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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
Why Did the Old Woman Swallow the Fly?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /bySo, in order to make the convention center (which taxpayers subsidized to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars) a real success, we need to subsidize a massive expansion of the facility plus some portion of an estimated $700m hotel? Then we’ll be done? Promise?
Questioning the AGs Means, Not Motive
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThis morning’s Globe has a story on the Attorney General’s office handing out a grant to provide summer jobs in Boston. Now, that’s a fine thing to support in principle but why is the AG’s office in the business of grant-making to worthy causes? My read of the office’s enabling act — Chap. 12 of the MGLs — provides little insight. It turns out that the AG has been giving out grants to a variety of groups under the rubric of “Project Yes” which is spending out funds from a settlement with pharmaceutical companies on projects that “promote health”. Again, each of these group appears worthy of support. But why is the AG’s office making grants in the name of […]
It's a beautiful day out
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /byKeep looking up folks. The sky is still blue this morning. And keep looking up if for no other reason than that looking down is getting pretty scary. Cue the Greek national anthem. Hope you like it, because you’ll have to get used to it.
Still Curious About State Workforce Numbers
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byBrian Mooney penned a piece for the Globe last week discussing how state workforce numbers has declined. Its a topic we raised 17 months ago, so its great to see Mr. Mooney’s interest. ANF Sec’y Gonzalez provides data to Mooney that demonstrates that the executive branch has reduced its budget funded workforce by roughly 1,600 jobs since Governor Patrick took office. They’ve also explained it in the Governor’s budget as well. For my own analysis, I rely on the CAFR put out by the Comptrollers’ office, given ANF’s notoriously tight-fisted hold on giving information about headcount to the public. Unfortunately, that data only goes up to FY09 and its shows an overall increase in state workforce and (as near as […]
National scholarship on education
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byNCLB had its day and advanced some useful trends at the state and local level. But it has foundered on a couple of major shoals, including the downward pressure it applied on the quality of state assessment systems and its inability to advance school options for students in chronically failing schools. With the limbo that NCLB has been in, a number of scholars have looked at the national landscape on education policy, including Diane Ravitch (The Death and Life of the Great American School System — buy it at Amazon for $16 rather than $26 at Borders!) and Paul Peterson (Saving Schools — buy it at Amazon for $17 rather than $27 at Borders!). Both give broad historical reads on […]