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November 18, 2011

The Dog That Didn't Bark -- Chelsea Housing Authority and the Auditor

It feels like a familiar story – an obscure public sector entity with a clueless (or worse) board of directors fails to do their job and the executive director makes off with bags of money. Except this time, the setting is the...
November 16, 2011

What a Deal: State $. No Oversight?

Imagine getting money from the state on a no-bid basis. Even better, a state law names you as the sole entity eligible to get the cash. If you are lucky enough to be BDC Capital, you don’t have to imagine. As recently...
November 12, 2011

Pressley’s Victory and Connolly’s Regrets

The more you look at Ayanna Pressley’s first-place finish in Tuesday’s at-large race, the more impressive it looks. As I noted previously, she was able to hold onto a lot of votes from the 2009 at-large election that had much higher turnout...
American Citizenship, Education
November 12, 2011

Does Mass. Exclude Low-Achievers from National Education Tests?

Last week, in reporting the national test results on how our public schools are doing, I noted that while It is wonderful that Massachusetts has maintained its lead nationally, … [o]ur students are no longer improving at the rate they were and...
American Citizenship, Education
November 10, 2011

What will adoption of national standards cost Massachusetts schools?

It’s always struck me as odd that with all the talk about federal money coming from the federal Race to the Top effort to support state implementation of national standards (the so-called Common Core), no one has done a solid cost estimate...
November 9, 2011

Brief Thoughts on Tuesday's Election Results

Monster win for Pressley: She topped the ticket unequivocally. In the last at-large race, 354 votes separated the two ticket-toppers (Connolly and Murphy). This time around, Pressley beat her closest competitor (Arroyo) by more than 2,000 votes with closer to 50,000 fewer...
Opportunity
November 7, 2011

Preserving Benefits Trumps Public Safety

Police union leaders are forever claiming that their highest priority is public safety. But the evidence says otherwise – it is more about money, even if that means cannibalizing their ranks. As the Boston Globe reports, a lawsuit brought by Boston police...
American Citizenship
November 7, 2011

Focus group, dog and pony show, or both? Early Results from Health Connector FOIA

If government agencies had nothing to hide, perhaps they would follow public records laws. I’ve written before about how non-responsive state agencies can be to public record requests, and in particular to requests dealing with Evergreen Solar, and it now appears somebody has been...
November 4, 2011

5 Things to Watch in Tuesday's At Large City Council Race

Next Tuesday’s municipal election in Boston has a competitive at-large race and its outcome will provide some advance info on what to expect in the next mayor’s race. Here are 5 things to watch: 1) Is the Flaherty-Pressley Competition A Legit Thesis?...
Education
November 4, 2011

Massachusetts: Flatlined on national tests?

EdWeek‘s Erik Robelen is reporting on the just released national test data. He notes that they show that 4th and 8th graders have inched up in mathematics, but the results are more mixed in reading, with 4th grade scores flat compared with...