I agree that a rise in the minimum wage would not solve the housing shortage in MA, and I agree that much of the shortage is due to zoning restrictions that make more affordable housing difficult to develop in most parts of the state. Lots of NIMBYism.

Somebody get DeSantis and Abbott on the phone -- they can scout up some residents double-quick and have them on buses here inside of a week!

Your motivation to leave is pretty common. So when people point to states like Massachusetts and draw the wrong conclusions ("it's high taxes! etc) it's wise to consider that housing costs are the real driver. It's why a higher minimum wage can be a game-changer for so many people -- they can stay at their jobs and in their homes.

And on Cape Cod spring lasts a week.

I take it you have never seen a school official deal with a parent who has hired a lawyer. Do you know how much your local district has had to spend to deal with lawsuits brought by parents?

First, cops aren't leaving in droves. See HEREfor a more measured take. Second, the violent crime rate has been dropping for decades. NYC, for instance, long a Democratic stronghold, has become a very safe place to live -- safer than Indianapolis.

Perhaps we don't need as many of those cops as we used to. Perhaps municipalities can spend the money more usefully on other services.

It was recently amended to make suspensions more difficult for administrators to implement.

Admin have been using suspensions freely or not depending on their inclinations for a long time. The law is MA makes suspensions without an attempt to re-engage the students a thing of the past. See https://vdhboston.com/massachusetts-legislature-amends-student-discipline-law/

https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXII/Chapter71/Section37H3~4

I'm reading Johann Hari's book, Stolen Focus, and it is hitting home with me.

Our local district moved the high school starting time to 8:45 am. Now if they'd only ban cell phones, the students might have adequate attention to stay focused in class.

Yes! Also, we don't say the Pledge of Allegiance, even though it's required by state law! /s

Front plates bring in revenue for the state (both in license plate fees and tolls) and save money on insurance costs, as others have pointed out on this thread. As a motorist and a cyclist, I am 100% in favor of front plates.

Have you seen our potholes?

I see very few new roads constructed here on the Cape, except for new developments, which are private. Most of the construction here on the roads are improvements -- widening to include bike lanes and pedestrian sidewalks, putting in roundabouts to increase safety by limiting speeds. Local businesses here hate any construction, of course, because it limits access temporarily in a seasonal economy, so they fight it like hell.

Wow! Points to SE Martha's Vineyard for nearly as much violent crime per 100k as Pittsfield, Springfield and Fall River!

Here's the official site.

I find the licensure folks in MA difficult to work with, mainly because they are understaffed. Massachusetts schools offer varied working conditions and salaries. SPED teachers are in short supply.

I teach mainly psychology these days, and the graduates from my classes are not behind the counter at Starbucks, lol. You seem to form your opinions based mainly on personal experience and conjecture. Have a nice day.

What evidence do you have for your claims? That's what I ask my history students.

>What period are you talking about? How long has it been since you observed a history teacher doing anything in the classroom? Or looked in a recently published curriculum? Or examined state history frameworks?
>
>Most well-qualified high school teachers now use primary documents regularly and teach students to read them critically. That's teaching the basics, I think. And there is more support now than ever. Here is one of the foremost institutions working with teachers: Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Take a look around the site. Here is another worth looking at: https://www.neh.gov/ and these videos.
>
>I think you don't know as much about teaching history as you think you do.

"The cure for the ills of Democracy is more Democracy." - Jane Addams

Public schools require a public consensus of what is to be taught, because they are public schools, not private ones. That's why we have elected officials overseeing school policies. While it might seem like a good idea to have experts decide by themselves what history curricula should include, it isn't. If you look at the countries where there is no democratic process for education, you find top-down decision making results in worse biases.

Most people don't know much about history, and that's been true for a long time.

It's public education; the stakeholders can't be "removed." And public schools aren't going to eliminate history from the curriculum. The problem isn't the history curriculum in Massachusetts -- the state frameworks are pretty good -- the problem is that any test, however fact-based, must leave out a lot of material, and it must be approved by the state. That means that LOTS of people will get to weigh in on it, all of them with opposing views of what needs to be included.

My money is on a repeat of what happened last time this was attempted: It was tried out but was eliminated.

"He who controls the past controls the future. " The content of the MCAS history test could be entirely factual, and still the stakeholders would never agree about what was to be included and what was to be left out.