Education
Things don’t look good in West Warwick: There are no solutions to their immediate fiscal problem. In fact, their current deficit is projected to balloon into a $10-million deficit in the years ahead if nothing is done. So school officials have worked “seven days a week” to come up with a three-year plan that would…
Two comments on Anchor Rising from apparent teachers within the past twelve hours raise some common points that are worth addressing. The first, appended to a September post by Monique, is a recitation of some typical union talking points — which, as I’ve been saying, are most directly targeted at the union members themselves, to…
I’m not entirely sure why the notion of more state money must be tied with the development of a school funding formula in this state, but this paragraph caught my eye: Currently, 60 percent of Rhode Island’s school costs are paid for by local property taxes, compared to the national average of 43 percent. Some…
What we’re seeing across Rhode Island, from Tiverton to East Providence, to West Warwick, and now to Johnston is the essential nature of the teachers’ unions: Resistance from the teachers’ union has forced the Johnston school system to abandon its leading role in a $12.5-million project to dramatically upgrade science and math education across Rhode…
Taking a soft tack in defining “fairness” when it comes to teacher compensation, Julia Steiny references a series of reports put out by Education Week: The researchers averaged the earnings of all 16 occupations and used that number to draw a “parity line” across the center of the chart. Against that line they graphed each…
Paul Mueller of WLNE-TV (ABC 6) is reporting that the West Warwick Town Council has voted to have the Town Manager “take over” reconciliation of the school committee’s budget deficit…ABC 6 Reporter Paul Mueller: A town council meeting, packed with hundreds of West Warwick residents and teachers, searching for answers to help fix their financial…
First, let me say, as a Cumberland resident and taxpayer, that I greatly respect teachers and the job that they do shaping the minds of our children. I like the profession; I do not hate teachers, nor do I have anything personally against them. This is not intended as an attack. Having taken the time…
I’m not a fan of top-down consolidation — at least not in Rhode Island. It’s not as if our system consists of a competent, efficient state-level government attempting to stay afloat on a roiling mass of expensive, unruly municipalities. The whole beast’s cancerous throughout, and the more diseased flesh we graft onto the heart, the…
As you’ve probably heard, the results for the 2008 New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) tests are available, and Rhode Island overall did see improvements. For purposes of comparison, I’ve averaged the proficiency scores for each of the three tests and ranked the schools: RI Grades 3-8 NECAP Score Ranking, 2008 Average ProficiencyScore Increase from2008…
As Marc and I have been illustrating, there are a number of ways to cut the data on education expenditures. That, indeed, is what makes it possible for unionists to declare this or that slice decisive, even if reality disagrees. In the comments to Marc’s post, for example, NEA Assistant Executive Director Pat Crowley seizes…