Since the mainstream media has zero interest in the candidates’ public policy positions, here is the latest installment in Tom Reilly’s Massachusetts Action Plan: The “Never Give Up On a Child” education plan.
I was away over the weekend, but I saw no mention of it in either the Globe or Herald. I discovered it when perusing Tom Reilly’s website. Which leads me to the question: why don’t the Globe and Herald devote some resources to an examination of the candidates’ policy proposals in addition to analyzing 30-60 second TV advertizements? Which will have more bearing on the future of our state?
So, for those who want a policy diversion from the Big Dig, here you go. The press release with plan highlights can be found here.
Please share widely!
Well, it’s not exactly a feature, but the Herald did have it in “The Daily Briefing” on July 21st, with a link to his main campaign site.
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You’re right in that the local papers, particularly the Globe, don’t seem to cover the Dem campaigns well. I get a lot more info from candidate email blasts and their sites.
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Unfortunately for Tommy though, he has saturated coverage lately because of his Big Dig grandstanding or devotion to duty, depending on your perspective. Also, this education program is just a minor expansion and repackaging of the original material on the subject. It’s not exactly news because it’s not eactly new.
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Slapping a slogan on something makes it new and improved it it’s toothpaste or soda pop.
Well, the system is ranked first in the NAEP tests, and about the top on the SATs…the system, isn’t perfect, but a massive overhaul would be disastrous.
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I’d rather a fancy slogan than blowing the system up in the name of “change,” and detail-level improvements over insane ideas that sound grandiose (like a longer school year).
You point out that the system, while not “perfect” seems to be doing pretty well, and I presume you mean relative to the rest of tUSA since the numbers you cite are generally only kept in America.
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So, if the system is doing pretty well, wouldn’t more of it be mo’ better? I’m no education policy expert, but it seems to me like more time at school — extended days and/or a longer school year — seems like a potentially fantastic idea.
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Maybe it shouldn’t be manditory, and I’m not arguing that all the extra time should be spent in traditional classrooms… but particularly in poorly performing schools (where the kids often have poorly performing parents, poorly performing heat, poorly performing safety), keeping them in school longer might help more of them grow up to become productive members of society, which I would hope is the point of public school.
MA is first in NAEP. Suburban kids do fine.
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45% of kids in Boston, Lawrence, Lowell, Holyoke, etc never get a high school diploma.
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Fewer than 10% of these kids get college degrees, despite crazy hide-and-seek stats that allow people to think otherwise.
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75% of these kids are poor, very likely to remain poor. Low chance of ever owning a home, having 401k, having health care that’s not Medicaid.
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Overhaul needed.
If it were up to me, I would knock down every antenna that transmits television signals. The reason that the media doesnt delve into candidate’s actual public policy stances, is that they are not mind-numbing. There would be information involved that would jeopardize the existence of the “Fat American”, which the media drives further into ignorance every day. In order for the media to maintain their skyrocketing profits, they need people to pay attention to their programs. The correlation seems to go: the more intelligent a person becomes, the less TV they watch. The editors for these media channels run stories about lost kittens and other unimportant news for 3 minutes and then cover the war in Irag for less than 30 seconds……and top it off with a cherry of no mention of whats actually going on in the government on a state and federal level. Help us ELECT NATE KAPLAN, who can be a new candidate…out with the blue-blood….let’s get a “regular American” elected…who will fight to bring back the “sound body:sound mind” ideology, so we can help our fellow Americans that have fallen under the curse of the media.
that gloated over the hancock decision right? he thought things were going pretty well then wassup with that