. Though we should remember at what cost the money came and also take the opportunity to ask a few meaty questions. Let’s start with the questions: Why the late August release? It’s not a great news cycle. And the decisions were supposed to be announced in mid-September — that would be perfect with the kids back at school and lots of parents thinking about education. How did Massachusetts get the highest score of all the states? After all, they had strong unions support (unlike Massachusetts, where the local chapter […]
Ed Commish "blatantly violated the law"
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Common Core, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, Related Education Blogs /byPatrick Anderson at the Gloucester Times reports today that Superior Court Judge Richard Welch III found that the case presents “considerable evidence” that the state education commissioner and Board of Education “blatantly ignored and violated state law when granting the GCA charter for political reasons.” And more: While he dismissed the parents’ argument that the commissioner is legally bound to follow the recommendation of his Charter School Office, Welch — echoing state Sen. Bruce Tarr and state Inspector General Gregory Sullivan — said there is no evidence Chester made any attempt to independently judge the application against the established criteria. “… There is a strong factual showing that the Commissioner, despite his affidavit to the contrary, did not perform his […]
Gov's Council Race Goes Negative
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byQuick, who is your Governor’s Councillor? Chances are that you have no idea. I’ve said in the past that its time for this vestige of our colonial past to go, but still it remains. In the 2nd race, the current councillor, Kelly Timilty, faced a challenge the last time around but prevailed 66% to 34% over Robert Jubinville. In that race, Timilty faked an endorsement from Governor Patrick and ended up paying a fine after the fact for her actions. Well, Jubinville is back and he’s not pleased. Check out the mailer I received over the weekend. Pretty rough stuff – cheating and stealing, etc. Curious where they got that shot of Timilty.
Curb your enthusiasm
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byJobs is a tough issue for the Governor these days, given the news of job losses coming out of Wonderland. But then there’s the announcement today, which Robert Gavin reports about in the Globe: The state gained more than 13,000 jobs in July, while data revisions showed that employment growth in June, nearly 3,000 jobs, was far stronger than initially estimated, the Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development reported today. The state unemployment rate held steady at 9 percent. David Guarino is tweeting about a pep rally the Governor is going to hold at 4:30 to celebrate the jobs numbers. And Doug Rubin is tweeting Globe: “MA added jobs for 6th consecutive month as MA economy continued a broad […]
No flies on them Freedom Fries
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byHuh? You’d think that I have that backwards, with the freedom-loving, federalist heritage that Americans love so much. Try this chart published in the August 12th Economist showing central (for us federal) government spending as a percentage of overall public spending. Statists and dirigistes is what we are. Makes you want to head across the pond, raise a glass of champagne and celebrate France’s undying commitment to liberte’!
I Love the Smell of Centrism in the Morning
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byI must admit to an unhealthy fascination with the state auditor’s race. Besides Guy Glodis’ bus, you’ve got an interesting cast of characters (and conflicting voter bloc loyalties) on both ballots. So, I was interested to see this yard sign duo cropping up around the Suffolk & Norfolk District:
Welcome to Forced Regionalization
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byThis space has been a big proponent of regionalization, with a strong preference for organic, self-directed regionalization. For the towns surrounding Lawrence, they may not have that luxury. When we looked at the attempt to regionalize fire services on the South Shore in the report linked above, one unexpected finding was that some communities already received an implicit subsidy based on mutual aid agreements (and were loathe to enter into a regionalization agreement that caused them to have to pay up for what they were getting for free). The City of Lawrence appears to be doing something similar. It has cut back its fire department staffing to what appears to this layman to be extraordinarily low levels. As a result, […]
Offensive and Wrong
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byOne of the card-carrying members of this town’s great and good, Judy Meredith, contributes the following to a Blue Mass Group discussion of Matt Amorello’s arrest: thanks for this ernie (6.00 / 4) so sad for Matt, not a bad fellow at all. I suspect too many police officers are high school bullies who were too stupid for community college and lacked the self control required by organized crime. by: Judy Meredith @ Tue Aug 10, 2010 at 09:09:01 AM CDT I include the entire comment (despite the awkward formatting) so no one can say its taken out of context. This space has not always had a great relationship with the public safety community (examples here and here), but I’ve […]
The Difference Between Lynn and Salem
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byOne of the nifty things about using the Globe Reader application is that I get to see the regional editions of the paper. This week’s Globe North edition has a fascinating account of the differences between Lynn and Salem. Each community has certain assets, received public funds for development activities, and chose certain strategies. The results are quite different. If you are interested in urban development, I encourage you to give the piece a read.
Day 12: Choice Now
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byCountdown to World-Class Schools summarizes 12 actions the incoming governor can take to make our schools the best in the world. All achievable. All for under $50 million. It’s fascinating to watch the “moral” opposition to school choice (even public school choice) of officials who’ve benefited from private educations or now send their kids to private schools. Certainly, President Obama, Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Murray and Ed Secretary Paul Reville all attended pretty special schools, and the President and the Governor exercise this option to school their own kids. Good for them. But don’t parents who have less money also deserve a similar option? (At right is a picture of Milton Academy, where the Governor went.) I say this not […]
Best Wishes To Curt
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byToday’s news reports that Curt Schilling has accepted the deal offered by the state of Rhode Island and is relocating his company there. (Our previous thoughts on the topic and Curt’s response is here.) The Herald’s report describes state economic development officials as being on the defensive. They shouldn’t be.* Schilling’s got every right to get the best deal for his company. And the loss of jobs (roughly 200 from the website, it appears) is acutely painful. But, if you look at the big picture, as Pioneer has — here and here — you see that firm relocation has a negligible impact on job creation. Of course, you hate to see any jobs go, but the reality is that what […]
The Limits of Data: Weighted Edition
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byOne tip for aspiring data hounds — always ask for weighted data. What do I mean? What’s the on-time performance for commuter rail? In NY, it’s 96%! Huzzah, right? Wrong, that’s on the basis of trains, not weighted by passenger. Anecdotal evidence suggests rush-hour trains (which are packed with people) have a much higher rate of delay. By not weighting on-time data by passenger, NY’s on-time performance fails to tell the whole story and fails the credibility test with the most important user group of all — the customers.