Education

Unions Would Have Stopped September 11!?

By Carroll Andrew Morse | February 13, 2007 |

Look, we all have bad days as bloggers. Some are worse than others. Matt Jerzyk of RI Future clearly steps over the line today…Today at 500pm there will be a big union rally sponsored by Council 94 AFSCME at Central Falls High School to oppose the privatization of school bus drivers expected to take place…

On the Same Text-Book Page as the Projo

By Justin Katz | February 11, 2007 |

Just to offer a hear, hear to the Projo’s editorial on education in RI: These proposed reforms are all excellent ideas. He also announced that he, House Speaker William Murphy, Senate President Joseph Montalbano, and representatives of labor, business, local government and other interests will work together to formulate what he called “Rhode Island’s 21st…

Watching the Senate: Charter Schools

By Marc Comtois | February 11, 2007 |

It looks like the Senate is where momentum is building towards a decision on whether or not to allow more charter schools in the state. Right now, there are three bills on the table (that I’ve found, anyway). S 0238 was proposed by Senator Leo R. Blais (Deputy Senate Pro-Tempore) and simply seeks to revoke…

Watching the House: Statewide Teacher’s Contract

By Marc Comtois | February 9, 2007 |

The Governor mentioned it in his State of the State and Rep. Paul Crowley (D) seemed to support looking into it and now a group of GOP legislators have introduced a bill that calls for a statewide teacher’s contract. H 5397 (sponsored by Representatives Loughlin, Gorham, Mumford, Moffitt, and Singleton) states: (a) Effective July 1,…

The Continuing Saga of the People Who Are Driving Our State into a Ditch Believing That They Are the Ones to Solve Additional Problems

By Justin Katz | February 8, 2007 |

Here’s another one: “The Rhode Island High School Dropout Prevention Act of 2007” (2007 – H5351) makes it the responsibility of the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary education to work in collaboration with local school districts and the Department of Higher Education to implement strategies to lower the state’s dropout rate. “Rhode Island…

Full-Day Kindergarten Comes at a Price

By Justin Katz | February 7, 2007 |

While announcing legislation that would “require all public schools systems in the state to provide full-time kindergarten programs,” Sen. Christopher B. Maselli of Johnston offers this bit of manipulative rhetoric: “It’s incredible how quickly we, as a state, can commit to spend money on new motor vehicle offices and prisons, but we argue about the…

RE: Scrap the Middle Schools?

By Marc Comtois | January 6, 2007 |

A couple days ago I mentioned about how–and why–many urban school districts are doing away with middle schools and going to a K-8 model. Apparently, Providence is looking to head in the same direction, as indicated by Mayor Cicilline: Addressing the challenges facing the Providence School District will not be easy, [Mayor Cicilline] said, and…

Education Reform Suggestion: Scrap the Middle Schools?

By Marc Comtois | January 3, 2007 |

In his innaugural address, Governor Carcieri vowed to reform our current education system. As Maggie Gallagher reports, maybe getting rid of “middle schools” entirely is one worthwhile goal. According to the New York Post, almost 50 of the city’s 220 middle schools have closed in the last two years, part of a plan to move…

Working Toward Education Reform

By Marc Comtois | December 31, 2006 |

It being the end of the year, the ProJo produced a piece detailing the public policy goals of various Ocean State political leaders. Among the topics was education reform: Lawmakers dole out more than $699 million in school aid to their home cities and towns, but it has been years since the state had a…

Education Reform Proposals from the “New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce”

By Carroll Andrew Morse | December 20, 2006 |

Time magazine’s cover story announcing the idiosyncratic choice of “You” as the 2006 Person of the Year is receiving the requisite amount of media and water cooler attention. However, the Time cover story on education reform from the previous week contains more ideas of substance likely to be remembered in the long run. In its…