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The Charter Agencies Initiative

/0 Comments/in , /by Editorial Staff

Roe Paper No. 1 2007 Author(s): Jim Chrisinger — Publication date: 2007-07-01 Category: Better Government Abstract: Iowa’s Charter Agencies Initiative, originally developed by the Public Strategies Group, a Minnesota-based government-consulting firm, is one in a series of programs implemented by Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to address the ballooning state budget. The program stresses increased efficiency, reduced costs, and greater freedom for state agencies (and the Governor’s office) to offer better value to Iowa’s citizens. [wpdm_package id=88]

What Glenn glosses over – GIC and better coverage for teachers (2 of 4)

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson

Odd that, in his letter to the Globe editor (6/30/07), Glenn glosses over the part of the bulk purchasing proposal for teachers’ health insurance through the state Group Insurance Commission that should matter most to teachers. Here’s that (2) left hanging from the previous post: Purchasing teachers’ health insurance through the GIC = Better coverage for teachers Hate to raise that significant (for teachers) and perhaps pesky (for Glenn) fact, but as Allison Fraser and I pointed out in our Globe op-ed: smaller districts often have just one or two health plans, while GIC offers a dozen. Not a small matter for the folks who play an important role in how our kids do in school.

Where Glenn Koocher agrees – GIC cost sharing (1 of 4)

/1 Comment/in , , , , /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson

In a letter to the Globe editor yesterday, it seems that Glenn Koocher, ED of the MA Association of School Committees, thinks he disagrees with an op-ed (An avoidable teachers strike) published on Tuesday in the Globe by Allison Fraser and me. But he writes: Cost sharing of health insurance, a most contentious item, is but part of the task. Taking it off the bargaining table camouflages the real health and educational problem. Containing health costs at the provider level and managing inappropriate use of healthcare resources are equally effective strategies for controlling insurance costs. Exploring short- and long-term disability coverage can also help manage sick leave costs. So, it seems to me, he agrees that cost sharing is part […]

When you are wrong

/0 Comments/in , , /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson

Does the PTA really represent parents? After the PTA’s support of teacher strikes across the country in the 1960s, there was a significant drop in support for the organization. Across the country the number of PTA members has declined by more than half since the early 1960s from over 12 million to less than 6 million. The political bent of the PTA is not common knowledge to its membership, but as it becomes known–especially the PTA’s opposition to school choice, charters, and school reform–their membership has furthered declined. In the Commonwealth there are 1 million kids in K-12. There are 20,000 members of the PTA (down from a high of 100,000 in the 1960s). Only 3 percent of Massachusetts schools […]

When you are wrong, you are wrong. When you are right, you are right.

/0 Comments/in , , /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela Dawson

On NewsNight (NECN) last week, I wanted to communicate that the PTA is, as Jim Braude summarized, “a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA.” He got my point, but I got my facts wrong. And I hate that. I said that the PTA headquarters was co-located with the National Education Association (NEA) HQ. In fact, as Lisa Guisbond pointed out to me in an email, the PTA HQ is in Chicago, not in DC like the NEA’s. I was referencing the fact that the PTA rented space within the NEA HQ from 1920 to 1953. I was off by 54 years – no small matter.  And I apologize for the mistake. The context for this mistake was a discussion about the […]