Justin Katz
The problems with it are manifold (some enunciated in the comments section), but Tom Sgouros’s analysis of property taxes brings to light an interesting conceptual matter: However, consider the question, “how much property tax do the richest 11,900 people in Rhode Island pay?” With the data I have, I can’t say for sure, but I…
The bout of grousing that Eliot Spitzer’s solicitous troubles inspired from John Derbyshire sounds all too familiar. Here are the final paragraphs, which hit the page like a fist on the desk: All the TV talking heads are telling me, with their sternest let-him-who-is-without-sin faces on, that it would be wrong, wrong to poke fun…
A cost-benefit analysis of sorts has led me to give up on the Tiverton town council. I simply can’t afford to devote that much time to such an unprofitable activity (especially if my taxes are going to continue to climb). Still, the school committee remains sufficiently interesting and important that I’ll continue to make the…
It’s a favorite argument of some of the antagonists ’round here to insist that household incomes have remained stagnant. The unions only look like they’re raking it in, you see, because they’re advancing at the rate that should be universal. Now, we can (and often do) argue that the benchmark relies on impossible mandates, but…
Just wanted to highlight Max Fenig’s comments on school vouchers: After seeing the poor results for R.I.’s public schools as measured against proficiency standards, we all know what must be done: Double the money for public education and we may reach mediocrity! But one matter regarding education in this state is worthy of note. We…
The Providence Journal, as represented by Steve Peoples, still isn’t giving the whole story when it comes to Rhode Island’s Family Independence Program: Lawmakers spent yesterday afternoon poring through Governor Carcieri’s 101-page plan that would dramatically cut benefits to the poor, while encouraging a “work-first” model and promoting “healthy marriages.” The governor’s sweeping proposal, if…
It’s disappointing even to have to argue against such arguments as the one put forward by Ron Wolk, a member of the governor’s task force on urban education: The main reasons students are not learning algebra and geometry is that they don’t really want to. They think higher-order math is irrelevant to their real lives.…
Following the titular formula typically used in articles about scientific (or at least quasi-scientific) studies, the Providence Journal gave this story the headline “Views may spur hate crimes”: Anti-immigrant sentiment is fueling nationwide increases in the number of hate groups and the number of hate crimes targeting Latinos, a watchdog group said Monday. The Southern…
It’s been awhile since I checked in on Fred on Everything and remembered to do so only at a reader’s suggestion about a particular piece on immigration: One of the speakers was Phil Rushton, of the University of Western Ontario, whose specialty is the study of racial differences in intelligence. Only among the ideologically befogged…
I’ve had mixed feelings about the reliance on student portfolios for the awarding of high school diplomas. On the one hand, it does place an active, foreseeable academic achievement before all students. On the other, most of the work is done as regular coursework and set aside for the portfolio, which aggregates the work in…