My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for July 13, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, July 20, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
I have been close to these budgets. Very close.
A “lack of funding” cannot be the culprit for every decision from local officials that change services or reconsider programming. When a 1% or 2% fiscal nudge in anything is blamed, I seriously question the competence and/or the integrity of those using the argument.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for July 6, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, July 13, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue was obvious and opens the way for more educational opportunity, which is especially needed during the COVID-19 era.
Instead of families being forced to consider spending their own money to augment their children’s schooling, (or not being able to afford at anything at all) programs like after-school enrichment classes, online classes, or private-tutoring could become immediately within reach if our state would adopt an innovative new program called Catch-up Education Scholarship Accounts (ESAs).
Mark Zaccaria argues that the current turmoil in the United States comes down to a loss of the institutions that used to teach people respect.
Notions of independent thought and familial authority are quickly becoming illusions, contingent upon the official authorization of powerful progressives.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for June 15, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, June 22, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
The Pawtucket middle school teacher arrested for attempted vandalism provides the latest warning about the direction of education and, in turn, our society.
The CDC’s current best estimate of the survival rate of COVID-19 is 99.6%. This is a new high for the reported survival rate which has been climbing for weeks.
This is to offer an important data point about COVID-19 that doesn’t get much attention. The United States has, to date, experienced 1,092,815 confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19. 64,283 of those cases, or 5.88%, have resulted in death. To be clear, 5.88% of people who got the disease have died from it, not 5.88% […]
Public schools and teachers unions in RI and MA are providing our state an education that can lead us to a post-plague renaissance if we’ll learn the lessons.
Michael Marra is a teacher of history and economics and asserts that Providence schools are not the only schools in need of improvement. His focus is on teacher contracts, which need to be modified to foster good teaching and diminish poor performance.
Advocates for school choice can feel like they’re getting stuck, but a lesson from the Second Amendment movement might help them find new support.
Powerful union head Randi Weingarten has no problem getting rough-and-tumble with the education commissioner, and Rhode Island students need somebody willing to do the same for them.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for March 2, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, March 9, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
Recently, two prominent Rhode Island politicians have publicly supported our Center’s long-time policy idea – even echoing our own language – to advance educational freedom for Providence families and all parents across our state.
For years, behind the scenes, I have been advising politicians and candidates – Democrats, Republicans, and independents – on the benefits of educational scholarship accounts (ESAs).
Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green is right to worry that adult agendas will derail any chance of reforming our system.
A Brown professor who takes to Twitter to insist he’d fail a retired Harvard professor is sending a signal about what he considers elite universities to be for.
Some days watching the news can seem like a punishment because there is little that reflects common sense.
Perhaps as rationalization for his willingness to accommodate socialists to defeat President Trump, Gary Sasse appears to be willing to play along with progressives incrementalism.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for February 3, included talk about:
I’ll be on again Monday, February 10, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.
A familiar subject floated through Rhode Island’s news cycle again last week when Warwick schools Superintendent Philip Thornton reported to his city’s school committee that the district should do something about teacher absenteeism:
Two schools — Wyman Elementary and E.G. Robertson Elementary — have chronic absenteeism rates of 24.4 percent and 22.7 percent, respectively. Chronic teacher absenteeism is defined as missing 18 days or more of school out of a typical 180-day school year.
Two more schools — Oakland Beach Elementary and Sherman Elementary — have rates above 20 percent.
In the 2018-2019 school year, more than 11 percent of all Warwick teachers — 100 teachers — were chronically absent, Thornton said, using data from the Rhode Island Department of Education. That said, more than a third of all teachers — 312 — missed less than five percent of school.
This isn’t just some hobby horse on which the superintendent wanted to beat for some reason. He raised the issue because teacher attendance is part of the formula that the RI Department of Education (RIDE) uses to grade the Ocean State’s schools. Looking for some means of holding our education system accountable (without actually changing anything), the state has developed metrics, and the chief executive of an organization has strong incentive to have his metrics look good.
We’re used to these spats, around here, but it’s worth stepping back a moment and plainly noting what is going on. The superintendent has identified a metric on which he believes the district can make improvements, and the relevant labor union, the Warwick Teachers’ Union, led by Darlene Netcoh, called out the troops and ramped up the objections, staking out ground for the fight. Some teachers have to work until 67, she says, which drives up the sick time, as if Rhode Islanders in the private sector have anywhere near the days off that government-school teachers get. Netcoh also attacked the numbers themselves.
Big picture, our elected and appointed officials have to be able to discuss ideas big and small, and they won’t feel as free to do that if every comment or proposal might begin the gears of the labor-unrest machine. In the private sector, management can discuss things and make plans before a possible dispute is placed in the open. In the public sector, only the unions have that privilege.
If we want open, transparent government, then we need some social (or legal) pressure on the labor unions to back off.
Increasing sexual activity among school-aged children in Massachusetts (or Rhode Island) would help Planned Parenthood develop life-long customers.
There’s been something odd about the introduction of the new superintendent for the now-state-run Providence Schools. The absence of Mayor Jorge Elorza from the public introduction of Harrison Peters was inexplicable. The first Providence Journal article following that introduction, by union-friend Linda Borg as well as Madeleine List, starts with technical details about the district and the hire and then jumps to: “In Hillsborough County, where he is currently chief of schools, Peters has critics and his admirers.” The following details are much heavier from the “critics.”
And then there’s general emphasis on the fact that Providence appears to have been his second choice, after having not been chosen for a promotion to Hillsborough County superintendent, while he was “at least” the second choice of Education Commissioner Angelica Infante-Green, after her first offer fell through.
Talk about starting a new leader off on a negative footing!
Of course, nobody should simply be rah-rah, but the whole thing seems a bit like a typical Rhode Island self-fulfilling prophesy. From reformers’ perspective there is certainly reason for hope. After all, Peters touts “that he played an important part in lowering the number of ‘F’ schools in the district by 60 percent, decreasing the student suspension rate by 35 points, adding 10 ‘A’ schools and helping 15 schools improve from ‘D’ to ‘C.'”
Being from a state with some of the strongest school-choice programs in the country, he’ll bring with him knowledge of the tools Florida provides to administrators and families.
One does wonder whether some of the indifference and negativity that appears to surround his hiring indicates that Rhode Island insiders are setting the battleground to get their way knowing what he might conclude and advise.
Results from neither Newport schools nor regionalized schools justify Portsmouth abandoning its stable situation.
My weekly call-in on John DePetro’s WNRI 1380 AM/95.1 FM show, for January 27, included talk about:
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I’ll be on again Monday, February 3, at 12:00 p.m. on WNRI 1380 AM and I-95.1 FM.