THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

Award-winning film on public schools – Kendall, 4/30 – 5/6

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Not to be missed for anyone who cares about public schools is The Cartel is an eye-opening documentary about the disastrous New Jersey public school system that is failing the children, parents, and communities it claims to serve. Director Bob Bowdon exposes the corruption and rampant waste of taxpayer money at the heart of the crisis. New Jersey spends more money per pupil than any state except New York, yet only 37 percent of its fourth-graders are proficient in reading. The Cartel presents all the horrendous facts, and culminates with a persuasive argument for school choice reform. The documentary has won numerous awards, including the Visionary Award and the Audience Award for Best Documentary at the 2010 Washington, D.C. Independent […]

Jim Stergios

Why's the Connector so slow in providing insurance choices to small biz?

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It is amazing to watch the Governor take credit for slapping price controls on insurance companies. Didn’t work for Nixon 40 years ago – and it is no smarter than a homeowner, when faced with a giant leak in the roof, who insists that a contractor keep slapping wallpaper up to hide the water damage. The Commonwealth Connector was supposed to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time — that is provide near-free products to the indigent and also to act as a marketplace where small business owners and employees could shop for lots of insurance options. The near-free products were marketed, with great success on the uptake but mixed results on improving access, improving quality […]

Jim Stergios

A constitutional threat

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The Globe’s editorial early in the month welcoming Sarah Palin and tea party activists was fine. But Globe commentators are flailing wildly at this point about who TP activists are. It’s boring, overwrought and hypocritical. Neal Gabler draws a parallel between the tea partiers and, uh, al-Qaeda leaders. Neal, take the chill pill. (No, not the blue one.) As my daughter puts it so eloquently, Neal is talking a pig pile o’ poopie. (Working on her writing for content: I know “a pile o’ pig poopie” is a more sensible articulation.) In Neal’s world, people who marched against the wars from 2001-2008, accusing the previous administration of blood for oil, fascism, racism, and “genocide” against Arabs are fine. They may […]

Jim Stergios

Not an American political convention

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Saturday post. Off topic but hopefully a fun video. Intro. The Telegraph maps out the broad lines: In a rare public debate among Mr Berlusconi’s Party of Freedom, lower house speaker Gianfranco Fini, a co-founder of the party in 2009, levelled a raft of criticisms at the style and substance of the prime minister’s leadership… Mr Berlusconi stepped up to the podium right after Mr Fini’s speech, criticising his ally for making political statements while holding a post that requires him to be impartial and for not participating in the campaign for regional elections last month to thundering applause. In another life, I lived in Italy, was into the politics, and showed up on TV to comment on American stuff. […]

Jim Stergios

MA & FL should get together to drive ed reform in US

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I often say two things in different ways: (1) MA is #1 on the Nation’s Report Card and in the top 6 “countries” internationally on math and science – yadayadayada. (2) The feds don’t know their &ss from their elbows on education. Not their fault but they are too far away to do anything useful. Name one great reform USDOE has put in place since its creation in the 70s… … still waiting… Yeah, okay, let’s table that. As much as I like what MA has done, there are other states that are hard-charging on reform and have something to teach us. Matt Ladner points out that 64% of FL’s poor 4th grade students (free and reduced lunch) score basic […]

Jim Stergios

IN says no thanks to RttT

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So I guess Arne Duncan’s “pretty please” letter to the Governors did not do the trick. After Kansas pulled out of the running for Race to the Top, now it is Indiana’s turn. This from the Indiana DOE: Indiana Department of Education: IDOE Halts Race to the Top Efforts, Focuses on Implementing Reform Plans FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 22, 2010 Media Contact: Kim Preston 317-232-6615, kpreston@doe.in.gov Yesterday, the Indiana State Teachers Association declined an invitation (letter attached) to meet and further discuss union support for vital components of the state’s Race to the Top (RttT) application that are the foundation for Indiana’s student-focused reform agenda. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Tony Bennett issued this statement in response: “I […]

Jim Stergios

Letter from Arne Duncan: Please re-apply…

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When translated from the language of the feds, the US Secretary of Education’s April 15th letter to the Governors pretty much can be summed up as “pretty please.” After the round 1 Race to the Top grant awards to DE and TN, the reaction from the states was a little, well, unimpressed. States grumbled about what “reform” meant for the USED, and states like Kansas pulled out of round 2. So Arne Duncan put pen to paper and asked the Guvs to, well, uhm, please re-apply. With a cherry on top. April 15, 2010 Dear Governors: Let me begin by thanking you for your leadership on education. Thanks to you, America has entered a new era of education reform and […]

Jim Stergios

Disappointing piece from Dave Driscoll in the Globe

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Former MA education commissioner David Driscoll opined today in the Globe that we should just move ahead with the Common Core standards. Uh, how about no. His is a pretty disappointing piece. It conflates participating in the Common Core Standards process with accepting the final product. Everyone agrees that MA should be involved in the CC standards process. But I hope we also all agree that we should NOT accept the proposed CC standards if they are weaker than our current standards. For some reason, the former commissioner divines that they will be better than our current nation-leading standards. How does he know that? They currently are not – not by a long shot. And while the recent drafts are […]

Jim Stergios

Kansas: Keep your Race to yourself

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Kansas is not applying for Race to the Top funds, according to the Lawrence Journal World: KANSAS BOARD DECIDES NOT TO APPLY FOR RTTT PHASE 2 FUNDS — In a 9-0 vote, the Kansas State Board of Education chose not to apply for up to $166 million in federal Race to the Top funds this spring because of some of the competition’s caveats. Interim Commissioner Diane DeBaker said the state fared poorly in the first round of applications because it does not have an alternative system for teacher certifications, no statewide system of evaluations for principals and teachers, and teacher pay is not tied to student performance. Board member Sally Cauble said Kansas’ system of local control works against it. […]

damittell

MBTA: Walking the Tightrope

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On the face of it the MBTA and its new General Manager Richard Davey are to be praised for taking action against 8 managers accused falsifying maintenance records at 3 garages. Could this actually be the beginning of reform? Ah, but in the 18’th paragraph of The Globe’s story on the subject, one of the disciplined managers asserted (anonymously) that recording phantom maintenance is longtime standard procedure. If one recalls (as I do) 30 years of stories of greed, dishonesty and contempt for the public at the MBTA, the claim is to be taken seriously. The larger question is, Is the MBTA not too big not to fail? Until 1964 the Metropolitian Transit Authority ran buses and rapid transit in […]

Jim Stergios

Who's Milquetoast? The envelope please…

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So some of you did not get the reference to Caspar Milquetoast, even though I provided the wikipedia link. Hmm. Ok, the envelope please… Jesting, of course…

Jim Stergios

Watering down Milquetoast

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Jamie Vaznis in today’s Globe presents a bombshell: The state’s second-largest teachers union organization, which represents teachers in Boston and other big cities, has decided to boycott Massachusetts’ application for the Obama administration’s innovative educational fund, possibly jeopardizing $250 million in grants. Massachusetts lost points on its Race to the Top application because it only got buy-in from about 2/3 of the local teachers unions. In the first round of RttT, the state application received support even from key federation units. While it is devoutly to be wished for, the Obama administration is wrong to insist on union buy-in. Unions may not be the buggaboo they are often made out to be – often the superintendents are worse enemies of […]

Jim Stergios

A missed opportunity to fix small business insurance

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Small business insurance has been a mess in this state for a while. The health care reform act of 2006 was supposed to help make it work better. It did not. Julie Donnelly of the Boston Business Journal notes that Fallon and some other insurers in the state are seeing the small business market as costing them a lot of money. And they could pull up stakes. That might be the “nuclear” option as Fallon put it, but the sad thing is that the governor could have taken a different approach from his current “wallpaper” policy. Patrick circa 2010 is saying essentially who cares about the cost of health care, let’s set the price. That is akin to someone who […]

Jim Stergios

He is a maestro

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Watch the video clip of Governor Patrick speaking in Lowell, while police officers are outside picketing him at the Tom & Todd/WRKO show. Give him a baton and the orchestra would swoon. Such a strong speaker and so at ease.

Steve Poftak

Did He Say That?

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From today’s Jack Spillane piece on SouthCoastToday.com (and the New Bedford Standard-Times): Tim Sullivan, the legislative director for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, pointed to the problem: Private sector workers — even unionized ones — resent having to pay for public-sector union benefits that are increasingly superior to those available in the private sector A surprising claim from a surprising source. Bobby Haynes, call your office!