Education
The family and I recently spent a long weekend in Washington, D.C. and we visited the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The “America on the Move” exhibition included a 1939 Dodge school bus from Martinsburg, Indiana, which served as a platform for explaining how technology (the bus) affected education. In rural areas, the introduction of…
For a quick diversion from the immediately relevant tasks of quantifying legislator votes and charting the ebbs and flows of Rhode Island civilization, I can’t resist commenting on Andrew Hacker’s New York Times question, “Is Algebra Necessary?“: My question extends beyond algebra and applies more broadly to the usual mathematics sequence, from geometry through calculus.…
I’ve been following taxpayer migration data for years, but in a haphazard way. A new study that I’ve coauthored for the RI Center for Freedom & Prosperity finally gave me the opportunity to review all fifteen years of available data from the IRS. The picture — from the 2003 beginning of what can only be…
In 18 of 32 combined Rhode Island school districts, enrollment has been falling as a percentage of the population under eighteen. That means families are choosing non-district charter schools, private schools, or home schooling. As the following chart shows, Cranston and Woonsocket are the only urban districts not losing community buy-in. Among the schools in…
Education Commisioner Deborah Gist is recommending that the state’s first charter school be closed. Gist is recommending that the Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education not renew the charter for the Academy for Career Exploration, formerly Textron/Chamber of Commerce, when its five- year charter expires next year….Gist criticize[d] the school’s performance while noting…
In an article posted yesterday by Linda Borg in the Providence Journal, the Providence school system is failing those students who are learning English as a second language. For the time being, let’s put aside the “they shouldn’t be here in the first place!” comments, as that’s a separate issue. The article talks about a…
Yes, East Greenwich has economic advantages that Central Falls doesn’t have. It also has parents, teachers and a community that is involved in the school. These are all reasons for why East Greenwich High School has been ranked as the best high school in the state and one of the top schools in the nation.…
On Monday, GoLocalProv.com released their annual high school rankings for Rhode Island. 51 public high schools ranked on a variety of factors. I was speaking with a friend of mine from Cumberland and we were lamenting our home town’s disappointing ranking at 34th. “That’s what you get when you have the lowest per-pupil spending” he…
We have a debate going on in Congress about raising the rate on student loans from the current 3.4% to the old interest rate of 6.8%. There is very little coincidence that the Democrat-controlled Congress who passed this change set the expiration date for an election year. Either continue with the Democrat chosen rate or…
The Projo‘s Gina Macris reports today that Governor Lincoln Chafee is not happy with the management of public education finance in Rhode Island…The Board of Governors for Higher Education should have known better than to negotiate 3 percent compounded raises at the public colleges for the next three years, when other state employees, taxpayers, and…