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Day 1: Strengthen the richest liberal arts standards in the nation
/2 Comments/in Blog, News /byThe future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens. That’s President Obama singling out Massachusetts as a model for the rest for the United States on March 9, 2009. He went on to say: The solution to low test scores is not lower standards – it’s tougher, clearer standards. Standards like those in Massachusetts, where 8th graders are now tying for first – first – in the world in science. The president was right in 2009, before his agenda on standards morphed into the usual “the feds know best” attitude. Academic standards and objective assessments for teachers and students are the major drivers of the overall improvement we’ve witnessed in Massachusetts’ district schools. They are also a major […]
Countdown to World Class Schools
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byThe next two years are going to see the roughest state and local budgets in memory. While we have to balance the books, I am hoping that whoever is governor from 2011 will understand that there is a lot we can do even in a tight fiscal environment to pick up the pace in our schools. For 12 days, I’ll lay out actions that are possible even in a time of constrained budgets. One set of actions each day. Consider it something of a countdown, a Countdown to World-Class Schools, that will summarize what could–no, what should–be the agenda for the incoming governor. A Little Background Enactment and partial implementation of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act (MERA) have improved […]
The GOV and Senate President Are Right
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by…on racino licensing. Both are pushing back on racino proposals that would not apply market pricing to these particular gaming licenses. As I wrote in 2006 for the Boston Globe: Massachusetts’ great gambling giveaway IF THE MASSACHUSETTS Legislature wrote a billion-dollar check to the casino industry, people would be outraged. But the [2006] gambling bill, awaiting action in the House after receiving Senate approval, threatens to give away more than $1 billion in value by charging an inordinately low fee for the four proposed licenses…. …The point is not that the state should fix the exact license price. Rather, there is credible evidence that the proposed license price is too low and difficult to ascertain…. …the state should not provide […]
Patrick-Murray Campaign Upgrades to Latest Technology
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byA new piece of social networking hachi-machi to organize field workers? A rapid response e-blast system? No, the GOV and LG have added a bus to their arsenal. To date, only Guy Glodis has brought the bus to the 2010 statewide contests. Behold the campaign’s latest purchase:
Top 10 Reasons I Will Not Be Running for Tobin's Council Seat
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by10 – don’t actually live in district 9 – weekend attire of Celtics/Red Sox gear, mesh shorts and flip-flops considered unstatesmanlike 8 – equally unpopular with public safety employees and progressives 7 – not prepared to explain “It’s Polish, but my mom’s Irish” a million times 6 – far right-wing rants in college op-eds might come back to haunt me (actually, never mind…..) 5 – most district residents know me from screaming at (my own) unruly children at Roche Brothers 4 – have never sponsored little league or soccer team 3 – absolutely no relation whatsoever to anyone named Coppinger 2 – still not on Menino Machine’s Christmas Card list 1 – little-known rule reserves post for a graduate of […]
GOV's Race Machismo
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byThis morning’s newspaper reports that the LG was hospitalized yesterday after marching in an incredible (insane?) 5 parades over the sweltering weekend. Get well soon, Tim Murray. So, is Tim Cahill’s tweet this AM a bit of one upsmanship? [emphasis added]: 7 parades in 3 days! Great parade coverage by @fox25news & @joebattenfeld http://ow.ly/27vaK #mapoli #magov #timin10 44 minutes ago via HootSuite
Happy 4th – Gordon Wood on the Founding
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byBelow is a video of an event, History and Civic Education, that we held with Brown University Professor Gordon Wood, the amazing historian of the American Founding. The video starts with Charles White, the head of Project Civic Engagement in the School of Education at Boston University. My introductory remarks begin at 3:30. They are part good ol’ patriotic rant, I suppose, but they give you a sense about how Pioneer sees itself in our community today. At 9:15 Boston City Councilor Maureen Feeney, who so understands the importance of history instruction in our schools and the need for civic engagement informed by knowledge of our history and our institutions. And then at 18:17 begins Dr. Wood–and he is always […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On Love of Country
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just two days, we will celebrate the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I’ve been highlighting Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention. It’s not because he was a Republican, nor because he was perfect. We saw from 2000 to 2008 the unfriendly reception Republicans in Washington gave to the principles of our founders – and to even the more recent ideals restated by Reagan. Reagan had more than his share of faults, as do all actors on the American stage. What this last segment of that speech in 1980 points out is that the rare quality that Reagan had (and perhaps the only recent political figure I have seen who has it is a […]
A painful budget for schools, not state officials
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byGovernor Patrick signed a $27.6 billion budget for the upcoming fiscal year, touting it as “balanced, responsible and on time.” Notwithstanding all the cries of pain from the state budgeters, it represents an increase over the 2010 budget, albeit of only 0.2 percent. Most families and most localities would take that deal. The state can’t handle it. The Guv has put off $300 million in debt payments, drained the near bone-dry rainy day fund further and set us up on a cliff now that the federal stimulus dollars are all spent. The mismatch of revenues and spending (often called in deep sonorous tones “The Structural Deficit” by budgetistas) remains. Lots of eyes are focused on implications for legal and illegal […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On Individual Freedom & Dignity
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. … [W]e are going to initiate action to get substantial relief for our taxpaying citizens and action to put people back to work. None of this will be based on any new form of monetary tinkering or fiscal sleight-of-hand. We will simply apply to government the common sense that we all use in our daily lives. Work and family are at the […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On Limited Government
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. We must have the clarity of vision to see the difference between what is essential and what is merely desirable; and then the courage to bring our Government back under control. It is essential that we maintain both the forward momentum of economic growth and the strength of the safety net between those in our society who need help. We also believe […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On Virtue (& Why Gov't Can Undermine It)
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. First, we must overcome something the present Administration has cooked up: a new and altogether indigestible economic stew, one part inflation, one part high unemployment, one part recession, one part runaway taxes, one part deficit spending seasoned with an energy crisis. It’s an economic stew that has turned the national stomach. Ours are not problems of abstract economic theory. These are problems […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On Why Limited Government Doesn’t Mean Sh&*ty Government
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. I often get tired of supposedly theoretical discussions about limited government—that sort of caricature libertarian who wants anarchy. Dudes, not helpful. Freedom is not simply freedom from government, nor is it simply freedom through government. Freedom in the American context is a balance of those two impulses, much like the balance of several institutional powers inside the frame of constitutional government. What […]
Happy 234th Anniversary: On American Exceptionalism
/4 Comments/in Blog, News /byIn just a few days, we will be celebrating the 234th anniversary of our republic. To mark the occasion, I thought it would be fun to go back to one of the great acceptance speeches of the past 50 years – Ronald Reagan’s speech at the 1980 Republican convention – and pull out eight important themes for 2010. Three-hundred-and-sixty years ago, in 1620, a group of families dared to cross a mighty ocean to build a future for themselves in a new world. When they arrived at Plymouth, Massachusetts, they formed what they called a “compact,” an agreement among themselves to build a community and abide by its laws. This single act – the voluntary binding together of free people […]
Power to the Children
/1 Comment/in Blog, News /byThe Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) will, this summer, have 99 charter schools serving over 25,000 students in 20 states and the nation’s capital. KIPP has just posted a study conducted by Mathematica (www.kipp.org/mathematica). The results are astounding, as both KIPP co-founder Mike Feinberg noted in a Houston Chronicle article: “This is great news for the people who have already had faith in us,” he said. “For the people who have been on the fence, I hope this makes them true believers.” And Nelson Smith, head of the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, noted, “It helps demolish some of the myths that people hold about KIPP,” Smith said. “Some of the ways people have tried to excuse or explain […]