The Boston Foundation is underwriting the plaintiffs’ law firm at the center of the Boston Globe’s story Two Mass. families sue famed literacy specialists, claiming reading curriculums were intentionally flawed. The Globe never mentions that. That dereliction masks the efforts of moneyed interests to wrest decision making from elected bodies and mold K-12 education to…
The SJC Should Protect the Bay State’s ‘Exceptional’ Legislative Supremacy by Rejecting the Auditor’s Constitutionally Irresponsible Powerplay
Question One, which was passed on the 2024 Massachusetts statewide ballot by a wide margin, amended the state auditor’s authorizing statute. The amendment explicitly makes the state legislature itself subject to the auditor’s existing authority in exactly the same manner as are all the administrative departments, offices, commissions, and authorities of the Commonwealth’s government. Instead…
How Boston Globe’s Education Coverage Educates Us About the Capital v. Labor Divide
When I was a kid in the Sixties we’d occasionally hear stories about some poor Japanese soldier, abandoned on a Pacific island after WWII, finally being rescued while believing he was still fighting the war. That’s sort of where the Boston Globe’s post-MCAS coverage is. But as a lesson in the biased media approach to…
The Globe Puffs Up Another Dubious “Science of Reading” Program
Last week in This teacher has a super power to help her young students learn to read the Boston Globe introduced us to a new “superpower” a “research backed practice” endorsed by “experts” based on the “science of reading, or scientifically based research on how to teaching (sic) reading.” Relax. It’s just the Globe promoting…
Support the Rule of Law: Vote NO on Q1
State Auditor Diana DiZoglio, wants to make herself – and all of her successors – into taxpayer-financed political activists with the authority to ignore the state constitution’s most fundamental principles and to replace the will of the voters and their elected representatives at the state house with her own. Question 1 WILL NOT ratify or…
Bloomberg Reframes Q2 on MCAS: It is Oligarchy v. Teachers Union
The framing battle over Question 2 on MCAS—is it between “parents” and the Massachusetts Teachers Association or between the “business community” and the MTA—has been settled by New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg: it is between oligarchy and the MTA or if you like, capital v. labor. The Boston Globe’s Matt Stout reports that Bloomberg pours…
Latest OCPF Filings; and the Larsen A. Whipsnade “Never give a sucker an even break” Media Awards
The latest reports are posted at the Office of Campaign and Political Finance, and they confirm: Question 2 on MCAS is a contest between capital and labor. The “parents” frame is sought by the No side and though it is false it has been swallowed whole by numerous media outlets. They will be awarded the…
How the Boston Globe and Barr Foundation Rig the Discourse II: Voices for Academic Equity
We had another fine example yesterday of “What wealthy people do is rig the discourse” in the Boston Globe’s story about high school graduation requirements based upon a report by Voices for Academic Equity. Nice name—but what is Voices for Academic Equity? The Globe story is Half of all Mass. high schools don’t abide by…
Protect Our Kids Future Committee Flips Off Massachusetts Political Press. How Will They Respond?
The Protect Our Kids’ Future: No on 2 campaign announced a new ad featuring Keri Rodrigues of National Parents Union as a typical Massachusetts parent. It’s a direct challenge to Massachusetts media outlets: are they going to swallow Rodrigues as a typical Massachusetts parent, or report her her as a highly compensated professional spokesperson for…
Framing the MCAS Opposition: “Business Community” or “Parents”?
How the media frames the opposing sides on a ballot question is important. On the MCAS question one side is easy: it’s the teachers unions, especially the Massachusetts Teachers Association. According to the media the opposing side is either or both of the “business community” and “parents” (actually, one parent: Keri Rodrigues of the Walton…