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So whaddaya think about Sunday's vote?

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Many thoughts but here are three key ones: 1) What a wasted opportunity to get it right. Little learning from existing experiments like MA’s was drawn upon, and there are no real market mechanisms used to contain costs. Top-down cost containment will just lead to cost-shifting. 2) What a wasted opportunity by Republicans in the early 2000s. Why didn’t they do more than pilot programs to address skyrocketing premiums? 3) What a mess this will be going forward. It is going to be super-expensive for the taxpayer, and it will again shift a lot of the burden to people with private insurance. Two analyses, at antipodes of the ideological spectrum, are worth highlighting. First is Kimberley A. Strassel’s opinion piece […]

Little settlement with words

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Words have history, and that is really why they have power. All it takes is one breath to dredge up all sorts of memories and associations. It’s eye-popping when you read a great observer (plug in your favorite literary reference), but in the realm of politics that history is mainly playing off emotions and seeking to motivate one to action or inaction. Education is probably the place where the jargon and sharp-edged words are most prominent; e.g., “drill and kill,” “the field” (guess what you are excluded!), “choice,” and so on. This morning reading through the news, and I was curious about the statement by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that East Jerusalem was not a “colony.” It struck me […]

Prop 2 1/2 Jersey style

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David Halbfinger of the New York Times reports that Governor Christie is proposing “deep cuts” in state spending, which will amount to something like 5 percent of the state budget. Interestingly, Christie is taking a page out of Massachusetts’ lore and seeking to replicate Prop 2 1/2: Mr. Christie’s idea for a 2.5 percent cap on increases in property taxes, modeled on Proposition 2 ½ in Massachusetts, would allow no exceptions except by local referendum and would apply to towns, school boards and counties. He also is calling for new handcuffs on towns and school districts as they bargain with unions, to prohibit towns from awarding contracts with pay increases, including benefits, of more than 2.5 percent.

NPT: Rumblings in the non-profit underground?

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The Non-Profit Times sends almost daily emails with surveys and tips on management. I never really open them (catchy eblast titles is something they need a little work at…). Today’s stood out: Survey: No Cash On Hand At 12% of Charities Wow. That’s an eye-catcher. Admittedly, I am not going to dig into the methodology today, as we have a lot on the plate, but, if accurate, things are even more volatile in the non-profit world than I had thought. America’s nonprofits expect that 2010 will be financially more difficult or as difficult as 2009, according to a survey, the results of which were released by Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF). And, some of them don’t have enough cash on hand […]

Calling all reporters!

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My last blog noted that states will now have to adopt the common core standards or give up much of a chance at the RttT funds. And, yes, I did call Arne Duncan a schoolmarm. 😉 So, one wonders, what exactly did DESE represent to their USED interrogators [;-)] earlier this week? Isn’t that a matter of public record? Will some reporter ask that question? If they don’t, we will.