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Superior Court Judge Invalidates “Equity Theft” Law as UnconstitutionalApril 23, 2024 - 1:04 pm
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Massachusetts’ Workforce Growing Older and More Diverse, Remains Highly EducatedApril 18, 2024 - 9:26 am
Johns Hopkins’ Ashley Berner on Educational Pluralism & DemocracyApril 17, 2024 - 2:53 pm
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Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free MarketsApril 16, 2024 - 12:34 pm
39th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky for National Poetry MonthApril 10, 2024 - 12:16 pm
A Practically 100% Guaranteed Free RideApril 9, 2024 - 1:21 pm
Is he just spinning or out of the loop?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayThe other day my esteemed colleague Steve Poftak and I, in separate posts here and here, both jumped on a schizophrenic statement in a Boston Globe editorial to the effect that there is excess infrastructure and staffing in Boston’s public schools, yet, at least according to the Globe, the City should eliminate transportation for students attending private and parochial schools as a way to offset cuts. (As I wrote in my original post, I don’t disagree with the premise that the City shouldn’t be on the hook for the transportation costs of students whose parents choose not to send them to public school. I simply have a problem with the discrepancy between the excess capacity the Globe cites and the […]
Enough about Marian Walsh, let's talk about Quasi-Public Conduits
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe Patrick Administration’s publicly stated (still!) strategy for placing Senator Walsh in the Assistant Director’s position at HEFA is to facilitate the merger of HEFA and MassDevelopment. As part of their business, each of these entities serves as a conduit for non-profits to issue debt. The Administration believes that the overlap between these two entities is bad, as it drives down fees to the non-profits, limiting the amount of money these entities collect. Paul Levy, among others, points out that having a competitive environment allows non-profits to access financing at lower rates. Which is a good thing, I think. I would also note that if overlap is an issue, MassDevelopment and MassHousing have competed with each other for a much […]
Assignment Desk: No Compensation Provision of Pension Reform
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byTo: Hilary Chabot, Matt Viser and whomever else is writing on pension reform. Pension reform plans put forward by the Senate and the Governor each have provisions to stop local officials serving in largely voluntary positions from receiving pension service credit for time in those positions. The problem is that each of the bills restricts this reform to “unpaid local officials” (in this case of the Governor) or “municipal officials” who served in positions with “no compensation” (in the case of the Senate). Why shouldn’t this count towards state positions and those local positions that receive a nominal salary, as many moderators and selectboards do? No offense to those providing those important services, but credit towards a state pension should […]
Begging to Be Unpacked
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /by(Great minds think alike — My colleague beat me to the punch. I’m posting anyway.) Today’s Globe has an editorial calling for an end to the practice of funding transportation for schoolchildren attending private school in Boston. Within the piece there was this little nugget: Crowded school districts in many suburbs are only too happy to pay to transport private school students while saving the much higher cost of educating them. But such equilibrium does not exist in Boston, where the infrastructure and staffing can support thousands more children than currently attend the public schools. [Emphasis Added] That’s a mouthful — given that the Mayor is planning on laying off hundreds of teachers, I’d like to know if these layoffs […]
When falling demand and inflexible management collide
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Liam DayThere’s a rather curious editorial in today’s Globe. I don’t necessarily quibble with its basic premise, that the City of Boston should not be on the hook for the transportation costs of those students whose parents choose to send them to a private or parochial school. At one point, however, the editorial states that Boston’s infrastructure and staffing can support thousands more children than currently attend the public schools. The estimated $2 million spent on busing Boston’s private school students would be better used to offset cuts in public classrooms. This struck me as a paradoxical juxtaposition. If there is so much excess capacity in the system, then should we not be encouraging cuts, not looking for ways to offset […]