tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post7668670473861794621..comments2024-03-28T19:47:39.985-04:00Comments on CURMUDGUCATION: Dear Michael Magee: I'll BitePeter Greenehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16511193640285760299noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-82722343919396249842016-04-05T16:31:47.985-04:002016-04-05T16:31:47.985-04:00Is it a "better" conversation if comment...Is it a "better" conversation if comments on Education Post are moderated? Something about having the conversation controlled by one side in a multifaceted debate does not seem "better" to me. Jageyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11081111336396221765noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6534665086749553287.post-37511235003295145012016-04-05T10:43:33.723-04:002016-04-05T10:43:33.723-04:00I've observed Mike Magee from a distance in Rh...I've observed Mike Magee from a distance in Rhode Island for the last ten years or so, and he is an odd duck. Magee is the person who looked at the charter school scene of a decade ago and said "You know what charter schools need? More politics," and thus what we now know as Rhode Island's "mayoral academies" were born. Their main distinguishing characteristics are that they must (nominally) include students from urban and non-urban schools, and a mayor of an included community must chair the board. Also, they tend to have aggressive growth strategies.<br /><br />So now we have these charter districts overlapping multiple city and town districts, often with the mayor of one of the communities whose budget is being wrecked by the charters also chairing the charter board. Needless to say, this has not led to a new era of cooperation (except perhaps in Central Falls, where the state runs and funds the schools anyhow). <br /><br />In Providence, in particular, we have a mayorally appointed board at the PPSD (with pretty active mayoral meddling of late), and the mayor personally chairs the board of our growing Achievement First mayoral academies. Meanwhile, of course, the mayor's two districts sometimes pursue opposite strategies (on discipline, for example). The city (and thus schools) face a growing structural deficit in coming years, but the mayor's office of course does not mention the large influence of charter enrollment on that problem.<br /><br />When the mayoral academies law passed, luminaries like Tom Vander Ark hailed it as a possible national model. I've yet to hear any of the other 49 states utter a peep about taking it up.Tom Hoffmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08577165613934129833noreply@blogger.com