“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.
Counterintuitive Healthcare Cost Data
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Economic Opportunity, Healthcare, News /byIt has been the conventional wisdom that small businesses are getting killed on healthcare costs and we’ve heard anecdotal evidence to support this when we’ve presented our research on the various costs associated with doing business in Massachusetts.
But Charlie Baker at Harvard Pilgrim begs to differ, and he’s even got internal Harvard Pilgrim data to prove it. He notes:
Why? Mr. Baker explains:
The Sage of Omaha on Executive Compensation
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byToday’s Globe contains news of potential inquiries by Congressman Barney Frank’s Financial Services Committee looking at the ‘perverse incentives’ (love that term!!) in executive compensation and how that may have contributed to some of the inordinate risks afflicting many financial firms.
At the end of the day, this space believes that the oversight of executive compensation lays with an engaged board of directors that properly aligns the interests of executives and shareholders. Warren Buffett has written early and often on this topic. This quote from a 1985 letter to shareholders (which should be required reading for everyone interested in the markets) brings up the key issues behind that misalignment:
From James Joyce to Grand Theft Auto
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /by Liam DayI’ve been reading David Boaz lately, so I’m in a bit of a Libertarian mood to begin with, but, even if I weren’t, I would still have raised an eyebrow at Mayor Menino’s latest crusade. Not satisfied with a ban on trans fat, he is now going after violent video games.
Now, I’m not a gamer, nor am I a big junk food fan, but I have to stand up for the rights of the people out there who do like trans fats and Grand Theft Auto.
There is an argument to be made for a local, state or federal ban on trans fat. In a society in which most of us don’t buy our own health insurance, I suppose the entities that do, including our local, state and federal governments, have a right to proscribe certain behavior that is unhealthy and, thus, drives up the cost of the health insurance they’re footing the bill for. I might counter, however, that because I like to munch on the occasional potato chip, I’d be perfectly happy purchasing my own health insurance, thank you very much. That way, you could put your trans fat ban back on the shelf, where it belongs.
On the issue of violent video games, however, there is no defense of a ban. I entirely understand the motivation. I was a 6th grade teacher and always felt as if I were in a tug-of-war with popular culture, but we can’t win the tug-of-war by simply censoring the other side.
Though I am not a gamer, I am a big James Joyce fan and, as such, I am aware that he, too, was once considered on the other side of the tug-of-war between culture and morals. Ulysses, now considered the greatest English-language novel of the 20th century, was once banned in this country. Fortunately, that ban was overturned in 1933 by a U.S. District Court.
Unlike the U.S. District Court, I do not get to play judge. (Though, if wishing made it so.) I do not get to decide that James Joyce has enough literary merit that, though lewd, he should not be banned, but Grand Theft Auto doesn’t and, therefore, should. More to the point, neither does Mayor Menino.
Violent video games may very well contribute to violence in our streets (though, I suspect even that claim is dubious). Nevertheless, it is not nearly a compelling enough reason to ignore constitutional rights.