Education
The debate over the fiscal and philosophical aspects of education policy often intertwine, but the current goings-on in Warwick have much more to do with money than education philosophy. The Warwick School Committee and Mayor Scott Avedesian are on opposite sides with regards to the education portion of the FY 2006 Warwick City budget. In…
A previous posting reported the upcoming leadership change – and why – at the Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, a charter school. Here is a related letter to the editor: …Rick Landau has announced that he will step down as chief executive officer of Textron Chamber of Commerce Academy, in Providence. All because the teachers’-union…
Here they go again: The Teacher of the Year for the Lucia Mar Unified School District cannot be named within the space of this story. “It’s everyone,” said Branden Leach, president of the Lucia Mar Unified Teachers Association. All 575 instructors in San Luis Obispo County’s largest school district are winners, he said. “We all…
If you ever wanted some clear examples of how far the NEA teachers’ union (with at least the implicit support of their bureaucratic allies in public education) will go to win desired contract terms, read this posting and learn about three inexcusable actions in my home town of East Greenwich, Rhode Island. Let’s begin with…
The two local newspapers published last Thursday a new letter to the editor I wrote about the ongoing NEA teachers’ union contract dispute in East Greenwich. The editorial begins: The issues of retroactive pay and “work-to-rule” are at the heart of the dispute in the East Greenwich NEA teachers union contract dispute. The union expects…
This posting continues a periodic series of postings (here, here, here, here) about some of the strange behavior in the academic community. Roger Kimball weighs in with an editorial entitled “Retaking the Universities: A battle plan.” It is a lengthy piece, worthy of being read in full. Here are some choice excerpts: …In my book…
Professor Bainbridge has a posting about those pesky students at Roger Williams University here in Rhode Island who have done it again. As Bainbridge writes, “What is it about becoming an academic administrator that causes one to lose not only one’s sense of humor, but also the last shreds of one’s common sense?”
This posting continues a periodic series on Rhode Island politics and taxation, building on fifteen previous postings (I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII, XIII, XIV, XV). It also builds on several previous postings on educational issues: There are well-known deep performance problems with public education in America. Yet, receiving…
What greater gift can we give our children than a fair shot at living the American Dream? The important contribution of a quality education to having that fair shot led me to write: While hard work alone can make the difference, sometimes it is not enough to make the American Dream come alive for every…