More of my recent columns for CT News Junkie: Why Did Lembo Take A Pass On The Governor’s Race? Is Addressing Teacher Shortages Really That Complicated? Grading The Likely Gubernatorial Office Seekers State Congressional Delegation Deserves High Marks for Trump Takedowns Can Connecticut Reinvent Itself? Lesson for Trinity’s Williams: Would Your Mother Approve?
Category Archives: Public Policy
Pot, Meet Kettle: The Delectable Buffoonery of Alan Chartock
There are few things in life more delicious than receiving a lecture on tolerance from the intolerant. Such occurrences make life worth living. Indeed, I’d put them on a par with a glass of fine single-malt scotch or a grass-fed beef burger at The Well. This weekend, Alan Chartock suggested in his artless column in the Berkshire… Read More… Read More
High-Wattage Discussion
I had the unusual experience on Friday, Feb. 22, of being a guest on former Gov. John Rowland’s afternoon drive-time radio show on WTIC Newstalk 1080. I’ve done a fair amount of radio over the years, but this is the first time I’ve ever been in the studios of a large-audience 50,000-watt network-affiliated operation. I’ve… Read More… Read More
Whole Foods And ‘Fascism’
I have watched with amusement the reaction to Whole Foods CEO John Mackey’s recent denunciation of Obamacare as fascist. Here’s the comment he made during a recent NPR interview when asked by Steve Inskeep whether Obamacare was socialist in nature: Technically speaking, it’s more like fascism. Socialism is where the government owns the means of… Read More… Read More
Ronald Reagan: The Original Class Warrior
Got into an exchange on Facebook about this photo on a previous post. I have to laugh at the Tea Party Patriots sticker opposite the Reagan Conservative sticker. If a young Ronald Reagan burst on to the scene today, he would be denounced by the Tea Party. Don’t forget that for all of his accomplishments,… Read More
What The Ryan Pick Tells Us
Updated: It now turns out that Ryan will also run for his congressional seat while running as Romney’s veep. In other words, he will be pulling a Joe. Shame on him. The sentence is question has been corrected below. * * * * * * * The reaction on Facebook and Twitter to presumptive Republican… Read More… Read More
CT05 Snoozer Perks Up At The End
The 75 or so campaign staffers and media types who crowded into the Oliver Wolcott Library community room could be forgiven for falling asleep for the first 45 minutes of the hour-long debate late Saturday morning. After all, the League of Women Voters has a habit of imposing strict ground rules that inhibit interaction between… Read More… Read More
Will Organized Labor Go Kaput?
If organized labor were an animal species, Congress would surely declare it threatened, if not endangered. That’s because labor took a thumping earlier this week in Wisconsin when union-hostile Gov. Scott Walker easily beat back a recall election precipitated largely by Walker’s move to take away the lion’s share of state workers’ collective bargaining rights.… Read More
A Personal Take On Tenure
It occurred to me in the comment thread of a recent CT News Junkie column by my colleague Sarah Darer Littman that, while teacher tenure isn’t the root of all evil in the public school kingdom, there is one very compelling reason to get rid of it. And it ties directly into Gov. Malloy’s proposal… Read More
Locking Horns Over Tenure
It is quite a sight. Lawmakers in Hartford are holding marathon hearings on Gov. Dannel Malloy’s education reform proposals. Interested parties — the education establishment, families and the governor’s people — are lining up to weigh in on perhaps the biggest battle over a public policy issue since Lowell Weicker rammed through a state income… Read More