civic engagement

First the wonderful Google logo I found when I was trying to find some back ground on Stevie wonder's campaign to create a national holiday for Martin Luther King. 

                                                                                                                              And  then I found the story .. and the album cover 

The MBTA plans to cut services and raise fares.  Does that seem backwards to you?  Usually consumers are willing to pay a higher price if we get more, not less.  Unfortunately the current situation is that our public transportation system doesn't have adequate resources to run as usual...the operating budget is strained.  We also have heard about the capital and maintenance budgets with a backlog for repairs and replacements.

This is not a good situation for riders dependant on lower costing fares, and more frequent service.  We don't want more vehicles on the road; we can't afford more vehicles on the road. Our road systems can't keep up with the current flow of traffic and the environment will surely suffer.  Besides, there's no place to park!

So, here's a couple of things you can do:

• Participate in MBTA meetings.  Follow this link to learn about the proposed changes and the meeting schedule.   [MBTA Fare Change and Service Guide]
• Learn more about the other issues in your community that are important to you.  We need revenues to maintain healthy communities, healthy people, good schools...(you insert what's important to your community)  Check out the Campaign for Our Communities. and then join the campaign!

Remember, the government is us!

The debate about the transparency of the legislative process on Beacon Hill continues.  Lack of transparency was noted during this past year while the budget was being debated behind closed doors.  Our legislators said this process was necessary for the Senate and House to decide on a compromise bill.  Did the public really have a choice?  What about other major decisions?  What about public hearings, when the public testifies on the issues before the committee members...who aren't present (many times waiting 3-5 hours to speak in front of 2-3 committee members of perhaps a total of 14-17)? 

A survey by the Boston University State House program of 19 major legislative committees that shape and move legislation found this process increasingly takes place outside the public view.  [The Milford Daily News]

Among the findings:

• The staff for 15 of the committees polled said some voting is done through emails rather than in open executive sessions. The staff of 10 committees said the votes were not available to the public. State law requires that roll-call votes in executive sessions be recorded and made public. But committee rules do not address email voting.

• Minutes and other details of committee meetings were not available from 18 of the committees, according to their staff. State law does not require such documentation of legislative committees, although it is required by other Massachusetts commissions and boards.

• Among the lack of documentation are records of attendance by committee members. Observers say fewer committee members now show up for public hearings as the work of the committees takes place through phone discussion or email polls.

And here's more about legislative debate, in general: ...neutral observers such as [Michael] Widmer note a trend toward more control emanating from the offices of the House speaker and Senate president.

“I wouldn’t say that this session has had less debate than recent years, but part of the trend towards more power in the leadership has been less floor debate, particularly in the House,” said Widmer. “A lot of the debates are taking place in the legislative caucuses behind closed doors.”

The Commonwealth may perhaps do legislation better than some states, but we can clearly be more transparent and accountable to the public than we are currently.

In Massachusetts, we encourage our advocates to begin their organizing efforts at an early age.  The fifth grade students at Brickett School in Lynn were concerned about the affects of idling vehicles on people and the environment.  This is a great story about all the steps these students went through to research this issue and the professionals with whom they spoke to see what they could do to make a positive and lasting difference in their community.  [Itemlive.com]

The students, under the direction of their teacher Donna Whalen, took part in Disney's Planet Challenge, a nationwide environmental competition that urges students to develop ways to make a positive impact on their community and the planet.

Student Juliana Beratis told the councilors about their research, while Alexander Patten talked about McGee's role in their project. Students also warned what could happen if the issue of emissions isn't taken seriously, including an increase of greenhouse gases in the environment and possibly increased cases of asthma.

It's an interesting exercise to go into the mainstream and ask people to name a Supreme Court Justice, inquire about the components of our Constitution, and name the three branches of government.  The (incorrect) answers would be amusing if not for the fact that the government is us, the people of the USA.  We elect the people who set our laws and the budgets by which we must live.  What's the saying...we get the government we deserve.  That's why the iCivics program to educate young children about how our government works is fantastic! [Los Angeles Times]

This slim knowledge of civics — and the potential risk it poses to American democracy — captured the attention of retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor.  "It's very disturbing," said O'Connor, 81, the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court. "I want to educate several generations of young people so we won't have the lack of public knowledge we have today."

Civics education involves explaining the structure of U.S. government, including the meaning and influence of the Constitution and its evolution over time. Advocates also emphasize the importance of getting students to engage in the democratic process, said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Philadelphia-based Annenberg Public Policy Center.

One problem may be a consequence of the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which emphasized reading and math instruction with required testing.

Massachusetts is in line to get $50 million dollars from the federal government for specific early education initiatives.  That's a good thing.  The more we provide quality early education and care to our youngest children, addressing their social, emotional, cognitive and language development in the early years, the more ready our children are to embrace their future as life-long learners. [Governor's press release]

“This award will enable Massachusetts to accelerate the implementation of our plan that is designed to yield improvements in our early childhood system that significantly raises the level of quality opportunities and experiences for children and families,” said Department of Early Education and Care Commissioner Sherri Killins. “The Early Learning Challenge recognizes the importance of early learning in providing the foundation for children’s healthy growth and brain development and ensuring the collective future prosperity of our Commonwealth and our nation. Both educators and families alike will benefit from this award.”

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education determined that Lawrence was not providing quality and equitable public education to all its children, and therefore voted to place the school system in receivership.  As you can imagine, parents, students, and teachers had a lot of questions regarding that decision.  DESE Commissioner Mitchell Chester, was on hand at a three-hour meeting in Lawrence, to try to answer these questions. [Full Article: Eagle-Tribune]

"Some students are receiving an excellent education and outstanding instruction, but lots of our youngsters never make it through, they never make it to the finish line," Chester said. "Without receivership we had little chance of all students getting a strong education," he said.

Once a receiver is appointed, the board will hold a stakeholder's meeting made up of residents, School Committee members, teachers and business people to develop a turnaround plan. They will be finalized by winter and implemented by next fall.

Parents' concerns included what was going to happen to the schools after the problems were fixed and the receiver left....Other comments from parents and students were about teachers and what to do to reengage drop-outs.

Here's a picture of the diversity at Occupy Boston:

Half of the Occupy Boston protesters surveyed said they are unemployed, and two-thirds of the jobless said they have not had work for more than one year. Several said they were underemployed, or working several jobs.

Three out of every four surveyed were men. Slightly more than half of those surveyed said they were from outside of Boston. While half of the protesters said they are younger than 30, the age range of people interviewed Monday varied from 18 to 81.

Despite the diversity in the population, the general message is shared...economic inequality in the lives of our people and the country is unacceptable.  The Boston Globe

What resources does it take to provide quality education to all our children in the Commonwealth?  You'd think by now we'd know the answer to that question.  After all, within the past 2 decades years there have been two major education lawsuits regarding funding our public education system to provide quality education.  One of the reasons for education reform in MA is due to funding.

It's about time our legislature got serious and moved forward with the education funding adequacy study.

An adequacy study determines how much money it takes to deliver a baseline adequate eduaction to each and every student in the Commonwealth, based on such factors as the number of kids in each grade, how many low-income students a district serves, and how many special education students a district serves, among other factors.

Come to the event on Monday, Dec 5th, and join in the conversation with Representatives Tom Sannicandro and Jason Lewis to discuss how this legislation can positively impact your children and your community.

Voting IS a constitutional right.  It seems some want to restrict that right as much as possible, no surprise, in a partisan fashion.  Why is this still going on in the US in the 21st century?  Aren't we spending trillions of dollars defending countries in the name of "Democracy" so they can have fair and accessible elections?  Who's going to assure that we have fair and accessible elections here?

There has never been a problem in this country with ordinary people trying to vote illegally. There is, however, a long, sad and well-documented history of efforts to stop people from voting....New voter ID rules are even more troubling than laws that cut down on the registration period.... Such measures disproportionately affect the poor, the elderly and minorities — groups that traditionally favor Democrats. They represent craven abuses of power to gain partisan advantage. [Full Article: The New York Times]