Justin Katz
Clarity on meaning is going to be absolutely crucial as competing visions are put forward to solve Rhode Island’s ills, and one pair of concepts that may have confusing overlaps in education policy is “statewide funding formula” versus a “statewide teacher contract.” The former phrase, as came out in my discussion yesterday with Representative Joe…
Not to darken your day, but the latest bit of bad news brought to Rhode Islanders by Providence Journal business writer John Kostrzewa comes with a very important point: When cities and towns do revaluations required under state law, they will find the total value of their residential property has probably declined. With a lower…
“We teach our children every day not to accept the easy answers but to get all the information they need before they make a decision,” writes NEA-Tiverton President (and teacher) Amy Mullen in a letter to the Sakonnet Times (which is not online). What follows that opener is, not surprisingly, another iteration of the union’s…
I managed to restrain myself and hold on to a Christmas gift card to Barnes & Noble until Wednesday in order to put it toward the purchase of Jonah Goldberg’s new book. (As readers know, I was otherwise occupied on Tuesday evening, which is when the book was officially released.) Liberal Fascism was nowhere to…
Of the four General Assembly members whom I’ve contacted regarding the RI Economic Summit article in yesterday’s Projo, only Tiverton/Portsmouth Rep. Joe Amaral has gotten back to me. (That’s more a plus to him than a minus to the others, considering that it’s Sunday.) I’ll definitely say this: I was much too hard on him…
A growing grumble in the comments sections relates to the odd exclusion of Rhode Island state legislators from news coverage of events in the state, particular related to its looming collapse, and the accusation is certainly something worth watching. The print edition of a Providence Journal story about the latest annual meeting fo the RI…
So here’s a question: Does the effect of snow transcend culture, or has Iraq absorbed enough of the culture that flowed from Northwestern Europe to have a similar cultural reaction? After weathering nearly five years of war, Baghdad residents thought they’d pretty much seen it all. But Friday morning, as muezzins were calling the faithful…
Think you’ve got what it takes to win an election? Well, try your hand at a campaign flash game. (It would have been better if the candidates had different attacks…)
During the commute home tonight (having worked some necessary overtime), I heard State Representative Joe Amaral — my representative — attempting to explain to Dan Yorke why he is the lone Republican in the House not promising to forgo the rub’n’tug grant system. His arguments were mostly about process and equity from town to town,…
Alex Merchant got a picture and story in the Providence Journal for convincing the faculty at St. George’s School in Middletown — of whom “most… consider themselves liberal” — to let him and other members of the Young Liberals organization skip class to drive up to New Hampshire and volunteer with the Obama campaign. Wouldn’t…