Will Brownsberger — State Senator, Democrat, 2d Suffolk and Middlesex District

News reports of yesterday’s closed-door house caucus — to the effect that cuts of roughly 5% in local aid are likely — are correct.

Further below see a proposal made by the Arlington Education Association for an early retirement incentive ERI for teachers. I think this concept deserves some careful study.

YES, I vote for more control . Charter Schools are the only alternative right now so I am in favor of them. But we really need to change the System to Merit pay for teachers. Any Better yet go to  a voucher system.

I am against giving School Superintendents more power than they already have.  In a perfect world, principals and teachers should jointly figure out how to fix underperforming schools.  Superintendents are too distant from the task. I think Charter Schools need to exist.  They offer smaller classes, good teachers, maybe even better curriculums.  Often they also [...]

The latest version of the education reform bill to come out of the joint committee on education has many laudable elements that could improve education in entire schools and even school districts.  The Innovation Schools look like they’re heading in the right direction.  Sections 1, 2 and 3 of the bill are potentially workable although [...]

Teachers are eager for new technology, but we don’t have enough of it in the schools. The students who have the equipment and really know how to use it for something other than gaming, are not the ones who need it. The rest have to be explicitly taught how to use technology as a learning tool. For my students, I have to teach them how to learn in general first.

This post is a summary of the answers to this question that came out during a forum in Belmont in March with Commisioner of Elementary and Secondary Education, Mitchell Chester.