Marc Comtois
Rhode Island Education Commisioner Deborah Gist has quickly become a breath of fresh air, indeed (via 7to7): Dropping a bombshell on Rhode Island’s teacher unions, state Education Commissioner Deborah Gist announced Friday that districts must abolish seniority as a method of assigning teachers. Gist, in a letter to all superintendents Thursday, said the Board of…
Riordan Smith has filed papers as the first official candidate for the Governor’s race in 2010. The ProJo and Ian Donnis at WRNI have more info. Smith was also all over the radio yesterday and today explaining his personal background (small-business owner, married with 3 kids, lives in East Greenwich, ran the Iron Man) and,…
A couple days ago I noticed that, with the arbitration bill coming up, Sen. John Tassoni had just been approved as a mediator. (The ProJo story reporting this also mentioned a few others). That led me to remark that it looked like the arbitration/mediation deck was being stacked ahead of time. The ProJo editors have…
Colleen Conley of the RI Tea Party was on WPRO AM 630’s Dan Yorke Show talking about the movement, including the upcoming “Welcome Back Tea Party” for the Legislature on October 28th at the State House. Conley revealed that she had a 3 hour conversation with former Cranston Mayor Steve Laffey but she didn’t delve…
As Monique notes, the bill requiring binding arbitration in union/town disputes is slated to be heard this Wednesday. You can also hear NEA/AFT funded radio advertisements touting the bill. I wonder why labor unions–which traditionally take pride in being negotiating pit bulls–are apparently going all warm and fuzzy over the prospect of a supposedly fair…
In his Wednesday column, “The trouble with health care is paying for it“, Michael Barone wrote: We know now that it costs a lot of money to pay for insurance policies with expanded coverage for an expanded number of people. And we know that no one wants to pay the price. We may be in…
I don’t know if this will go anywhere, but the lawsuit by the ACLU against the Pawtucket Parks and Rec Department for supposedly giving parochial schools priority over public schools for athletic field use caught my attention. As summarized at 7to7: The ACLU, in a news release Wednesday, alleged that parks and recreation gave the…
USA Today: Democratic members of the House of Representatives now represent most of the nation’s wealthiest people, a sharp turnaround from the long-standing dominance that Republicans have held over affluent districts. A USA TODAY analysis of new Census data found that Democrats represent a far different constituency today than they did in 2005, when they…
Two stories in last week’s ProJo have been jangling around in my head. Then Justin noted Deborah Gist’s “anger” over kids not wanting to go to college and, correctly, pointed out that college ain’t for everyone. I agree, especially when the value of a B.A. seems to be less and less while we pay more…
For the price of a $5 footlong, Tollgate High students can park their car for a year in the school parking lot. Toll Gate Principal Stephen Chrabaszcz said he decided to institute the policy for two reasons. First, to make the campus safer and reduce auto break-ins. Students would have to register their cars and…