Editorial

Difficult choice for voters in Orleans Selectman race [Editorial]

Has Margie stayed too long at the party?

Clear differences between Margie Fulcher and John Hodgson

Walter Brooks

This Tuesday, May 15^th Orleans voters are facing a very difficult choice in the election for a seat on the Board of Selectmen.  The contest pits incumbent Margie Fulcher versus banker and finance committee m member John Hodgson.

In many ways you won’t find two different candidates. 

• Margie Fulcher, 62, is a high school graduate who has served Orleans in various capacities for over three decades, including the past nine years as selectman. 
• John Hodgson, 41, holds a bachelor’s degree in business from California Coast University and has worked as a banker in Orleans for 12 years, moving to town six years ago.  Both candidates answered twelve questions for Cape Cod Today back on April 22^nd.

The differences between the two are clear.  Fulcher supports a traditional sewer system for the town, while Hodgson seeks further study of a “small pipes” solution.  Fulcher is satisfied with the way town government operates, as evidenced by the recent auditor’s report.  Hodgson points out that an audit is a financial benchmark and doesn’t reflect the way town government functions.

On school issues

Hodgson supports long range planning, Fulcher appears happy with the status quo. Both candidates support the outrageous cost of operating Orleans Elementary School as a stand-alone school district (either $23,905 per student or $22,205, depending on whose math you believe). Neither candidate understands the mathematics of accepting school choice students which, in the words of Monomoy Superintendent Carolyn Cragin, amounts to “an empty desk with dust on it or a $5,000 check sitting there.” Hodgson is willing to consider a regional approach to elementary education while Fulcher is dead-set on keeping OES open regardless of the cost.

On town administrator John Kelly

Fulcher is a strong supporter of town administrator John Kelly, as evidenced by the selectmen’s recent decision to extend Kelly’s contract for an additional five years.  Hodgson has questions about a “road block” between town committee members and town department heads during the financial planning process.  In the past year John Kelley’s continued employment with the town has become more of a concern to many voters, especially those who accuse him of imperious, arrogant interactions with taxpayers.  Others have concerns over perceived laxness in the way town government operates, such as the disgracefully managed town hall website.

On technology, the internet and the Orleans website

Selectman Fulcher was “unaware” of the debacle with the town website last month as our investigation uncovered one problem after another with accuracy and timeliness of data available on the Orleans town site.  Mr. Hodgson recognizes “many people don’t go to Town Hall anymore” and that the website is “the face of Orleans for many people”.

Hodgson has pledged to make his email address and phone number available on the town hall website.  Fulcher said she was “not averse” to having her information posted there, but reminded us that her name and number is “published in the phone book”.  The only problem with her assertion is that Verizon’s white pages “phone book” is no longer published.

What their supporters and detractors say

Reading letters to the editor by voters supporting each candidate yields a few common themes.  First, Hodgson’s supporters feel it is time for a change in town leadership to bring new ideas and a fresh set of eyes to the table.  Fulcher’s supporters believe that Margie’s long service and encyclopedic knowledge of town government are indispensible.

Fulcher’s supporters whisper about the “wash-ashore” who “wants to tell us how to run our town”.  Fulcher herself graciously points out that one of the finest public servants Orleans ever new, Robert Peno, was a native of Greenfield, Massachusetts. We also observe that Selectman Sims McGrath isn’t a native, either – and ended up sending both of his kids to Chatham under school choice.

Hodgson’s supporters accuse Fulcher of bias in that her husband serves as the town’s director of parks and recreation. Our view is that Orleans is like any other small town in New England.  There is bound to be some cross-pollination of families in town service.  So long as this is managed within the bounds of ethics laws, we see no problem here.  We do not question Margie Fulcher’s ethics or integrity for a nanosecond.  To our personal knowledge, she’s as close to “beyond reproach” as any elected official in the county.

Fulcher’s supporters appear very much about the status quo and not sacrificing experience over youth and promises of “change”.  Hodgson’s supporters criticize Fulcher and the rest of the selectmen’s culture of doing business.  Where a Fulcher supporter sees “common sense” one Hodgson supporter sees “arrogance and negativity” in Fulcher’s conduct as select-board chair.

Hodgson’s supporters see in him a fiscal steward and professional in demeanor.  Fulcher’s people see him as lacking experience in town affairs and “dead wrong” on the sewer issue.  Those who support Hodgson see Fulcher as not shy about spending the taxpayer’s money and tied to old thinking.  Fulcher’s people see Margie as someone with a selfless devotion to her town and Hodgson as a “hope and change” candidate of little substance.

Conclusions

It doesn’t get much more polarized than this.  Both candidates have strong positions and are sincere in the belief that theirs is the correct view.  Indeed, it is a shame the town can’t elect both candidates, as that would make for some interesting theatre on the selectmen’s video channel.

Do you agree or disagree with this Editorial? To answer write a
Letter to the Editor here. So this Tuesday Orleans’ citizens must search the candidates’ positions on a wealth of issues:  earnest youth versus experience, “small pipes” versus “big pipes”, culture in town government, “native” versus “wash-ashore”,  status quo versus “change”.

In the end, it may come down to one visceral question:  Has Margie stayed too long at the party?

Nauset vs. Sturgis as school get competitive [Editorial]

Even the best Cape Cod schools have tough competition today

By Walter Brooks, Editor

It must been tough on Tom Conrad (Nauset Regional High School Principal) to lose 34 students to Sturgis Charter School through School Choice, but there’s not much he can do about it. 

Principal Conrad is in an unenviable position.  While Nauset High has steadily improved in the US News and other rankings, he’s got competition from the best high school in the state a few miles up the road in Hyannis, and a lot of motivated Lower Cape kids who want to set the bar even higher. 

Unless Nauset institutes an IB program which the school administration has hinted at, the most motivated students will continue to use School Choice to try for the  Sturgis lottery, but we're sure Tom Conrad sees 34 empty seats and worries.

He isn't getting a lot of help from the region's middle school either.

If NRMS Principal Maxine Minkoff drives kids away from the middle school through her controversial decision to lower the bar for her students (see the previous story here), it  will eventually spill over into Nauset High School as many of those students may opt for the new Monomoy Regional High School opening next year or move on to Sturgis if possible.

To see all the Editorials, click here, and to write a Letter to the Editor, click here.

Let's invite our Selectmen into the 21st Century [Editorial]

Call to action:  selectman contact information

Our readers are voters - voters want direct access to selectmen

By Walter Brooks

CapeCodToday’s readers overwhelmingly support publication of individual selectmen’s email addresses and phone numbers on municipal websites according to a recent poll we conducted. You can still vote in that poll yourself on the right.

Should selectmen’s individual email and phone numbers be published on town websites?
     Vote in our Poll here.Indeed, why wouldn’t an elected public servant want constituents to enjoy that kind of access?  Based on our recent search of the Cape’s municipal websites and the resulting story, apparently not many selectmen would agree.

As we like to say, “Readers Vote.  Voters Read.”

Not only did our poll show that readers want their selectmen to be more accessible, the emails we have received on that topic were 100% in favor of publishing direct contact information for all selectmen, Cape-wide.  One candidate for selectman in Orleans (John Hodgson) has already pledged to publish his email and phone number on the town website if he is elected.

Now it’s time for the rest of them to step up to the plate. 

If you would like to see your selectmen’s individual email address and telephone number published on your town’s municipal website, please send an email to the contact address listed below for your selectmen’s office.

• Bourne  Town Manager Thomas Guerino TGuerino@townofbourne.com
• Brewster Town Administrator Charles Sumner  townadmin@town.brewster.ma.us
• Chatham Town Manager Jill Goldsmith jgoldsmith@chatham-ma.gov
• Dennis Town Manager Richard White rwhite@town.dennis.ma.us
• Eastham Town Administrator Sheila Vanderhoef svanderhoef@eastham-ma.gov
• Falmouth Town Manager Julian Suso townmanager@falmouthmass.us
• Harwich Town Administrator James Merriam jmerriam@town.harwich.ma.us
• Mashpee Town Manager Joyce Mason bos@mashpeema.gov
• Orleans Town Administrator John Kelly townadministrator@town.orleans.ma.us
• Provincetown Town Manager Sharon Lynn slynn@provincetown-ma.gov
• Sandwich Town Manager George Dunham townhall@townofsandwich.net 
• Truro Town Administrator Rex Peterson townadm@truro-ma.gov
• Wellfleet Town Administrator Paul Sieloff paul.sieloff@wellfleet-ma.gov
• Yarmouth Town Administrator William Hinchey whinchey@yarmouth.ma.us

We did not include Barnstable because that town already publishes emails and phone numbers for each member of the Town Council.

Your email need not be elaborate.  Something like this should suffice just fine – in fact, please feel free to copy and paste it into your email client:

I am a voter in our town.  After following recent stories on CapeCodToday.com, I respectfully request that individual email addresses and phone numbers for each of our selectmen be published on the town’s official website as soon as possible.

To see all the Editorials, click here, and to write a Letter to the Editor, click here.

Sutter still having trouble speaking the truth [Editorial]

When misstatements add up they become lies

Instead of debates, Sutter should ask Keating for lessons on being a better DA

By Walter Brooks

Bristol County District Attorney and candidate for congress, C. Samuel Sutter, just sent the press one of the most obviously untruthful releases this editor has ever read.

The release called "Sutter Shocked at Keating Indifference Over Pilgrim Relicensing" his more holes than Swiss Cheese. Worse, his entire candidacy is beginning to smell like Limburger, Roquefort or Stinking Bishop District Attorney cheese.

Here are some of his misstatements replaced with facts to put his latest fabrications in context:

Sutter writes that Congressman Keating only offered a single line in response to a general question about Pilgrim and that the quote in question is equivocal. This is false. Keating spoke about Pilgrim Nuclear at length during the Chamber event. 

Worse yet, Sutter says the Congressman's response to a question if he thought that Pilgrim Nuclear met the standards to deserve to have their license renewed.  As a responsible political, and not a nuclear scientist, Mr. Keating suggested that issue should be decided by qualified experts, not pols.

When we asked Bill Keating's office about that quote, we were told it was from a Patriot Ledger article last week, and Sutter wasn't even at that Chamber event.

Congressman Bill Keating has visited Pilgrim Nuclear power plant, spoken numerous times with the interested parties, and he has consistently stated that safety is concern number one. 

I suppose it never occurred to Sutter that Keating might also be concerned about the 650 Plymouth area folks who work at Pilgrim Nuclear.

While criticizing his opponent, Sutter has not stated his position in the release, never stating whether he thinks the license should be renewed or allowed to expire.

Congressman Keating is a cosponsor of Congressman Markey's Nuclear Power Plant Safety Act of 2011. This bill if passed would direct the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to create procedures to review nuclear power plant safety regulations to ensure that licensed facilities can withstand and adequately respond to catastrophes like last year's Fukushima disaster in Japan.

If memory serves, this will be third time in under one month that Sutter has egregiously misrepresented the Congressman's positions on issues.

What's Sutter's "Day Job"?

C. Samuel Sutter (don't you just love guy who use initials like that) is always bragging about his record as a District Attorney, which given the misconduct allegations listed below. Last Saturday  there was a homicide in Bristol County.  But C. Samuel Sutter wasn't at the murder scene working with police as DAs normally do?  No.  Why? 

He was instead politicking at a meeting of the Chatham Democratic Town Committee. 

Instead of asking Bill Keating for debates, he really should ask him for lessons on how to be a responsible and "honest" District Attorney.

Here are the past problems with Sam Sutter's fitness for office:

• Sutter: A lousy beginning
• DA Sam Sutter's misconduct to free murder suspect
• Sutter was cheating the state; Sanctioned by Bar Ethics Committee

Time to Close Orleans Elementary School?

It would be cheaper to send Orleans kids to Cape Cod Academy

Brewster lost more students than Orleans currently enrolls

It’s time for the Orleans school committee to make a decision:  either open to school choice or close Orleans Elementary School.

Suffering from the same declining enrollment as all other Cape school districts, Orleans Elementary School (OES) has seen its enrollment drop from 255 students in 2001 to 197 in 2011 a loss of 22.75%.  As we predicted on October 26, 2011, Orleans taxpayers got a surprise when the state reported OES having a per pupil cost of $23,905. 

Even with the discrepancy of $638,054 ($3,375/student) alleged by school and town officials, Orleans would still have a per pupil cost of $20,530.

One can send a K-5 student to Cape Cod Academy for about $20,180 plus $2,100 for transportation.

We Told You So!

Why are Orleans’ numbers so egregiously high?  Because they haven’t reduced their staff to reflect the drop in enrollment.  Our October 26^th story reported Orleans having a full time equivalent (FTE) of 25.9 teachers in 2004 but still employed an FTE of 25.1 in Fiscal 2011.

In comparison, Brewster suffered a decline of 28.8% (199 students) and dropped its Full Time Equivilent (FTE) from 59.6 teachers in 2004 to 39.1 in 2011.  Brewster lost more students than Orleans currently enrolls.

There are three ways that Orleans Elementary could survive without continuing to rape Orleans’ taxpayers:  open for school choice or close the school.

Best Option:  School Choice

“Do you want empty desks to gather dust or do you want a $5,000 check on each one of those desks?” - Carolyn Cragin. As Monomoy superintendent Carolyn Cragin says so aptly, “Do you want empty desks to gather dust or do you want a $5,000 check on each one of those desks?” 

Orleans Elementary is a very good little school.  We’re sure that many parents from nearby towns (even some in the Nauset district) would love to send their kids to OES.  Yet the Orleans school committee stubbornly refuses to open for school choice even with their school’s very survival at stake.

We urge Orleans taxpayers to reach out to their school committee and make it clear they want the school opened for inbound choice students.  We know that superintendent Dr. Richard Hoffmann knows how to market school choice, as evidenced by the considerable success of Nauset Regional High School at attracting new students.  Tell the school committee to un-bind Hoffmann’s hands and let him do the “fishes and loaves” operation that he does so well.

Outbound School Choice Option - Vouchers could save $13,000 per stident

If Orleans Elementary’s population was reduced by another 50 students or so, the school could be reduced to one class at each grade level.  Something approaching 50% of the staff could be laid off. 

What if the Town of Orleans offered $5,000 per year vouchers to the first 50 parents who agreed to send their kids to Monomoy under school choice?  Orleans would then be  expending $10,000 to educate the outbound child - $5,000 in school choice funds and $5,000 in payment to the parent. 

Orleans would potentially save $10,000 to $13,000 on each one of those kids’ education over what they expend on them at Orleans Elementary.  (Credit-where-credit’s-due:  This idea was once proposed years ago by Spyro Mitrokostas when he was a member of the Brewster finance committee and that town was studying the need for construction of the Eddy School.)

Nuclear Option:  Close Orleans Elementary

No town wants to close its elementary school.  However, right now the two Brewster elementary schools could absorb Orleans’ students without a hiccup.  Some teachers might be laid off and some transferred to Brewster but we have a feeling Brewster could educate these kids at a lower cost than what it’s costing Orleans right now. 

We’re pretty sure the new Monomoy District's Dr. Cragin would welcome 189 new elementary students into her  region next year.  The problem is that once they get into Monomoy they might want to stay there – costing Nauset at least $5,000 per student for up to thirteen years, a total cost of $65,000 per student to the town the student left.

Get Mad as Hell

Taxpayers in Orleans have every right to be “mad as hell” about this outrageous cost to maintain a withering elementary school.  Call your elementary school committee members and select-board – tell them “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take this anymore!”

The committee members are; Mary Lyttle, chair, Gwynne Guzzeau and David Abel.The Town office number is (508) 240-3700, and ask for Margie Fulcher, Selectmen's liaison to the Orleans Elementary School Committee.

To see all the Editorials, click here, and to write a Letter to the Editor, click here.

Scott Brown's Shame: One Year Later [Editorial]

Scott Brown’s silence:

This is not an issue of politics.  It is an issue of character.

By Walter Brooks

Here’s something for Elizabeth Warren to ponder on Saturday as she travels the Upper Cape:  One year ago Senator Scott Brown wrote a book and then went on national television, telling the world how he was molested at a Christian summer camp on Cape Cod.

And then all Hell broke loose.

Practically everyone in Southeastern Massachusetts knows what happened.  Allegations of child molestation surfaced, one suspect committed suicide, the camp was shuttered for a year, the DA is investigating and prominent attorneys start building stables of clients for the lawsuits sure to follow.

Know what’s really troubling about this whole thing?  Scott Brown could have put a stop to this years ago.

Scott Brown was an attorney – an officer of the court – since the 1980’s.  He was a municipal official in the 1990’s and then was elected to the legislature in 1998.  Scott Brown was and is a powerful man – a man who could’ve stepped up and put a stop to the alleged abuses at Camp Good News at any time in the past 25 years.

Why didn’t he?  As we see it there are only two possibilities:

1. It didn’t happen.  Senator Brown fictionalized the incident to sell books, germinating his story from a seed of truth based on his observations at the camp.  That would explain why he hasn’t named his abuser.  It would also explain why he apparently never thought to call the authorities in Sandwich or at the DA’s office to tell them someone might be raping children at the camp.
2. It did happen but he chose to protect his abuser’s identity.  Why would he do such a thing?  Could he have been more involved in the bad behavior at camp than was initially thought?  Could it be that his abuser (or someone else) “had something” on the Senator which forced him to be silent?  After all, Brown was himself a Cosmo beefcake model and was exposed to all kinds of hijinks in the Studio 54’s of 1980’s New York City.  Perhaps someone from his Christian camping past had some dirt on Brown that forced his silence.  Why else would he remain silent while children continued to suffer the molestations alleged by many Camp Good News alumni?

Gentle readers, this is not an issue of politics.  It is an issue of character.  It is an issue of ethics.  It is an issue of moral courage. 

It is an issue of all those attributes that we find lacking in the junior Senator from Massachusetts.

Cape Wind will boost state’s economy [Globe Editorial]

EDITOR'S NOTE: Given the continuous anti-Cape Wind editorial jihad now continuing into its second decade in our local Murdoch-owned daily newspaper, we offer our readers today's Boston Globe opinion.

NStar deal, rise of Cape Wind will boost state’s economy

Now it’s time to get started

The Patrick administration negotiated diligently and emerged with a fair bargain from the power company NStar, requiring it to purchase electricity from Cape Wind as a condition of state approval of its merger with Northeast Utilities. The deal preserves current electric rates for four years, while moving the nation’s first offshore wind farm a huge step closer to reality.

The Patrick administration need not lose any sleep for squeezing the companies. With their state-granted local monopolies on electricity, public utilities are not like normal private-sector businesses that have to compete.The $17.5 billion merger still needs to win approval from regulators in Connecticut, where Northeast Utilities is based. But from the standpoint of Massachusetts, the deal now meets the test of serving the public interest.

Fossil fuel prices are notoriously volatile; the deal will lock in predictable wind power rates for years.

In exchange for the Commonwealth’s approval of the merger, the combined utility has agreed to buy 27.5 percent of the output from Cape Wind, the 132-turbine wind farm slated for the waters off Nantucket. Another large Bay State power company, National Grid, had already committed to buying half. With more than three-quarters of the wind farm’s electricity now accounted for, the deal should make it possible for Cape Wind to get financing and begin construction.

Opponents complain the deal will force the utility to buy overpriced wind power, whose cost will eventually be passed on to consumers. They also feel it was inappropriate for the Patrick administration to strong-arm the firm, which has long been reluctant to touch Cape Wind.

But the administration need not lose any sleep for squeezing the companies. With their state-granted local monopolies on electricity, public utilities are not like normal private-sector businesses that have to compete for their market share. It’s perfectly appropriate for state regulators to assert the Commonwealth’s priorities, which include fostering clean energy both for environmental and economic reasons...

But the true long-term benefit for residents comes in the boost the deal gives to Cape Wind. Offshore power could be an immense economic resource for Massachusetts, and Cape Wind is already shaping up to be the nucleus of what could be a home-grown industry; earlier this month, federal officials began studying the possibility of another large new wind development south of Martha’s Vineyard.

Getting Cape Wind up and running has been a torturous, decade-long undertaking, much of it played out in boardrooms, state houses, and government regulatory agencies. Now it’s time to get started.

Read today's Globe Editorial here.

School dress code is the flavor of the month [Editorial]

Battle Cries or Bonding Ties?

School attire seems to be the flavor of the month

By Teresa A. Martin

You'd think the most important topic in education these days is yoga pants.

At least it is if you're in Myrtle Beach. This week that city's school took a stand on education that seems to reflect the trend of the month - utter obsession over clothes.

When 30 girls (out of the 800 in the school) showed up in yoga pants, school officials sequestered them in a separate room, thus raising the question - are yoga pant contagious? The girls had the choice of spending the day in the special yoga pants room or requesting a change of clothes from home.

Which leads one to wonder how girl-cut yoga pants worn by high school girls might be viewed over in Suffolk, Virginia, about 20 miles outside Norfolk. Given that district's story of the week, the girls should get a round of applause for their gender enhancing apparel.

Suffolk's school district has been busy addressing what must be a rabid cross-dressing epidemic - at least judging from its proposal that would ban students from wearing clothing that is "not in keeping with a student's gender."

Uh, what exactly is "in keeping with a student's gender?" Does that mean boys with tutus get tut-tuts? And girls in flannel shirts get sent home to dress prettier and dab on a bit of lipstick?

And you thought your school dress code was strict.According to the National Center for Education Statistics, in the 1999-2000 school year, 12 percent of principals said their schools required a uniform. By 2007-2008, that percentage had risen to 18 percent. In addition, 55 percent of public school principals reported that their schools mandated a strict dress code.

I went to an elementary school with a uniform and loved, for once, actually looking like the other kids. My child went to preschool with a uniform and loved it because it made school feel special and a place to "work".  A friend of a friend in Pennsylvania confesses to a sense of utter relief when a recently enacted standard uniform removed the morning ritual of "you're not wearing that to school" with her teens. Students at Wixon Academy in the D-Y district have been lobbying for uniforms because they think it reflects the pride they feel about their program.

For an awful lot of people, clothing seems to couple tightly with learning -- even if research is, at best, inconclusive about any relationship between learning and fashion.

But research be darned! Here's what you'll hear over and over again as fact: Remove the school day's focus on tween and teen fashionistas and you'll remove conflict, bullying, and "distraction."  Remove the social stigma of wearing one's economic status on one's back and you'll remove inequality in treatment. Remove gang-associated colors and you'll remove violence. Remove short skirts, exposed butt-cracks, bare shoulders, and mid-riffs and delete the damaging flip-flops and you'll convert apathy and indifference to a sense of mission and purpose.

To be fair, as goofy yoga pants and skirts on boys might be as a theme for educational excellence, a great many people firmly believe that clothes make the man, err, the student.  It's a variant on that beloved old chestnut Dress for Success.

Let's take a brief swing through the news about school clothes in the past few weeks. Everyone seems to be drinking the same Kool Aid: whatever your clothing bug-a-boo, get it out of the school and things will be better.

Out in Tulsa, OK, the school board voted earlier this month to adopt school uniforms.  The district's superintendent told a local radio station, "Tulsa Public Schools high school educators believe that student uniforms offer the opportunity to enhance positive student interaction and diminish the importance of attire that often negatively affects teen behavior. A uniform requirement also removes distractions."

Earlier this week Athens, GA said it was solving its concerns over student performance and "middle school bickering" by requiring its East Jackson Middle School students to adopt a uniform of khaki or navy pants, shorts or skirts and a red, white, or blue plain collared shirt. In a phone survey, 63 percent of surveyed parents said they'd prefer students to wear uniforms.

The La Junta, CO, School Board announced a public forum for the entire community to discuss the hot topic of requiring school uniforms.

The Board of Education in New London, CT, voted unanimously to consider expanding its dress code and uniform policy to its high school. Elementary and middle school students already wear uniforms.

And, entering in the clever phraseology category, there's Salisbury, MD. Its Wicomico County School Board says 11 elementary schools and Wicomico High have expressed interest in the "Consistent Attire Program." Translation - uniforms without using the loaded term "uniform."

After the dust has settled (like it has in Flagler County, FL, better known as Daytona Beach - where a new dress code has been transitioning in this month) most kids actually seem to like uniforms.

Unlike item-banning dress codes (see those aforementioned yoga pants and cross-dressing items), uniforms present a clear closet message: this is what you wear.

The uniform might not improve student academic performance, but it seems to serve as a bonding cry. As military organizations have known forever, there's nothing like a uniform to show the line between "us" and "them" and assimilating individuals into the greater "us."

But that's not always a bad thing. School video "channel" SchoolTube shows hundreds of presentations in happy favor and - dare we say it - pride in school uniforms.  The Huffington Post had bit of fun featuring one of these - Dress Code Swag, a rap video by high schoolers in Texas rhyming away to create an ode to "khakis on the bottom" and "polos on top."

So click on that music video link. Rap along. And wonder to yourself if others around the world - from Japan to Britain to emerging countries in Africa are onto something useful, something beyond foolishness over yoga pants, something that translates khakis and polos into a cultural statement about the value and serious intent of the formal schooling process.

     Teresa A. Martin has worked at the intersection of technology and content for more than 25 years. She served as a CEO and COO of technology companies in Silicon Valley and metro Boston, authored three books on web and online technologies, and launched several start-ups. 
     She was part of the high-profile Information Design Lab within Knight-Ridder, developing a prototype tablet newspaper in 1994, along with early content management tools to store, retrieve, archive, and manage mixed media content. She then founded one of the first web content publishing companies and grew it from launch to acquisition in five years.
     She writes on educational issues regularly for Cape Cod TODAY and Plymouth Daily News, and authors Cape Eyes here.

Have you no sense of decency sirs, at long last?

The Renewable Energy Revolution begins here, and it begins now

And only through the indomitable courage of Gentleman Jim Gordon

By Walter Brooks

Despite the decade-long editorial Jihad by the local Rupert Murdoch's Cape Cod daily newspaper, and the NIMBY selfishness of waterfront seasonal trophy home owners, many of whom had strong links to fossil fuel interest, American won a big one today when our Governor Deval Patrick got major concessions for the energy utilities to purchase a "critical mass" of the power to be generated by God's free and forever wind on Nantucket Sound.

Renewable energy pioneer Jim Gordon deserves our endless thanks and praise for his dauntless and indomitable courage of staying the course despite the egregious and often despicable and underhanded efforts of the selfish few.

Even as late as yesterday at a statehouse meeting on a new report clearing on land wind turbines of any ill effect on those living nearby, the hysterical old fogies equated the sound of a wind turbine to the AIDS epidemic.

I am reminded of that great Massachusetts Attorney Joseph Welch who put an end to the political career of demagogue Senator Joseph McCarthy at a congressional hearing in 1950 when he said to Senator McCarthy,  "Let us not assassinate this lad further, Senator. You have done enough. Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Get on the right side of history

So I ask Audra Parker, Bill Koch, the Editors of The Cape Cod Times, Let us not assassinate this lad further. You have done enough.

Get on the right side of history now, and let's see Cape Cod become the Birthplace of America's offshore Renewable Energy Revolution.

Editorial: Nauset’s $362K “Boutique”

“Talk the talk, now walk the walk”

Nauset region boards have made some expensive decisions lately

School boards in the Nauset region have made some expensive decisions lately and now their chickens are coming home to roost.

Last month we learned that Nauset Superintendent Richard Hoffmann wished to eliminate one of the district’s pre-school classrooms.  The program was under-enrolled and the district would save $132,000 if they eliminated one class.

Angry parents convinced the combined school boards of the Nauset region to reverse Hoffmann’s decision, though the parents failed to offer a creative way to “find” the $132,000 needed to maintain the program.

This week we learned that Nauset’s innovative program to start the day a bit later at the high school has indeed succeeded in reducing tardiness and increasing student performance.  The problem is that the schedule change required changes to the bus schedule, as well.  Originally a savings of $90,000 was forecast for the new transportation plan – but it ended up costing taxpayers an extra $239,000.

It's time for the voters to put their money where their local school board’s mouths are.Certainly there are people in the Nauset region who care passionately about the preschool program, just as there are those who care passionately about the later opening at Nauset Regional High School.  The school boards have listened to their constituents – or at least to their loudest constituents – and made conscious decisions that cost the taxpayers an extra $362,000 per year.

Now it’s time for the parents and other taxpayers to put up or shut up.  While we don’t usually support increases in local taxes, the public appears to have made itself heard on the topic.  Once again, the common sense “country folk” in Eastham have called out the hogwash and object to paying for it.

The choice is a simple one:  either support increases in the school budget to fund “boutique” programs like these two or stop agitating for programs the school district cannot afford.  If the majority of voters (not just the loud ones) don’t support these kinds of programs, then “vote the rascals out” of the school boards and vote down any tax overrides for the schools.

It’s time for taxpayers in the Nauset region to “walk the walk” after their elected officials have “talked the talk”.