What an annoyingly shaped graph.

yeah, this feels like low-hanging fruit to boost what is already regarded as one of the best attributes of this state.

The Michigan University one happened a couple days ago. Then all these hoaxes started.

trousers, blouse, blazer, sensible shoes. Lands End/ the Loft are my go toos.

YMMV depending on age and industry of course.

[deleted]

> Sure- rules may need to be changed and updated, like every other single rule and law ever created by humanity. That’s not a good counter argument for why we shouldn’t create them in the first place.

I'm not arguing against legislating rules to force school districts to play fair. I'm arguing against solely relying on those rules. This situation cannot be solved unless teachers have the ability to advocate for themselves directly.

> Strikes aren’t just a foreshadowing of the collapse of public education, I’m saying they are the first stage of the collapse of public education. If strikes are legalized, they will become common and public schools will become wholly unreliable for parents and they will look towards other options. It’s already happening with enrollment numbers dropping and interest in private education jumping.

Because teachers don't have the legal right to strike, administrators know they effectively have them over a barrel. As such, they have minimal incentive to treat with them fairly at the negotiating table. As such, teaching conditions at public schools are terrible, thus driving teachers out of the profession or at least into private jobs. Meanwhile, you don't tend to see these kinds of strikes at private schools partially because their teachers do have the right to strike, so the schools have to play ball and treat them fairly.

If public schools are about to collapse, it's not because teachers are striking but because things have gotten so bad that teachers feel the need to strike. You're mistaking the signal for the cause. When the canary in a coal mine drops to the bottom of the cage, you should get out of the mine, not reprimand the canary for putting miners in danger.

> I don’t see how you can take students missing school so flippantly, hand waive it way with them being fine.

It's a week. School year lengths vary more than that from state to state. Dropping 5 days isn't going to make a big difference.

Now if this became a regular occurrence, or if it dragged on for months? Yeah, obviously that would be bad. Sounds like the school would have a pretty big incentive to play ball with the teachers if that were the kind of consequence that would be carried by ignoring their demands and demanding they grind themselves to dust.

Let's be honest here: the Woburn strike hurt because it pinched parents to find alternate childcare, not because these kids are actually going to see long term damage from spending a week out of school. I realize using children as a political football is a storied tradition in policy debates but they're really not the specific concern in this situation. It's because parents treat schools as just a place to dump their kids during the day for free.

> There are more options for teachers than your a)b)c), and the legislature can create a hell of a lot more as well as other bats to bear districts with that don’t fuck over students and families like a district/teachers union caused work stoppage does.

When you get right down to it, there really aren't other levers to pull here. If the district knows that you ultimately have to come in and do your job, then what reason do they have to give you what you need? Right now, we're only having this discussion because the teachers chose to strike illegally -- they made enough disruption that we've collectively realized that continuing to ignore them is not an option. Legislating school districts into paying better is nice and all, but when those laws become irrelevant and school districts go back to bending teachers into pretzels, we're going to ignore them again until they strike and make us pay attention.

My oldest is in HS, and they start at 7:20 AM (on the bus at 6:40-6:45 AM). There's a proposal in my town to change the start times and push them back 30 minutes (potentially, there's a couple of other options). I will say my kids are losing their minds about that proposal, because they are worried they'll get home late and have no time to do anything. Especially my youngest, who wouldn't get home until 4 PM since his school would start at almost 9 AM.

I think them being up stupidly early and starting that early is inappropriate, but there hasn't been an easy path so far for getting this settled.

EDIT: Just saw the proposal they went with is delaying the start of our high school by 35 minutes to 7:55 and the middle school will start 10 minutes later, and acquire 4 more buses to allow it to be just two tier instead of three tier.

I can't believe im saying this but JC Penny has some nice and affordable 'office' wear. The Evan Picone stuff is not frumpy, always on sale, and lasts a long time.

I am in my 30's and never in my wildest dreams would think of shopping for 'modern workwear' at an old lady department store lol. I was turned onto it by a woman at work who always had very smart looking/put together outfits and now rarely shop anywhere else for slacks/blazers/suiting.

If you are looking for luxury though, Banana Republic has lovely fabrics and will do mild tailoring for free.

So. Early. I was never awake till at least second period

I already stated the problem. The turnpike authority purposefully spent all the money they had coming in so the authority would perpetuate, instead of paying down the bond which was the original intention.

As for toll taking being dangerous to health, it's no more so than being outside in a city or stuck in traffic.

This is hard to answer. Do you have a budget? What industry are you in/is one that tends to be more formal (like law) or casual (like academia)? Do you need extended size options? Do you care about materials used? Do you need it immediately or can you wait for shipping?

Tolls exist in many states. They are not the reason MA is expensive, that's primarily housing costs.

Have you driven around NYC? The tolls on the bridges and tunnels there are insane and far beyond anything in MA. A lot of the bridges and tunnels between various boroughs cost $7 each way. And that's with EZ Pass, if you pay by mail it's more like $11 each way. By contrast, the Tobin Bridge in and out of Boston is only $1.25 each way.

I find it pretty wild that whoever is doing this is making day of it. When I was young we occasionally had someone try to write a bomb threat on the bathroom wall to get out of taking a test, but doing that in this day in age is way more serious… and to just do it over and over again… crazy stuff

When I didn't start class until 10am as a high schooler my grades went up. (That wasn't the only reason, but it helped!) It helped that I had time to sit & eat something at Dunkin donuts too.

[deleted]

Right. Roads cost money. Is it really that crazy that funding their maintenance comes partially from charging a toll for people using those roads?

The money would just have to come from somewhere else if you got rid of the tolls, I don't see why people get so bent out of shape about it. If they'd prefer other forms of taxation play for the portion of road maintenance paid for by tolls, then fine, but I get the sense some of the people who complain about this stuff just want the government to magically pay for things without having the revenue to do so. State governments can't run a deficit the way the Feds can, so that's not an option.

In this case the phone caller said they saw someone with a gun, and it’s a relief that it wasn’t true. It seems these hoax calls are similar in that they mention a threat to the school, but the scenario varies. In some cases they said they spotted someone with a gun in or near a school, and in others the hoax calls have claimed there was an active shooter.

Mine started at 7:20am in Western Mass. I was NEVER on time. Fuck that

Ipswich yesterday too

This is not a mistake. 2/3rds of people in the state live in the Boston metro and would rather kill everyone in WMA than pay taxes. Daniel Shays was right.

Considering that Massachusetts is the number 1 public school system in the country, and countless studies have shown better outcomes for teens to start later in attentiveness, retention of material etc, etc. this should be an easy adjustment. Switching high school and elementary schedules would be difficult for parents though. My kid starts high school next year, she is going to a voke tech, and her bus ride is about an hour. She has to get the bus at 630. at least she can sleep on the bus but its not fun.

Try Stitchfix or Daily Look. You can try but don't have to buy. Other than that, Nordstrom Rack is okay. I tend to wear black pants, short sleeve shirt, casual blazer, and my favorite black boots. Seems to do the trick

It's all fun and games until the prison guards strike

Not everyone has study hall though. I think my kid will only his senior year. And buses still have to go.

I think just have the buses pick up for high school AFTER elementary instead of the other way around.

[deleted]