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Jeffrey Meyers on Edgar Allan Poe, Gothic Horror, & HalloweenOctober 30, 2024 - 11:44 am
Mountain State Modifications: Tiffany Uses ESA Flexibility to Pivot Quickly For Her Son’s EducationOctober 24, 2024 - 12:11 pm
Study Published by Pioneer Institute Shows Massachusetts Learning Loss Among Nation’s WorstOctober 24, 2024 - 10:31 am
U-TX at SA’s Catherine Clinton on Harriet Tubman & the Underground RailroadOctober 23, 2024 - 11:30 am
Award-Winner Tom Segev on Israel’s Founding Father, David Ben-GurionOctober 16, 2024 - 11:59 am
Pioneer Institute Study Finds MCAS, Education Reform Have Significantly Improved Academic AttainmentOctober 16, 2024 - 11:46 am
McAnneny October Monthly Musings – Ballot InitiativesOctober 11, 2024 - 2:17 pm
Homeschooling with Hope: Katie Switzer’s ESA ExperienceOctober 10, 2024 - 11:24 am
Lynch Foundation’s Katie Everett on School Finance Model for Catholic Schools & School ChoiceOctober 9, 2024 - 11:30 am
Pioneer Institute Study Finds Wide Range of Approaches to Compliance with MBTA Communities LawOctober 6, 2024 - 9:12 pm
Too many do-gooders?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Related Education Blogs /byI’ve had a chance to talk by phone with a number of superintendents over the past month. After the election of Vincent Gray in Washington DC and the hammer ready to fall on the now former DC School Chancellor (the equivalent of the city’s superintendent) Michelle Rhee, I wanted to get their thoughts on how things are going. When you talk to superintendents, there are two things you hear. One is predictable (the lack of resources—and it is not just in Massachusetts that you hear it), the other isn’t. So after the first five or ten minutes listening about how there is no money, you often hear quite a bit on this: the number of people who show up on […]
Was Galileo Wrong?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Related Education Blogs /byDiane Ravitch, the eminent historian of education, has noted that “[i]n the land of American pedagogy, innovation is frequently confused with progress, and whatever is thought to be new is always embraced more readily than what is known to be true.” Nowhere does public education’s intellectual fog envelope minds more obviously than when American educators think about how to improve the nation’s academic standing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Today’s Globe article makes it crystal clear that we are falling far short of the best countries and especially short of our global economic competitors. Nearly 400 years ago, Galileo Galilei, the “Father of Modern Science,” told the geocentric world, “science is written in the language of mathematics.” And […]
Regulating Regulations
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byDuring the gubernatorial campaign, Governor Patrick promised that if he were reelected, he would borrow some ideas from Charlie Baker. One particular idea that he should consider adopting is Baker’s proposed review and reform of regulatory procedures. When Congress and state legislatures enact laws, they authorize certain agencies to fill in gaps in the legislation by issuing regulations that clarify and expand on various legislative provisions. For instance, in Massachusetts, agencies have issued regulations ranging from rules regarding the manufacture of ice cream to procedures governing the licensure of optometrists. (Regulations are available on the state’s website organized by topic.) Lawmakers authorize agencies to issue regulations for several reasons: Agency staffers have greater expertise in a given area than lawmakers […]
Raining Cats and Dogs: Massachusetts Local Budgets
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, News /byA Boston Globe headline today seems to imply cities and towns are being irresponsible by saving, yet many local officials appear to be anticipating dark clouds ahead. As Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer is quoted in the article, “They [Massachusetts communities] know the stimulus money is gone, and that in 2011 and 2012, they’re going to get hammered.’’ As the town administrator of East Bridgewater expounds, “Since the state is out of control in the way they dole out their money, you have to solidify your own finances.” When will the state get it? Since 2008, Pioneer has been working with 14 Middle Cities to address some of these pressing fiscal issues in post-industrial cities. Without measuring performance, improvement […]
Patrick-Baker Compared to Brown-Coakley
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byScott Brown’s election in January 2010 was supposed to be the beginning of a Republican wave. Comparing the vote totals between the major party candidates in the special Senate election and yesterday’s gubernatorial race provides some insight. In total*, Patrick beat Baker by 153,000 votes. Comparing raw vote totals with the Brown-Coakley election, Patrick improved his raw votes by 5% – getting 105% of the votes that Coakley got. On the other hand, Baker severely underperformed Brown’s raw vote totals, attracting only 82% of Brown’s votes, an almost 200,000 vote difference. If you put Baker and Cahill’s totals together, you are up to 95% of the vote. Looking at the municipal level shows gives some additional texture: Patrick outperformed Coakley […]