Fri, 22 Aug 2008

NECAP Postscript

One of the funny things about democracy, you never know what's going to take off. The Department of Education began encouraging schools to form "School Improvement Teams" (SITs) some years ago. I haven't managed to speak to anyone who knows exactly when and why they were invented, but the idea is to get parents, teachers, administrators and people from the community together to present reform ideas to principals and school committees. In practice, I gather that few of them have an independent existence and largely serve to ratify decisions made by others.

But look what happened. Four energetic members of the SIT at Exeter/West Greenwich High School have become quite concerned about the proposed graduation requirements, and have formed a statewide SIT coalition to air those concerns and communicate them to the Board of Regents more effectively. They've already had one meeting, attended by dozens of people from SITs from all over the state. They're having another on Tuesday August 26, from 5-7pm at the Exeter-West Greenwich High School, 930 Nooseneck Hill Road (Rt 3) in West Greenwich. If you're part of a SIT, you're invited. If you're not, you're invited, too, though maybe you should consider joining one.

13:55 - 22 Aug 2008 [/y8/cols] link

What does a high school diploma mean?

If, like me, you have a high school student in the house, you probably know about the new requirements for high school graduation. Adopted in 2003, the first class to satisfy them (mostly) has just graduated.

The requirements are interesting. There is a requirement for a certain amount of course work, and also a requirement for a "project" that involves a great deal of individualized attention and instruction. Students are expected to think of something good to do, to do it in some depth, and to report on it with a paper or presentation. At my daughter's school, she tells me that one boy, a drummer, composed a piece of music for nine xylophones and another converted an old car to use biodiesel. Others arranged internships with a variety of local businesses. The idea is to acquaint the students with pursuing something deeply, while also allowing them to follow their own interests.

But those aren't the only parts of our graduation requirements. Seniors are also required to have taken the NECAP tests, a standardized test administered in the fall of junior year. This is kind of a curious requirement, since the test was designed to be an assessment tool for an entire school, not an individual student.

The problem with the NECAP tests is a suspicion among people on the Board of Regents that lots of students don't take it seriously enough. So it was added to the new graduation requirements, though at a low enough level that flunking the test won't deny anyone a diploma by itself. It's an odd reason to add this as a graduation requirement, but it's an odd world, isn't it?

See more ...

13:54 - 22 Aug 2008 [/y8/cols] link

Transit subsidies

For interested readers who want to know more about transit before government subsidies. That is, in the days before government transit subsidies, there were private transit subsidies.

A 1955 Time magazine article tells the story of what happened to the DC trolleys after the 1935 Public Utilities Holding Company act of Congress forced electric companies to divest themselves of the trolley lines they had operated as loss leaders. Essentially, investors bought the company in order to loot it of its cash holdings, not to run it at a profit, because it didn't make a profit.

A wikipedia article describes how the Pacific Electric Railway was always pretty much a loss leader for Henry Huntington's suburban real estate development interests.

09:20 - 22 Aug 2008 [/y8/au] link

Wed, 20 Aug 2008

No kidding

A court has ruled that the EPA can't force states to be as lax as they are. How about that?

09:07 - 20 Aug 2008 [/y8/au] link

Mon, 18 Aug 2008

Fish don't notice the water

After pointing out such state budget trivia as the fact that poor people and immigrants can hardly be the cause of our fiscal woes, I am often asked, "Well, where does the money go?"

Like any interesting question, this has a complicated answer, but it has an answer. I don't have my finger on all the parts of it, but I see some of it, and a big part is something very few people pay attention to, perhaps on purpose.

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10:47 - 18 Aug 2008 [/y8/cols] link

How do you get out of a recesion?

Some big shoes are waiting to drop these weeks. It's still far from clear how the state's labor crisis is going to be resolved. Last week the Governor's office presented their application to the federal government to make Medicaid into a block grant, and there were hearings on that earlier this week. Meanwhile, I read that URI is planning to cut $5.7 million from its budget and not replace any of its faculty or staff who retire this year.

We'll hear much more about these in coming weeks, but I thought it would be good this week to step back and look at the bigger picture: Are you better off today than you were before you heard of Don Carcieri? How about William Murphy, the Speaker of the House? Is your life better since he became Speaker in 2002?

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10:29 - 18 Aug 2008 [/y8/cols] link

Fri, 01 Aug 2008

Reagan tax bills

A random google search in service of next week's columns brings this gem of a report about the actual revenue effects of the actual tax bills passed by the actual Congress, since the 1940's.

Have you heard someone say that Reagan's tax cuts increased revenue? Do you realize that this is complete idiocy, but wanted more backup? This report is for you. Here's what the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 cost our government in billions (current dollars) in each year after its passage:

And just to be clear, this is the product of the US Treasury Department in 2003, revised in 2006.

18:07 - 01 Aug 2008 [/y8/au] link

Where will the hardball bounce?

Last week, members of the state's biggest public employee union, AFSCME Council 94 voted to reject the contract deal negotiated between the state's union leadership and the Governor. No one is quite sure what happens next, because something like this hasn't happened in a long time.

Let's be clear what did happen: the union membership unequivocally repudiated their own leadership, rejecting what those leaders had described as the best deal available under the circumstances. So now the leadership is in a hard place, stuck between a Governor who won't give and a membership who won't budge.

"Hasn't happened in a long time" isn't to say it never has. In March 1991, on the heels of the credit union shutdown, Council 94 members rejected a proposal their leaders had crafted for pay cuts and deferrals, prompting Governor Bruce Sundlun to enact a plan for layoffs and to close down state government for ten furlough days.

See more ...

17:46 - 01 Aug 2008 [/y8/cols] link

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