MORE ARTICLES
Becket Fund’s Eric Rassbach on Loffman v. CA DOE, Religious Liberty, & SchoolingNovember 27, 2024 - 10:30 am
Pioneer Institute Statement on Vocational-Technical School AdmissionsNovember 26, 2024 - 8:00 am
FY2026 Consensus Revenue Hearing – Forecasting of Revenues is Tricky BusinessNovember 25, 2024 - 8:00 am
CUNY’s Carl Rollyson on William Faulkner & Southern LiteratureNovember 20, 2024 - 10:36 am
Pioneer Institute Study Finds Massachusetts Saw Four-Fold Loss of Income to Net OutmigrationNovember 19, 2024 - 11:25 am
Massachusetts Job Market Bears WatchingNovember 18, 2024 - 2:10 pm
NH Gov. Chris Sununu on School ChoiceNovember 13, 2024 - 2:02 pm
Five Reasons Why Project Labor Agreements Are Bad Public PolicyNovember 12, 2024 - 9:27 am
Statement of Pioneer Institute on MCAS Ballot Failure and State of Education in MassachusettsNovember 6, 2024 - 2:01 pm
Dr. Helen Baxendale on Great Hearts Classical Liberal Arts Charter SchoolsNovember 6, 2024 - 12:08 pm
Hard hitting WaPo piece on scholarships
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byAnthony Williams, the D.C. mayor from 1999 to 2007, and Kevin Chavous, former D.C. City Councilor and co-founder of Democrats for Education Reform, penned a powerful call for the President to show leadership in the Washington Post. Despite the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program’s five-year record of success in helping children from low-income D.C. families attend the best schools they have ever known, President Obama, Sen. Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Rep. José E. Serrano (D-N.Y.) are threatening to end it… Plain and simple, the position of Obama, Durbin and Serrano is to let the program die. Williams and Chavous are especially sour on Serrano: In his Nov. 28 Local Opinions commentary, Serrano said that the Opportunity Scholarships were “imposed” on […]
Whining About Legislative Process
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byYesterday’s Globe highlighted a troubling aspect of the state Legislature’s current process: cramming really detailed pieces of legislation into a few short days. What does this do? It concentrates power in the hands of lobbyists (who provide drafts of amendments) and staffers (who create the actual product). It drains power from elected representatives, who have no hope of actually reading, analyzing and pondering the consequences of all the paper that flies through the chamber. And it also cuts the press and the public out of the process almost altogether. The Globe piece examined an amendment offered by Senator Sonia Chang-Diaz that severely limited the number of districts where the charter cap might be raised. From my read of the amendments, […]
Awkward Juxtaposition Department — Probation
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byToday’s Globe detailed a new Boston Foundation report that shows state spending on the probation department rising at a rate of 163 percent over the last ten years, far outstripping almost every other part of state government. So, where’s the money going? Well, it appears that at least $2 million of it just walked out the door with one of their accounting clerks.
Going Off the Rails On the Khazei Train
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /by(sorry about the title, could not resist). In the last two weeks, two separate polls have come out (Globe and Rasmussen), both showing Martha Coakley with a significant lead. (Sidebar: The careful reader will note how much time is spent in the Globe poll determining that the respondent is a registered Democrat, unlike its previous effort in the Mayor’s race). The interesting part, at least for this observer, will be to see how Alan Khazei fares. In an abbreviated election cycle and starting with almost zero name recognition, he’s either running last or tied for third depending on which poll you believe. He’s managed to spin his amazing rolodex (note to self: make more billionaire friends) into fairly shocking endorsements […]
Too high a price to pay?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byThe Chicago Tribune editorial page ran an incredible piece just before Thanksgiving. I will give much of it to you below, but you have to promise to watch the video I am linking to. We watched an interesting YouTube video the other day. It was brought to our attention by state Sen. James Meeks, the Chicago Democrat who is also pastor of Salem Baptist Church on the South Side. We think our readers should check out the video. It’ll open your eyes. Meeks, who chairs the Illinois Senate Education Committee, has been in a war with the Chicago Teachers Union since he had some tough things to say about public education in a Tribune essay and in a speech at […]