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Watering down Milquetoast

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Jamie Vaznis in today’s Globe presents a bombshell: The state’s second-largest teachers union organization, which represents teachers in Boston and other big cities, has decided to boycott Massachusetts’ application for the Obama administration’s innovative educational fund, possibly jeopardizing $250 million in grants. Massachusetts lost points on its Race to the Top application because it only got buy-in from about 2/3 of the local teachers unions. In the first round of RttT, the state application received support even from key federation units. While it is devoutly to be wished for, the Obama administration is wrong to insist on union buy-in. Unions may not be the buggaboo they are often made out to be – often the superintendents are worse enemies of […]

A missed opportunity to fix small business insurance

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Small business insurance has been a mess in this state for a while. The health care reform act of 2006 was supposed to help make it work better. It did not. Julie Donnelly of the Boston Business Journal notes that Fallon and some other insurers in the state are seeing the small business market as costing them a lot of money. And they could pull up stakes. That might be the “nuclear” option as Fallon put it, but the sad thing is that the governor could have taken a different approach from his current “wallpaper” policy. Patrick circa 2010 is saying essentially who cares about the cost of health care, let’s set the price. That is akin to someone who […]

He is a maestro

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Watch the video clip of Governor Patrick speaking in Lowell, while police officers are outside picketing him at the Tom & Todd/WRKO show. Give him a baton and the orchestra would swoon. Such a strong speaker and so at ease.

Did He Say That?

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From today’s Jack Spillane piece on SouthCoastToday.com (and the New Bedford Standard-Times): Tim Sullivan, the legislative director for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, pointed to the problem: Private sector workers — even unionized ones — resent having to pay for public-sector union benefits that are increasingly superior to those available in the private sector A surprising claim from a surprising source. Bobby Haynes, call your office!

Donal Fox!

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I know I am supposed to spruce up the blog with references to pop culture, but I don’t know how to do that. I’ll leave that to education bloggers at the Fordham Institute and to Jay Greene’s crew. It’s Sunday so cut me some slack, and let me tell you about an incredible night of music. Last night I was blown away by one of the greatest nights I’ve spent listening to music in a long time. Scullers has some great acts, but last night I went to see Donal Fox and was completely blown away. I mean completely blown away. Technically blown away, musically blown away, still blown away. Donal Fox owns his piano in a way few people […]