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There’s a lot to talk about these days in the schools and beyond.  Jackie will be joining Lynne on Thinking Out Loud tomorrow, 91.5 WUML, at 10:00 am, and the conversation will undoubtedly touch on education issues as well as politics at the local, state and national levels.  Listen in if you have the chance and post your comments and feedback here. 

The front page of today’s New York Times has an article about Mass. Governor Deval Patrick’s struggles with House Speaker Sal DiMasi, claiming the Democratic governor’s inability to accomplish his goals in a heavily Democratic legislature are due to the personality-power conflicts between the two elected officials.  The article claims the struggles between the men are personal, are beyond a difference of opinion about gambling, and have severely limited the governor, who ran on a promise of hope and change, in his efforts to move his initiatives forward.  The article quotes Patrick as saying, “We’re going to keep working on it until we get a Democratic process that’s functioning.”

As someone who continues to support Governor Patrick’s vision for the Commonwealth, I am concerned to see resistance to many of the governor’s plans around revenue raising (his Municipal Partnership Act for instance) that seem to be more about power plays than what’s best for the people of Massachusetts. I’m not at the State House, but from what I’ve heard, representatives are pressured to vote with the Speaker, records are kept of those who don’t, and punitive measures, such as losing chairmanships and getting offices relocated to the basement, are possible consequences for these perceived betrayals. If that is the case, it is a sad testament to what democracy has become in the birthplace of the ideals that formed our government. I agree with Patrick—we need a Democratic process that’s functioning, and that requires representatives who are willing to vote their conscience over the current power structure.