Education
The House debated Article 38, Sub A of the Budget this evening. Below is my liveblog of the debate, for the record. (I see Matt covered it too, including a list of who voted how–wonder how he got the list so fast?).
Cumberland Mayor Dan McKee’s plan to start up a mayoral academy in Blackstone Valley received the endorsement of the House Finance Committee last week. After initial opposition, the Rhode Island League of Charter Schools has come on board, the ProJo reports. And support for the plan is growing amongst Democratic politicians: “It’s time to think…
Here’s a question, which I present without insinuation in any direction: What can one glean from the fact that none of Tiverton High School’s top 10 students are going to Ivy League colleges? Does it say something about the school system? About Ivy League schools? About the increasing difficulty of getting into top schools lately?…
Add this to the list of lists that place Rhode Island on the wrong side: As of the most recent state report card issued by the National Association for Gifted Children, Rhode Island ranks at the bottom in nearly all categories, earning the state the dubious label of “most in need” with regard to critical…
The ProJo had an excellent piece over the weekend on the Learning Community charter school in Central Falls. It showed the sort of problems faced by today’s educators in an urban community and also highlighted the sort of innovative thinking it takes to get results. And that’s all that most parents want: results. If the…
The latest “Exhibit A” of the old maxim that there are “lies, damn lies and statistics” comes with news that RI is graduating even fewer seniors out of High School than we thought. Rhode Island’s high school graduation rate is 19 percentage points lower than previously reported, and at 70.1 percent hovers just under the…
Yes, that’s an organization composed mainly of teachers offering up unimaginative slogans that promote left-wing clichés:
And the frontrunner for this year’s Emperor’s New Clothes Award for Stating the Obvious is Richmond Town Councilor Henry R. Oppenheimer, for his recent comments on the General Assembly’s latest version of an educational “funding formula”. Andrew Martin of the Chariho Times reports on the effect the proposed “funding formula” would have on Chariho District…The…
Julia Steiny is must-reading today: After collecting my thoughts and temper, I wrote back. It seemed to me that teaching a child to read was the principal mission of any school and was, therefore, funded. Rhode Island has one of the highest per-pupil expenditures in the nation. If not to teach reading, what is it…
This factoid, coming out of the revolt in Tiverton, keeps ringing in my ears: … Mr. Cotta and other officials said that legally the school budget cannot be cut below what it was for this year… Is that true? If so, it’s insane! Efficiencies, need, and priorities can’t shift? I’ll have to look into that…
