Archive for July, 2007
Another post on running?! Well, this one is on running afoul of intellectuals because of running! The TimesOnline, grazie tante to the Arts & Letters Daily for this one, reports that
President Sarkozy has fallen foul of intellectuals and critics who see his passion for jogging as un-French, right-wing and even a ploy to brainwash his citizens.
Attacks on Mr Sarkozy’s pastime, which he has made a symbol of his presidency, began on the internet as soon as he bounded up the steps of the Elysée Palace in shorts when he took office in May. That moment has become the icon of his hyperenergetic administration. The grumbling has now moved to television and the press.
“Is jogging right wing?” wondered Libération, the left-wing newspaper. Alain Finkelkraut, a celebrated philosopher, begged Mr Sarkozy on France 2, the main state television channel, to abandon his “undignified” pursuit. He should take up walking, like Socrates, Arthur Rimbaud, the poet, and other great men, said Mr Finkelkraut.
Perhaps if he had a butt hanging off his lips and stuffed un livre de poche in his jogging pants, they would forgive him. American politics is petty, but we are no match for the culture universelle.
July 5th, 2007
Post haste it is not. I received a few days ago a letter from a friend in DC. She had apparently cut out a newspaper article from May 2nd and sent it to me. Now, I don’t know what blue plate special it got stuck under, but it took almost two months for me to get it.
Speaking of slow to act, how about the contents of said article? Let’s start with the title of the article in The Current: “Old convention center site to host 700 housing units.” Seems that the 10-acre parcel southwest of Mount Vernon Square where the Washington Convention Center was (New York Avenue and 9th, H and 11th streets) is being redeveloped as a Town Center, with commercial, office and residential uses.
Yes, speaking of slow to act. How about some of that action here? Another few years, when the area around the South Boston facility fills out a bit, we should follow DC’s lead.
July 5th, 2007
… and perhaps an unhappy fifth.
The deed is done. I made it through the Arnold Mills four-miler far faster than I had thought, executed with aplomb and a fine Pioneer-esque strategy.
I gave due consideration to the Greek psychology (mine), which is based primarily on avoidance of shame. I thought of what was achievable and paced myself.
To be specific, I made my way to a place within eyeshot of a teenager, who I had overheard telling her dad how she was training but just couldn’t take it seriously. Music to my ears. I stayed throughout the race within eyeshot and came away right smack in the middle of the 500-plus runner race.
I feel good, red-faced and ready for breakfast, and am delighting in shaming my brothers who chickened out.
See Chicken Brother #2 (at right). Notice the beady eyes and less than trustful smirk. How my mother raised such a child, we cannot explain.
Certainly, there may be a little less to crow about tomorrow. I am heading in for a long tubby, in the hopes that I won’t have to limp around the office tomorrow.
Yes, we are open for business.
July 4th, 2007
At 7 p.m. sharp (in three minutes), with David Wluka of the Massachusetts Association of Realtors and a developer who is seeking to use the market to produce housing for folks in the 65 to 80 % of median income range.
Discussion covers:
- the continued impact of regulations that restrict supply;
- the arguments made by municipalities (impact on property values and, ugh, we cannot afford the schools costs that come with kids!); and
- how cities can address these issues (long-term contracts with municipal employees, pension reform, and insuring employees through the Group Insurance Commission).
Munis, if you have problems, come to Pioneer. We have the solutions. Just look at what Springfield’s been able to accomplish.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1…
July 3rd, 2007
Over the weekend, someone was on the T griping about how people have started to say “Happy Fourth!” in that bright-eyed, bushy-tailed American way. I am sure my fellow rider was impressing her Eastern European-sounding interlocutor.
Perhaps it is better to say “Enjoy the time off,” “I hope you enjoy the 4th with your family,” or something similar. But give me a break: Why not “Happy Fourth”?
We are constitutionally constructed around the ideal of the pursuit of happiness as defined by citizens, so I think it is absolutely great to have a happy 4th, and I intend on doing just that — back in li’l old Cumberland, RI. Happiness on the Fourth in Cumberland means:
- A 4-mile footrace in the morning (80th annual), unless enjoyment the night before makes that an “unhappy” experience;
- The Arnolds Mills Parade at 11 a.m. with old cars, the Shriners, the Veterans Band, some pretty checkered-looking clowns (and I am not referring to some sort of Harlequin costume or to my chubby, balding high school mates and their spoiled-rotten kids);
- Time to kick back and wax nostalgic about chewing on beer glasses, stupid fights or who has the tapes of our punk rock band (blackmail alert!). Look, I know that’s lame if it goes on for more than an hour, but the ritual of re-living those stories every year on the Fourth reconnects us, maybe humbles us, and is fun. And it sure beats the alternative — nattering on about the price of real estate, the state of the schools, and how much everyone hates new construction.
If you want to tag a long, I would suggest getting there by 8:45 to get a spot. To all, a Happy Fourth!
July 3rd, 2007
In his letter to the editor (“Ed board shuffle: a lesson in irony,” July 2, 2007), Dan French trots out a number of myths long perpetuated by supporters of the status quo in education.
- He contends that Governor Weld packed the Board of Education, overlooking the fact that changes on the board had strong support from a Democratic Legislature alarmed at what was then the slow pace of education reform. Weld appointed John Silber as the chairman of the Board, who, notwithstanding the views some may have of him, was the largest vote-getter among recent Democratic gubernatorial candidates until Governor Patrick’s election last year.
- He contends that five of the nine members had ties to Pioneer or other free-market think tanks. I count two: Jim Peyser and Abigail Thernstrom. Dan, please do enlighten us about who these other phantom Pioneers were that so terrified you.
- Much as we would like to take credit for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, it was the result of a broad, bipartisan consensus that included Tom Birmingham, Tom Finneran, Mark Roosevelt and Bill Weld. Without such broad legislative support, MCAS would not have survived.
Dan knows all that, but his mind is so beset with conspiracy theories and payback for phantom enemies, he is willing to walk away from key reform elements that have helped make Massachusetts the best education system in the country. He and the other “status quotists” are backing off standards, backing off accountability, and undermining the independence of the Board of Education.
Dan, get serious as this is serious business.
July 2nd, 2007
So the “revisionistas” (a.k.a. status quotists, special interests, etc.) are trotting out the view that Massachusetts’ school system was always the best in the country, even before the Ed Reform Act of 1993 (and before standardized testing, accountability and innovation through charters).
As my 6th grade American Civics teacher used to say in his baritone drawl: That’s mullarky!
See my previous post on the NAEP scores. How about Massachusetts’ performance on the SATs? As former Senate President Tom Birmingham, one of the architects of Ed Reform, noted at a November 06 Pioneer event entitled “Has Education Reform Stalled?”
If you had told Weld or Roosevelt or me on that hot day in June 1993 that more than 90 percent of students would pass the MCAS test when it became a graduation requirement, we would have thought you wildly optimistic. Along with substantial success with what some might consider a modest MCAS standard, we’ve also seen increases in our SAT scores for 13 consecutive years, from 1993 forward, ultimately placing us number one in the country.
The former Senate President was also prescient on the backtracking on MCAS we’ve seen in the legislature and by the Governor, in his conjecture that there could be:
Increasing pressure to lower the standards, or make failure to meet the standards inconsequential. In this regard, I’m a bit discomforted that one of the leading candidates for governor is, in my opinion, ambiguous on the question of even retaining MCAS as a graduation requirement. And so, I’m pessimistic about state government’s commitment to take education reform to the next level, either on the funding or the standards front.
July 2nd, 2007
Finally, in his letter to the Globe editor Glenn talks of districts balancing
the state’s largest educational regulatory burden — a 14-tiered system of accountability, assessments, and accreditations — against severely restricted local budgets.
He goes on with the preposterous:
Pioneer cheerlead[s] for the bureaucracy that burdens the nation’s most overregulated public schools.
As everyone knows, generally (though not always) Pioneer agrees with the view that micromanagement of localities should not be the state’s first course of action. There are too many mandates on the use of state funding (on HMOs, on businesses, etc.).
Pioneer supports a single accountability system: the independent, district-wide and school-based accountability assessments performed by the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA). This morning we will read the autopsy report on what the Senate and House hath wrought on the accountability system during conference committee.
Rather than bemoan the passing of EQA, at this point, to be productive, we must find a new way to ensure that we are not simply shoveling money to districts without any accountability. One way to do that is to establish a system that uses a small amount of Chapter 70 school aid to reward localities for improvements in drop-out rates, attendance rates, and student achievement assessments (MCAS). See my paper on this.
In exchange, the state would stop with most of the mandates, letting the districts figure out their own solutions. They are the closest to the ground and know the unique challenges they face.
All that said, districts have to be held accountable. Since 1993, the state and localities have spent upwards of $80 Billion (that warrants a Big B) on education. We are now spending about $10,000 a child, all in. That is, to put it mildly, a lot of money.
Wasn’t the $15 billion (small b) “big Dig” enough to teach us that, when you are dealing with public dollars, you have to watch the hen house?
July 2nd, 2007
The conference budget came out last Friday. There’s plenty of grist for the mill there, but I direct your attention to the following section:
SECTION 26. Section 58 of chapter 218 of the General Laws, as so appearing, is hereby amended by striking out, in line 76, the words “an assistant clerk” and inserting in place thereof the following words :- a first assistant clerk and 3 assistant clerks.
Its worth your while to take a look at the law in question. It lays out in precise and excruciating detail the staffing levels and salaries of a large portion of court personnel.
Section 26, above, mandates that the particular district court in question hire 3 additional clerks.
Pioneer has long written on the brutal mismanagement of the courts and this is just another example. How does it make sense to organize the staffing of the courts through the statutory process? How about allocating funds and staff through active, accountable management, based on things like caseload? Just a thought.
July 2nd, 2007
I remember a rally in front of the State House when my daughter Teruha was only one or two. I lived on Beacon Hill back then, in a five-floor walkup. My legs were stronger, as were Ritsuko’s. Teruha was a champ and at that age would sleep on tables whenever we went out to eat, which was too often because I love to eat out, especially in the summer.
It was hot out — I think it was June. My calm lass in my arms, I was headed to the Commons to play with a ball. But the open area was crowded with protesters, and the tract of Charles Street between the Public Garden and the Commons was lined with dozens of school buses. Hundreds of teachers chanted “Ask A Teacher,” part of an expensive ad campaign and lobbying blitz.
Juggling kid and ball in my arms (I promise, T, I wasn’t using you as a shield!), I walked into the middle as Robert Kennedy (Jr) was yapping about how we had the best education system in the country and the world. On the world he was wrong. And he was wrong about being the best system in the country. As was Glenn Koocher, in his letter to the Globe editor yesterday, where he obfuscates the progress we’ve made, stating:
Massachusetts’ public schools have been among the nation’s highest performers before education reform and now.
If you don’t believe me, look at these National Assessment of Educational Progress summaries from the Institute for Educational Studies within the U.S. Dep’t of Ed.
- MA vs. other states generally in 1996: here. We are certainly not tops in the country.
- MA vs. other states in terms of percentiles on 8th grade math (1996 vs. 2005), or on 8th grade reading and writing tests (in both cases 1998 vs. 2005): here. In all cases, there has been improvement, and we are at the top or very near to the top.
Education reform has led to improvements on all national assessments and to an uptick to the point where we are recognized on the basis of data to be the best in the country. We have a long way to go to get the cities to catch up — and we are not where we need to be internationally.
Education Reform has brought progress. Glenn, as the saying goes, break it, and you own it.
July 2nd, 2007
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