Posted inEducation

Teachers union wants ed reform money — but not accountability

THE MASSACHUSETTS TEACHERS ASSOCIATION is calling on its members to be “conscientious objectors” by refusing to administer MCAS and not let their own children take the dreaded tests. Such farcical extremes ensue when a special interest group has had too much power for too long. Massachusetts’ landmark 1993 Education Reform Act transformed K-12 public education […]

Posted inEducation

Civics education is crucial to engaged citizenship

A FORMER PRESIDENT of the United States calls “for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution” less than two years after a mob attacked the US Capitol seeking to prevent the certification of an election and calling for the vice president to be hanged. Perhaps the best antidote […]

Posted inEducation

Time for state action on troubled Boston Public Schools

FORMER STATE SENATE President Tom Birmingham often describes the centerpiece of the landmark 1993 Education Reform Act he co-authored as a massive infusion of state dollars into public schools in return for high standards and accountability for all. There is perhaps no better example of just how far back into the rear-view mirror accountability has […]

Posted inEducation

How Mass. abandoned its recipe for educational success

EINSTEIN DEFINED INSANITY as “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.” Education policy makers in Massachusetts have taken the concept to a new level by doubling down on policies that have brought a decade of decline. The Commonwealth’s K-12 education funding formula was no longer providing adequate resources to less affluent school districts, and […]

Posted inArts and Culture

Dimming the state’s literary light

“A ROBUST GENIUS, born to grapple with whole libraries,” is how 18th-century biographer James Boswell described the illustrious British man of letters, Dr. Samuel Johnson. It’s a literary reference that’s likely familiar to Massachusetts governors Charlie Baker and Deval Patrick, as both were Harvard College English majors. September marks Johnson’s 310th birthday. His A Dictionary […]

Posted inEducation

Bill Weld mastered the classics – and disruption of education status quo

MASSACHUSETTS’ 68TH GOVERNOR, Bill Weld, might be the only state executive in a century who dreams in ancient languages and can effortlessly connect lessons from 5th-century B.C. Greek historians with modern K-12 education policy. In paraphrasing Thucydides’ masterpiece, History of the Peloponnesian War, Weld described why he, Tom Birmingham, and Mark Roosevelt — architects of the […]