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A Terrible Synergy

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WORCESTER - The end of a federal subsidy that helped lower the cost of Advanced Placement tests for low-income students has city school officials worried some high-schoolers may not be able to afford to take the exams this year.

The critical tests, a high score on which can earn high school students college credit at many higher education institutions, normally costs $93 per exam, but a federal aid program lowered that price to $19 for students who qualified as low-income, according to Worcester Superintendent Maureen Binienda.

But the expiration of that subsidy this past year - there was no warning it was going to end, she said - means those students now will have to pay the College Board's reduced fee of $53 per test. For many families in the city, that discounted price is still too expensive, Ms. Binienda said.

"A lot of kids can't afford that," she said, especially if they're taking multiple AP exams per year. The district can't afford to pay it for them either, she added - last year alone, Worcester students took a combined 1,919 tests utilizing the federal subsidy, she said. "We absolutely need funding (help)."

The predicament is especially troublesome for the Worcester schools, which under Ms. Binienda's leadership have elevated the AP program to their preferred high-rigor academic offering. Long a champion of the AP as principal at Worcester's South High Community School before becoming the district's superintendent last spring, Ms. Binienda has pushed for a policy challenging all high schoolers to take at least one AP course before graduation.

"It really changes the whole school climate," she said of the AP. "The conversation becomes (about) academics - where you're going to go to college, how you did on the AP."

Students don't need to take the AP exam to take AP courses, but the promise of potentially earning college credit is a major selling point the former lends to the latter.

"They're really important to take," said Linette Wainwright, a senior at South High who plans to take four AP exams this year. "It wouldn't be a problem for (my family) if we weren't low-income, but we are. It's a really tough situation."

Ms. Wainwright, whose sister is also taking an AP test this spring, said her family may have to dig into their college savings to pay for the exams.

"I'm still hoping to take these tests, but it's going to take a lot of trying to pull things together," she said. Only one of her AP teachers broached the subject, she added - "He said there's not much we can do, except get the word out there."

Ms. Binienda brought her case to Worcester's legislative delegation last Friday, where she appealed to the lawmakers to try to find some room in the state budget to cover the AP price increase. While legislators were sympathetic, state Sen. Harriette Chandler, a Democrat from Worcester, suggested she try her request with local business leaders.

The state's education department, meanwhile, hasn't produced a viable solution for Worcester, according to Ms. Binienda, who said the education commissioner recently recommended to school leaders that they use federal Title IV funding to close the fee gap. But the district's chief financial and operations officer, Brian Allen, said that program was cut for Worcester years ago, and thus not an option.

Ms. Binienda said the schools only have a few months to come up with another answer.

"We have to pay the bill (for the tests) in April," she said, adding around now is typically the time when the schools collect payments from students.

Scott O'Connell can be reached at Scott.O'Connell@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottOConnellTG

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Worcester school officials worried about higher price for Advanced Placement exam

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WORCESTER - The end of a federal subsidy that helped lower the cost of Advanced Placement tests for low-income students has city school officials worried some high-schoolers may not be able to afford to take the exams this year.

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The 191st General Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts

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When Lin-Manuel Miranda was a teenager in the 1990s, he liked to make eclectic mixtapes for his friends. In those cassettes, he experimented with the rise and fall of energy in music: A musical theater number might play after a hip-hop song, only to be followed by an oldie or an obscure pop song. It was through mixtapes that he could bridge the gap between two seemingly opposing passions - Broadway and rap.

"I think I learned more about writing scores for Broadway by making mixtapes ... than I did in college," the actor, composer and lyricist tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross.

In 2008, Miranda's first musical, In The Heights, won four Tony Awards, and in 2016, Hamilton - a hip-hop infused retelling of the Founding Father's life - won 11 Tony Awards and a Pulitzer Prize.

Though Miranda stepped away from his Hamilton role in July, he remains busy with other projects. He wrote several songs for the Disney animated film Moana, and he's preparing to star in a film sequel of Mary Poppins.

Looking ahead, Miranda says he doesn't feel pressure to duplicate or exceed the success of Hamilton. "If you think in terms of topping, you're in the wrong business," he says. "I remember getting that question after In the Heights. 'It's your first musical and you won the Tony, how are you going to top it?' I'm like, 'I went from broke substitute teacher to Broadway composer. I will never make a leap that big in my life again.' "

Interview Highlights
On what it was like to play Alexander Hamilton every night
It was an enormous challenge to do that show every night, and yet who to blame but myself? I wrote the part! And it was also the most thrilling roller coaster every night. You know, I got to fall in love, I got to win a war, I got to write words that inspired a nation.

Getting to go through that experience, it's something I'll never get old of, which is why I really tried to downplay my departure as much as possible, because I don't think I'm remotely done with it.
On Donald Trump's tweet calling for the theater to be a safe place after the Hamilton cast read a statement directed to Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who attended a performance soon after the election

Here's where I agree with the president-elect: The theater should always be a safe space.

Here's where I agree with the president-elect: The theater should always be a safe space. ... I think one of the reasons Hamilton has been embraced by people of every stripe on the political spectrum is that theater is one of the rarest places where we still come together. You may take a totally different conclusion from Hamilton than I do, based on your ideology and your politics and your life experience, but we all sat in a room together and we watched the same thing, and that doesn't happen anymore.

As you can see from this election, we have our own sets of facts based on who we listen to. Which news organization gets our business determines the facts that get in our head. So I think one of the things that makes theater special is, first of all, it's one of the last places you put your phone away, and second of all it's one of the last places where we all have a common experience together.
On the life he dreamed of as a kid
So to that end, I agree with [Trump's comment]. I don't agree with his characterization of what we did. I think anyone who sees that video sees [actor Brandon Victor Dixon] silencing the boos ... from the audience itself, who ... nine days after the election are still working through that thing. I can't speak to that, but I know that Brandon quieted the boos and made a plea to lead all of us. I don't believe there's anything remotely resembling harassment in what we've done.
On his love of Disney musicals growing up
I have two wonderful, supportive and very practical parents who are like, "You're really talented and really creative. You should be a lawyer," because there's a safe path there. I knew I was never going to be a lawyer. I knew that I wanted to make movies, and I wanted to write shows.

I had the great joy of being 9 years old when The Little Mermaid came out, and I went and saw that three times in the theater. Then I dragged my parents back and my family back to see it a couple more times.

I don't know why it changed my life as much as it did. I think Sebastian the crab had a big amount to do with it - the fact that this calypso number happens under the water just knocked my socks off when I was a kid. It had this power over me. I would perform that thing - I would jump up on my desk in fourth grade and sing that song.
On the music that influenced him as a teenager
Then I had the good fortune of being a kid during that really kind of amazing run of musical animated films. It's Little Mermaid, followed by Beauty and the Beast, followed by Aladdin, followed by T he Lion King. That's an incredible run. And what's been exciting is animation has changed so much. There's this incredible Pixar golden age, and really golden age from all these other studios as well, and it feels like we're in another one of those where musicals have a seat at the table. You've got Tangled, you've got Frozen, next to Inside Out, next to Z ootopia, and it's exciting to be a part of that tradition again.

My sister is as responsible as anyone forgiving me good taste in music. I remember stealing her copy of Black Sheep's A Wolf In Sheep's Clothing and learning "Engine, engine number nine, on the New York transit line." I think that's probably the first rap song I really worked hard to memorize in sixth grade, but then also Naughty by Nature and Queen Latifah.
On code-switching between the Latin American neighborhood he grew up in and his school with affluent white kids
The music you love when you're a teenager is always going to be the most important to you, and I find that it's all over the score of Hamilton. ... These are all New York, East Coast, '90s rappers, and that's when I was a teenager.

If you want to make a recipe for making a writer, have them feel a little out of place everywhere, have them be an observer kind of all the time . ...

I won the lotto when I got into Hunter - to get a great, free, public school education sort of saved my family, and I was aware of it. I was aware that I was at a school with kids who were really smart. And I also had friends in the neighborhood who went to the local school, and I remember feeling that drift happen. ...

The corner that I lived on was like this little Latin American country. It's one in which the nanny who lived with us and raised us, who also raised my father in Puerto Rico, never needed to learn English. All of the business owners in and around our block all spoke Spanish, and yet I'd go to school and I'd be at my friends' houses on the Upper East Side and Upper West Side and I'd be the one translating to the nanny who spoke Spanish. So it's interesting to become a Latino cultural ambassador when you're 7.

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Lin-Manuel Miranda On Disney, Mixtapes And Why He Won't Try To Top 'Hamilton'

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When Lin-Manuel Miranda was a teenager in the 1990s, he liked to make eclectic mixtapes for his friends. In those cassettes, he experimented with the rise and fall of energy in music: A musical theater number might play after a hip-hop song, only to be followed by an oldie or an obscure pop song.

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The story of a presidential parrot cursing at a funeral is almost too unbelievable to be true.

So we thought we had better check out the persistent story that President Andrew Jackson 's pet parrot started uttering obscenities during the former president's own funeral and had to be removed.

Here is a quote attributed to the Rev. William Menefee Norment, who was presiding at the service, and found in Volume 3 of Samuel G. Heiskell's Andrew Jackson and Early Tennessee History:

"Before the sermon and while the crowd was gathering, a wicked parrot that was a household pet got excited and commenced swearing so loud and long as to disturb the people and had to be carried from the house."

The Rev. Norment goes on to report that the presidential parrot was "excited by the multitude and ... let loose perfect gusts of 'cuss words.'" People were "horrified and awed at the bird's lack of reverence."

Parrots, intelligent birds that can live to be 75 years old, are known for their ability to learn words and to mimic other sounds they hear, including phones ringing and babies crying.

Parrots do not have vocal chords but instead produce sounds by pushing air out of their tracheas. Jackson bought Poll, an African grey parrot, for his wife, Rachel, but took care of the bird himself after she died.

Old Hickory was one tough man. Not only was Jackson a war hero, but when a man tried to shoot him at a speaking engagement and the gun misfired, President Jackson, 67 at the time, beat the would-be assassin almost senseless with his walking stick.

Jackson outfitted the White House with a dozen spittoons, fought duels, and was the first president to open the White House for public visits. So it seems natural that his language might have been kind of, um, salty - but what did his parrot say exactly? No one seems to $%&! know.

U.S. Presidents Who Have Had Pet Birds

Andrew Jackson wasn't the only American president to have a bird as a pet. The long list includes:

It has been nearly 50 years since a pet bird called the White House home.

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Polly Want a WHAT?! Andrew Jackson's Pet Parrot

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The story of a presidential parrot cursing at a funeral is almost too unbelievable to be true. So we thought we had better check out the persistent story that President Andrew Jackson 's pet parrot started uttering obscenities during the former president's own funeral and had to be removed.

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Joseph, Baron Ducreux (26 June 1735 - 24 July 1802) was a French noble, portrait painter, pastelist, miniaturist, and engraver, who was a successful portraitist at the court of Louis XVI of France, and resumed his career after the French Revolution.

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Sort-of fiction.

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(Read This first!)

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Captain Preston's Account (Scroll it down)

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Boston Massacre Soldiers' Testimony

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Questions for "Responses to the Tea Act"

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Questions for "Responses to the Tea Act"

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1. Summarize the argument of 'Poplicola."
2. Summarize the argument of "An Old Prophet."
3. What is the best argument for and against the Tea Act?
4. Read the two articles dated Dec. 20. To what degree do they corroborate each other? Explain.

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1. As best as you can tell from this article, what happened at the ropewalks?
2. Why did soldiers' working in Boston lower wages?
3. According to primary sources, who is to blame? Explain.
4. Is this event typical for what was going on in Boston / Massachusetts / the Colonies at the time? Explain.

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"Ropewalks"

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On 2 March 1770, Pvt. Patrick Walker of the 29th regiment passed John Gray's ropewalks in Boston on an errand. Months later, he left a blunt and unhelpful description of what he experienced there:

That about the latter end of February Last, Deponant having Occasion to go by the Ropewalkes in Boston, he was assaulted, knocked Down, trod under feet, Cut in several places, and Very much bruised, without any Provocation Given, by about twelve of the Inhabitants of Boston, (supposed Rope makers) and Left in Danger of his Life

Pvt. Walker had to sign his deposition with his mark, didn't recall the exact date of this assault, and didn't accurately describe the details of what led up to his beating. But Walker was correct about minding his own business, fetching water, as he passed the ropewalks. Ropemaker William Green called out a question: did he want work? (Soldiers were allowed to moonlight, which lowered the wages for locals.) Walker asked Green what the work was. For three descriptions of Green's insulting reply, see my posting on the term "little-house."

Witnesses differ about what happened next. Drummer Thomas Walker (no relation to Patrick) recalled meeting the private "in the Street cut & bleeding very much" because he and Green had fought. The two soldiers then gathered several of their fellows and returned to the ropewalks.

On the other side, ropemaker Nicholas Feriter stated:

about half past 11 o'clock, A.M., a soldier of the 29th Regiment came to Mr. John Gray's ropewalks, and looking into one of the windows, said, by God I'll have satisfaction! with many other oaths; at the last he said he was not afraid of any one in the ropewalks. I stept out of the window and speedily knock'd up his heels. On falling, his coat flew open, and a naked sword appeared

Another ropemaker, Samuel Bostwick, insisted that "Green...took no further notice of" Walker after getting off his clever line, but the soldier came back "with a party of thirty or forty soldiers, headed by a tall negro drummer." That drummer was Thomas Walker, quoted above; since 1759, the 29th had used black men as its regimental drummers.

Whoever was the first to get physical, Green's gratuitous insult quickly escalated into a brawl between dozens of soldiers and dozens of ropemakers. Even young apprentices got into the action: Peter Slater, only nine years old, recalled bringing the ropemakers their "way-sticks" or "wouldring-sticks"-each two feet of hickory, used for twisting and laying out strands of hemp.

Sixty-nine-year-old Justice of the Peace John Hill testified:

I was at a house the corner of a passage way leading from Atkinson's street to Mr. John Gray's rope-walks, near Green's barracks so called, when I saw eight or ten soldiers pass the window with clubs. I immediately got up and went to the door, and found them returning from the rope-walks to the barracks; whence they again very speedily re-appeared, now increased to the number of thirty or forty, armed with clubs and other weapons.

In this latter company was a tall negro drummer, to whom I called, you black rascal, what have you to do with white people's quarrels?

He answered, I suppose I may look on, and went forward.

I went out directly and commanded the peace, telling them I was in commission [i.e., was a magistrate]; but they not regarding me, knocked down a rope-maker in my presence, and two or three of them beating him with clubs, I endeavoured to relieve him; but on approaching the fellows who were mauling him, one of them with a great club struck at me with such violence, that had I not happily avoided it might have been fatal to me.

The party last mentioned rushed in towards the rope-walks, and attacked the rope-makers nigh the tar-kettle, but were soon beat off, drove out of the passage-way by which they entered

Though it's clear Green's gratuitous insult had started this conflict, I think it probably escalated in a tit-for-tat pattern, each side bringing in more fighters and thus prompting the other side to do the same. Among the ropemakers involved was a young man named Samuel Gray-no relation to the ropewalks owner. Among the soldiers were Pvts. William Warren and Mathew Kilroy and (during follow-up brawls the next day) John Carroll, all grenadiers in the 29th.

All in all, the ropemakers seem to have gotten the better of the fights. Drummer Walker and Pvt. John Rodgers had to be taken to the hospital on Saturday, and several more soldiers described their injuries in depositions months later. In contrast, though ropemakers complained about the soldiers' aggression, none reported serious injuries.

On Saturday the owner of those ropewalks, John Gray, visited the colonels of the two regiments in Boston. Gray was very wealthy, not politically active but leaning toward the Crown. (His brother Harrison was the provincial treasurer.) He made a deal with the colonels: he would dismiss Green from his employ, they wouldn't enter his property without his permission, and each side would try to calm their own men. How well that worked became clear the following Monday night.

(The modern picture of a colonial ropewalk above comes from a webpage about ropemaking in Alexandria, Virginia. There are other useful sites about the cordage industry from Lewis-Clark.org, kite flyer Uli Wahl, and the Historic Naval Ships Association. Incidentally, in January 1771 the fired ropemaker William Green started working at the Box & Austin ropewalk on the other side of town. One of that firm's account books is in the Winterthur library.)

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On 2 March 1770, Pvt. Patrick Walker of the 29th regiment passed John Gray's ropewalks in Boston on an errand.

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"Tyrants" from Howard Zinn: A Young People's History of the United States

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Ch. 4-2

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Ch. 4-1