Education
To my recent post that featured a table of the Cost/Resident to foot the payroll for their local public schools, Thomas Schmeling commented: It’s probably also useful to recognize that some communities have higher proportions of children than others so that, even if two communities are spending the same amount per resident, they might be…
So what are the odds of this becoming law? Amending state law to clearly prohibit strikes is the task force’s first recommendation. If Carcieri supports the plan as expected, he would have to ask lawmakers to submit the bill to the General Assembly for a vote. Officials at the state Department of Education researched tougher…
Working off of the data provided by the ProJo, I’ve come up with a few lists of what it costs per resident of every city and town in the state to pay the salaries (important: salary only, benefits not included) of each state and local government employee. To start, here is the data on Schools…
I was able to attend Governor Mike Huckabee’s Rhode Island press event last evening, immediately preceding his rally in Warwick. During the press conference, Russell J. Moore of the Warwick Beacon broke a chain of horserace and identity politics questions being asked by other reporters to — get this — ask an actual question about…
Jennifer Jordan has an article in today’s Providence Journal’s about a recently released RIPEC report, “How Rhode Island School Finances Compare”. The ProJo headline, “R.I.’s Reliance on Local Taxes for Schools Deepens” and the subject of the first five paragraphs of the article, was actually only one of eight major findings of the report. This…
In a letter to the editor of the Sakonnet Times (not online), Tiverton High School physics and chemistry teacher Richard Bernardo offers general encouragement to everybody involved in the contract disputes to “roll[] up [their] sleeves and [get] the job done.” In light of news released since Mr. Bernardo penned his letter, this part sticks…
My word won’t be taken on this, but I would love to learn that impressions of Rhode Island’s public education are unjustifiably poor. The ax that I grind is with the amount that we pay for the results that we get, and mathematics proficiency of 50% or less is simply not acceptable in a state…
Learning First Alliance/Rhode Island is out with a report (h/t) in which they try to explain that the simple categories used to describe the progress (or lack thereof) of our schools are insufficient to the task. They have a point. Earlier this month, when digging into the latest reports on our state high schools, I…
I don’t support residency requirements for such public employees as teachers. It’s nice to think that your children are being taught by your neighbors (as inaccurate as that characterization of fellow townspeople may be), but schools should find the best teachers they can, and teachers should be free to decide where to live. That said,…
I’m sorry (dark times, and all), but I had to laugh. The student newspaper at URI, The Good 5¢ Cigar, has a story on decreasing state funding, and accompanying editorial contains this gem: University President Robert L. Carothers said that the administration will have to do “some creative thinking.” Has it really come down to…