Education
The arbitration bill has been made public (PDF) along with a press release explaining the rationale. A “Last Best Offer – Final Package” model has been added: The legislation changes the arbitration process to one in which the complete “Last Best Offer” from both teachers’ unions and management is considered in its entirety, as opposed…
Every year, for the past several, Tiverton’s Financial Town Meeting has made a distinction between the amount that it was appropriating from “local funds” and the amount that it expected from state and federal aid. For fiscal year 2010, the state aid came in $367,165 less than predicted, and the school department took the money…
There are a number of weird statements in this article about the Providence Teacher Union’s attempts to protect seniority-based hiring. First is this statement, which I’m not sure is entirely meant to say what it does but indicates a mentality that surely exists in the public school system: The new BEP is designed to ensure…
I have to express agreement with this comment that Project Future 2000 and Beyond founder Osiris Harrell made during discussion of the proposed Cranston mayoral academy: “Public schools can be fixed if you people focused on what’s wrong with the public schools, instead of spending all this time in trying to reinvent the wheel,” Harrell…
Count this on the list of problems that will likely never be solved unless we change our approach to solving them: On Monday morning, about 70 people — educators, government bureaucrats, elected officials and business representatives — gathered at the Community College of Rhode Island to discuss a problem that is only expected to worsen…
Here’s a little nugget of insight that deserves broader comment. Apparently, Rhode Island is having a difficult time filling the open position of Director of Health: In a phone interview, [former director David] Gifford said that a number of prospective applicants had contacted him with questions. The salary, he said, is an issue, but not…
In mid-May, education reformer Diane Ravitch visited Rhode Island to speak with Governor Lincoln Chafee. We do not know precisely what she wanted to tell him, but we do know that she does not feel that she was afforded the opportunity to fully express herself. After her meeting with the Governor, Dr. Ravitch posted an…
Can’t say I buy the rationale that Eloise Wyatt offers for preserving seniority policies among public school teachers: By eliminating seniority you get rid of the protection that lets teachers speak, up and stand up when an administration is hurting children. In my time as a special-education teacher in Providence, it was common for administration…
Richard Vedder, an economics at Ohio University, explains that one way to cut college tuition costs would be to ask professors to, you know, teach more. In a study for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, Christopher Matgouranis, Jonathan Robe and I concluded that tuition fees at the flagship campus of the University of…
The conversation was of the likely accountability that RI politicians will face for a vote on raising sales taxes and on perspectives on accountability in education during Andrew’s call in to Matt Allen Show, last night. Stream by clicking here, or download it.