“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.
This is not a Freudian slip
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe charming head of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO tells you exactly what he thinks about checks and balances on political power in today’s Globe:
It is not the first time I’ve heard this sentiment from Mr. Haynes, but it is the first time I’ve seen it on the record.
Forecast on foreclosures dismal. What to do?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byMore than 7,500 properties were foreclosed in MA in 2007. The numbers are projected to be much higher this year. The vacant, lender-owned properties tend to be concentrated in certain neighborhoods, often in our older industrial cities.
There are no easy solutions, but CHAPA has taken a first step at addressing the crisis with the release of a briefing paper on the topic. Take a look at the paper here.
Got ideas about what can be done? Or thoughts on CHAPA’s paper? Post them here.
Go to D.C, young man, for that is where fortunes are made.
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Liam DayTelling article on Forbes.com I just read this weekend listing the best places in the country to get ahead. The list was compiled based on job and income data. Coincidently enough, 6 of the 7 best counties to live to get ahead today are located in Maryland and Virginia. They include Stafford County, Va., Calvert County, Md., Loudoun County, Va., Charles County, Md., Prince William County, Va., and Anne Arundel County, Md.
Is it possible, just remotely possible, that the reason for this geographic concentration of jobs and income is in any way related to the explosive growth of the federal government the last 8 years? And, if related, what does it bode for our country that more and more people are becoming more and more dependent on our government for their economic existence?