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Equal Treatment for All!
/1 Comment/in Blog, Related Education Blogs /byJust returned from a packed State House hearing on charter schools, which included enough material to fuel the blogosphere for the foreseeable future. Due to the number of people wishing to testify, the education committee was unusually strict about enforcing a three-minute limit on individual testimony — which led to my personal favorite moment of the afternoon. Sen. Marc Pacheco (D-Taunton), the most unquestioning of public employee union supporters, railed against inequality, claiming charter schools call themselves public but are more like privates in their entrance requirements. The alarm marking the end of his three minutes sounded. Undaunted, he continued — this time accusing charters of busing people to the hearing and feeding them with public funds. After all, the same rules should apply to everyone. The […]
After the charter hearing, some quotes
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byI hope our legislators are open to understanding the wisdom of these statements from Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools: “Our parents are on the waiting lists and it seems to me unconscionable, quite frankly, when we have parents who want these opportunities and these choices, and they’re being denied them.” “Giving people choices is always empowering and almost always will lead to better outcomes for kids… You want people to vote with their feet and then take appropriate action (as the district).” “To me it’s unimaginable that we wouldn’t be allowed to create more charter schools. It’s not like you’ve got a whole bunch of high-performing schools in the South Bronx or Central Brooklyn. What […]
Ed Policy Schizophrenia
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byA great press release from the Mass Department of Education notes: For the second time, Massachusetts has outscored every other state in the country on three of four National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams, and has tied for first on the fourth, Governor Patrick announced at the Aborn Elementary School in Lynn on Tuesday.The only other time one state has ever ranked first on all four NAEP exams was when Massachusetts outscored the nation for the first time in 2005. So the grand bargain of the 1993 Ed reform Act (more money, more accountability and more innovation) is working. But the press release suggests that the administration’s “left” hand does not know what the “right” hand is doing. Makes […]
Deb Meier v. The Powerful, Dark Phantom that Pioneer is
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byI can see it now: The heavy-footed, giant, unforgiving Dark Phantom of Pioneer up against meek, never-attacking Deb Meier, who is only armed with a sling-shot to take on her powerful adversary. On the blog she shares with Diane Ravitch, Bridging Differences, Deborah laments again the oh-so-powerful Pioneer. She continues to show hurt: You suggest I needn’t worry about annoying those “with more power”. But I felt badly recently when (as I mentioned) somebody took after Mission Hill school as a way to attack me on another issue altogether. So they can “touch me”—but not stop me! Alas, my travels remind me that others have less wiggle room—even for saying what’s on their minds. Deb, you wrote in a letter […]
News flash – healthcare costs are rising fast
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Healthcare, News /byThought I would remind you of that just in case you forgot. The April Governing magazine notes that State and local spending for health care is rising significantly. Medicaid accounts for the bulk of those expenditures, especially as the costs of long-term care continue to rise. Pointing to a recent study published in Health Affairs policy journal, Governing goes on to assert that fallout from Medicare Part D, the federal government’s prescription drug program, is also contributing to the increase. Private payers are covering fewer health care costs, thus increasing the need for state and local governments to step in. “We are,” the study noted, “moving incrementally away from traditional sources of insurance, such as employer-based coverage, to a system […]