Jonathan Walters, senior correspondent at Governing magazine (www. governing.com), spoke September 20, 2000, at a Pioneer Forum in connection with the release of a White Paper he authored titled “Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts.”
Download Report: Civil Service Reform in Massachusetts
The civil service system in Massachusetts is no longer up to the important task of helping government recruit and hire the most talented personnel. When the system was created in 1884, the Commonwealth was at the forefront of the battle against patronage in government hiring. Over the course of a century, Massachusetts has fallen well behind the leaders in public sector personnel administration practice.
Download Report: Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
Author: Jonathan Walters, Governing Magazine
This paper is a call for continued improvement in a system that in its current form is overly bureaucratic, unresponsive, rule-bound, and control oriented. The changes suggested address three troubling trends that have been gathering momentum in Massachusetts: First, the use of “provisional” hires as a way to sidestep testing and hiring rules entirely. Second, the inclination to exempt entire classes of employees from the civil service system altogether. And third, continued difficulty on the part of specific agencies to compete for the best and brightest job candidates in what is today a fiercely competitive job market.
Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
“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.
Jonathan Walters, senior correspondent at Governing magazine (www. governing.com), spoke September 20, 2000, at a Pioneer Forum in connection with the release of a White Paper he authored titled “Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts.”
Download Report: Civil Service Reform in Massachusetts
The civil service system in Massachusetts is no longer up to the important task of helping government recruit and hire the most talented personnel. When the system was created in 1884, the Commonwealth was at the forefront of the battle against patronage in government hiring. Over the course of a century, Massachusetts has fallen well behind the leaders in public sector personnel administration practice.
Download Report: Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
Author: Jonathan Walters, Governing Magazine
This paper is a call for continued improvement in a system that in its current form is overly bureaucratic, unresponsive, rule-bound, and control oriented. The changes suggested address three troubling trends that have been gathering momentum in Massachusetts: First, the use of “provisional” hires as a way to sidestep testing and hiring rules entirely. Second, the inclination to exempt entire classes of employees from the civil service system altogether. And third, continued difficulty on the part of specific agencies to compete for the best and brightest job candidates in what is today a fiercely competitive job market.
Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
Civil Service Reform in Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Transcripts /by Pioneer InstituteJonathan Walters, senior correspondent at Governing magazine (www. governing.com), spoke September 20, 2000, at a Pioneer Forum in connection with the release of a White Paper he authored titled “Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts.”
Download Report: Civil Service Reform in Massachusetts
Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Municipal Management /by Jonathan WaltersThe civil service system in Massachusetts is no longer up to the important task of helping government recruit and hire the most talented personnel. When the system was created in 1884, the Commonwealth was at the forefront of the battle against patronage in government hiring. Over the course of a century, Massachusetts has fallen well behind the leaders in public sector personnel administration practice.
Download Report: Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Economic Opportunity, Press Releases, Press Releases: Economic Opportunity /by Editorial StaffAuthor: Jonathan Walters, Governing Magazine
This paper is a call for continued improvement in a system that in its current form is overly bureaucratic, unresponsive, rule-bound, and control oriented. The changes suggested address three troubling trends that have been gathering momentum in Massachusetts: First, the use of “provisional” hires as a way to sidestep testing and hiring rules entirely. Second, the inclination to exempt entire classes of employees from the civil service system altogether. And third, continued difficulty on the part of specific agencies to compete for the best and brightest job candidates in what is today a fiercely competitive job market.
Toward a High-Performance Workplace: Fixing Civil Service in Massachusetts