Thread by @TracyNovick

Golly, where to start with the T&G’s version of selling the Governor’s school funding bill?
First, if what you run is largely quotes, I fail to see how you’ve advanced anything other than their arguments. h/t to the papers that put this in “opinion.” telegram.com/news/20190223/…

If, T&G, you’re going to insist this is “news” (let alone slap it on the front page of the Sunday edition 🤦🏻‍♀️), you should run objective tests of the assertions made by the Secretary and Commissioner.

The one place this article does this is in pointing out that @worcesterpublic has actually run comparisons of how the funding works out on the bills filed.
Pro tip: link to the report in question, editors: worcesterschools.org/wp-content/upl…

And where does the Governor’s bill do worst? Poverty.
We don’t have to wait to see how things play out, Mr. Secretary; you filed a bill and it fails. If you wanted it to say something different, you could have filed it that way.

Beyond the T&G giving the sales pitch this kind of coverage, the thing that is most disturbing to see is the sand our superintendent has her head buried in.

Views of the Commissioner vary widely.
I am quite sure that there are those who understand him as someone who wouldn’t hestitate to take funds from an “underperforming” district.

(And if you’re a superintendent, particularly an urban one, and you haven’t learned from New Bedford’s “you can agree to these charter seats or I will force you to have more,” I’ll argue bluntly that you aren’t doing your job. School committees, likewise.)

But we also don’t make laws based on individuals. When “the Commissioner” is referenced in the bill, it isn’t Jeff Riley; it’s whomever holds the post.
Assume the worst.

As for how Worcester is viewed on accountability, I’d argue that we’re running on muscle memory, and it is fading. We’ve been damn lucky the state has been revamping the system these past few years, plus had an interim commissioner and such.

And this is the kind of thing the superintendent is supposed to know, and the school committee and local reporters are supposed to find out. Don’t take an assertion like that at face value.

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