“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.
Tax Time
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /bySome smart aleck once said that the two most effective reforms would be to require every elected official to send their kids to public school and to fill out their taxes without any outside assistance.
The second part of that point is reinforced today by the story of Treasury Secretary Geithner’s tax problems — he failed to pay a portion of his taxes during his term at the IMF and had a housekeeper who was briefly out-of-status.
The point here is that the head of the New York Fed and presumptive Treasury Secretary, using an accountant, can’t properly understand the tax code. What are mere mortals supposed to do?
Who's the DINO Now
/1 Comment/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byAfter a legislative hearing on public-private partnerships last month, the Governor reportedly tee’d off on one of the hearing chairs:
Now comes news that the Mass Turnpike is indeed planning to put the turnpike service plazas out for a long-term lease.
We are pleased to see the Administration’s new-found openness to the concept and hope they have had a chance to read our analysis of PPPs and case studies on their usage in Massachusetts.
Given the Governor’s control of the Turnpike, this is doubtless being done with his blessing. However, with no comprehensive transportation reform plan out publicly and a new Transportation Secretary in his second day on the job, one hopes that this is a thoughtful piece of a larger puzzle and not a tactical move borne out of toll-avoidant desperation.
Moral Hazard
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /by Liam DayThe outcomes of the various bailout and stimulus packages already passed or currently being contemplated, and the lessons to be drawn from them, won’t be known in their entirety for quite some time, if ever. There is, however, one quite basic premise that is once again being revealed by the federal government’s current attempts to step in and bolster the economy.
Government spending creates moral hazard.
Check out the lead story in this morning’s USA Today – States continue spending sprees. Why is that? As the national daily reports, though a few states have attempted to curb spending:
Further, as South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford, who, it should be pointed out, opposes the expected stimulus package, is quoted in the piece:
I am agnostic about the President-elect’s proposed stimulus package. I would like to know more detail regarding what the trillion or so dollars will be spent on, what the funding mechanisms will be and what oversight Congress and the administration will have over what the money is spent on. I’m also not smart enough to foresee what the consequences might be if Congress fails to pass a stimulus package. However, I do know that states and, in turn, cities and towns should not use federal stimulus as an excuse to just keep spending money they clearly don’t have.