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The Trust Deficit Grows

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

Yesterday, I got up on my soapbox and railed about the trust deficit our state and local leaders need to close before they think about closing the fiscal deficit. Well, today, unfortunately, based on some anecdotal evidence, it appears the trust deficit may be opening, not closing. Jim Stergios has an interesting post just below mine about the fiscal shell games going on in Haverhill’s school system and – poor Wilfredo Laboy – the Lawrence Eagle Tribune reported yesterday that the embattled superintendent was made aware of the illegal background checks his assistant was conducting long before it came out in the press. To turn his ridiculous quote back on him, where is Wilfredo Laboy’s transgression in all of this? […]

Paper cuts in Haverhill

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Shawn Regan reports in the Eagle Tribune that “the greatest myth in the [Haverhill] school district” is “that city schools have been losing dozens of teachers every year due to budget cuts.” Not so. But in truth, the number of teachers in the district has grown by four in each of the previous three years, according to information provided by the Haverhill teachers union — figures school administrators don’t dispute. Several School Committee members who have voted to eliminate teachers for several years in a row said they were surprised by the revelation. “The community and certainly the School Committee has believed teachers are going down every year because we’ve been cutting them,” School Committee President Scott Wood said after […]

They are good at what they do

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The National Education Association is, bar none, the most effective public employee union of the past 30 years. So it is good to understand what they do and how they do it. If you are interested in seeing their 2008 election debrief, then click right here — specially delivered to you by our education spymaster. Now, of course, noting that they are good at what they do does not mean what they do is good.

Taxation without trust?

/0 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

I would like to follow up on my post last week regarding the shenanigans (and there really is no other way to describe it) going on in the Lawrence public schools. I heard from people and the recurring theme in their responses to me and in the comments they left on the blog is one of fundamental distrust. This doesn’t surprise me. Not only does the mismanagement of the Lawrence public schools at this point appear to be so broad it would be impossible for even the only moderately informed taxpayer not to notice it, but the same theme appears to be playing out at the state level as well. The state is facing a truly enormous budget gap, both […]

Harry Truman he ain't

/3 Comments/in , , /by Liam Day

I know there are a lot of issues on the table right now, particularly the sales tax increase the House just passed, but, because it was buried at the bottom of a column deep in the Metro section of this morning’s Globe, I wanted, very briefly, to point to a comment from Lawrence school superintendent Wilfredo Laboy so absurd it defies satire. Yet another scandal appears to be roiling the Lawrence public schools. After recent revelations that assistants to the Superintendent conducted unwarranted background checks on more than 400 individuals and that, apparently, underage drinking at Lawrence High doesn’t require police notification, we learn today that a K-8 school principal in Lawrence has been hawking her, according to the Globe, […]