“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.
Results in on Teach for America
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byWhat kind of impact does the influx of young, motivated people (ahem, without formal training in our dear schools of education) have on student performance? A big thank you to the Urban Institute for looking into this question. From their press release (last week):
The study is the first rigorous analysis that I have seen of the impact of TFA, which recruits graduates from prestigious colleges and does not require that they have coursework in schools of education.
In analyzing the experience of TFA instructors in North Carolina high schools, the authors looked not only at test scores and student demographics, but also teacher characteristics, such as what colleges they came from and how they fared on teacher-licensing exams. Interesting is that, even though they did not generally attend schools of ed, they performed better on teacher-licensing exams. Hmm. Say no more, say no more.
One of the study’s authors, Jane Hannaway, who directs the Urban Institute’s Education Policy Center, makes the following point:
Patrick comes out for school choice!
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, News, Related Education Blogs /byYour Excellency,
We at Pioneer were feeling as double-crossed as perhaps Bobby Haynes. We were feeling it on school choice, knowing that you benefited from the school choice opportunity provided by the “A Better Chance” foundation to attend Milton Academy. Bobby felt it on being double-crossed by the Doubleday deal, when you double-booked on the day of the casino vote. He stayed on the Hill and earned himself the Speaker’s ire. As someone who respects the free-market, I hope you got a good deal.
Now, I know that it is difficult to come right out and say you are for school choice, so I think the sophisticated way you did it is just great. According to today’s Globe, “an unspecified portion of [your] royalties and speaking fees will go to ‘A Better Chance'” — yes, the very same organization that helped you in your personal trajectory and growth, and ultimately to electoral success. We all know it will be an inspiring autobiography.
All I ask now is that you either sell an awful lot of books to make school choice an option for the thousands of urban kids in “underperforming” (what we educated people call failing) schools, or you have a change of heart and change state policies to make that a reality.
One Last Word on the Film Tax Incentives
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Housing, News /byYesterday’s Globe had an article critical of the film tax credit offered by the Commonwealth.
I will say that it has significantly improved the celebrity level of the gossip columns, minimizing the Globe’s Names & Faces section’s embarassing fascination with C-list celebrities eating chinese food at the Kowloon. Wow! John Waite? Pro wrestlers? Wasn’t exactly Page 6 material.
However, the Department of Revenue’s report makes one fact clear — these are temporary jobs:
Rumors abound that a studio may set up full-time shop in Quincy or elsewhere but until then this is not a major employer — approximately 4-5,000 people on average per month.
These employment levels are roughly equivalent to the knifemaking and wholesale plumbing supply businesses in Massachusetts. Except those industries pay 2 – 3x the average weekly wage of the motion picture industry. I’ll watch out for their tax credits, complete with pretty pictures of the stars….