Nit Twit

By Jim Stergios
January 14th, 2010

Twittering is not something I do, but Dearest Colleague Poftak does. Seems Republican gub candidate Charlie Baker criticized Guv Patrick for having to be kicked and dragged to support hard changes to schools that are failing.

I suppose all is fair in politics and war, but I wonder if the response from Sydney Asbury, the Guv’s campaign manager (“Gov Patrick delivers where you & Weld failed and MA kids now benefit- facts beat spin every time”) shows the weakness I have seen over and over in the Guv’s staff.

They don’t know history, and it hurts them. Just weigh this:

Ed reform of 1993 + best academic standards in the country + kickoff of MCAS process + charter cap lift in 1997 + best charter authorization process in the country + Top in the nation on NAEP and SAT/ACT + Performance on math and science (TIMSS) among best internationally

v.

Charter cap lift of 2010 + unknown impact from “innovation” schools.

I dunno. I am happy about the new bill and ready to applaud the Guv for the new charter/innovation school bill, but let’s not overstate what it is. Good progress, some bad provisions, and much more work for all of us to do.