Perhaps the greatest act of deception on behalf of Common Core is the preposterous claim by its major author Senator Lamar Alexander about what he had accomplished with the recent re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. In an op-ed in The Tennessean on Dec. 12, 2015, Senator Alexander implied that the reauthorization, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), "repealed the federal Common Core mandate and reversed the trend toward a national school board."
If Boston is serious about urban renewal, it may want to bring back one of the now defunct policies of the late Mayor Thomas M. Menino: Broken Windows policing.
Broken Windows theory holds that enforcing public order laws — such as laws against graffiti, trespassing, and illegal street vending — reduces both the fear of crime and crime itself, and thus makes for safer communities.
