Weekly round-up: What's behind door number three?
Big Dig nuts; Roberts withdrawn; a waffle for Wolf?
- See more at: http://www.capecodtoday.com/article/2015/10/25/226792-Weekly-round-Whats-behind-door-number-three#sthash.mLwR87AU.dpuf
One month is all that stands between lawmakers and their winter recess, the prospects growing grimmer by the day that any orderly resolutions will be reached on how the state should approach the opioid epidemic, energy demands, public records reform, etc., etc.
For now Gov. Charlie Baker is celebrating the small things. For instance, he said Thursday he was encouraged that the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Committee took the rather routine step of setting Nov. 16 - two days before the next recess - as the day it will hear testimony on his plan to prevent opioid addictions.
But one can only assume that, eventually, Baker will start to grow impatient with the pace of activity under the dome as his predecessors have before him. Until then, Baker has enough on his plate to keep him busy, starting with what seems now to be a rite of passage for all executive office holders - more trouble in the Big Dig.
This week MassDOT reported that as many as 878 nuts holding up the light fixtures in the Ted Williams Tunnel are deteriorating and need to be replaced at a cost yet to be determined. It's not the first problem with lights in the Big Dig tunnels, but as the governor pointed out, at least this time it didn't take one crashing down into the roadway for officials to identify the problem.
In another case of something bound to happen sooner rather than later, the esoteric Governor's Council extracted its first pound of flesh from the new administration, forcing Baker to withdraw, at her request, Cape Cod attorney Jennifer Roberts' nomination for a judgeship on the land court.
The council's concerns with the nominee, namely her lack of trial experience, were only inflamed last week when Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito abruptly adjourned a meeting where councilors were expecting to render their own verdict on Roberts.
After gifting a second one to another visiting foreign dignitary, one can't help but picture a supply closet stocked with "Gurgling Cod" water pitchers somewhere in the bowels of the governor's suite. And if that is, in fact, the case, maybe someone should hook one for the Governor's Council chambers as a peace offering.
One breakthrough did appear to come on the question of how to approach standardized testing in public schools into the future, though the answer only raised more questions.
Last week, when asked about the choice education officials face regarding whether to adopt the new PARCC exam to replace MCAS, Baker said, "The only piece of guiding advice I gave them is I don't want to end up in a situation where we do not control our own destiny."
Clearly that message was received. As the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education met Monday and Tuesday to consider their options, PARCC booster and Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester was singing a slightly different tune than he has in the past.
"It's critical that we ensure our control of our standards and assessments, and not leave that to chance or to decisions of other states," Chester told the board.
Though still subject to a vote next month, Chester and Education Secretary Jim Peyser appear settled on opening what they described as the "third door," developing an MCAS 2.0 test that improves upon the current testing system without relegating decision making and creative design to a rapidly shrinking consortium of states behind PARCC.
The board must still vote to see what's behind door number three, and they might have to do so without knowing exactly how much more it will cost to develop another new test after several years spent testing PARCC.
With a somewhat light agenda this week, Senate President Stanley Rosenberg disclosed that after the Legislature breaks for the year he plans to join a group of 10 senators on a trip to Israel to "forge new relationships and strengthen existing ties" between the states.
Wouldn't it be nice if they could run into Baker while they were there? Baker also said this week that at some point in the future he'd like to travel to Israel to scope their technology economy, but the governor did not make it sound like international travel was imminent.
Sen. Dan Wolf, on the other hand, did make it sound like a decision was imminent from him on his political future. After the Cape Cod Times reported last Friday that Wolf would not seek re-election in 2016 and Rosenberg seemed to confirm that account on Monday when he said Wolf would be missed and felt torn between Beacon Hill and his responsibilities to his family and company Cape Air, Wolf said nothing is final until he releases a statement, which he hasn't.
Wolf said on Thursday he would make an announcement "shortly," but the degrees to which the senator went to be coy about his future only fueled speculation that there could be a caveat to his not seeking re-election - say, ramping up another run for governor through 2017?
STORY OF THE WEEK: Baker and his education team seem to have settled not on MCAS or PARCC, but a third, more nebulous student testing option called MCAS 2.0.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "This was an obvious typo, after all nothing is free and fun in the Executive Office for Administration and Finance." - A&F Chief of Staff Dominick Ianno on why a phone number in a department press release directed callers to a "Free and Fun" adults-only party line service.
About the Author »
Matt Murphy covers major media, lobbying firms, government agencies, political junkies as well as towns Statewide. He likes to cover politics and campaigns.
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