Archive for June, 2007
Does the PTA really represent parents?
After the PTA’s support of teacher strikes across the country in the 1960s, there was a significant drop in support for the organization. Across the country the number of PTA members has declined by more than half since the early 1960s from over 12 million to less than 6 million.
The political bent of the PTA is not common knowledge to its membership, but as it becomes known–especially the PTA’s opposition to school choice, charters, and school reform–their membership has furthered declined.
In the Commonwealth there are 1 million kids in K-12. There are 20,000 members of the PTA (down from a high of 100,000 in the 1960s). Only 3 percent of Massachusetts schools have PTAs. So, where are the other parents?
Around 95 percent of schools are either unaffiliated or have PTOs (Parent-Teacher Organizations) that are independent organizations; that is, they are NOT allied to the PTA, and not sending dues to the Chicago HQ and the DC lobbying office.
Uh, I live in Brookline. Ruth Kaplan (the Governor’s “PTA” pick to the Board of Education) lives in Brookline. There is not, to my knowledge, a single school in Brookline with a PTA affiliate.
My dear Michael Driscoll School (K-8) in Washington Square does not have one. Instead, we have a well-functioning PTO. Parents have pizza, parents help fundraise, parents hold events. You know, “mom and apple pie” (and dad, too).
“Mom and apple pie” is not the first thing that comes to mind when I think of an organization that sends dues to support the lobbying of the PTA in DC, that represents a miniscule number of parents.
So, the question for Ruth Kaplan and the Governor is: Who does the PTA pick to the BOE really represent? Ah, you really don’t expect me to have to state the obvious! Hey, lazybones, go back and read the previous post if you need a really big hint…
June 30th, 2007
On NewsNight (NECN) last week, I wanted to communicate that the PTA is, as Jim Braude summarized, “a wholly owned subsidiary of the NEA.” He got my point, but I got my facts wrong. And I hate that.
I said that the PTA headquarters was co-located with the National Education Association (NEA) HQ. In fact, as Lisa Guisbond pointed out to me in an email, the PTA HQ is in Chicago, not in DC like the NEA’s. I was referencing the fact that the PTA rented space within the NEA HQ from 1920 to 1953. I was off by 54 years - no small matter. And I apologize for the mistake.
The context for this mistake was a discussion about the Governor’s pick to the Board of Education–PTA member, Ruth Kaplan.
While wrong on the single fact, I am right about the PTA being a mouthpiece of the NEA and not being representative of parents AT ALL. And Lisa (my neighbor) was off the mark, when she noted that a PTA rep on the Board of Education was like “motherhood and apple pie.”
Why do I say that? Let me count the ways. This will take several posts…
Let’s begin with Charlene Haar’s book The Politics of the PTA (2002), which chronicles the subservience of the PTA to the NEA. Might that have something to do with why Warlene Gary is today the CEO of the PTA? After all, she worked for many years as a director within the NEA? Nah… conspiracy theories. Well, I’ve got you interested - so onto the next “When you are wrong” thread…
June 30th, 2007
Tip of the hat to Heather Brandon at Urban Compass – a great place to get up to the second news and updates on shops and the heartbeat of Springfield.
June 29th, 2007
So what has all the reform in the City of Springfield led to? Hundreds of jobs in the pipeline and tens of millions of dollars in private investment. You want to see the cold, hard facts on the progress?
Good. Click here.
Hard to imagine just a couple of years ago that we can now say without any possibility that someone would laugh - the City of Homes is the best managed large city in the Commonwealth. And with Ed Flynn at the helm of the Springfield Police, there is confidence that the public safety issues are going to be given the right kind of attention.
If you are tired of the traffic, want access to great open space, and are willing to be an urban pioneer — to the Pioneer Valley with you!
June 29th, 2007
One of the standout winners at the 2007 Better Government Competition was the Municipal Leadership Award given to the City of Springfield (Mayor Charles Ryan) and the Finance Control Board. And, guys, the award was a no-brainer. Springfield went from
- a deficit of $41 million in FY05 to a surplus in FY06 (and 07)
- a free cash position of minus $41 million in FY04 to plus $10 million in FY06. Oops, but I am understating their progress, aren’t I? In the Springfield Republican of today, there is an article noting that the FC position is actually plus $17 million.
And how was all this accomplished? Hmm. Perhaps it was the usual bellyaching about the need for a huge new cash infusion into municipalities? Nope. Was it reforms put forward by the Mass. Municipal Association? Nope. Uh, golly, please tell me how they did it?
- Putting the locally managed pension system into the state PRIT system (Go here)
- Being the first city in the state to join the Group Insurance Commission (2006 BGC, media work)
- Managed competition (Too many studies to list!)
- Negotiating long-term, predictable and affordable contracts with municipal unions (Need I say more!)
Ever heard of those ideas before?
The Finance Control Board met yesterday and, with the Mayor’s vote in favor, its tenure was extended for two more years.
June 29th, 2007
We were worried. During his first 6 months in office the Governor had unveiled a number of new initiatives that appear on the shelf, anyway, as if they will have expensive price tags: $1 billion in BioTech funding, the $1.4 billion rail line to New Bedford, and K through post-12 education reforms which some critics claim will cost as much as $2 billion annually. These on top of outstanding liabilities that add up to almost double the Commonwealth’s annual budget: $14.488 billion for public employee pensions, $13 billion for public employee healthcare obligations, and roughly $17 billion for maintaining public assets that have too long been ignored. Of course, the question is: how do we pay for all of this? I leave that answer to speculation.
With this in mind, we were happy to hear the Governor speak soberly at Pioneer’s Better Government Competition awards dinner Tuesday of free markets and the hard choices we face as a Commonwealth. In his eloquent address, Governor Patrick informed Pioneer and 360 supporters, sponsors, friends and new acquaintances, that, having stepped across the partisan line to get to know him, many of his critics were surprised to find a capitalist on the other side. However, he disclaimed a completely free market had the ability to address all of the problems confronting us both as a Commonwealth and as a society.
We agree with the Governor, but with one very big caveat: though free markets may be unable to address all of the problems we currently face, they sure can address a lot more if we just let them. From affordable housing in underutilized markets such as Springfield to reducing the cost of living around Boston to delivering a better education to the thousands of children still stuck in underperforming schools, the application of free markets would dramatically improve the lives of so many of Massachusetts’ citizens. But, again, that is if we let them.
We are pleased to hear that Governor Patrick is, after all, a capitalist. We strongly encourage him to explore free market solutions to the problems he faces and will continue to face as Governor. And if he needs help developing those solutions, Pioneer is ready to step up and volunteer its services. Give us a call any time, Governor.
June 28th, 2007
Not our traditional topic, but who can resist kicking the Yankees when they are down. This post is dedicated to Pioneer’s own embedded Yankee fan, Mr. Chieppo.
If you’ve followed Roger Clemens’ return, you’ve undoubted heard the live call of his reintroduction to Yankee Stadium, where WCBS Broadcaster Suzyn Waldman makes a home town call that would have made Johnny Most blush.
He’s now 1-3 with an ERA of over 5.
A less charitable colleague might be tempted to echo Edward G. Murrow in The Ten Commandments and ask “where’s your messiah, now?”. But not this correspondent, no sirree.
June 28th, 2007
Pioneer brought up the idea of consolidation underperforming local pension funds in our May 2006 paper, Leaving Money on the Table. We noted that underperformance (relative to the major state fund, PRIM) had left $1.6 billion on the table in the ten year period ending in 2004.
We recommended folding all the underperforming funds into PRIT.
The Governor recommended folding all the funds that underperformed by 2.25% over 5 years and were below 80% funded into PRIT.
Now, the Joint Committee on Public Service has recommended folding all funds that underperformed by 2% over 10 years and were below 65% funded into PRIT. The bill would have an immediate effect on 25 public pension funds that have left an estimated $700 million on the table in the past ten years. See the names of the funds and their performance figures in this chart — Joint Committee Data on Underperforming Funds.
These are all positive steps forward, for fiscal stability and municipal relief. Let’s wait and see what the full Legislature think of them.
June 26th, 2007
Is what’s good for Springfield also good for Amherst? Friend of Pioneer Peter A. Gagliardi, leader of nonprofit housing developer HAP, Inc., has found that where one stands on affordable housing depends on where one’s property sits.
Qualified families in both towns languish on waiting lists for decent homes, yet Springfield welcomes new construction, while Amherst fought a HAP project in court for five years.
Gagliardi is the author of both a Pioneer housing paper and one of the best “Dear Deval” pre-inauguration Globe op-eds. He’s also a veteran, having slogged for decades through the mud hidden behind good intentions and pretty speeches about affordable housing.
As proven by Gagliardi’s experience, as well as his research, those who would increase the housing supply face a very different task in wealthier single-family-home communities than they do in the city. The lesson is that unless state-level regulations and incentives can adapt to this market disparity, those waiting lists will only get longer.
June 21st, 2007
Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios appeared on NECN’s Newsnight last evening. He spoke in favor of the MCAS on a panel with the decidedly anti-MCAS Lisa Guisbond of FairTest.
Check it out here. (Bear with it, you have to sit through an ad first.)
June 21st, 2007
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