Lawrence School Committee uses State Tax Dollars on Cell Phones…for Themselves By: Tom Duggan – July, 2004 LAWRENCE- In the first three parts of this series, The Valley Patriot reported that Lawrence School Committee members had: 1) wasted thousands of dollars on lavish meals at the One Mill Street restaurant at state taxpayers’ […]
Frederick Hess, Beacon Hill Institute – June, 2004 (Guest Columnist) A Measure of the Need for Reform America’s schools are in a state of crisis. Few of our schools are excellent, many are mediocre, and yet we, the adults responsible, are content to tinker and theorize. Demands for radical change are consistently met by protestations […]
By: Tom Duggan – May, 2004 While other communities in the Merrimack Valley are counting every penny and making difficult cuts to services and personnel, foregoing luxuries like out-of-state travel, and appealing to the state for more funding, the Lawrence School Committee appears not to have similar concerns. Last month, while no other superintendent […]
PAYING ATTENTION WITH TOM DUGGAN By: Tom Duggan – May, 2004 Recent headlines in Merrimack Valley newspapers have proven that the sacred cow ideologies of public education espoused by liberals are in fact, myths. Myth #1 Money equals education: Most people have bought into the myth that spending more money on education results in […]
VALLEY PATRIOT EDITORIAL April, 2004 While working on your Federal tax returns you may come across the following general rule taken verbatim from Title 26, Subtitle A, Chapter 1, Subchapter Q, Part II, Section 1311 (a): General rule — If a determination (as defined in section 1313) is described in one or more of […]
Tom Duggan 03-08-04 For the past three years members of the Lawrence School Committee have been billing the taxpayers for plush dining at the city’s most expensive restaurant: One Mill Street. Then School Committeemen Noah Shannon, Pedro Arce, Suzanne Piscitello, Nancy Kennedy and current member George Gonzalez all dined with Superintendent Wilfredo Laboy and his […]
By: Dr. Charles Ormsby – March, 2004 If you are a parent of elementary school children, you’ve probably seen it: elaborate make-work homework assignments, cutting and pasting extravaganzas, overly complex and roundabout procedures to add or multiply numbers, estimation exercises that won’t quit, and the use of calculators in place of traditional arithmetic […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX By: Dr. Charles Ormsby – January, 2004 Specious: Adj. 1. Seemingly fair, attractive, sound or true, but actually not so. While “Specious” may not describe Special Education perfectly, it comes pretty close. Special Education is not fair, attractive, or sound, and any claim that it is an effective way to […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX By: Dr. Charles Ormsby, December, 2003 “No legal plunder: This is the principle of justice, peace, order, stability, harmony, and logic.” — Frederic Bastiat, The Law, 1850 We thank God for Liberty. Bands play, soldiers march, and hands cover hearts. Our flag is a symbol of Liberty. Millions are flown, […]
Why do they Hate you so much Mr. President? By: Tom Duggan This column was originally posted on tommyduggan.com in November of 2003. Yesterday, a reporter asked President Bush why the protesters hate him so much. Bush gave the diplomatic answer, saying that “freedom is wonderful” and reminding the world that the people of […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX By: Chuck Ormsby – November, 2003 Society is constantly faced with vexing questions related to public education policies. Should we institute a common uniform for students? Should we spend more on mathematics and science, or on social studies? Should we increase spending on students that work harder and achieve more, […]
Just Who or What is Meditrol Inc.? By: Tom Duggan (originally published in 2003, tommyduggan.com) The only people who seem to care about the answer to that question are the politicians and the men and women of the Lawrence Police Department. Meditrol Inc., is a billing and management company that contracts with the City […]
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX By: Dr. Charles Ormsby – October 2003 Having been portrayed as the Slash and Burn Candidate for School Committee, I’m happy to report that, after six months “in office” (Unfortunately for me but fortunately for the taxpayers, I didn’t actually get an office), the schools seemed to have escaped without serious […]
Originally published on Tommyduggan.com, 09/09/03 Socialists, Communists, Marxists and other liberty hating ideologues were out in full force at Lawrence’s Bread and Roses festival again this year. It is a festival rooted in celebrating the formation of unions in Lawrence and is usually hijacked by political groups with very unrealistic ideas. This is a real […]
By: Tom Duggan (originally published on tommyduggan.com 05/19/03) The Lawrence City Council will hold a public hearing Tuesday night on a proposal to require all Lawrence residents to show photo identification before they vote … just as Lawrence residents who are Dominican citizens must show n ID when they vote in Lawrence for the […]