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Feel that boot on the neck yet?

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As the National Governor Association and the Council of Chiefs (CCSSO) roll out the state-led, oops, sorry, national standards, they are distributing a sort of loyalty oath to a number of players in the industry. Remember that this is primarily about money, and the K-12 industry spends hundreds of billions of dollars a year in this country. Much of that is textbooks, and the reason the feds were livid with Texas is that it was a large buyer of textbooks and was uninterested in a centralized, national curriculum. So it decided not to participate. CA is not in yet either. Those are two mighty big prizes. But the NGA and CCSSO can have a big impact, especially with the Gates […]

They're national, not state standards

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Today, the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) and the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) released a set of state-led education standards, the Common Core State Standards, at Peachtree Ridge High School in Suwanee, GA. The English-language arts and mathematics standards for grades K-12 were developed in collaboration with a variety of stakeholders including content experts, states, teachers, school administrators and parents. The standards establish clear and consistent goals for learning that will prepare America’s children for success in college and work. That’s the first para in today’s NGA and the CCSSO’s press release. Notice the “state-led” language. For the longest time the Common Core standards have been marketed as “state standards.” This the CCSSI, […]

What A Difference 11 Months Makes…

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Do you remember what the Patrick Administration spent last July doing? Carefully explaining that they would not kill cute, furry, beloved-by-children animals. Yep, it seems like a distant memory but the Administration was pinned down for a healthy chunk of July 2009 by the Franklin Park Zookeeper’s threats to shut down the zoo and let the state decide what animals would…ahem…be victims of cost-cutting.. Now, I’m a big fan of the zookeeper in question, but as a zookeeper not a political mastermind, so it was a curious sight to behold. The contrast with the present day is pretty clear. The GOV has found his political footing and is doing a creditable job of throwing political punches. Time flies in Massachusetts […]

Special Friday (late pm) redirect

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Greg Sargent of the WaPo‘s Plum Line notes that the White House is floating out there that Bill Clinton was sent to speak to Joe Sestak (who defeated Arlen Specter in the D primary for US Senate) about “other options.” Floating Bill Clinton’s name on Friday morning while saying that they might be saying something else later in a Friday pm… Friday pm on Memorial Day weekend… strikes me as synonymous with: Guys, there is a bad story we are trying to redirect. Senior White House advisers asked former President Bill Clinton to talk to Joe Sestak about whether he was serious about running for Senate, and to feel out whether he’d be open to other alternatives, according to sources […]

Protecting Our Inalienable Right to Subsidized Golf

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Sometimes you wonder what is going on up on Beacon Hill. In the midst of the Senate budget debate, there was a proposal to put certain state assets like golf courses and swimming pools out for operation to private managers. As we’ve noted before, the results of doing this for skating rinks has been an across the board win — continued affordability, greater access, more capital investment, and less burden on the state budget. But Senator Timility has other ideas: I rise in opposition to this amendment…. I’ve played Ponkapoag for years. It’s on the farmland of Henry Pearson. When they donated the land in 1894, they said it would be open and free to the commonwealth forever. Ponkapoag pond, […]