With perhaps a little breathing room between primary and election, and the Legislature about to hold a hearing this Tuesday on charter school legislation, let's take a trip back to before the Civil War, when Massachusetts led the first race … [Read more...]
Gloucester charter school surrenders charter
Less than two weeks after Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Mitchell Chester issued a recommendation that their charter be revoked, citing the failure of the school's trustees to effectively manage the school, and repeated … [Read more...]
E-Z Money for Friends of Charter Schools
It turns out that Diana Lam, currently head of the Conservatory Lab Charter School, and lately of San Antonio (which paid her $800,000 to leave) and New York City (where she was forced out of her job as Deputy School Chancellor in a … [Read more...]
Can Brown win and Romney lose Massachusetts?
There is a group of people out there called the voters of Massachusetts. OK, it's been ten years, but this group did choose Romney, and not so long ago they chose Brown. What makes it possible that they could choose Obama and Brown … [Read more...]
The Wheels on the Bus
may be starting to fall off. According to this story in today's Gloucester Daily Times we now have the leadership of the Executive Director of the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School being challenged by disgruntled parents and staff, … [Read more...]
2012 Pontius Pilate Award Winner Announced
This award, a silver bowl suitable for washing your hands, is given to a government official who personifies the ability to set conscience aside for the sake of avoiding political criticism. This year the award goes to Massachusetts … [Read more...]
Gingrich is a Utopian Socialist!
More proof of space-time curvature - go far enough out into space in one direction and you will end up coming back from the opposite direction. Newt Gingrich's plans to put children to work seem to echo ideas of French socialist Charles … [Read more...]
Patrick Administration’s charter mess just gets worse
In the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School's application for a charter, the founders based the case in their Statement of Need for the proposed school in large part on Gloucester public school MCAS scores. As we now know, the Charter … [Read more...]
Lysistrata 2012
A few weeks ago, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz suggested that we close the spigot of contributions to political candidates until our employees in the legislative and executive branches of government ("leaders" hardly seems apt at this point) … [Read more...]
Demonstrations continue without internet
It almost sounds like a headline from The Onion, but it's from today's New York Times. The smaller headline in the print edition story about protests in Syria says "With Internet Blocked, Protesters Are Still Able to Mobilize". This is … [Read more...]