Education Issues

Latest Articles

An education funding formula, hailed as a breakthrough, faces its critics

Fuzzy math
For years, Rhode Island was one of just two states in the union without a funding formula for its public schools. And then, for a time, it was the only state with that dubious dis-tinction.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 24, 2010

Hire us now, Ms. Gist!

Will tap dance for free!
Wow! Bow-wow! How do we get a job to write a speech for state education commissioner Deborah Gist for a cool $10,000?
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | May 26, 2010

Shaking up the school system

The Reformer
Rhode Island education commissioner Deborah Gist’s take-charge style could make a winner of a state that often seems destined to fail. But critics say her free-market approach won’t work.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | April 21, 2010

Hello, we’re Johnny Cash

Stacked all-star tribute/benefit at the RISD Auditorium
The Nave Gallery in Somerville kicks off its month-long salute to the Man in Black next week.
By CHRIS CONTI | March 31, 2010

Earnestly funny

2nd Story fulfills its Comic Potential
Considering that Alan Ayckbourn may be the most staged living English playwright besides Shakespeare, as some accounts declare, why isn't he produced more often in American theaters?
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | February 03, 2010

Green school. Red light?

At-large City Councilor John Connolly sets his sights on creating multi-million-dollar environmental academy.
Little girls and boys frolic on swing sets whittled from recycled beech wood.
By CHRIS FARAONE | January 06, 2010

Missing in action

The legislature vacations while crisis looms
Good-government advocates often breathe a sigh of relief when the legislature quits Beacon Hill.
By EDITORIAL | December 09, 2009

The battle for our city schools

Boston Phoenix letters, October 23, 2009
In your recent story “ Boston Public-School Apartheid? ”, charter public schools are faulted for taking disadvantaged Boston students and sending them on to excellent high schools and, eventually, college. Why shouldn’t low-income students of color have access to such life-changing opportunities?
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 21, 2009

Prep Yourself!

You’ve decided to go back to school. Now what?
So the economy sucks, you’re in a miserable rut at work, and you’re not getting any younger. What are you going to do about it?
By RYAN STEWART | October 14, 2009

Calling us to account

Letters to the Boston editor, October 16, 2009
To use the word “accountable” in conjunction with Mayor Thomas M. Menino is laughable in the extreme, because if there’s one thing that this guy is not, it’s accountable.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | October 14, 2009

Boston public-school apartheid?

Think busing was a problem in this town? Some are labeling charter schools as Boston's newest educational battleground
At the Edward W. Brooke School in Roslindale — a kindergarten-to-eighth-grade public charter school — the push to advance graduates to elite secondary programs begins in fifth grade.
By CHRIS FARAONE | October 15, 2009

Hot controversy over sexuality center in Pawtucket

Pleasure Dept.
Too hot for Pawtucket?
By ALEXIS HAUK | September 30, 2009

Can Beacon Hill do better?

Gambling and education take center stage
With DiMasi gone, the idea of casino gambling is again alive.
By EDITORIAL | September 23, 2009

Fixing Boston Schools

Three new ways of thinking
The race to elect a new mayor of Boston has been in progress for several weeks, and at last there are indications that the candidates are capable of intelligent thought — at least about improving the city's public schools.
By EDITORIAL | June 10, 2009

91. George W. Bush

BRAIN-DEAD PREZ
What, did you think we were done ripping the Neanderthal who set the country back five decades in just eight years, just because he’s out of office? Well, we want to be the first to mock all of those involved in building a library commemorating America’s first illiterate president. We’d also like to recommend the first book for inclusion in the project: The Pet Goat .
By Boston Phoenix Staff | March 25, 2009