More than 100 teachers showed up at CCRI tonight to make sure the Board of Education knows how they feel about extending Deborah Gist’s contract. You can watch the video to see for yourself in this quick video:
Pretending to discuss NECAP test validity
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One of the real problems that our politics has never addressed is full-time advocates. In issue after issue, only one side has money, so therefore has the time to write, speak, argue, make radio appearances, testify at great length to legislative committees, and generally conduct an all-out campaign to win. The other side relies on volunteers, stealing time from their jobs or families in order to wage a fight. You see this in fights over tax cuts, over the argument about whether payday lenders should be allowed to charge 260% interest, and in discussions about virtually every environmental regulation ever proposed.
So it is in the debates about the state’s misguided use and abuse of the NECAP test. To date, I have yet to see any response to my letter to the Board of Education chair that didn’t rely on misconstruing it. Not only that, but I’ve heard from several psychometricians that my criticisms were on target. And I keep hearing from teachers the same refrain: “yeah you’re right, but you don’t know the half of it.”
What I have seen is a continuing blizzard of media and radio appearances by the Commissioner and her supporters, where her assertions about testing policy and statistics are allowed to pass essentially unchallenged by hosts who maybe aren’t exactly statistics aces. I’ve also seen a very strange letter from business leaders that endorses Commissioner Gist for no reason they could actually cite.
Let the record show that, since I wrote my letter in March, Dan Yorke’s is the only media outlet to invite me on. I was on Buddy Cianci’s show for about five minutes, when I called in. I also got to mention the subject for a minute during a Lively Experiment appearance, out of the indulgence of the producers who hadn’t put the controversy on that week’s agenda — even though the Commissioner had appeared the previous week.
Outside the media’s eye, I got two minutes to speak at a Senate Education Committee hearing, after the Commissioner spoke for about an hour and a half, and failed to speak at a Board of Education hearing when Eva Mancuso, the chair, shut down the public comment after 30 minutes, most of which was filled by endorsements of decisions the Board was already planning to make.
Have you seen any independent psychometricians interviewed or questioned by other media? They exist out there in the wide world. Which local reporter has called around to find one to weigh in? Who has published it?
In short, we’ve seen nothing that remotely resembles a debate over the issues raised by me, RI Future and by the Providence Student Union. The issues have not only gone unanswered, they pretty much remain ignored. This is not a debate that I have lost; it’s a debate that has never happened. The Department of Education has gone out of its way to show they have policies to address some of the failings of the test, but the easiest policy to address misuse of the NECAP test is simply to stop misusing it, and that is apparently not on the table.
So this is how policy works around here. There is no debate about issues going on, though we pretend. The pretense is abetted by politicians and education board members who only make a pretense of caring about public policy. The sad fact, though, is that policy is what the government actually does, for us and to us. If we don’t discuss policy in any useful fashion, is it any wonder that we can’t get out of our own way?
Teachers to protest outside before Gist contract debate
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Public school teachers plan to protest outside a Board of Education meeting tonight where Education Commissioner Deborah Gist’s future employment will be debated and perhaps decided.
“If the board votes to renew the contract, we want to make it clear tonight isn’t the end of a campaign,” said Pat Crowley. “Tonight is the beginning of the campaign.”
The action was announced in an email today from the NEARI, the larger of the two teachers’ unions in Rhode Island. Both are vehemently opposed to Gist’s contract being renewed. Here’s the email:
Rhode Island educators will gather at CCRI, Warwick, prior to the Board of Education meeting Thursday, June 7, to express concern once again over the continuation of Deborah Gist as commissioner of education. Frank Flynn, president of RI Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, and Valarie Lawson, president of East Providence Education Association, will speak at 5:00 pm.
At a debate-changing teacher rally recently in Cranston, Brian Chidester, a French teacher in Warren/Bristol, said, “if you want mass civil disobedience from your teachers, go ahead and renew Gist’s contract.”
Fossil Free RI targets higher education
Fossil Free Rhode Island fights for fossil free:
Hey, folks, unless we act now,
The globe, our home, will boil.
Divest! Divest from coal,
and from tar sand, gas and oil.
Over the last three years, public campaigns to divest from coal, oil, and gas companies have emerged on more than 300 college campuses across North America. Fossil Free Rhode Island (FFRI), is part of this national movement and is officially kicking off its campaign this week.
FFRI is an organization made up of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community members and has been collecting signatures from individuals and organizations for several weeks. Earlier this week, FFRI presented letters to the presidents of the University of Rhode Island, Rhode Island College, the Community College of Rhode Island, and the Rhode Island Board of Education.
To commemorate the launch, Fossil Free RI will be hosting a “Night of Resistance” at the First Unitarian Church in Providence on Thursday, June 6th. There will be a screening of 350.org‘s Do the Math, which highlights the movement to take on the fossil fuel industry, followed by discussion on what can be done here in Rhode Island. The event will also feature updates from several groups involved with fossil fuel divestment and climate justice work, including: the Divest Coal Campaign at Brown University, Divest RISD, and 350 Massachusetts. The program starts at 6:30pm and is free and open to the public.
In these letters FFRI urges public higher education in Rhode Island to divest its endowments assets from fossil fuels.
The FFRI campaign is motivated by the following concerns:
- It is an established fact that more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere leads to higher global temperatures.[1]
- In 2008, Hansen and collaborators wrote: “If humanity wishes to preserve a planet similar to that on which civilization developed and to which life on Earth is adapted, paleoclimate evidence and ongoing climate change suggest that CO2 will need to be reduced from its current 385 ppm to at most 350 ppm.”[2]
- The level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere recently reached 400 parts per million, higher than at any other time in recorded history.[3]
- The average temperature in the U.S. has increased by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit since 1895, with more than 80% of the increase occurring since 1980.[4]
- During the middle of the 20th century, extreme weather events covered much less than 1% of Earth’s surface. Shockingly, now 10% of its surface endures such events.[5]
- The extraction and burning of fossil fuels are clearly and directly linked to climate change and extreme weather.
- According to the World Health Organization, global warming causes 150,000 deaths and over five million illnesses a year, and these numbers could double by 2030.[6]
- Responsible citizens must act now to preserve a livable planet for themselves, their children and future generations.
Education is an investment in the future, but there is no future unless educational institutions and humanity as a whole enact a fundamental change in their investment policies.
[1] The Discovery of Global Warming, http://www.aip.org/history/climate/co2.htm
[2] J. Hansen et al., Target atmospheric CO2: Where should humanity aim?, Open Atmos. Sci. J. (2008), vol. 2, 217 (http://arxiv.org/abs/0804.1126)
[3] 400PPM: Carbon Dioxide in the atmosphere reaches preshistoric levels, http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/05/09/400-ppm-carbon-dioxide-in-the-atmosphere-reaches-prehistoric-levels/
[4] Federal Advisory Committee Draft Climate Assessment Report Released for Public Review,
[5] James Hansen, et al., Perception of climate change,
[6] Third World bears brunt of global warming impacts, http://www.news.wisc.edu/11878#continue
(The material presented above is from a press release issued by Fossil Free Rhode Island)
Who Do We Pay?
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With the House of Representatives bringing in its “neutral” expert on defaulting on the 38 Studios moral obligation bonds, the lingering question to me still remains. Why is it alright to unilaterally bail out on our pension obligations to state employees, but our “moral” obligations to bondholders who knew the risks must be honored at all costs?
That was the question posed to Gov. Lincoln Chafee a month ago by columnist (writing then for Bloomberg View) Josh Barro.* Chafee’s never answered that fundamental question, and Barro rightly excoriated the Governor for claiming to call for moderation when in fact he called for a more radical version of pension reform than what was enacted.
Discovering the answer to the question (why can we ignore pensioners but not bondholders) is not where the conversation around the interview with Chafee went, of course; WPRI’s Ted Nesi discussed it before turning instead to the idea of moral obligation bonds as essentially general obligation bonds. And ultimately, Reuter’s Felix Salmon jumped in with a bit of commentary that completely lost Barro’s thread, instead laughably painting Chafee as Machiavellian in his approach to bonds.
But the question still remains; why are we valuing capital more than labor here? These pensioners did their duty for the State, whether it was operating its government, hunting down its criminals, taking care of its people, or any of the other thousands of little things state employees do. In exchange, beyond the wages it paid them, the State promised as well to ensure they could take care of themselves in their retirement. Then, when it was unwilling to pay for it, the State reneged on this promise; now it’s facing a lawsuit.
The bondholders, on the other hand, provided the capital used to pay for 38 Studios, a game company that spent poorly, was bad at managing its money, failed to produce a profit, and ultimately left the State with a massive financial hole. The State is promising to pay them their money back, with interest.
The pensioners provided actual value to the State, the bondholders did not. A question for 2014 for any elected official that suggests we should pay back the 38 Studios bonds but voted for pension reform is to explain how the bonds are more valuable than our state workers’ labor.
The simple political reality is that bondholders have simply always been more powerful and dominant in state economic policy than its workers; going back at least to the era immediately following the Revolutionary War (a sobering thought as we approach Gaspee Days). Even though paying back the bonds will pull money out of Rhode Island’s economy, the bondholders will suggest that they can cost the State even more money by damaging its credit ratings. Sadly, these credit ratings are put out by the same agencies that said that subprime mortgages were a top-tier investment… leading to the collapse in the economy five years ago.
Ultimately, because it’s far easier to tabulate the value of capital rather than services rendered over a worker’s career, our credit ratings aren’t hurt when we spurn our obligations to pensioners. There’s no doubt in my mind that we’re in the society that Ta-Nehisi Coates quotes Chris Hayes as suggesting we’re in, one “that applies the principle of accountability to the powerless and the principle of forgiveness to the powerful.”
P.S. It’s also worth noting the words we use to describe the two situations; we’re “defaulting” on our bonds, but merely “reforming” our pensions. Maybe people against paying back the 38 Studios bonds should use the phrase “bond reform.”
And for more on this topic, see RI Future posts by Mike McDonald (Gina’s moral obligation Wall St not RI, April 7) and Bob Walsh (Pension lawsuit primer, June 26, ’12)
*CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post referred to the “conservative columnist Josh Barro”. Today, Barro declared he’s not a conservative, and is currently a “neoliberal”.
Students to legislators: help the homeless!
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Third grade students from the International Charter School (ICS) in Pawtucket told legislators that they needed to help the homeless this legislative session. 10 students, on behalf of their class of 39, spoke while their peers, teachers, advocates, and legislators watched.
The ICS, which strives to integrate the language and cultures of the communities it serves by teaching all student in two languages (either in Portuguese and English or Spanish and English), wanted its students to deal with serious issues as a community; voicing disagreements respectfully, and then coming to agreement on what action to take. As part of their 3rd grade social studies class, a simulated community eventually contained a tent city of homeless people, and the students decided they wanted to do something about that.
So it was that after a month of research, they found themselves in the Governor’s State Room, explaining to Representatives and Senators why ending homelessness was important, and why it was vital that they do so. Recalling an earlier Wizard of Oz-themed event, the children dressed as munchkins and requested that that Dorothy, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and the Scarecrow attend as well (the four all attended).
Jazzlynn Sanchez told the assembled legislators, “What we want to happen is to not have as many homeless people. My message is that everyone deserves a home, even though they don’t have enough money. Our goal is to try and lower rents and pass a bill that will allow more people to afford homes. If you can, please try to help the homeless. It would really be a pleasure if you could.”
The children specifically asked that legislators adopt bills H5554 and S494 as part of their budget for the coming fiscal year. Then they thanked everyone who turned out and sang “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.
Afterwards, the students toured the State House with Rep. Lisa Tomasso (D – Coventry, W. Greenwich).
38 Studio loan default makes for strange bedfellows
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As legislative leaders draw criticism for only inviting one perspective to speak today about defaulting on the 38 Studios loan, Occupy Providence, an activist collective, and the Stephen Hopkins Center, a libertarian group, have joined forces to sponsor an event that offers a pretty good diversity of opinion.
WJAR’s Bill Rappleye will moderate a panel debate at the State House today at 2:30. Panelists include Gary Sasse, former executive director of the RIPEC and senior adviser to Governor Don Carcieri, RI Future contributor Tom Sgouros, Bob Cusack a former public finance investment banker, John Chung, a Roger Williams law school professor and Elaine Heebner, for a citizen’s perspective.
Both Occupy Providence and the Hopkins Center oppose repaying the loan. And this isn’t the only example of atypical political allies on this issue: both the Rhode Island Republican Party and the Rhode Island Progressive Democrats don’t want to repay the loan either.
“The key leaders in RI government are showing poor priorities if they bail out Wall Street and keep historically low tax rates for the rich, when we could be stabilizing transit funding and making education more affordable,” said Randall Rose, a longtime leader of the local Occupy movement.
Brian Bishop of the Hopkins Center added that his organization “would prefer lower taxes for everybody, including the rich. But our common ground with Occupy Providence is an objection to cutting the voters out of their constitutional role in approving debt. This sham technique in which the state does not directly borrow the money, but is perceived to be on the hook because of risk to its credit rating and fiscal reputation, must end. Legislators should stand up for taxpayers over Wall Street on this issue.”
But, they still thought it was important to have a robust debate on the issue. “We have specifically invited state leaders who support the bailout to defend their position,” said the press release. “This will fill a need for fair, thoughtful debate on the subject.”
I think this issue is shining a light on a new kind of political division in Rhode Island.
Council 94 should hire Tom Sgouros instead
At least if Council 94 was going to hire a blogger to do opposition research on its behalf, it should have shopped local! This is not at all any kind of slight on Ted Siedle, but I don’t believe there’s anything he can uncover about our pension investments that Tom Sgouros can’t do at least as well.
Sgouros, in addition to being the policy/financial wizard, is also a progressive Democrat who decided not to run for treasurer after labor threw its support behind Gina Raimondo. He also just wrapped up a very similar kind of forensic investigation into how the state uses the NECAP tests. I think he’s well qualified for this kind of employment.
Shop locally, Council 94, and offer the job of blogger-for-hire to Tom Sgouros too!