I know there have been, let’s call it, some issues with the Chinatown bus service. I liked when it was called Sunshine Tours, or similar. Sure, there are more comfortable (and some, ahem!, safer) ways of going to NY. But my daughter, Teruha, and I used to like going to NY, with the styrofoam coolers of eels, scampi and fish heads in the aisles. Were those scampi? Were they what the Italians call aragostelle (whip lobsters)? For a picture of the February esoteric culinary reference, see below, for a great place to eat them see here, and for an unorthodox recipe see here).
Then there are the passengers, for example, the Chinese women of a “certain age”, as the French like to put it, who fall asleep, heads slumping onto your shoulder. I mean, what do you do? Do you wake them up? Do you give up on reading? Do you talk a little loud to see if, maybe, you can wake them without being rude? Be nice, the kid is watching…
Such problems. Such a thought-provoking ride. Good fun with a kid. Real life. Beyond the adventure, it’s as fast as the train, and cheap.
Then there are the policy lessons. See Bob Poole’s article on the trend in inter-city bus lines in his newsletter Surface Transportation Innovations. From the December issue:
One of the justifications offered for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize Amtrak is the idea that lower-income people (students, immigrants, the retired, etc.) need an affordable alternative to using the airlines for inter-city travel…
This decade has also witnessed a proliferation of new inter-city bus companies… They seem to be following in the footsteps of low-cost air carriers, by thinking outside the box to cut costs dramatically. The largest such company is Megabus, a subsidiary of the U.K.’s Stagecoach Group plc, which cut its teeth in Britain’s deregulated bus market. Megabus offers a few seats on every bus for a $1 fare, and uses pricing similar to that of the airlines…
All booking is done online, minimizing staff costs, and the company has no stations, picking up customers at known curbside locations. Thus far, the company is offering inter-city service in 10 states, three in the west and seven in the Midwest. There are 23 cities in the network…
In the northeast, several companies offer bus service between Chinatowns in various cities. The largest of these seems to be Chinatown Bus (Chinatown-bus.com), connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Fares vary, with “typical” one-way fares ranging from $12 New York-Philadelphia to $20 New York-DC.
Another bus company, Vamoose, offers express service between Manhattan and two DC suburbs—Bethesda, MD and Arlington, VA for $25. Private companies are even moving into urban markets. Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, NJ now runs 130 commuter buses into Manhattan each day, on three different routes. The company has grown from a van service with 14 vans in 1993 to a sizeable enterprise today…
As with low-cost airlines that sprang up after deregulation, their very existence debunks the idea that airlines or intercity surface transportation or local transit is some kind of natural monopoly that must be controlled by the government…
There’s lots of talk about the $1.4 billion (to start) rail line to New Bedford, another to Springfield. Why not pull private bus companies together and ask them what they need in order to make such a network of bus lines feasible? Would be cheaper and much more achievable given the recent announcement of the MBTA’s massive deficit.
The Globe reports in “Warehouse for the Poor” that Holyoke and other cities in Western Massachusetts are serving as destination cities for the poor and homeless, who are nudged there by the state agencies.
Holyoke’s homeless shelters can accommodate four times the number of families per capita than homeless shelters in Boston. And when shelters are full in other places, the state Department of Transitional Assistance sends homeless families to shelters with open spots, often in Holyoke. Last year, 40 families from the Boston metropolitan area were referred to Holyoke, Sullivan said.
“Our goal is to place families as close to the local office as possible, based on the availability of units,” said Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees the agency. But if local shelters are full, state regulations require that homeless families be housed in the first unit available, Goodwin said.
Agencies operating emergency shelters in Holyoke received more than $4 million from the state in fiscal year 2008, Goodwin said.
As you have now grown to expect, Pioneer had the story first. Yup, right here, folks. Not just once, but twice. Mayor Sullivan of Holyoke is right to note that he cannot realistically turn away families and individuals in need. But the state has to stop concentrating poverty in our cities–especially older industrial cities which already face any number of fiscal, education, public safety and economic problems.
If we are serious about addressing poverty, it must be dealt with statewide. Otherwis, we create poverty traps for generations to come. Folks, where’s the plan?
Thanks to the folks at the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition for passing on word of a study reported in Ed Week. Perhaps you will remember a series of stories a few months back on on a study of Milwaukee’s “school choice” program. The study supposedly stated that parents did not use the choice opportunity significantly.
Slight problem with that study and the reporting: The survey did NOT include parents in the Milwaukee choice program…
Hmm, golly, reporters getting a story wrong. Shocked. Yes, shocked.
Well, EdWeek gets this one right in an article entitled “Milwaukee Voucher Students Have Diploma Edge.”
Students who participate in Milwaukee’s private-school-voucher program graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than those who attend regular secondary schools in the city, a new study contends.
The report, which was scheduled to be released Jan. 28 by SchoolChoice Wisconsin, a group that supports the voucher program, concludes that an estimated 57 percent of the freshmen enrolled in private high schools in the choice program in 2002-03 had completed high school four years later, compared with an estimated 43 percent of those in the same 2006 graduating class in regular Milwaukee public high schools.
Analysis of the three previous graduating classes showed regular Milwaukee public high school students with significantly lower completion rates than those who chose to use the state tuition subsidies to attend private high schools.
Factoring in the effects of retention of some students in 9th grade, and of students’ movement into and out of the district, reduces the difference in graduation rates between the two sets of schools to about 10 percentage points for three of the four years, the report says. With those adjustments, it says, the Milwaukee public schools’ 2005-06 graduation rate was 53 percent, compared with 64 percent in the voucher-program schools.
The 17-year-old voucher program, enacted by the Wisconsin legislature, serves about 18,500 students in 122 private schools. About 87,000 students are enrolled in Milwaukee’s public schools this year.
“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.
I know there have been, let’s call it, some issues with the Chinatown bus service. I liked when it was called Sunshine Tours, or similar. Sure, there are more comfortable (and some, ahem!, safer) ways of going to NY. But my daughter, Teruha, and I used to like going to NY, with the styrofoam coolers of eels, scampi and fish heads in the aisles. Were those scampi? Were they what the Italians call aragostelle (whip lobsters)? For a picture of the February esoteric culinary reference, see below, for a great place to eat them see here, and for an unorthodox recipe see here).
Then there are the passengers, for example, the Chinese women of a “certain age”, as the French like to put it, who fall asleep, heads slumping onto your shoulder. I mean, what do you do? Do you wake them up? Do you give up on reading? Do you talk a little loud to see if, maybe, you can wake them without being rude? Be nice, the kid is watching…
Such problems. Such a thought-provoking ride. Good fun with a kid. Real life. Beyond the adventure, it’s as fast as the train, and cheap.
Then there are the policy lessons. See Bob Poole’s article on the trend in inter-city bus lines in his newsletter Surface Transportation Innovations. From the December issue:
One of the justifications offered for U.S. taxpayers to subsidize Amtrak is the idea that lower-income people (students, immigrants, the retired, etc.) need an affordable alternative to using the airlines for inter-city travel…
This decade has also witnessed a proliferation of new inter-city bus companies… They seem to be following in the footsteps of low-cost air carriers, by thinking outside the box to cut costs dramatically. The largest such company is Megabus, a subsidiary of the U.K.’s Stagecoach Group plc, which cut its teeth in Britain’s deregulated bus market. Megabus offers a few seats on every bus for a $1 fare, and uses pricing similar to that of the airlines…
All booking is done online, minimizing staff costs, and the company has no stations, picking up customers at known curbside locations. Thus far, the company is offering inter-city service in 10 states, three in the west and seven in the Midwest. There are 23 cities in the network…
In the northeast, several companies offer bus service between Chinatowns in various cities. The largest of these seems to be Chinatown Bus (Chinatown-bus.com), connecting Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington. Fares vary, with “typical” one-way fares ranging from $12 New York-Philadelphia to $20 New York-DC.
Another bus company, Vamoose, offers express service between Manhattan and two DC suburbs—Bethesda, MD and Arlington, VA for $25. Private companies are even moving into urban markets. Spanish Transportation Corporation of Paterson, NJ now runs 130 commuter buses into Manhattan each day, on three different routes. The company has grown from a van service with 14 vans in 1993 to a sizeable enterprise today…
As with low-cost airlines that sprang up after deregulation, their very existence debunks the idea that airlines or intercity surface transportation or local transit is some kind of natural monopoly that must be controlled by the government…
There’s lots of talk about the $1.4 billion (to start) rail line to New Bedford, another to Springfield. Why not pull private bus companies together and ask them what they need in order to make such a network of bus lines feasible? Would be cheaper and much more achievable given the recent announcement of the MBTA’s massive deficit.
The Globe reports in “Warehouse for the Poor” that Holyoke and other cities in Western Massachusetts are serving as destination cities for the poor and homeless, who are nudged there by the state agencies.
Holyoke’s homeless shelters can accommodate four times the number of families per capita than homeless shelters in Boston. And when shelters are full in other places, the state Department of Transitional Assistance sends homeless families to shelters with open spots, often in Holyoke. Last year, 40 families from the Boston metropolitan area were referred to Holyoke, Sullivan said.
“Our goal is to place families as close to the local office as possible, based on the availability of units,” said Alison Goodwin, a spokeswoman for the state Executive Office of Health and Human Services, which oversees the agency. But if local shelters are full, state regulations require that homeless families be housed in the first unit available, Goodwin said.
Agencies operating emergency shelters in Holyoke received more than $4 million from the state in fiscal year 2008, Goodwin said.
As you have now grown to expect, Pioneer had the story first. Yup, right here, folks. Not just once, but twice. Mayor Sullivan of Holyoke is right to note that he cannot realistically turn away families and individuals in need. But the state has to stop concentrating poverty in our cities–especially older industrial cities which already face any number of fiscal, education, public safety and economic problems.
If we are serious about addressing poverty, it must be dealt with statewide. Otherwis, we create poverty traps for generations to come. Folks, where’s the plan?
Thanks to the folks at the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition for passing on word of a study reported in Ed Week. Perhaps you will remember a series of stories a few months back on on a study of Milwaukee’s “school choice” program. The study supposedly stated that parents did not use the choice opportunity significantly.
Slight problem with that study and the reporting: The survey did NOT include parents in the Milwaukee choice program…
Hmm, golly, reporters getting a story wrong. Shocked. Yes, shocked.
Well, EdWeek gets this one right in an article entitled “Milwaukee Voucher Students Have Diploma Edge.”
Students who participate in Milwaukee’s private-school-voucher program graduate from high school at significantly higher rates than those who attend regular secondary schools in the city, a new study contends.
The report, which was scheduled to be released Jan. 28 by SchoolChoice Wisconsin, a group that supports the voucher program, concludes that an estimated 57 percent of the freshmen enrolled in private high schools in the choice program in 2002-03 had completed high school four years later, compared with an estimated 43 percent of those in the same 2006 graduating class in regular Milwaukee public high schools.
Analysis of the three previous graduating classes showed regular Milwaukee public high school students with significantly lower completion rates than those who chose to use the state tuition subsidies to attend private high schools.
Factoring in the effects of retention of some students in 9th grade, and of students’ movement into and out of the district, reduces the difference in graduation rates between the two sets of schools to about 10 percentage points for three of the four years, the report says. With those adjustments, it says, the Milwaukee public schools’ 2005-06 graduation rate was 53 percent, compared with 64 percent in the voucher-program schools.
The 17-year-old voucher program, enacted by the Wisconsin legislature, serves about 18,500 students in 122 private schools. About 87,000 students are enrolled in Milwaukee’s public schools this year.
Chinatown bus
/0 Comments/in Blog, Economic Opportunity, News /byI know there have been, let’s call it, some issues with the Chinatown bus service. I liked when it was called Sunshine Tours, or similar. Sure, there are more comfortable (and some, ahem!, safer) ways of going to NY. But my daughter, Teruha, and I used to like going to NY, with the styrofoam coolers of eels, scampi and fish heads in the aisles. Were those scampi? Were they what the Italians call aragostelle (whip lobsters)? For a picture of the February esoteric culinary reference, see below, for a great place to eat them see here, and for an unorthodox recipe see here).
Then there are the passengers, for example, the Chinese women of a “certain age”, as the French like to put it, who fall asleep, heads slumping onto your shoulder. I mean, what do you do? Do you wake them up? Do you give up on reading? Do you talk a little loud to see if, maybe, you can wake them without being rude? Be nice, the kid is watching…
Such problems. Such a thought-provoking ride. Good fun with a kid. Real life. Beyond the adventure, it’s as fast as the train, and cheap.
Then there are the policy lessons. See Bob Poole’s article on the trend in inter-city bus lines in his newsletter Surface Transportation Innovations. From the December issue:
There’s lots of talk about the $1.4 billion (to start) rail line to New Bedford, another to Springfield. Why not pull private bus companies together and ask them what they need in order to make such a network of bus lines feasible? Would be cheaper and much more achievable given the recent announcement of the MBTA’s massive deficit.
Concentrating poverty in our cities
/0 Comments/in Blog, Economic Opportunity, Housing, News /byThe Globe reports in “Warehouse for the Poor” that Holyoke and other cities in Western Massachusetts are serving as destination cities for the poor and homeless, who are nudged there by the state agencies.
As you have now grown to expect, Pioneer had the story first. Yup, right here, folks. Not just once, but twice. Mayor Sullivan of Holyoke is right to note that he cannot realistically turn away families and individuals in need. But the state has to stop concentrating poverty in our cities–especially older industrial cities which already face any number of fiscal, education, public safety and economic problems.
If we are serious about addressing poverty, it must be dealt with statewide. Otherwis, we create poverty traps for generations to come. Folks, where’s the plan?
Milwaukee Voucher Students Have Diploma Edge
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, News, Related Education Blogs /byThanks to the folks at the Rhode Island Statewide Coalition for passing on word of a study reported in Ed Week. Perhaps you will remember a series of stories a few months back on on a study of Milwaukee’s “school choice” program. The study supposedly stated that parents did not use the choice opportunity significantly.
Slight problem with that study and the reporting: The survey did NOT include parents in the Milwaukee choice program…
Hmm, golly, reporters getting a story wrong. Shocked. Yes, shocked.
Well, EdWeek gets this one right in an article entitled “Milwaukee Voucher Students Have Diploma Edge.”