“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.
Education leadership but not here
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byDiane Ravitch, Sol Stern and others have criticized Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein for putting all their eggs into the “choice” basket.
Frankly, there is merit to some of what they say – choice alone is not going to get it done. You need standards and accountability, including great curriculum frameworks and teacher testing, AND you need choice and the development of new supply (charters, pilots, METCO, university partnership schools, voc-tech schools and more).
But the fact of the matter is, the unions will fight standards and accountability every step of the way. The proof of that is in the fact that where union strength is most entrenched in Massachusetts – in the urban centers – standards and accountability have not been implemented. See Jamie Gass’ research on that HERE and also HERE.
And then if you don’t have significant choice, the unions will turn back the clock on any standards and accountability you put into place. That, my friends, is what is happening in Massachusetts right now.
These are the lessons of Edmonton, Canada – a school system 20,000+ students larger than Boston’s – where standards, accountability and choice have all been part of the recipe of their success. There choice plays the additional role of pushing innovation systemwide – like charters here, but it is district-wide choice, so all kids benefit from it.
So, hats off to choice and to Whitney Tilson (an Obama supporter) who sent along this link to Klein’s speech. I wish Massachusetts had this kind of education leadership. It would take us even farther faster. Whatever you think of the Learn, Earn, Win! program (prep sessions for six AP exams), Klein & Co. are five cuts above the leadership we currently have.
View it on YouTube HERE.
Are local zoning, wetlands regulations “market oriented”?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byAt Thursday’s Pioneer forum on wetlands policy, one participant commented that tough local regulation of housing development IS market-oriented policy. The regulations raise the price of construction in the hinterlands and near wetlands, she argued, thus steering development to places it makes more sense – where there is infrastructure to support it.
On one level, yes, the local regulations do raise the cost of construction, and in that way they can work as a market-tool to slow construction, where that is the goal.
Problems on a few more levels, though. First, the local regulations are not, as she might hope, steering development towards downtowns and transportation corridors. Instead, localities too often use regulations to slow development both in ‘smart growth’ locations and in the hinterlands. Looks like the net effect has been to push growth further and further out to communities that haven’t yet adopted regulatory barriers. And to other states.
Second, there are far more cost effective and efficient ways to steer development away from wetlands and greenfields than making the regulatory process difficult to navigate. A 5-year permitting process is indeed a cost to developers – and a dead weight loss to society. The money spent on the process is wasted, instead of directed towards something with economic benefit.
Good on Alan LeBovidge
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /byBack in the Amorello days of the Mass Turnpike, Tom Keane wrote a splendid little dissection of the Turnpike’s penchant for giving out toll collections to charities of Chairman Matt’s choice. As Tom noted at the start of The Kindness of Tax Payers in the Sunday Globe Magazine:
State House News Service recently referenced a Turnpike staff report underscoring the “unfair share” of Big Dig debt that Pike drivers pay. SHNS noted that current Pike Chair Alan LeBovidge “has put a freeze on all turnpike donations, such as donations to Boston’s First Night celebrations, until the full toll equity report is released later this year.”
The Governor made a great appointment to lead the Pike. LeBovidge led the fiscal turnaround in Springfield, as chairman of the Finance Control Board appointed to shepherd the city out of financial meltdown. Let’s hope he keeps the reforming ways going at the Turnpike.