Transit Has $77.7 Billion Maintenance Backlog
A new report from the Federal Transit Administration says that America’s transit agencies need $77.7 billion to bring their systems up to a state of good repair. This report is an update to a previous report that just looked at seven of the nation’s leading transit systems (Boston, Chicago, New Jersey Transit, New York, Philadelphia, […]
Resolved to Fight for Local Control
Have state and national officials overstepped their bounds in setting education policy? Gerald Keefe, superintendent of Kit Carson School District in rural eastern Colorado, explains why his district has taken the lead in resisting national standards and advocating for the rights of local school boards to set curriculum requirements.
Ben DeGrow Didn’t Copy Off My Paper — Great Minds Just (Mostly) Think Alike
Last Tuesday I told you about the need to focus on replicating great teaching rather than shrinking class sizes. The post basically did the following:
Noted that, according to research by Mike Antonucci, Colorado has been an exception by not hiring faster than student enrollment growth
Point readers to an Education Next podcast highlighting the research on […]
Mass. employers drop coverage, put employees to public dole
Surprise, a tax-funded health insurance program encourages employers to stop offering their employees coverage. More people become dependent on a government program for health insurance, which then results in a constituency that supports the program. Government dependency grows again, and politicians gain more power over our lives. The Boston Globe reports:
The relentlessly rising cost of health […]
Smaller Classes Don't Mean Better Teaching
In these difficult budget times, preserving teacher jobs and smaller class sizes remains as a high-priority education strategy. Yet Colorado can better maximize outputs by promoting practical changes at the classroom level. Research repeatedly tells us that large-scale class size reduction programs bring very little or no bang for a lot of education bucks.
Washington Metro Takes Action!
In an article worthy of The Onion, the Washington Post proclaims that “Dupont Circle escalator incident prompts Metro to take action.” The incident in question was the breakdown of the giant, 130-foot escalators at the Dupont Circle Metro station, which forced patrons to walk or, in some cases, crawl over handrails to adjacent escalators. The […]
It’s Not Health Care ‘Reform’; It’s Exploitation
by Brian Schwartz Scratch a health care “reformer” and you’re likely to find a health care exploiter. As ObamaCare’s provisions and taxes begin and resistance builds through lawsuits and state-level measures, it’s important to see the exploitative motives driving increased political control of your medical care. Health control advocates won’t stop with ObamaCare (HR 3590). […]
Paul Peterson Wonders if GOP Congress Boosts Obama on Education Reform
It’s Friday, and I don’t want to delve into the depths of education policy today. Instead, I’m recommending an interesting Education Next thought piece by Harvard professor Dr. Paul Peterson, a champion of school choice and education reform.
Peterson muses that a Republican takeover of Congress this November just might save Obama’s presidency… by saving […]
Airfares Taking Flight?
Delta and Northwest have merged, and now United and Continental are merging. So naturally someone raises the specter that airfares are going to go up. “Concentration in any industry leads to higher prices,” says someone who claims to have analyzed the airline industry for 40 years. I don’t know what industry they have been analyzing, […]
Colorado Takes On Tenure and Evaluation Reform… Are “Master’s Bumps” Next?
Writing over at Education Next, experts Emily Cohen and Kate Walsh explain how reformers should be focused on changing the levers of state policy to improve the quality of teaching, rather than grousing about what locally-negotiated collective bargaining contracts won’t allow them to do. In their piece “Invisible Ink in Teacher Contracts”, Cohen and Walsh […]
It’s Not Health Care ‘Reform’; It’s Exploitation
Pajamas Media: Scratch a health care “reformer” and you’re likely to find a health care exploiter. To stop health care exploitation we must address the root issue: the nature of rights and the purpose of government.
Medicare head Donald Berwick: You’re a pawn
In the American Spectator David Catron points out a disturbing quote from Medicare & Medicaid Services head Donald Berwick is.
Berwick’s view of rationing is, in fact, the opposite of [Paul] Ryan’s. The latter believes it should be driven by the informed decisions of consumers in a free market, while […]
