Deborah Gist discusses her contract situation
Deborah Gist told me she hasn’t considered if she would accept a one year contract extension, but also that she isn’t ruling out signing something other than a three year agreement. A one year deal would expire as the 2014 campaign begins to heat up, which could make Gist and the so-called education reform movement [...]
RI Council of Churches applauds Boy Scouts
Rhode Island State Council of Churches released a statement today regarding the Boy Scouts of America’s recent decision to allow openly gay scouts to join and participate in the organization: Response to BSA Statement on Gender of Scouts and Leaders The Rhode Island State Council of Churches applauds the direction taken by the Boy Scouts [...]
Keep Rhode Island campuses gun free
Still before the Rage released at the Board of Education meeting on May 23, 2013.On April 4, 2013, the University of Rhode Island campus was locked down for hours after, as the Providence Journal reported, “people in a lecture hall said they heard someone say they had a gun. Police found no gun or [...]
Gist, education reform blasted at BoE meeting
Neither Dr. Gist nor the education reform movement came off very well at the Board of Education meeting earlier tonight. She only had one supporter among those who gave testimony. I was unable to speak, time ran out, so later in this post I’ll write what I was planning to say. Before I get to [...]
Angel Taveras reaffirms NECAP concerns
Providence Mayor Angel Taveras reaffirmed his opposition to using the NECAP test as a graduation requirement, Dan McGowan of WPRI reported this morning. Taveras sent a letter to the state Board of Education he wrote: “I worry that state leaders have imposed a graduation requirement on our students that is tied to a questionable measurement [...]
Former Gist supporter is now anti-NECAP activist
Jean Ann Guliano is the Robert McNamara of the Rhode Island ed reform movement, said our mutual friend Bob Houghtaling. It’s a good analogy. Diane Ravitch works too. Guliano is a former school committee chairwoman from East Greenwich who ran for Lt. Gov. on the Moderate Party ticket. As chairwoman, she was very fiscally conservative [...]
WaPost: Gist controversial on national level too
Deborah Gist is not only raising hackles with the education community here in Rhode Island, she’s doing it on a national level too! On Tuesday, Chiefs for Change released a letter attacking labor leader Randi Weingarten for opposing high stakes testing. Gist is on the board for Jeb Bush’s Chiefs for Change group and she [...]
Charter school: site students on toxic waste
Last year the General Assembly unanimously passed the “Environmental Cleanup Objectives for Schools” sponsored by Senator Juan Pichardo and representative Scott Slater. The bill, which took over three years to pass, was signed into law by Governor Chafee on June 6, 2012, nearly a year ago. Commonly referred to as the “School Siting Law,” this [...]
Board of Ed begins to debate Gist contract tonight
Former CVS CEO Tom Ryan envisioned the arena that bears his name at URI hosting high profile sporting events. Tonight at 5:30 the Ryan Center plays host to a high profile political event as the new state Board of Education begins the process of debating Deborah Gist’s future employment in Rhode Island. The Board may [...]
Rev. Don Anderson: payday loans are an ‘evil’ product
The reality is that [a payday loan] targets people at their most vulnerable. It’s reckless lending. This product at its core is evil. So said the Reverend Don Anderson, who co-chairs the Rhode Island Coalition for Payday Lending Reform along with Margeaux Morrison, director at NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley. Anderson said this at the end [...]
ACLU, others highly opposed to high stakes tests
More than two dozen community organizations, including the ACLU of Rhode Island, have this week formally asked the Rhode Island Board of Education to rescind the regulation that conditions the receipt of a high school diploma on passing a “high stakes test.” Although the groups have diverse reasons for opposing the measure, they all agree [...]
RI rent too damn high, says HousingWorksRI report
The rent in Rhode Island is too damn high , according to a new report from HousingWorks RI. To afford a typical two-bedroom apartment in Rhode Island a renter would need to earn more than $47,000 per year. About half of Rhode Island residents earn less than that. “What’s more, a quarter of all Rhode [...]
Category One Memorial Designation Commission?
Where can I find the Category One Memorial Designation Commission? As far as I can tell, it does not exist, despite legislation passed last year mandating the creation of such an authority. After the Freedom from Religion Foundation challenged the constitutionality of a large Christian cross on public land in Woonsocket, the General Assembly hastily [...]
Newport bloggers battle over culture of sexism
There’s a pretty ugly blogger battle going down around women’s issue in the typically picturesque City-by-the-Sea. Newport Patch blogger Charity Dash wrote a post about the rampant culture of sexism and sexual harassment that exists in the local bar scene. “The age bracket the city thrives on (Generation Y), is inherently unsafe for its female inhabitants. As [...]
Do you care about the show or about results?
There was apparently quite a party in Cranston yesterday, with several hundred teachers coming together to, well, you wouldn’t say they were there to praise the state Education Commissioner, Deborah Gist. In a poll out a couple of weeks ago, 85% of teachers say they don’t approve of the commissioner or the current policies of [...]
Rhode Islanders move to end Citizens United
Rhode Island Move to Amend held a meeting Monday night at the Warwick Public Library to discuss ways in which to reverse the Supreme Court’s controversial and unpopular Citizens United decision. House Bill 6051, introduced by Representative Art Handy, seeks to challenge the Supreme Court ruling by asserting that Corporations are not persons and that [...]
Rhode Island teachers speak out: Dump Gist
Public school teachers from around Rhode Island spoke out against their boss – embattled Education Commissioner Deborah Gist – at a public forum at Cranston High West today. They came to implore the state Board of Education not to renew Gist’s contract, a discussion that begins on Thursday night. Here’s the highlights of the teachers’ [...]
Little lobster boat takes on Big Coal at Brayton Point
A 32-foot lobster boat, the Henry David T, managed to stop a 688-foot cargo ship from delivering 40,000 tons of coal to Brayton Point last week.”The action may have been a preview of protests being planned against the power plant by New England activists on July 27 and July 28,” reports East Bay Newspapers. Activists [...]
Northeast Young Dems convene in Providence
The future of the Democratic Party was front and center at the RI Convention Center on Saturday as the Young Democrats of America (YDA) came to town to hold their New England regional conference. Nearly 50 attendees from New York to Maine met for day of talks, panels, and business (including the election of their [...]
Telling a story about Councilwoman Castillo
This is the beginning of an ongoing blog about making Councilwoman Castillo – The Film. Why make this film in the first place? It’s not just that Carmen Castillo is an inspiration to me. Of course she is. She is the salt of the earth. Committed beyond 100% to her community and her family. She [...]
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