AG Coakley: Education a focus of campaign for gov.
By Steve LeBlanc THE ASSOCIATED PRESSBOSTON — Attorney General Martha Coakley said the state should take some of the money it's spending ''warehousing'' nonviolent offenders and help inmates get job training or pass the GED high school equivalency test.
The Democratic candidate for governor made the comments Thursday after visiting an early childhood center in Boston. Coakley said if elected she would push to reduce barriers to learning from pre-kindergarten through high school.
Coakley was asked about comments she made earlier in the week in Wellesley arguing that the state has ''lost that war'' by spending a lot of money putting people in jail and not enough on education.
''We could take some of the money we invest in houses of correction and prisons and do a better job on intervention and prevention as well as providing not just a chance to get out of jail, but a chance to get a GED, get job training,'' Coakley said.
Coakley defended the comments Thursday.
''For those nonviolent offenders who in some instance we have been warehousing we need to have a better solution than paying $40,000 or 50,000 a year,'' Coakley told reporters. She said the state also needs to take another look at long mandatory minimum sentences which leave little discretion for judges, adding ''I do believe that we have spent too much money on that end of things.''
Massachusetts Republican Party Chair Kirsten Hughes called Coakley's comments ''bizarre'' and accused her of ''giving up on putting people in jail.''
Coakley said as governor she would also work to close a persistent ''achievement gap,'' that has seen white students outscore black and Hispanic students while Asian students scored at or above the level of white students.
Coakley's education proposals include: expanding the school day and decreasing the length of summer vacation; improving access to early childhood education programs; and making sure there are more counselors to give children in struggling school districts the services they need.
Coakley did not say how she would pay for the programs, but said new taxes would be a last resort. She said she would look to cut spending in other areas of state government, but offered few specifics.
Also Thursday, fellow Democratic gubernatorial candidate Juliette Kayyem said her campaign would focus on the economy, veterans' affairs, energy, and criminal justice reforms.
A key challenge, she said, will be figuring out which new industries have staying power.
''What are the jobs that are going to come here and stay here?'' Kayyem said in comments to the Massachusetts Newspaper Publishers Association. She said her administration would work with innovative young mayors around the state to overcome transportation and infrastructure hurdles.
The former Homeland Security official and terrorism analyst also reflected on Boston's future as it regains confidence and rethinks security in the aftermath of the marathon bombings, pledging to ''make government work when it matters most.''
Kayyem acknowledged her underdog status as an untested newcomer to statewide politics.
''I'll give you a scoop: I will screw up on the campaign trail. My goal will be to screw up less than my competitors, and to do it when the Red Sox are winning the Super Bowl,'' she joked.
Other Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls include state Treasurer Steven Grossman, Newton pediatrician Don Berwick, and former Wellesley Selectman Joseph Avellone.
Former Harvard Pilgrim Health Care CEO Charlie Baker is the only Republican in the race.
Vote Mitchell for selectman!
ReplyDeleteRemember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
JULIE,
DeleteFOR GOD SAKES, PLEASE, GIVE IT A REST.
hahaha...thank you steve...templeton needs to move away from this kind of behavior.. it certainly does not need Mrs. Farrell as a leader in any capacity...thank you steve for saying what the majority of templeton is thinking..it is getting very old.. look at the recent votes the town is divided and will be divided as long as Mrs. Farrell feels the need to be a thorn in templeton's side
DeleteHere you go Steve L. This one's for you!
DeleteVote Mitchell for selectman!
Remember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
Truthy-
DeleteThank you for the compliment:
"Mrs. Farrell feels the need to be a thorn in templeton's side"
I have consistently voted to bring transparency and accountability to local government. My goal is to try to achieve good town government in Templeton. In my opinion, the excision of the people who have served in public office for their own self interest was and is necessary in order to begin the process of rebuilding town government in Templeton. Town government that is transparent and follows the law while making decisions based on FACTS. If you consider me to be "Mrs. Farrell feels the need to be a thorn in templeton's side", so be it.
The GOAL is good town government. The use of the nuclear option by the school committee and superintendent has cost this town immensely. The loss of time while the 6 month process unfolded; the loss of personnel who left or are leaving because of the budgetary chaos created by the nuclear option; as well as the loss of money while most town operations were placed "on hold" until the override vote. So yes, I will continue to be thorn in Templeton's side.
In closing:
Vote Mitchell for selectman!
Remember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
Seriously Julie, give it a rest.
DeleteHow long have you been on the board of selectmen? Seems to me you are part of the problem.
Templeton, fire the entire board, start over.
interesting item in the Landmark @ www.Landmark.com on Jeff Ritter being chosen for town administrator. Perhaps Mr. Ritter can get Sterling on track and legal. In the story, there is a sentence that reads selectman chairman Ronald Furmaniuk, who chaired the meeting via a telephone call, oops, that is against the open meeting law, you cannot chair a meeting remotely, someone who is acting as chair must be present at the meeting. So if that story is correct, then Mr. Ritter would be going to work for people who broke the law in hiring him, Open Meeting law violation, interesting considering Jeff Ritter displays a hat on his desk that reads Fact, Law Transparency.
ReplyDeleteThe decision to run Sterling's meeting that way. would be Jeff's problem if Jeff had made the decision to run the meeting in that way. As it stands he was just the person they talked about, so I guess if someone brought the meeting to the attention of the Atty. General maybe K&P's people would fix it, so it would to be ok, any how !! Bev.
DeleteNow that we have a tax rate that is at a post 2001 level, now that we have stopped the job losses throughout all the entire town depts, now that we have stopped the cutting & slashing of budgets to benefit a select few, all that is left is to get businesses to want to come to town.
ReplyDeleteThe old way wasnt working. You need BOTH a reasonable tax rate AND business. We got the tax rate up despite the objections of some of our BOS. They have proven that, despite their best efforts, they just couldnt do it.
If you want to maintain positive progress, you'll stop voting in the very same people that couldnt get it done. If you you want to maintain the momentum that has been built, again despite their objections, you wont vote in another one of the same old, same old.
THE SAME OLD, SAME OLD, didnt work, hasnt worked, & wont work. Lets put somebody new in there and let them give it a shot.
THE DEFINITION OF INSANITY IS DOING THE SAME THING OVER & OVER, & EXPECTING A DIFFERENT RESULT.
Puffy,
ReplyDeleteWhy are you shouting? People can't hear you. It's a computer.
Vote Mitchell for selectman!
Remember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
Its called emphasizing, not shouting. Why dont you stop being condesending & actually address some of my points instead of worrying about the trivial?
DeleteSimply put Puffy,
DeleteThe BOS doesn't have the ability to turn 4 NO votes in YES. That privilege is limited to regional school committees.
The BOS is compelled to implement the votes at town meeting and the ballot box. It is against the LAW for the BOS to disregard the votes taken by the people in Templeton. So when the voters vote NO it means NO....quite a concept.
If you did a little research in the annual reports, you might find a number of override questions that were defeated at the ballot box by the CITIZENS in Templeton. But that would be like using facts and common sense.
So in closing:
Vote Mitchell for selectman!
Remember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
Puffy there is a chu chu train with your name on it at Steeple Antiques, I think you need to ride it to a town where the people make more money because there is no way the people in this town can fund the schools by them selves, plus fix the roads, and provide the other services a town requires. Your forced override will not work again, so you had better figure some other way to meet your needs. I give Mr.Cushing credit for looking for answers to the problem towns are facing with unfunded mandates. We are not alone with this problem, but until we can figure a way to deal with these mandates, the reality is that there is only so much money to go around and all of the town departments have to share what there is, and that includes the schools. Bev.
DeleteTHAT is exactly my point Bev, our entire town govt has done NOTHING to entice business to come to our town to help ease the burden. Quite the opposite, actually.
DeleteJust to keep the services we have now, including schools (remember, all that was for level funding), we needed a pretty big override. We NEED business in town to help out, & your chosen few have not gotten it done! The cost of everything go's up. We now have a reasonable tax rate, not one that is exactly the same as 2001. We now need business otherwise our tax rate MUST keep going up.
We cant keep doing the same old, same old.... It hasnt worked, isnt working, & wont work.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over & over, & expecting a different result.
Puffy,
DeleteThis blog is a forum for ideas. Please share with us YOUR ideas to entice businesses to come to Templeton.
Please enlighten us on how to attract businesses to come to Templeton.
Templeton NEEDS lots of things. How do we entice businesses to come to Templeton?
The taxpayers would not support overrides on many issues. The ratepayers don't seem too happy about the 23 % increase in water rates. How is having the highest water rates in the state going to attract business? Don't think the proposed increases in the sewer rates will help matters on that front either.
Qualified, dedicated employees are jumping ship BECAUSE of the nuclear option. The Town carries a huge debt burden from prior projects including 40 year debt for the water department.
Until Templeton can manage its debt better, Templeton will have a difficult time generating support for new projects.
All capital projects should be reviewed by the Capital Planning Committee. As debt obligations are retired, then an informed recommendations can be made to the voters regarding debt for new projects.
You are correct in saying "We cant keep doing the same old, same old.... It hasnt worked, isnt working, & wont work." The government processes in place need to be corrected. That takes time.
So please, share your ideas to bring business into Templeton.
So in closing:
Vote Mitchell for selectman!
Remember the past to ensure a better future.
The nuclear option should NEVER be used.
The attitude on this blog is that a big business in Templeton would pay the freight. That's exactly the attitude that keeps business away.
DeleteMark, if a good size business wanted to come into town I am sure people would back a plan to be supportive so long as it made sense. What this BOS has been doing is cleaning up bad businesses from the past. Previous selectmen put us in dire straights, spending money by moving it around from one account to another, to the point most departments do not have the money they thought they had. Does the end justify the means? Not if it leaves the town deeply in debt like it did. Ms. Miller was told no on a override question, but she spent the money anyway, no changes were made to the curriculum, using money from E&D, until she drained the account, and had to fill it up again. It is just like living on a credit card, a bad practice, because one of these days there will be no citizens to come to her rescue, to bail her out of the hole she has dug. Puffy, let me run this past you. We cannot increase the tax rate to give us enough money for all the things we need, simply because no one could afford to live here. Right now our tax money goes to those "wonderful forty year loans", and the interest we are paying as a result. Our previous selectman who used this way to do business, has cost us plenty and I doubt he ever figured on the state and fed. gov. pulling back on funding we used to keep us a float. The only way we can get what you want, and help us get what we as a town need, is to sell the Light Co. As things stand, we are not getting what we need from them, and any extra income they are getting, is not coming to the town. This is a big problem that Dave Smart and I have been looking at, and we will try to find some answers, one way or the other. Bev.
DeleteBev - Templeton should have rules that are the same for everyone. Nobody should be strongarmed into "donating" money for a senior center or for improvements to the common. The time to discover that a regulation is too expensive is not when a proposed development is up for review.
DeleteAttract business? Is that what this is about? How about this:
Delete1) put in good roads designed by people who know how to build good roads.
2) put in sewers
3) and this really should be 1). Build good schools, pay teachers what other cities and towns, east of Templeton, do. If you pay crap for teachers, by and large, that is what you'll get.
4) before you can attract business, you have to attract new blood, people, people with money to spend. No one wants to move to where the schools are crappy, unless they are moving there to lower their cost of living because they have nothing to spend either.
Deletei do believe its about time for Balwin Templeton to chime in with another link to the 9/11 conspiracy
ReplyDeleteYes, and lets discuss Fluoride some more.
ReplyDeleteOr..better yet. Let's legalize Marijuana... Follow Colorado's lead.
ReplyDeleteWhy have all those middle school criminals growing pot in their parent's basement when we could make it a successful Junior Chamber of Commerce exercise.