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Dubious Connection of the Day

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A search of the apartment belonging to the Russian spies turned up, among other things, a variety of pills and capsules. Their lawyer responded: “The pills and vitamins indicate to me that they were well integrated into the Cambridge social scene,” said Boston attorney Robert Sheketoff, who represented Foley, adding that the unidentified pills were probably vitamins and anti-oxidants. Not really sure where he’s headed with that one….

Plagarized Post: Scrap the Muni Relief Bill

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Sigh. This space takes enough potshots at the Globe, so they deserve credit when its due. Their editorial this AM pretty articulately states my reasons for opposing this bill. Its a cynical hodge-podge of small bore initiatives that ignores the big issue — health insurance for municipalities. In particular, one of the bill’s worst features is its extension of the pension funding schedule by 10 years: Most public-employee pension systems don’t have enough money stashed away for the benefits that they’ve promised, and under current law they have until 2030 to catch up. The municipal relief bill would extend the deadline for a full 10 years. There’s a superficial logic to this change; pension funds have suffered deep losses, and […]

Day 3: Modernize state agencies to encourage local school reform

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In a recent blog, I noted how bloated the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) has gotten, even as the state cuts local aid to schools. The DESE has grown diffuse, has protected its personnel and added highly compensated deputy and associate commissioner positions, and shared in none of the cuts made to actual programs (METCO, Special Education funding, etc.) and schools. It’s important to send as much money of our education budget to schools (and frankly to get superintendents to do the same). It is just as critical to ensure that the state office is supportive of reform and not simply a compliance office. The current state of play is this: We’ve created a web of nominal education […]

Thought Experiment

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Substitute “Pioneer Institute” for “Health Care For All” in the following State House News report (subscription required) and ask yourself if there would be radio silence in the press and blogosphere (BlueMassGroup, call your office!!) on this: The documents also reveal a cozy relationship between the Patrick administration and Health Care For All, a consumer advocacy organization that often support the administration’s health care policies. In an email exchange on March 24, Health Care for All official Georgia Maheras repeatedly asked Insurance Commissioner Murphy how the group can be “helpful” in responding to his pending decisions on health insurance rates for small businesses. “If you expect to do anything ‘newsworthy’, can we be helpful with our blog or media at […]

Day 2: Strengthen the objective MCAS test

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When Governor William Weld signed the Education Reform Act, no one thought that within a short few years more than 90 percent of Massachusetts’ students would be passing the MCAS. Nor did anyone then believe that our 4th- and 8th-grade students would soon rank among the top-scoring nations on the Trends in International mathematics and Science Study exams. Notwithstanding the state’s educational successes, critics of the MCAS—and of other elements of our accountability system such as a district and school audit system—remain. New Bedford Mayor Scott Lang castigates the MCAS for causing kids to drop out—wrongly, as can be seen in the percentage of dropouts [updated: in their senior year] who have already passed the MCAS and for reasons presented […]