MORE ARTICLES
Vitamin Parents Part 2: Twin Moms Converting a Decent Traditional School Experience Into a “Wow” Homeschool OneSeptember 26, 2024 - 11:50 am
Edward Achorn on Abraham Lincoln, the Civil War, & SlaverySeptember 25, 2024 - 11:45 am
Vitamin Parents Part 1: Twin Moms Converting a Decent Traditional School Experience Into a “Wow” Homeschool OneSeptember 19, 2024 - 12:21 pm
PRI’s Lance Izumi on The Great Classroom CollapseSeptember 18, 2024 - 7:20 am
Learning From California: Policy Lessons From Golden State ExodusSeptember 17, 2024 - 10:35 am
Is Massachusetts at a Turning Point – 10 Data Points That Give Me PauseSeptember 12, 2024 - 3:57 pm
From Stress to Success: How Daniella Transformed Her Son’s Learning with ESA FundsSeptember 12, 2024 - 11:46 am
AFC’s Denisha Allen on School Choice & Black Minds MatterSeptember 12, 2024 - 9:54 am
New England Short Circuit: Distorted Incentives Drive Energy Prices Up and Reliability DownSeptember 10, 2024 - 10:30 am
From Garden to Table: How Alicia Garcia Reshapes Home Ec with ESAsSeptember 5, 2024 - 11:59 am
What will adoption of national standards cost Massachusetts schools?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Common Core, Blog: Education, Jim Stergios, News, Related Education Blogs, Transparency /byIt’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 for what it will cost. Let me say that again: We have at the state and federal level changed policies that are far-reaching for our states, districts and schools, and yet we have had no idea what it will cost to do so. McGraw-Hill’s February 2011 Education Brief notes that States and districts are unsure what the true cost of implementing Common Core will be and worry that the money needed will not be available in state or […]
Brief Thoughts on Tuesday’s Election Results
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Steve PoftakMonster 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 voters to work with. City-wide for Pressley?: Pressley ran strong citywide, with the notable exception of South Boston. I’ll take a deeper dive into those numbers later this week and draw some conclusions about the results, particularly who gained votes where.
Preserving Benefits Trumps Public Safety
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /by Taylor ArmerdingPolice 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 went before the Supreme Judicial Court this week. And if the union wins, the likely outcome will be cuts in police staffing throughout the state. The suit is over funding for the Police Career Incentive Pay Program, more commonly known as the Quinn Bill, which has drained public safety funding since 1970. It is one of the reasons that police base pay, which the unions regularly cite to claim that officers are underpaid, is such a fiction. In […]
Focus group, dog and pony show, or both? Early Results from Health Connector FOIA
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Transparency /byIf 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 listening. Eight days after my blog post on the delayed Evergreen Solar request, and just 175 days after it was originally filed, I finally received 66 pages of responsive documents. The Executive Office of Housing and Economic Development kindly waived potential fees. Shortly before that I received the results of another overdue request, this one to the Commonwealth Health Insurance Connector for the results of early focus groups the state used to shape the simple Gold/Silver/Bronze selection now […]
5 Things to Watch in Tuesday’s At Large City Council Race
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Steve PoftakNext 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? The narrative for the early part of the race was based on Michael Flaherty’s entry into the at-large race after giving up his seat to run against Mayor Menino. This created the dynamic of four incumbents, and Flaherty (practically a incumbent as well with strong citywide name recognition) running for only four seats. As the lowest votegetter in the last race, Ayanna Pressley was viewed as the most vulnerable. Her potential exit from the council raised the possibility […]