AG Tom Reilly happened to be on Greater Boston last night, where he restated his unflagging support for the standardized testing requirement in science and in general. Which made me wonder: where does Deval Patrick stand on the issue? Going to his website, I then began to wonder, where does Patrick stand on any issue? […]
Word comes in that the state’s education board has voted nearly unanimously to require successful completion of the MCAS in Science in order to graduate. Good for them. The State Democratic Party (though often not its members) are on the wrong side of the standardized testing, both on substance and for public opinion’s sake. The […]
The Carpetbagger Report brings up a point that I’ve long held: the “free-market” forces unleashed by vouchers won’t necessarily, or even likely, mean accessible private education for underprivileged children, as proponents often claim. One thing that’s occured to me though, is that the issue is not the class conflict between rich and poor, at least […]
Joan Venocchi takes Bill Cosby’s recent infamous statement and does a good job at turning them back onto white culture. However, in doing so, she replaces a firm grace of history with Maureen Dowd quip-as-argument:
In his recent remarks, Cosby said young black people are failing to honor the sacrifices made by those who struggled and […]
Something about the phrase “Leave No Child Behind” is a set-up for unmet expectations. Of course, children are going to be left behind, even if you have a brilliant policy and devote every collective resource as a society to keep them from failing in school. It’s admirable to aim high, but when the hard realities […]
Joan Vennochi comes through with another sharp take on local politics, this time on Gov. Romney and the UMass tussle:
Eliminating the office of university president never had anything to do with cost-cutting or improved management, as Romney initially claimed. It was all about eliminating Bulger, an icon of old-style Massachusetts politics. Romney was never quite […]
The Globe reveals today that Romney’s restructuring plans for UMass drew upon a commissioned study by Bain Consulting (Romney’s former company). They summarize the report, though I’m left wanting more detail of what it says:
Romney aides point to Bain’s analysis of the University of Massachusetts at Boston as characteristically ‘’eye opening’’ for the governor and […]
Dan Kennedy seems to think it’s too early to tell if Gov. Romney’s privatization and decentralization plan for the University of Massachusetts will improve things or not. There is the off chance that it might work by heightening the contradictions of higher ed in Massachusetts. Right now there’s no political impetus to improve the university […]