Aaron Regunberg
Brown Students Take Over U. Hall, Call for Payment of Fair Share
Earlier today, students from Brown University held a rally and delivered over 600 signatures to University administrators in an effort to show student, faculty, and staff support for greater financial contributions and a deeper commitment to the city of Providence. The students took over Brown’s University Hall for a short period of time, filling the [...]
Brown Students Call on University to Pay Fair Share
A group of students attending Brown University are publicly calling on the Brown Corporation to increase its monetary contributions to the City of Providence. Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m., students will speak in front of the University’s historic Van Wickle Gates, announcing the beginning of their campaign to convince Brown to reconsider its current fiscal [...]
Meritocracy or hypocrisy?
A friend of mine just had a tragedy in the family—his grandmother passed away. It has been difficult for him, but the good news is that his grandmother lived a rich, full, and happy life and died surrounded by a large and loving family. But talking to my friend really got me thinking about some of [...]
Would I send my child to this school?
Bari Katz, the co-founder and former Director of Student Life at the Achievement First Crown Heights High School, has written an incredibly insightful and thought-provoking essay on Achievement First’s model, describing both its strengths and what she described as its fundamental flaw. If you have given any thought to the Achievement First debate, please take [...]
Occupy Providence: A Rallying Call
Yesterday I attended the Occupy Providence meeting in Burnside Park. And I was really impressed. Somewhere between seventy and eighty people turned out, just for a planning meeting. But what makes that really striking is that nobody did any sort of turnout work, other than the last-minute creation of a Facebook event. For fellow progressive [...]
Julia Steiny, what’s your solution?
Julia Steiny wrote a piece in GoLocalProv today making the case against–or, in more accurate language, trashing–the use of teacher seniority in pretty much any school situations. I don’t think her column is without any merit, if you’re able to stomach her style (she uses the word ‘pugnacious’ to criticize a particular union leader, a [...]
Board of Regents say AF isn’t good enough for Cranston…but it’s fine for Providence?
It’s amazing how much you can learn about people–and the system they represent–by reading between the lines of their decisions. I was at the Board of Regents meeting today, and what I saw there taught me a lot about the different levels of value those in power assign to the different communities they are supposed [...]
Listen to Students
Just read this in today’s ProJo: “Looking back, Hope High School was Brady’s albatross. When the district announced that Hope, a poster child for urban school reform, was moving from an innovative schedule of longer classes to a traditional six-period day, the students revolted. They crowded School Board meetings, marched out of school en masse [...]
And the consensus is…for H6095!
Today, the House Finance Committee heard testimony on H6095, the ’95/5′ tax that would solve our state’s budget deficit in a responsible way by asking those who can best afford it to join all the other Rhode Islanders who are “sharing the sacrifice.” And it was pretty clear which side Rhode Islanders came down on. [...]
Analysis: Giveaways to Wealthy are Largest Contributor to U.S. Debt
An analysis by the non-partisan Center for Budget and Policy Priorities has found that the Bush-era tax cuts are the single largest contributor to the United States’ public debt, far bigger than the economic downturn, the measures enacted to combat it (including the 2009 Recovery Act), and the financial rescue legislation. As the analysis stated, [...]
95/5 Civic Responsibility!
Yesterday, Rep. Valencia held a press conference for his new income tax reform bill, H6095, which he’s calling the 95/5 Civic Responsibility bill. The 95/5 bill would raise an estimated $130 million in FY2012 and protect our state’s working families from even more painful and irresponsible service cuts. As the Projo reports: “It asks the [...]
Want to repeal the Bush tax cuts in RI and solve our fiscal crisis? We can.
With our $295 million deficit, cuts looming on the horizon, and the only other revenue-raising plan (a relatively regressive sales tax) now seeming to buckle under public outcry, Rhode Island is in desperate need of a real solution to our fiscal situation. Well, we have one! State Rep. Larry Valencia is currently drafting a piece [...]
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