“She’s a good girl. She helps me a lot. She has big, big dreams. I don’t have the money, but she has big dreams. I hope she’s going to get everything, but she works so hard. She works so hard in school.”
“Our family is needing to make some really big sacrifices because we believe this is important, and so, we’re basically going to do whatever it takes… Sometimes we look at each other and go ‘I don’t know if I can do it again another month…’”
“A lot of the families have to sacrifice and work multiple jobs… And just scraping together enough money to just make tuition, just the basics.”
“It is discriminatory, that parents who want to choose an alternative to public school for their children, would not in any way receive any compensation for that, whether it be tax credit, whether it be a voucher…”
In the 1840s, nativist movement leaders formed official political parties and local chapters of the national Native American Party (later the American Party), although they continued to be commonly known as the Know-Nothing Party. Politicians sought to insert provisions into state constitutions against Catholics who refused to renounce the pope. The Know-Nothing movement brought bigotry and hatred to a new level of violence and organization.
The party’s legacy endured in the post-Civil War era, with laws and constitutional amendments it supported, still today severely limiting parents’ educational choices. A federal constitutional amendment was proposed by Speaker of the House James Blaine prohibiting money raised by taxation in any State to be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations. These were then named the Blaine Amendments of 1875.
in recent decades, often in response to challenges to school choice programs, the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated great interest in examining the issues of educational alternatives and attempts limit parental options. Massachusetts plays a key role in this debate. The Bay State was a key center of the Know-Nothing movement and has the oldest version of Anti-Aid Amendments in the nation, as well as a second such amendment approved in 1917. Two-fifths of Massachusetts residents are Catholic, and its Catholic schools outperform the state’s public schools, which are the best in the nation.
A Step Backwards: An Analysis of the 21st Century Skills Task Force Report
/0 Comments/in News, Related Education Blogs /by Editorial StaffAuthor(s): Jim Stergios — Publication date: 2009-02-17 Category: Education Abstract: On November 18, 2008, the 21st Century Skills Task Force presented a set of recommendations to the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) on why, how, and where to incorporate “21st century skills” in the state’s current academic standards and assessments for students and teachers. On December 16, the BESE agreed to ask the Commissioner and his staff at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to develop an implementation plan. The DESE is expected to suggest a preliminary set of implementation priorities at the February BESE meeting, and to provide a more extensive response later this spring.
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In Defense of Michael Flaherty's Kitchen
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byCity Councillor Michael Flaherty announced his candidacy for mayor last weekend on youtube.
One peculiar part of the video is the (unintentional) prominence of the KitchenAid standmixer on the counter behind him. I know I was not the only one fixated on this.
Howie Carr jumped on this detail to accuse Flaherty of being uppity and looking to move to the ritzy South Shore at the first opportunity:
I must refute this smear. As the proud owner of the very same mixer, I can report that it was listed for sale at Macy’s in today’s Globe at only $199 (available online for $249.99 plus a $40 gift card.)
The Teachers Union Meets the Market
/2 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThere’s an interesting experiment going on in Boston right now — the Boston Teachers’ Union is starting a pilot school next year and is working, hard, to attract students. (Let’s not talk about the cynical process that lead to the expansion of pilots in Boston, ok?)
They are facing the challenges of a start-up school. With just a building and two lead teachers (its version of a principal, I believe) in place, how do you get parents interested and committed?
They are taking an interesting approach, attempting to start next year with K1, K2, Grade 1, Grade 2, and two Grade 6 classes.
Why two Grade 6 classes? My hunch is that the BTU knows that there is big overhang of kids that 1) have gone through a K-5 BPS school, 2) are trying to get into an exam school (which start at Grade 7), and 3) have parents who don’t want their kid in a BPS middle school (gosh. why?).
Thus, there’s bulge in demand for Grade 6 that the BTU school is trying to fill.
It’s an interesting experiment for a number of reasons — can we learn anything from the way the BTU manages a school? Isn’t it an interesting dynamic that competition creates? And: what does it say about the quality of BPS middle schools if the BTU is actively trying to serve the Grade 6 market?