Dec 15th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
Here’s another piece of evidence that, among public schools, charters are better than “regular” or district schools.
The state’s Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester is calling for revocation of the charter of the Robert M. Hughes charter school in Springfield for “pervasive, systemic cheating at the behest of adults on MCAS exams, reports the State House News Service.
If that is true, then the school’s charter indeed ought to be revoked. Chester is absolutely right when he says, “We expect a charter school that has been in operation for 10 years to have a stable and competent governance structure supporting a school with high standards and high academic performance.”
But, that only points out an ironic, and expensive, disparity. When charter schools mess up, they get put out of business. When district schools mess up, they get more money.
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Dec 8th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
There was our former governor, Michael Dukakis, arguing this week against allowing casinos in Massachusetts. Yeah, he made passing reference to the moral case – we don’t need more addiction – but his real pitch was that the state could get the additional money it needs by repealing “worthless” tax exemptions. That’s some serious rhetorical gymnastics. “Repealing tax exemptions” really means “raising taxes.” And how can they be worthless if the ex-gov thinks they’ll bring in $2 billion?
But I wouldn’t bet on either or. I’m betting on both. As the State House News Service reports, Senate President Therese Murray has said that casinos are “inevitable.” And Rep. Jay Kaufman, D-Lexington, says the Legislature’s Revenue Committee is studying the existing tax incentives, and finding little or no rationale for many of them.
Coming soon. More opportunities than ever, close to home, to lose more of your “hard-earned” money. And higher taxes too. That’s the really safe bet.
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Nov 24th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
A little lesson in the realities of law enforcement. The North Andover cops, told by a local couple that David Filli, owner of a mortgage company, had taken a $25,000 investment from them and then spent it on personal expenses, “asked” Filli to come down to the station to tell his side of the story. He refused, allegedly telling the cops he was too busy and it would be a waste of his time. So, they went out to his place and arrested him.
Moral: When cops ask you to do something, it’s not a request. Sort of like when the president or the governor say they’re going to “ask” the wealthy to pay higher taxes.
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Mar 6th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
Supposedly, talk radio megamouth Rush Limbaugh is the best weapon Democrats have. Democratic strategists James Carville and Paul Begala said they discovered in polls conducted last fall that Limbaugh was “deeply unpopular,” particularly among young people. Even more unpopular than “God-damn-America” Jeremiah Wright.
So, when Limbaugh famously said recently that he wanted President Barack Obama to fail, they figured they’d hit the motherlode. Unpopular radio guy attacks incredibly popular president. Put it out there, call Limbaugh the real leader of the Republican Party and watch the GOP brand sink into oblivion.
Well, maybe. But, maybe not. It is possible – just possible – that the reason so many people, especially young people, don’t like Limbaugh is because they have never really listened to him. They have seen and heard only the caricature, only selected soundbites from his sworn enemies, only the venom coming from the Bill Mahers and Keith Olbermans of the world, who don’t have an audience even close to that of Limbaugh’s.
So, the more they promote what they believe are the missteps of the Great Satan of the Right, the more likely it is that everybody, including young people, will hear more than a soundbite. They might actually hear what he says in context. They may realize that, agree with him or not, he puts forth his views in coherent ways. That his attack on the president is about his policies, and is not personal. That his wanting Obama’s agenda to fail is no different than Democrats wanting President Bush’s reform of Social Security to fail. That he has the guts to speak plainly, unfiltered by all the handlers and scripters that now surround Obama, just as they surrounded Bush and every other president of the modern era.
In short, Carville, Begala and the rest of the Obamanites might expand Limbaugh’s prodigious audience even further. They might not want that for a guy who could crush them both in a debate without breaking a sweat.
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Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
Remember, not so long ago, when dissent was “patriotic”? Remember when Democrats who favored immediate withdrawal from Iraq – who hoped the U.S. would lose the war because it would make President Bush look bad – would throw tantrums if anybody called them on it, because, they said, this was an unfair questioning of their patriotism.
What a difference three weeks makes. Now, with Democratic President Barack Obama in office, long-time Democratic strategist Robert Shrum is accusing Republicans who won’t roll over and blindly vote for Obama’s $840 billion “stimulus” package of being “Taliban Republicans.”
So, now that power has changed hands, it is not only just fine to question the patriotism of administration critics, it is fine to label them as sworn enemies of the United States, bent on inflicting mass casualties through terrorist acts.
Apparently, the rules of political debate are whatever Democrats say they are.
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Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
I didn’t expect, for a moment, that Gov. Deval Patrick would bring anything resembling tax relief to Massachusetts. He never really promised to, anyway. If you listened to what he said during his campaign, it was that if the income tax was reduced to 5 percent after 18 years of a “temporary” surtax, then property taxes would have to increase to make up the difference. Some people took that to mean that if the surtax remained, property taxes would decrease. But, that was just “Together-We-Can” wishful thinking. He made no promise of a reduction in anything.
So, it is no surprise that Patrick wants increased taxes and fees on everything from candy to gasoline.
But, what I didn’t expect was that his photo would be a candidate for placement next to “Big Brother” in the dictionary. Within his proposed plan to raise gasoline taxes by anywhere from 5 cents to 29 cents per gallon is word that the governor is moving toward tracking every mile you drive, with the assistance of a chip implanted in your inspection sticker. Not right at first, of course – it will just be a “free” FastLane or EZPass unit for everybody so they can use “open tolling” on the highways. But the technology is in the works for more – much more. No wonder he’s talking about eliminating toll booths on the turnpike – he won’t need them. This would make every road in the state a toll road. Not only that – if he can track every mile you drive, he can also track where you drive. Say goodbye to your few remaining shreds of personal privacy.
Posted in Pension Tidal Wave, State issues, Taylor Armerding, Uncategorized | View Comments
Feb 10th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
How disgusting is it that President Bush is still trying to ram things through Congress with the same, tired old politics of fear? I mean, first it was the weapons of mass destruction, and now it’s that we’re going to sink into an irreversible depression if we don’t hand him $840 billion for some kind of alleged “stimulus” that won’t really kick in before the economy has bottomed out naturally. First it was trying to scare us with national security and now it’s trying to scare us with economic security. If we don’t roll over for this, he claims a crisis will become a catastrophe, No Democratic president would ever stoop to such cheap scare tactics. When we send Bush back to Texas, there will be no more politics of fear …
… Oh, this is a Democratic president? That was President Hope-and-Change-Yes-We-Can Barack Obama saying all that?
Uh, never mind.
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Jan 28th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
If you had any lingering doubts about the Statehouse being a palace of delusion, listen to some of your elected representatives defend their vote for Sal DiMasi as House Speaker, just three weeks before he resigned under an ethical cloud that grows blacker by the day. Read about it here.
Rep. John Keenan, D-Salem: “I don’t think it’s a black eye.” Keenan said he supported DiMasi because of his work on health care reform, support of gay marriage and blocking casino gambling. Gee, that sounds as good as making the trains run on time.
“I don’t feel like it’s a climate of corruption,” said Mary Grant, D-Beverly. Let’s see – DiMasi is the third speaker in a row to resign because of ethics problems. But Grant sees no need for political climate change.
Joyce Spiliotis, D-Peabody, said she voted for DiMasi because nobody else was in serious contention. Same for Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers. So, there were at least two other reps drooling for the job – one of which has now gotten the job. No other options?
Nobody mentioned the obvious – that as long as DiMasi was speaker, he had the power to reward his supporters and punish any wayward rebels. Nobody mentioned the gladhanding love-in that preceded the vote, with everybody tripping over themselves to drone on about what a towering servant of the public DiMasi was. Hey, what’s wrong with allowing some influence peddling on the side?
Nobody should be surprised, I guess. Nor should we be upset, unless it is at ourselves. We’re the ones who voted for these people.
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Jan 5th, 2009 by Taylor Armerding
I agree with those who say that the few thousand bucks area school districts spent last November sending their superintendents and some school committee members to a conference on Cape Cod (read about it here) was no big deal – at least when it comes to breaking budgets. The top outlay of $4,500, which Methuen spent, doesn’t even register as a percentage of budgets that run into the dozens of millions. Or, in the case of Lawrence, well over $100 million.
But I was amused by the comments many of them, including Andover School Committee Chairwoman Debra Silberstein, who mentioned a presentation on cost savings and efficiencies that she said would result in bringing back, “the value well in excess (of the $2,209 that Andover spent) to the district.”
Silberstein also paid her own way to the conference, which is particularly laudable.
But even if the seminars result in savings of $50,000, let’s say, which would be “well in excess” of what they spent – hey, it would be more than 20 times what Andover spent – it will still have a negligible impact on a budget of $60 million.
None of these people should need a conference to tell them where the real money is – it is in teacher contracts. If they took a much harder line at the bargaining table, they could save their communities millions, not thousands. The only worthwhile conference is one that would teach them to do that. I wouldn’t care if each one of them spent $5,000 or more for a weekend, if they brought back that kind of value.
Posted in Local politics, Municipal meltdown, Taylor Armerding | View Comments
Dec 15th, 2008 by Taylor Armerding
Lots of stories this week on how President-elect Barack Obama is going to have to do something about global warming in a hurry, because we’re already tipping past the tipping point, according to all credible scientists.
The most interesting factoid came late in these apocalyptic reports, however, where it noted that 2008 was going to be slightly cooler than 2007. But don’t get complacent. This only illustrates, the story said, how fast the world is warming.
Uh, OK. What I’m wondering is, what would it mean if 2008 had been warmer than 2007. Would that have meant the world is cooling?
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