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A must read from Hirsch

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This piece by ED Hirsch in the American Educator is a tour de force. (You can also listen to the podcast he did to publicize the book for NRO. I know many states have looked to choice as the single answer to educational challenges. In Massachusetts, we took a more comprehensive view of reform, which bundled choice through charters with accountability and setting really high academic standards goals. The results you know: In a decade we went from 11th in the country to 1st, and from mid-range on the international math and science tests to among the top 5-6 “countries” (along with Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan). Our charters also perform at a higher level than those in many other […]

MoveOn.org opposes health care bill

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About three hours ago, MoveOn.org asked its members to undertake a letter-writing campaign to the Senate. No, not in support of the health care bill, but in opposition. Wow. What a difference a year makes.

MassDOT Apps Are Coming!

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There’s a new app available for you IPhone users (who aren’t participating in Operation Chokehold in an hour) that lets you figure out when buses are arriving on certain MBTA routes. I’m not sure if its the first app out or not, but MassDOT has been doing some fascinating work reaching out to the developer community and providing them with data feeds. I was recently reading MassDOT’s 90-day implementation report (yep, I’m cool.) and was struck by a passage on data. As part of a discussion about outsourcing the 511 service, it notes their efforts to move “toward a vision of government as a wholesaler of information rather than a retailer.” That’s a mouthful coming from a public sector entity. […]

What Does $400+ million get you?

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Or, to put it in greater detail, what does $471 million per year, plus authorization for millions in capital funding, the ability to issue tax-free bonds through your own conduit, and untold millions in soft subsidies (like, say, $250,000 for 173 pages of reports — here and here). Well, if you are UMASS Chancellor Robert C. Holub, the answer is nothing. He responds bluntly to some legislators questioning of the potential acquisition of the law school in southeastern Massachusetts: In the past months there has been a great deal of controversy about the establishment of a law school on the Dartmouth campus of the University of Massachusetts. This controversy continues even after the Board of Trustees has voted on three […]

Finally some good news on the DC choice program

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Andrew Campanella passes on the good new that “a bipartisan team of U.S. Senators is calling on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow an up-or-down vote on the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program’s reauthorization bill.” According to a letter signed by Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), Susan Collins (R-ME), Robert Byrd (D-WV), George Voinovich (R-OH), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), and John Ensign (R-NV), the OSP has “provided a lifeline to many low-income children in the District of Columbia.” The Senators set a specific deadline for floor time to discuss the OSP: January 31, 2010. Our friends in DC are buoyed by this bipartisan call: “The time has come for Senators to stand and be counted,” said former D.C. Councilman Kevin P. Chavous. […]