When is a tax not a tax? When no one pays it. That’s basically the case with Massachusetts’ voluntary 5.85 percent income tax rate. In 2011, the latest year for which information is available from the Department of Revenue (DOR), a tiny fraction of the 3.5 million tax filers opted to pay the increased rate, generating under $200,000 in additional tax revenue – less than chicken feed compared to a $32.5 billion budget. The number of truly liberal among us who shade the oval to pay an extra 0.6 pe[...]

These are strange days in healthcare. Even the Boston Globe is starting to push back on and question the one-size fits all approach of the ACA. See the editorial from Sunday’s paper below. First it was the problem of Massachusetts being forced to switch our rating factors to new federal rules. (Read here for more background.) This led to the recent decision by federal HHS to unilaterally grant the state a phase-in for these new rating factor rules. Of course, this doesn’t fix the problem, it jus[...]

Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), geared at students whose educational needs fall outside the norm, are crucial to the academic success of tens of thousands of Massachusetts children. But because IEPs can be costly for public school systems, students on the cusp of need can easily fall through the cracks. If parents suspect their child needs an IEP to perform to his or her potential and the school has not raised the issue, the parents can request that the school district perform an evaluati[...]

The many flaws in Common Core’s standards are finally beginning to be discussed in state after state, especially the damaging expectation that all American high school students should be prepared for college, whether or not they are willing or able to do the reading that college coursework requires.  The hidden problem with such an expectation is that it can be achieved on tests of college-readiness only when empty skills (e.g., find the main idea) are applied to non-demanding texts and when per[...]

Much as been written this past week about the second year results of the Oregon Medicaid lottery experiment. (See Avik Roy’s post at Forbes for a clear and full background.) I believe the results from this study will drive many future decisions about Medicaid and how it is structured given the methodological uniqueness of the program. While the results have largely been spun in the direction of how one views the ACA, the real debate in the Medicaid program should be how to best use public [...]

As opposition to Common Core national  education standards picks up steam across the country, with more grassroots activism and movement among state and national political leaders, we’ll do our best to bring you the latest news on this front. See today’s round-up below: DAILY CALLER: Common Core a common enemy for some conservatives, liberals HERITAGE: Indiana Reconsiders Common Core AFT: Weingarten sparks dialogue on Common Core standards   Education Week: Paul Horton takes down Com[...]

Across the country, from Florida to Michigan, Colorado to Alabama, and many states in between, legislators and governors are taking steps to withdraw from Common Core. Nationally, US Senators Ted Cruz, Chuck Grassley, Rand Paul and others are working to de-fund it, citing federal law prohibiting the government from directing education standards and testing at the state level. Opposition is growing among a broad spectrum.  Randi Weingarten, president of AFT, the second largest teachers union in t[...]

One of the sales pitches for Common Core’s English language arts standards is that a heavy diet of informational reading in the English class will increase “critical” or analytical thinking. But how are teachers and parents to know that black is white and freedom is slavery?   Reading researchers know there is absolutely no research to support the idea that increased study of “literary non-fiction” or “informational” texts in the English class will incre[...]

Two of the many bizarre ideas that the “chief architect” of Common Core’s English language arts standards has mandated in our “national standards” or told teachers outright are the notion that teachers should do “cold” readings of historical documents like the Gettysburg Address and that doing so “levels the playing field.”  Both ideas suggest the thinking of someone who has never taught in K-12.   Worse yet, they contribute to historical illiteracy. Aside from the fact that context-free reading[...]

A recent decision by HHS illustrates the arbitrary nature by which some implementation decisions are being made at CMS while highlighting the problem of a top-down approach in Obamacare. After months of small businesses anxiety in surrounding the impact of fewer rating factors due to an ACA mandated one-size-fits all policy, the Federal government recently pulled a piecemeal delayed implementation of the regulations out of thin air. (Background on the rating issue can be found in this post). One[...]