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That’s easy. Education professionals do. Found here. But can they fill potholes? Well, my telephone rang it would not stop It’s hard to believe that consolidation is working as intended. Be sure to read Paul Stearns’ piece — Consolidation penalties are a shameful response — in the BDN. In another context, some truths: I wish I could say I found it surprising, but it seem to me to be of a piece with too many other brutalities [...] It’s entirely possible that the press didn’t get this right, and by error, selection, or omission, end up misrepresenting this exchange. But I doubt it. The news that Maine had signed on to the pilot program came as a surprise for some, including Maine Education Association President Chris Galgay. “For the last couple of hours, I have [...] Here’s a report from Politico: Education Secretary Arne Duncan dismissed the controversy over President Barack Obama’s back-to-school speech as “silly stuff,” saying students can decide for themselves whether or not to watch the 18-minute speech. Let’s start with the “silly” characterization. Duncan’s words will offend a great number of people. Unnecessarily. He’s belittling and dismissive. Why do [...] The consolidation process has been borderline fraudulent from start to the present. There are no substantial savings. Many districts were de facto exempt, or put together sham AOS structures. You don’t need the Gordon Donaldson reports to tell you these things (though confirmation of one’s beliefs can be gratifying). Now, there are no penalties. Of course, this [...] Matt Stone is on the case. Read this Report Card blog entry and see how you feel about what he reports: A $190,000 grant the Department of Education is offering Pownal will allow the Cumberland County town to study the cost-sharing formula that’s saddled it with a 35 percent increase in its local funding obligation to [...] The School Department will receive about $200,000 less in state subsidy for gifted and talented programming after the state discovered that the city had been using some of that money for unapproved curricula. The State wants G&T funds used for children who fit the following criteria: Gifted and Talented [...] One of the keys to beating the house in blackjack is knowing when to double down. In their vote for the (so-called) Stimulus Package, our Congresspeople have doubled down on education*; Arne Duncan gets to try to beat the house (For Education Chief, Stimulus Means Power, Money and Risk, NYTimes, 2/17/09). Mr. Duncan must develop procedures [...] Here’s the lead editorial in Wednesday’s New York Times: The stimulus measure being debated in Congress contains a vital $140 billion education package that would more than double the Education Department’s discretionary budget and give the federal government unprecedented leverage over a school-reform effort that has been controlled primarily by the states. Congress has to make [...] School votes disputed (KJ, 1/30) Voters across much of the state visited the polls Tuesday and approved seven school-district consolidation proposals, shooting down 11 others. That’s the tally according to the Maine Department of Education. By the Maine School Management Association’s count, however, voters agreed to four school-district consolidation plans on Tuesday, while 14 plans failed. “Our intention is [...] The Commissioner sent out a letter (”Clarifications: Reorganization Plan Costs and Voter Rejection” ) on Friday. It was addressed to “officials in regions with pending referendum votes on school administrative reorganization plans.” In it she addresses three “concerns”: projected costs of teacher contracts, One could argue — as Gordon Donaldson does in this piece — that we aren’t really considering the full real cost of consolidation as we decide how to vote on the issue locally. If a single RSU has $1.5 million in hidden costs, one has to wonder what the aggregate (that is, state-wide) hidden costs [...] There are a couple of basic ways to deny people the means to make decisions for themselves. One way — we’ll call it the old-fashioned way — is to give them little or no information. The down side of this approach, from the manipulator’s point of view, is that they can accuse you of holding [...] |
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