NOT SO 'GREAT'I want to thank reporters Chris Faraone, Matt McQuaid, and the Phoenix for being one of the few media outlets to question and dig into the true agenda of Stand for Children and groups like it (see "The Price of Change," June 22). It's unbelievable that public education policy is being dictated by venture capitalists and multinational corporations who pay front groups like Stand for Children to wage a war on teachers and their unions with nice-sounding, meaningless euphemisms like "Great teachers, great schools," which was the title of the Massachusetts ballot initiative. It's also unbelievable that our unions are caving in.
SUE DOHERTY
QUINCY
GOOD VIBRATIONS
The cynicism by Jonathan Donaldson in his feature on the Beach Boys (see "In Harmony," Arts and Entertainment, June 22) is as thick as the harmony in the title track of That's Why God Made the Radio, with far less pleasant results. This approach almost seems to be a prerequisite for some Beach Boys critics, and it is as tiresome as it is unfair. That being said, once one wades through this thicket of snarly remarks, the underlying important points are spot on. The reunion concert sounds great — check it out. The new album is very good — buy it.
MITCH COOLEY
KEARNEY, NEBRASKA
CORRECTIONS
In our story on the 2014 governor's race ("Inside Game," Talking Politics, June 22), we said that Scott Lang is former mayor of Fall River; he is actually former mayor of New Bedford.
In our story on the school reform group Stand for Children ("The Price of Change," June 22), we wrote that Governor Deval Patrick's education-reform package put in place stringent new teacher-evaluation standards, and was designed through a consensus process between labor and about 40 other stakeholders. In fact, the 2010 education-reform bill and the new teacher evaluation rules are two separate measures, and the latter was approved by the state Board of Education, not the legislature and governor.
