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Enough with the gloom and doom about Massachusetts schools
By adamg on Mon, 03/15/2010 - 9:14am
Mike the Mad Biologist grows weary of pro-school types who try to whip up a funding frenzy by complaining about how awful schools are these days:
... If Massachusetts were a foreign country, it would, hands down, perform better than any European country, and as well or a close second (even better, in some cases) than East Asian countries. Year in and year out, Massachusetts' performance on the NAEP is stellar, particularly when one accounts for childhood poverty (while the state, on average, is wealthy, there are pockets of serious poverty). In fact, Massachusetts does a better job than would be expected given the amount of childhood poverty. ...
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Comments
Mike is right
While I am a frequent critic of the Boston schools and government waste, on the whole Mass is fantastic thanks to the rigorous standards we impose (the MCAS isn't perfect, but based on some of my analysis, school improvements appear to be almost directly correlated to some of the standardized testing reforms). One more reason I'm opposed to using tax breaks to generate jobs - why do we always compete just on price? There will always be somewhere cheaper no matter how efficient we make government and even if we do finally build some of the housing we need so badly. Think of the bonuses that are between hard and impossible anywhere else:
1) Top schools in the country (at least in the burbs) and I'll grant that Boston has one of the better urban districts, but that's no reason to settle
2) Virtually universal health care (97%)
3) Some of the best doctors and hospitals in the country
4) Highly educated workforce
5) Heard on the radio it's top 5 for the under 30 set (if you can afford it)
6) Easy access to the ocean and the mountains
7) Excepting January to March - where else do you get a beautiful spring, temperate summer and fall and a Norman Rockwell Christmas? That's what JetBlue is for!
We need to upsell Boston/Mass - not downsell it (did you read that Mr. Romney)! Our schools are one of the top selling points for execs/professionals but I've never seen anyone cite that.