Transcripts

Massachusetts Education Reform Act co-author and former Senate President Tom Birmingham praised the historic success that has been achieved since the law was enacted in 1993, but expressed concern that the Commonwealth is veering away from basic principles of the law that produced that success at a State House event marking the 25th anniversary of the Education Reform Act.

I have heard, read, or seen these statements within the last year. What fascinated and concerned me then and continues to fascinate and concern me today is the level, the preponderance, and the consistency of this vitriol. I have come to a singular conclusion: race continues to be a primary way many people construct, deconstruct, and understand meaning in our country today. Race and the role it plays in America's history continue to impact every individual, everyday.

I've known E.D. Hirsch for some years, having spoken on the same programs with him on a number of occasions. I have the greatest respect for Professor Hirsch's work and am happy to consider him a friend. Professor Hirsch is the author of several books including the seminal work Cultural Literacy and most recently, The Making of Americans: Democracy and Our Schools, where he makes the case that a paramount goal of American public education is to produce sentient human beings capable of participating as intelligent citizens in a democracy.

I'm pleased to be here this morning. I'd like to thank Pioneer Institute for hosting this event, as well as the co-sponsors, including the Parents Alliance for Catholic Education, the Becket Fund, the Black Alliance for Educational,Options, and Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance.

I want to start by thanking Jim, Jamie, and the Democrats for Education Reform (DFER) for having me today. I'm a board member at DFER, so perhaps they didn't have any choice, but I'm grateful to Pioneer for the opportunity. And on behalf of Joe Williams, greetings.

Massachusetts has seen dramatic changes in the transportation landscape over the last two years. Major reforms have been enacted to restructure how transportation assets are managed and bring efficiencies to the system. With these major changes, many observers view transportation reform as 'done' and much of the attention to transportation reform has ebbed away. To keep the conversation moving, Pioneer and the Center for Strategic Studies at the College of Business at Northeastern University sponsored a forum in May of2010 to bring together some of the innovators in transportation strategic thinking.

Thank you for being here today and caring enough about this important and timely issue. I’m here as the warm up act to the main event; here to introduce Professor E.D. Hirsch and to provide some Massachusetts context to our ongoing discussion about the nature and level of expectations to which we can appropriately hold our public school students.

This discussion forum was organized around the release of Northeastern University Professor Joseph M. Giglio’s latest book, Driving Questions: Developing A National Transportation Vision, which raises important strategic questions about the planning and funding of the transportation system in Massachusetts.

Ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I’m Diane Schmalensee, Chairperson of the Pioneer Institute, and I’m delighted to welcome you to the 8th Annual Lovett C. Peters Gala and Public Policy Lecture.

To Pioneer Institute, let me say thanks for hosting what really is a very timely event. Let’s cut right to the chase. The bloom is off the rose of education reform. If by hosting events such as this, you can re-invigorate and re-inject the enthusiasm that heretofore had characterized our efforts to improve our public schools, you will be performing a great public service. So, Pioneer Institute, thank you very much for getting us to focus on this issue.