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Johns Hopkins’ Ashley Berner on Educational Pluralism & DemocracyApril 17, 2024 - 2:53 pm
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39th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky for National Poetry MonthApril 10, 2024 - 12:16 pm
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Helpful Governing Tips
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byRe: Use of Email Tip #1: Don’t use it to try and engineer the installation of a lightly-qualified supporter into a plum job. Tip #2: Don’t repeat #1 a few months later with an even higher press profile. Tip #3: Don’t dispose of an authority head and blame them for something that your and their emails clearly contradict. Bonus Sub-Tip: Go easy on the WWII references. Tip #4: Don’t use email to lay out the political calculus for highly controversial decisions that are supposed to be made based on objective criteria. Thus ends today’s session at the Lomasney Center for Political Communications at Pioneer Institute.
The Perfect Storm in Gloucester
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byWe have long lamented the politicization of education policy broadly, but especially on charter schools, since the creation of the position of the Education Secretary and the packing of the board of education. Think back to the decision to kill off a great charter application in the Brockton area for purely political reasons. Or consider how the 21st-century skills agenda moved forward in the MCAS contract without any board approval. Looking for reminders? Okay, try here, here, here, and here, as well as a number of reports, op-eds, etc., which I will not list out. All of this is the lead-up to the perfect storm in Gloucester, where the Gloucester Times notes, with charity, Ed chief’s e-mail kills his, secretary’s […]
Ouch
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe print version of the Globe (corrected here online) quoted MassTrans Executive Director-designee Jeff Mullan as commenting on the recent rash of fires at MBTA stations. Turns out they actually were quoting the current Sec’y of Transportation Jim Aloisi (who resigned but is still in office until the end of October). PS- You’ll note another oddity in the same corrections column. They run a movie review-related correction for an error in the same day’s paper. Turns out that, as a cost-savings measure, the “G” section is printed several days in advance.
Thoughts on Tuesday's Election in Boston
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /by– Boston should take a lot of pride in the quality, depth, and diversity of its at-large city council candidates. Top-to-bottom, this is a serious group, all worthy of consideration, and all seem to have run hard — marching in parades, doorknocking, leafleting. – Had the pleasure of walking down Centre Street in high-voting Ward 20 this morning at rush hour. There was a literal swarm of city employees — a BTD command center, DPW workers painting lampposts and powerwashing (!?) the sidewalks, street sweepers, construction workers rebuilding the library, and, of course, supervisors for everyone. Must be election season in Boston. – The Herald threw a curveball into the at-large race. First, they endorsed five candidates (and you can […]
Small suggestion
/2 Comments/in Blog, News /byThe Globe editorial page has settled into a very even-keel point of view on school reform, embracing accountability, testing, funding, high academic standards, as well as charters and newly proposed readiness schools. They’ve been advocates of positive change. Editorial pages and news pages are different. Opinions belong on the opinion pages and we could use a little less tilt in the Globe’s day-to-day education reporting. This space has noted the tilt several times in the past (here, here, and here). A little more knowledge of the history of how Massachusetts went from, on average, having pretty good schools to having the best schools in the country would help improve that reporting. And (small suggestion) on a day when Jamie Vaznis […]