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Beacon Hill Budget Games
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Steve PoftakI’m a bit perplexed at the latest round of expectation-setting from Beacon Hill regarding the FY2013 budget. First, it turns out we still have a structural deficit. But, didn’t the Governor tell us that the FY12 budget “eliminates the structural deficit I inherited from my predecessors”. And MTF President Mike Widmer came close to concurring, noting the near elimination of the structural deficit. Now, we find out there’s a $550 million structural gap. (Plus the cost of pushing out the pension fund, but that’s a bit harder to understand.) Working from MassBudget’s curiously well-informed preview of the FY13 Governor’s Budget, I next learn that the Consensus Revenue Estimate says we’ll have an additional $840 million in available funds for the […]
The 21 studies that generated the findings in “Civics Exam: Schools of Choice Boost Civic Values”
/0 Comments/in Oped: Education, Opeds /by Editorial Staffhttp://educationnext.org/the-21-studies-that-generated-the-findings-in-civics-exam-schools-of-choice-boost-civic-values/ Campbell, David E. 2001a. “Civic Education: Readying Massachusetts’ Next Generation of Citizens.” White Paper 17, Boston: Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. Available by request of the author, Dave_Campbell@nd.edu. ———. 2001b. “Making Democratic Education Work.” In Charters, Vouchers, and Public Education, edited by Paul E. Peterson and David E. Campbell. Washington, DC: Brookings, pp. 241-67. ———. 2002. “The Civic Side of School Reform: How Do School Vouchers Affect Civic Education?” Working Paper of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, Princeton, NJ, April 16. Available by request of the author, Dave_Campbell@nd.edu. Coleman, James S., and Thomas Hoffer. 1987. Public and Private High Schools: The Impact of Communities. New York: Basic Books. Dee, Thomas S. 2005. “The Effects of […]
Poftak: Freeze the unemployment tax
/0 Comments/in Oped: Better Government, Oped: Economy, Opeds /by Editorial Staffhttp://www.dailynewstranscript.com/opinion/columnists/x2062852269/Poftak-Freeze-the-unemployment-tax#axzz2NGLZfsv3 You don’t have to be a genius to know that you get less of whatever you tax. And you don’t have to be an economist to know that now isn’t the time to tax jobs. State senators from both parties recently called on Senate President Therese Murray to stop a scheduled increase in the commonwealth’s unemployment insurance tax. House and Senate Republicans have filed a bill to freeze the current rates and the House is taking up a spending bill that would also freeze the rates. Unemployment insurance benefits are paid for by a tax on employers for every person they employ. Without the freeze, the tax would go up 31 percent, from an annual average of $715 per […]
Accountability Overboard: Massachusetts poised to toss out the nation’s most successful reforms
/0 Comments/in Oped: Common Core, Oped: Education, Opeds /by Editorial Staffhttp://educationnext.org/accountability-overboard/ President Barack Obama and Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick are both brilliant orators who espouse the “politics of hope.” Both know about hope firsthand, having overcome less-than-privileged backgrounds to achieve great success. Patrick endorsed Obama early in the campaign and is a close advisor. That closeness got Obama in trouble during the primaries, when he was caught cribbing lines from some of Patrick’s speeches. More recently, Patrick chaired the platform committee for the Democratic National Convention that nominated Obama. But we can only hope their similarities don’t extend to education policy. Patrick calls education his “singular pursuit.” Yet after winning election in a 2006 landslide fueled by strong support from the Bay State’s powerful teachers unions—including $3 million in contributions—he […]
An education in virtual schooling
/0 Comments/in Oped: Common Core, Oped: Education, Oped: Virtual Schools, Opeds /by Editorial Staffhttp://www.lowellsun.com/editorials/ci_19734981 From working to shopping and paying our bills, the Internet seems to have transformed virtually every aspect of modern life. Now it’s changing the way we educate our children. Thirty states plus the District of Columbia have full-time online schools. And while those schools only educate about 200,000 students nationwide, that number is growing by about 25 percent each year. Florida opened one of the first online schools in 1997 and the Florida Virtual School is now the nation’s largest. California alone has 16 virtual schools. In 2006, Michigan became the first state to make completion of at least one online class a high-school graduation requirement. Since then, Alabama and Florida have followed. Reasons for attending a virtual school […]