Press › Media Hits

UMass public law school approved
Daily Free Press

Author(s): Meaghan Beatley — Press date: 2010-02-08
Category: Better Government
Description: The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved a long-anticipated plan on Tuesday to merge the Southern New England School of Law with the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, thereby creating the state’s first public law school. The school is set to open in September. The University of Massachusetts School of law, expected to open in September, will offer affordable education option to law students without burdening taxpayers, officials said. "UMass feels it’s important for citizens of the commonwealth to have an affordable education," said spokesman Robert Connolly. [read more...]

The price of UMass law school
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jeff Jacoby — Press date: 2010-02-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Last week's vote by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to establish a state-run law school didn’t come close to passing the smell test. The vote authorized the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to acquire the Southern New England School of Law, a small private institution that had offered to donate itself to the state. Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville called the offer "an extraordinary gift" that for the first time would enable UMass to provide "an affordable, high-quality legal education," all without costing the taxpayers a dime. [read more...]

Critics: Standards push threatens ed gains
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2010-02-06
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- The effort to write a set of national academic standards for public schools has put Massachusetts in a delicate position. The state has considerably less to gain than other states around the country, but potentially a lot to lose. Caught between wanting to participate in the process while protecting the high benchmarks already set for Massachusetts students, education officials insist they will settle for nothing less than the rigorous curriculum already in place. [read more...]

Today's Show: Feds Invade Commonwealth
WRKO

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2010-02-05
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer Institute's Jamie Gass talks with Tom & Todd. [read more...]

Yippee, more lawyers!
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Last week Quinnipiac University in Connecticut announced plans for a new medical school, citing the pressing national need for more doctors and health care professionals. Yesterday the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved the acquisition of an unaccredited law school to become part of the University of Massachusetts, because . . . well, just because. The region’s best and brightest law grads who find themselves “deferred” by the firms who hired them must be amused. [read more...]

Stimulus saves hacks
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick’s economic-stimulus program is looking more like a Save-A-Hack telethon with a federal cash infusion going mostly to save jobs on the government payroll. With pink slips flying in the private sector and the state unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, a Herald review has found that more than 70 percent of jobs “created or retained” by state stimulus spending last quarter were government jobs. [read more...]

'Funny numbers' yield total headcount
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Just because the Patrick administration is bragging about creating or saving 4,722 full-time equivalent jobs last quarter with stimulus dollars doesn’t mean there are 4,722 people with jobs who wouldn’t have them without government help. In the confusing world of stimulus-program accounting, the 4,722 full-time equivalent jobs actually represent the total number of hours worked by 13,882 people last quarter - whether they were part-time employees, full-time workers, contractors or just those who already had a job and had part of their salaries paid for by stimulus funds. [read more...]

Mass. Board Of Higher Ed Plans Vote On Law School
WBZ

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (AP) ― The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education is poised to vote on a plan to create the state's first public law school. Members of the board a scheduled to meet in Bridgewater on Tuesday to vote on the proposal in which the Southern New England School of Law would donate its campus to UMass-Dartmouth. Supporters, including Gov. Deval Patrick, say the new law school will expand opportunities for students and be an economic boon to the university system. [read more...]

Obama education overhaul well received
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts school officials and education advocates welcomed yesterday President Obama’s proposal for sweeping changes in the way schools are judged on meeting federal standards, hopeful that it will focus attention on schools that need the most help while decreasing the likelihood of labeling good schools as bad. [read more...]

Citizens' ideas for better government sought
Pembroke Express

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Senate President Therese Murray encourages constituents to participate in the 19th Annual Better Government Competition, sponsored by the nonprofit public policy research group Pioneer Institute. This yearly competition looks to encourage ideas from the public for improving government. The theme for the 2010 competition is Governing in Times of Crisis, with a focus on budget management and savings. "Getting the citizens of the Commonwealth more involved in thinking about the work of government and public service is a core piece of what Pioneer is about," said Jim Stergios, Executive Director of Pioneer Institute. Entries can describe proven programs that have recently been implemented or innovations not yet undertaken. The proposal deadline is March 29. [read more...]

Study: Help homegrown firms to add jobs
Providence Business News

Author(s): Chris Barrett — Press date: 2010-02-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: BOSTON – Startups and companies expanding in Massachusetts create more employment than companies relocating to the Bay State from elsewhere, according to a report released last week by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

School districts having trouble finding qualified business chiefs
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Chris Camire — Press date: 2010-02-01
Category: Education
Description: Wanted: A financial whiz to manage the business end of a school district. Position comes with a salary around $120,000, great benefits and a pension. Surely, such a want ad would draw dozens of stellar applicants in this job-starved economy, right? Not necessarily. In recent years, the state has been faced with a dearth of qualified school business managers, education leaders say. The problem hit home this month when officials in Billerica and Chelmsford said only several of the candidates who applied for positions of school business manager were suitable. [read more...]

Home-grown firms key to growth, study says
Boston Globe

Author(s): Robert Gavin — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts should focus its economic policies on nurturing home-grown entrepreneurs and companies, rather than working to entice out-of-state firms to relocate here, a study concludes. The study, from the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank, found job growth in Massachusetts has stagnated over the past 18 years largely because the state’s economy has not created enough new companies. Moreover, the study found, Massachusetts start-ups are employing far fewer workers than in the past. [read more...]

It’s About Creation, Not Just Relocation
National Review Online

Author(s): John Hood — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The Pioneer Institute in Boston has issued a new report about economic-development failures in Massachusetts that, with modest changes, could have been written about the failed policies of many other states. [read more...]

OPINION: Tuition by any other name ...
Brockton Enterprise

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Better Government
Description: BROCKTON — We and others have repeatedly expressed our concerns about plans for the University of Massachusetts to take over the beleaguered Southern New England School of Law. Now former state Attorney General Thomas Reilly has added his opinion, saying the proposed financing plan for the school is unconstitutional. [read more...]

Cages of Their Own Design
American Enterprise Institute: Education

Author(s): Frederick M. Hess — Press date: 2010-01-27
Category: Education
Description: The education profession is notorious for its resistance to change. School leaders often claim that collective bargaining agreements, state and federal regulations, and budget concerns prevent them from pursuing effective school reform. The culture of the K-12 leadership environment is one that often seeks consensus over progress and collegiality over accountability. But breakthrough leadership is possible in schools. This Outlook offers five strategies to help reform-minded educators step boldly out of self-defeating mind-sets into the turbulence of change. [read more...]

Pain management
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick plans to release his budget proposal for fiscal 2011 tomorrow and we suspect the word of the day will be "pain" - as in, the pain of budget cuts will have to be shared across every area of state government, and he understands the taxpayers are in pain. It will take a good deal of effort, then, for the administration to explain with any credibility why it continues to support a plan for the University of Massachusetts to acquire an unaccredited law school - a plan that, it is becoming increasingly clear, will add to the taxpayers’ already considerable pain. The Board of Higher Education is expected to vote on the law school plan next week, but the folks at the Pioneer Institute this week are offering more evidence of the financial folly in a plan for UMass to accept the "gift" of the Southern New England School of Law. [read more...]

State probes Brockton charter school denial
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Education
Description: The state's inspector general is investigating a controversial charter school decision in Brockton only weeks after ripping state education officials for ramming through a Gloucester charter school under a political and "defective" process, the Herald has learned. Inspector General Gregory Sullivan’s Office is questioning whether then-Board of Education officials were "impartial (and) objective" when they denied the International Charter School of Southeastern Massachusetts in Brockton nearly two years ago. "Our review of the Gloucester matter had made us acutely interested in trying to determine whether (the decision) was done by impartial, objective criteria," said Jack McCarthy, spokesman for Sullivan. [read more...]

Patrick targets pension loopholes
Boston Globe

Author(s): Donovan Slack — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick is taking another whack at a pension overhaul in Massachusetts with new legislation designed to prevent sweetheart retirement deals and cut the overall cost of the state’s public pension system. Patrick plans to introduce a bill today that includes roughly a dozen changes to state pension law, including requiring anyone seeking special, enhanced benefits to provide an actuarial analysis of the cost before the request can be approved, according to two state officials briefed on the plan. [read more...]

Former Mass. AG: Law school finance plan unlawful
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2010-01-25
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON—Former Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said Monday that the proposed financing plan for the state's first public law school is unconstitutional. Reilly said that under the Massachusetts constitution, all tuition collected at state colleges and universities must be funneled back to the state's general fund. [read more...]

Brown's Mass. Victory: The New Calculus
SmartMoney

Author(s): Lisa Scherzer — Press date: 2010-01-20
Category: Better Government
Description: The victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race instantly alters the balance of power in Washington. Health care stocks rose Tuesday, even as voters went to the polls, on speculation that Brown would win and create an obstacle to President Obama’s health-care agenda. But it isn’t just health care: The new calculus in Senate voting could send ripples through a variety of sectors. For environmental companies, for instance, the election could represent a setback, as cap-and-trade legislation could lose support in a Senate less tightly under the Democrats’ control. And then there’s the banking industry, which could benefit from any change in a Senate bent on stricter regulation. [read more...]

State Standards Loom Large in Mass. Classrooms
Education Week

Author(s): Erik W. Robelen — Press date: 2010-01-14
Category: Education
Description: Susan E. Szachowicz still recalls the dismay she felt when the school where she is now principal got word of its first results on Massachusetts’ new statewide tests more than a decade ago. Three-quarters of the 10th graders at Brockton High School failed the mathematics exam that year, 1998. Nearly half didn’t pass the English/language arts test. [read more...]

Lawmakers pass education bill, Gov. Patrick plans to sign it
Swampscott Reporter

Author(s): Kyle Cheney and Michael Norton — Press date: 2010-01-14
Category: Education
Description: Swampscott - Swampscott's last-minute participation in the "Race to the Top" program was joined by the Massachusetts Legislature late Thursday as Massachusetts lawmakers put the finishing touches on a bill to expand charter school access in Massachusetts and to turn around failing schools Thursday, positioning the state to apply for up to $250 million in federal education funds. [read more...]

Pioneer's Jamie Gass talks with Tom & Todd
WRKO

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-06
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer Institute's Director of the Center for School Reform, Jamie Gass, chats with Tom and Todd about Charter Schools. [read more...]

Report: State focus on low-income uninsured left businesses wanting
State House News Service

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2009-12-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Chelmsford — A disproportionate focus on subsidized health plans for low-income state residents by state health insurance authorities has come at the expense of small business interests, a new report concluded. [read more...]

Management group should run school
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-12-16
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts' charter school model allows for increased autonomy but in return demands greater accountability. Unlike conventional public schools, if a charter school fails to measure up, the state can -- and will -- shut it down. The Lowell Community Charter Public School is learning the hard way that the state means business in its demands for progress. Yesterday, state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester recommended the school's charter not be renewed due to its "consistent" failure to meet student achievement goals. [read more...]

Opposition to education reform was expected
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-12-14
Category: Education
Description: It comes as no surprise that Massachusetts school committees, teachers' associations and superintendents are arguing against the education-reform bill that was approved by the Senate and is awaiting House action. Unfortunately, it is standard procedure for those groups to strive to protect their fiefdoms and sources of revenue instead of fighting to improve education for all children. [read more...]

State Salvations: Local Consolidation
Milford Daily News

Author(s): Matthew Kaplan — Press date: 2009-11-27
Category: Better Government
Description: The idea of Hamilton and Wenham combining services was nothing new. After all, the two towns have shared a school district, an emergency dispatch center, library and facilities manager since the 1960s. But in 2004, town officials had another idea: Why not consolidate the towns? It might save more money and make services more efficient. [read more...]

Broadside: Healey's push for charter schools
NECN

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-24
Category: Education
Description: (NECN) - Former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey is pushing Beacon Hill to lift the cap on charter schools. She is now on the board of directors of pro-charter Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Charles Baker cooks up plan to cut pension abuse
Boston Herald

Author(s): Laura Crimaldi — Press date: 2009-11-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Job-hopping to inflate state pensions and out-the-door parachutes higher than $90,000 will be banned under a new proposal by Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, as a Herald review shows the number of retirees raking in that much or more shot up 30 percent this year. [read more...]

Democrat scandals boost Revolution 2010
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): Cynthia Stead — Press date: 2009-11-19
Category: Better Government
Description: I knew it was different when there was a line to get to the sign-in table last Sunday. In the past, when attending the Citizens for Limited Taxation annual lunches, the check-in was pretty sparse. This year, in response to the enormous outpouring of support, CLT had to book a bigger room at the last minute. Thanks to the CLT Web site, we could check and see if the lunch had any additional local tax, and Lombardo's in Randolph was surtax free! [read more...]

Union blocks teacher bonuses
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-11-18
Category: Education
Description: Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts. [read more...]

Charter Bill Under Attack
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2009-11-18
Category: Education
Description: School unions swarmed the State House yesterday, leaning on lawmakers to snuff key aspects of an education reform plan that would allow more charter schools - a move that could cost the cash-strapped state $250 million in federal funding. [read more...]

Today's Show: Charter Schools
WRKO

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-16
Category: Education
Description: Some Massachusetts lawmakers, who want to keep education policy sold out to the teachers’ unions, are trying to ruin charter public school reform legislation being considered today on Beacon Hill. Pioneer Institute's Executive Director, Jim Stergios talks with Tom & Todd. [read more...]

Mayor Cory Booker to speak at Pioneer Institute dinner
Boston Herald

Author(s): Laura Crimaldi — Press date: 2009-11-12
Category: Education
Description: The Newark, N.J. mayor who carried on a facetious feud with “Tonight Show” host and Brookline native Conan O’Brien is in Boston tonight to discuss the more sober topic of urban school choice and reform. Mayor Cory Booker is the keynote speaker at the Lovett C. Peters Lecture and Dinner sponsored by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Bill to boost Mass. charter schools is on fast track
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-11-12
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- The next wave of education reform in Massachusetts will seek to close achievement gaps in mainly urban school districts by doubling the number of charter schools and giving local officials wider latitude to customize education for their students. [read more...]

Former Lt. Gov. Healey Speaks For Charter Schools
WBZ

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-06
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON (AP) ― Former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is stepping back into the public spotlight. The Republican's 2006 gubernatorial candidate sent out an e-mail on Friday urging Massachusetts to lift its cap on charter schools. She is now director of the pro-charter Pioneer Institute. Healey says that with President Barack Obama setting aside $4 billion for charter school expansion, Massachusetts should try to get as much of the funding as possible. [read more...]

Enrollment decline leveling off
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Dick Lindsay — Press date: 2009-10-26
Category: Education
Description: PITTSFIELD -- While Pittsfield Public Schools continue to see a decline in student population, the percentage decrease is leveling off and far less compared to other Berkshire County communities, city school officials said. The city's eight schools as of Oct. 1 have a total enrollment of 6,181 compared to 6,291 the same time a year ago. The overall drop in enrollment of 113 students -- the same as the decrease the previous year -- indicates the rate of decline has stabilized, according to Deputy Superintendent Barbara Malkas. [read more...]

Who’s bluffing?
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Almost as soon as Gov. Deval Patrick announced further belt-tightening last week — and vowed that he was not bluffing about plans to cut some 2,000 state employees — the Pioneer Institute was out with a list of suggestions for saving the state money, from greater transparency in the compensation of employees to more expeditious disposal of surplus property. [read more...]

If Not Now, When?
iStockAnalyst

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick has the unenviable task of trying to navigate through yet another budget tsunami. But how many more times do we have to go through this exercise before Democrats on Beacon Hill realize the same old "solutions" just DON'T WORK? [read more...]

If Not Now, When?
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick has the unenviable task of trying to navigate through yet another budget tsunami. But how many more times do we have to go through this exercise before Democrats on Beacon Hill realize the same old “solutions” just don’t work? [read more...]

Our view: Growing deficit shows state must enact long-overdue reforms
Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick and state legislative leaders promised last winter that they would enact "reform before revenue," to deal with the severity of the state's fiscal crisis. More than eight months later, they have done the opposite. And the results ought to enrage Massachusetts residents who look to their elected leaders to make tough but necessary decisions during times of crisis. [read more...]

Gov sees more cuts necessary to close $600 million gap
Martha's Vineyard Times

Author(s): Patrick O'Sullivan and Michael Norton — Press date: 2009-10-16
Category: Better Government
Description: STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, OCT. 15, 2009 - Gov. Deval Patrick called Thursday for $600 million in emergency spending cuts over the final eight months of the fiscal year, measures he said could result in the elimination of 2,000 state jobs, unilateral budget cuts, consolidation of state agencies, collaboration on energy purchases, and broader reductions across government. [read more...]

Patrick's education-reform plans are hot-button issue
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-10-14
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- Education reform can encompass many different ideas, but getting those involved in the decision-making process to agree on one presents a difficult, and at times contentious, challenge. A panel of stakeholders in the debate about the future of education in Massachusetts gathered at Suffolk University Law School last night to debate the merits of Gov. Deval Patrick's two main proposals to overhaul education, including a lifting of the cap on charter-school spending. [read more...]

The Republican Way to Urban Renewal
New Majority

Author(s): Charles W. Brackett — Press date: 2009-10-08
Category: Better Government
Description: An article in October 7th’s Washington Post detailed the Obama Administration’s new effort to revitalize America’s urban centers. While the rehabilitation of New York, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago over the last two decades have led many to declare a national urban renaissance, most American cities, from Detroit to Schenectady, remain locked in a dead-end of crime, debt and deteriorating public services. To succeed, a national urban renaissance should be based on sound urban management, not just federal spending. [read more...]

State reduces five-year capital spending plan
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2009-10-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts will spend $1.1 billion less in borrowed money on capital improvements through the next five years under a blueprint Gov. Deval Patrick released Wednesday, as sinking revenues continue to undercut efforts to bolster the state’s physical assets. [read more...]

Costs questioned amid fiscal crisis
Metro

Author(s): Tony Lee — Press date: 2009-10-04
Category: Better Government
Description: In an economic climate that has made every penny vital to some Massachusetts residents, a handful of initiatives, tax-funded programs and whimsical payouts continue to draw the ire of those watching over wasteful government spending. [read more...]

Huzzahs for school-based management
Barnstable Patriot

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-02
Category: Education
Description: The Pioneer Institute has singled out Barnstable as “the only community in the Commonwealth to fully implement the concept of school-based management into its education reforms.” “Not only has Barnstable fully honored the school-based management intent of the 1993 Ed Reform law,” the Institute’s Jamie Gas declared in a press statement, “but it serves as a model for how local officials can take control over their destinies and use school innovation, administrative efficiencies, and data to drive student achievement. They should be a reform model for school districts across the Commonwealth.” [read more...]

Pension politics
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-10-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick and Treasurer Timothy Cahill, self-styled reformers of Beacon Hill’s political culture, both were silent yesterday on the covert pension grab by a lawmaker who voted for a landmark pension bill while quietly seeking to double his payout before the rules changed. [read more...]

Pol OK’d pension reform, but then tried to cash in
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-09-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Scandal-plagued state Rep. Paul Kujawski voted for a landmark pension reform law only to quietly make a bid to double his pension by exploiting a loophole days before it was closed, the Herald has learned. [read more...]

No place like home:
Cape Ann Beacon

Author(s): Maura O'Connor — Press date: 2009-09-28
Category: Better Government
Description: Gloucester - Marilyn Curcuru’s parents raised her in their home on Perkins Street in Gloucester and in turn, Marilyn raised her own three children there. But when her multiple sclerosis confined her to a wheelchair and her daughter, Lynanne, began caring for her in addition to working full time, the risk that she would need to leave the house for assisted living care increased dramatically. [read more...]

E-mail flap clouds charter reform plan
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-09-27
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON - The Patrick administration's efforts to push education reform, including an expansion of charter schools, took a major knock this week after e-mails surfaced exposing what looked to be the politicization of the charter-approval process. By week's end, the administration was looking to move forward from the simmering scandal, while others wondered whether the governor's agenda had suffered a fatal blow. [read more...]

Governor threatens a Hyatt boycott
Boston Globe

Author(s): Katie Johnston Chase and Megan Woolhouse — Press date: 2009-09-24
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he plans to direct Massachusetts employees to boycott Hyatt hotels when conducting state business unless the chain rehires the nearly 100 housekeepers it fired last month. [read more...]

Pioneer makes being a watchdog easier
Andover Townsman

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-24
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Most of us say we want to be informed citizens. But most of us also say we just don't have the time to do the homework required to understand and follow the labyrinthine workings of state government. Well, now somebody has done a big part of the homework for you. [read more...]

Caregiver Homes of MA Wins Pioneer Institute Award
PR.com

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, MA, September 21, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts, Inc., a subsidiary of Seniorlink, Inc. and an allied member of the Home Care Alliance has won the Pioneer Institute’s 2009 Better Government Competition meant to showcase innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency of government. [read more...]

Question for mayoral hopefuls: overseeing development
Fenway News

Author(s): Stephen Brophy — Press date: 2009-09-19
Category: Better Government
Description: The Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Pioneer Institute have teamed up to identify key challenges the city faces and to ask the candidates how they would respond to them. Each day this week, MetroDesk, the Globe's local-news blog, is highlighting an issue and posting the answers from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City Councilors Sam Yoon and Michael F. Flaherty Jr., and South End developer Kevin McCrea. [read more...]

Our view: New Web site promotes government transparency
The Eagle Tribune

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Most of us say we want to be informed citizens. But most of us also say we just don't have the time to do the homework required to understand and follow the labyrinthine workings of state government. Well, now somebody has done a big part of the homework for you. [read more...]

Dissect state spending line items
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. - Using data from the state comptroller, the Pioneer Institute has launched a new site, MassOpenBooks.org, intended to enable review and analysis of state payroll, spending and retiree pension data. [read more...]

MCAS scores fall shy of target
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-09-17
Category: Education
Description: BROCKTON - For the first time since testing began, more than half of Massachusetts schools are out of compliance with federal achievement standards, education officials said yesterday, a finding that raises warning flags for local educators but also sparks questions about whether the national benchmarks are too high. [read more...]

Massachusetts Think Tank Picks Up the Slack On State Spending Transparency
Center for Fiscal Accountability

Author(s): Mattie Dupler — Press date: 2009-09-17
Category: Better Government
Description: While no efforts have been made at the state level to increase spending accountability, our friends at the Pioneer Institute are not waiting around to let the light shine in on state finances. They have launched their own spending portal, MassOpenBooks, that tracks state employees' salaries and disbursements by the state. The site allows taxpayers to compare expenditures by vendor or fund or sort through expenses by category, appropriation, vendor, fund or department. Information is currently only available for the first two months of 2009, but the Pioneer Institute expects to update the portal soon. [read more...]

Think tank creates free database of state salaries and spending
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): John P. Kelly — Press date: 2009-09-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit policy think tank, has organized reams of data on state spending into a free online database that includes state worker salaries, public pensions and vendor contracts. The database, MassOpenBooks, is part of an institute mission to promote transparency in government. [read more...]

Think tank creates free database of state salaries and spending
Taunton Gazette

Author(s): John P. Kelly — Press date: 2009-09-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit policy think tank, has organized reams of data on state spending into a free online database that includes state worker salaries, public pensions and vendor contracts. [read more...]

Mayoral hopefuls weigh in on key issues facing city
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Whether the four-term incumbent keeps his job or is replaced by one of his three rivals, Boston’s mayor faces a host of challenges the next four years. To assess them, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and Pioneer Institute have teamed up to identify key issues for the city and ask the candidates how they would respond. [read more...]

Regionalization efforts move ahead
Fall River Herald News

Author(s): Jeffrey D. Wagner — Press date: 2009-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: DIGHTON — Subcommittees will soon form to study regionalizing certain services and there is discussion about making Fall River and New Bedford regionalization hubs, officials say. [read more...]

Advice at regionalization summit is to start small
SouthCoast Today

Author(s): Kim Ledoux — Press date: 2009-09-11
Category: Better Government
Description: DARTMOUTH — Regionalizing services is more likely to work if communities start with small goals and put a big effort into communicating, Steve Poftak, research director for Pioneer Institute, recommended during Thursday's regionalization summit at Dartmouth Town Hall. [read more...]

Institute to foster Pittsfield progress
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Tony Dobrowolski — Press date: 2009-09-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: PITTSFIELD -- Pittsfield is among 14 cities in Massachusetts that have been studied by a research institute as part of an effort to to help forge improvements in those communities. [read more...]

Union hopes to show and tell
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-09-10
Category: Education
Description: Like a Hollywood studio promoting what it hopes will be a blockbuster hit, the Boston Teachers Union has plastered large signs at subway stops and along the sides of buses trumpeting today’s opening of its own elementary school. [read more...]

What's your school's grade?
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Hiroki Sato — Press date: 2009-09-10
Category: Education
Description: During the academic year that ended June 30, 2008, Ayer High School had one teacher for every 12 students, while North Middlesex Regional High School had one teacher for nearly every 18 students. [read more...]

Lit Drop Linkage
Dorchester Reporter

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2009-09-03
Category: Better Government
Description: A brief round-up of links you might have missed. Feel free to send suggestions to gin.dumcius (at) gmail.com or mwdeehan (at) gmail.com. 1. Mayor Thomas Menino tells the Phoenix's David Bernstein that the 300 jobs figure used in the WBZ-TV debate is inaccurate. (The figure came from the Pioneer Institute and Boston Municipal Research Bureau saying Boston has 300 more jobs in 2009 than it did in 1990.) [read more...]

Institute updates progress of 'Middle Cities Initiative'
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Jennifer Myers — Press date: 2009-08-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: LOWELL -- Knowledge is power. That is the message representatives from the Pioneer Institute, a public-policy think tank, brought to Lowell yesterday in updating the progress of their "Middle Cities Initiative." [read more...]

Today's Topics: Charter Public Schools in Massachusetts
WRKO

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2009-08-24
Category: Education
Description: Mayor Michael Sullivan, Lawrence mayor, joins Todd Feinburg for frank discussions on issues that effect all cities...Jim Stergios, executive director, Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based, non-partisan think tank. They’re discussing charter public schools in Massachusetts. [read more...]

Casino jobs aren’t enough
Boston Globe

Author(s): Rick Lord and Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-08-16
Category: Better Government
Description: LAST YEAR, House opposition stopped Governor Patrick’s proposal to build three resort casinos in Massachusetts. With a worsening fiscal crisis and Speaker Robert DeLeo taking a more casino-friendly stance than his predecessor, the issue is sure to reemerge this fall. [read more...]

Teacher Compensation
YouTube

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-08-06
Category: Education
Description: During a public forum led by State Representative Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont) discussing public employee compensation issues in the state on January 13, 2009, Jim Stergios, the executive director of the Pioneer Institute (a public policy think tank) explains how compensation for teachers needs to be changed to attract better teachers to public schools. [read more...]

State aided Baker's business triumph
Boston Globe

Author(s): Megan Woolhouse — Press date: 2009-08-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Former Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and Charles D. Baker Jr. were not natural allies. Reilly, a lifelong Democrat, and Baker, a devout Republican, met in January 2000 as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care teetered on the edge of financial ruin. Baker, the company’s new chief executive, had just told the state of a $58.5 million accounting error that pushed the company’s losses to a dangerous $227 million. [read more...]

The Race Is on for School Reform
U.S. News and World Report

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-30
Category: Education
Description: President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently held a conference with some of the country's leading education stakeholders and decision makers to announce a new federally subsidized school grant competition for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They called it Race to the Top. [read more...]

Test scores drove charter decision
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-07-17
Category: Education
Description: For years, Governor Deval Patrick had expressed skepticism, if not downright opposition, to expanding the number of charter schools allowed in Massachusetts. As recently as January, he went so far as calling the issue a “total red herring’’ because there was still room to launch more of the schools under state law. [read more...]

Charter Schools Gain in Stimulus Scramble
The Wall Street Journal

Author(s): Rob Tomsho — Press date: 2009-07-17
Category: Education
Description: Some cash-strapped states and school districts are signaling a major expansion of charter schools to tap $5 billion in federal stimulus funds, despite strong opposition from some teachers unions. Charter schools are typically non-unionized, publicly funded alternative schools that have been widely promoted by conservatives as a needed dose of competition in public education. [read more...]

Education reform in Massachusetts: A chance for charters
The Economist

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-16
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts ranks at or near the top of national measures of how well schoolchildren do at reading and mathematics. A leader in early-years education, it is also applauded for its vocational, technical and agriculture schools. Still, there are problems. The disparity between students in affluent districts and those in low-income urban ones is shocking. In the Concord/Carlisle school district, for instance, 92% of students graduated from high-school on time and planned to attend a four-year college or university in 2007, compared with just 12.8% in Holyoke, one of the poorest cities in the state. [read more...]

Our view: Share regional agreements
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-15
Category: Better Government
Description: In a report last fall, limited-government advocates at the Pioneer Institute urged the state to advance the cause of regionalized local services by, among other things, creating models for regional agreements. The idea was to give cities and towns paths they could follow. Now, in the absence of state action, Pioneer's new clearinghouse of real-life regional agreements gets the ball rolling on a smart idea. [read more...]

Cheers and Jeers
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Treasures that washed ashore this week; flotsam we hope the next tide carries away: A natural consolidation? Following the arrest last weekend of an intoxicated boater, Karl von Hone, director of natural resources in Yarmouth, said the town tries to patrol as much water as possible but it has become more difficult in recent years because of budget cuts [read more...]

Seniorlink, Inc. Named Better Government Award Winner in Pioneer Institute Competition
Earth Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - (Business Wire) Seniorlink, Inc. subsidiary Caregiver Homes™ of Massachusetts won first place in Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Competition – announced on June 22, 2009. The competition provides a forum to highlight “innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government.” [read more...]

Seniorlink, Inc. Named Better Government Award Winner in Pioneer Institute Competition
Ad-Hoc-News

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Seniorlink, Inc. subsidiary Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts won first place in Pioneer Institute's Better Government Competition announced on June 22, 2009. The competition provides a forum to highlight ?innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government. [read more...]

For GOP's Baker, a long resume at a relatively young age
Boston Globe

Author(s): Eric Moskowitz — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Not yet 50, Charles D. Baker Jr. had built a considerable resume when he first ran for public office in 2004 — the Harvard basketball player who became a think-tank dynamo, served as trusted adviser to two Republican governors, and orchestrated the turnaround of a struggling health plan. [read more...]

Ohio charter schools focus on dropouts
Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-05
Category: Education
Description: Growing up poor in a violent Harlem environment, Ann Higdon took her troubles and chip-on-the-shoulder attitude with her to high school, where she was a D student who often skipped class and homework. [read more...]

Restore charters' funding
Providence Journal

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-06-23
Category: Education
Description: It is disheartening to see the Rhode Island House Finance Committee turn its back on potential federal funding and the future of kids in Rhode Island by cutting $1.5 million in proposed aid for two new charter schools (“$1.5 million in aid for charter schools cut by House panel,” June 19). [read more...]

Towns may have to make up for pension losses
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Aaron Wasserman — Press date: 2009-06-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Last year's losses in the state's pension funds raise the possibility towns might have to contribute more to their retirement systems in the coming years to compensate. There isn't necessarily a direct correlation, as many factors influence how much money a town spends annually to fund its pension obligations, and funds have more than 20 years to make up for their losses. [read more...]

Towns may have to make up for pension losses
Milford Daily News

Author(s): Aaron Wasserman — Press date: 2009-06-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Last year's losses in the state's pension funds raise the possibility towns might have to contribute more to their retirement systems in the coming years to compensate. There isn't necessarily a direct correlation, as many factors influence how much money a town spends annually to fund its pension obligations, and funds have more than 20 years to make up for their losses. [read more...]

Laws stand in the way of reforming disability retirements
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Elizabeth Crowley — Press date: 2009-06-20
Category: Better Government
Description: It was a knee injury that Bruce Pollitt said kept him out of work for months as he collected his full pay as a Carver police officer. But after town officials accused him of faking it and voted to fire him, they let him resign instead. He then applied for, and got, a lifetime disability pension for being injured on the job. [read more...]

OUR OPINION: Pension rules for police, firefighters invite abuse
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-06-20
Category: Better Government
Description: It is indefensible that a police officer or firefighter can smoke, drink or eat to excess and then cash in on the resulting health problems with a tax-free pension. Presumption laws, passed 49 years ago, deem any heart problem or high blood pressure experienced by a firefighter or police officer as job related and therefore it automatically qualifies them for a disability pension. Among firefighters, lung disease and many cancers also mean automatic qualification for such benefits. [read more...]

Pension panel wants to lay out issues
Burlington Union

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2009-06-19
Category: Better Government
Description: After tensions flared during the group’s monthly meeting, members of a special commission studying complexities of the state pension system agreed Monday to scrap a planned July 1 interim report in favor of a "background document" that lays out issues without drawing conclusions. [read more...]

Ed reform's a start, but miles left to go
Fall River Herald News

Author(s): Charlie Chieppo and Jamie Gass — Press date: 2009-06-19
Category: Education
Description: A new study confirms what most observers suspected: Massachusetts’ education reform has been an historic success, but much still needs to be done to narrow stubborn achievement gaps between high- and low-income students. [read more...]

Boston Independence Day Tea Party Rally
pr.com

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-06-11
Category: Better Government
Description: On Saturday, July 4th, citizens from around New England, concerned about the unrestrained growth in the size and scope of government will rally to promote individual liberty, free market ideals and Constitutional principles. The rally, to be held on the Boston Commons from 12 pm to 2 pm and at Christopher Columbus Park on Boston Harbor from 3 pm to 6 pm, will feature speakers from grassroots, business and conservative policy leaders. [read more...]

Mass. Legislature Closes Pension Loopholes
WBUR

Author(s): MARTHA BEBINGER — Press date: 2009-06-11
Category: Better Government
Description: The House and Senate plan to pass a consolidated pension reform bill Thursday that they hope will help restore public confidence in the battered chambers. The legislation proposes to close loopholes that a modest number of state employees have used to pad pensions and trigger early retirements. But it is, in the eyes of supporters and analysts, a first step. [read more...]

Menino promotes charter schools
Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2009-06-10
Category: Education
Description: Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who for years has expressed deep reservations about one of the most fundamental innovations in public education, abruptly shifted course yesterday and said he wants to turn the city's poorly performing schools into new charter schools. [read more...]

Minnesota must recover school-reform lead
Grand Forks Herald

Author(s): Tom Dennis — Press date: 2009-06-02
Category: Education
Description: Amazing reforms are roiling the surface of American K-12 education. At long last, visionary educators may have cracked the code underlying the black-white achievement gap, for example. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has shown how to ratchet up statewide achievement-test scores to rival the world’s best. [read more...]

Hold onto your wallets, it's going to be an expensive ride
The Salem News

Author(s): Barbara Anderson — Press date: 2009-05-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick, in an effort to let us know how serious the budget crisis is, says that "if we fired every single state employee, we'd still have a billion-dollar hole." Of course we would. Many of those employees would go out on instant pensions. Others would collect unemployment, have state-subsidized health insurance, or get a job at one of the independent authorities where they would start to accrue bigger pensions like those available at the MBTA after 23 years. [read more...]

Stergios: Hearing the truth
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-05-17
Category: Better Government
Description: The season of commencement speeches has begun. Expect good cheer from the podium, but, dear graduates, you, and we, would benefit from the truth. In normal times, graduation ceremonies are pageants of possibility, when we celebrate new additions to the ranks of adults. These are not normal times. It is an uncertain and troubling time to exit the confines of academia. [read more...]

It’s a crisis when . . .
Boston Herald

Author(s): Michael Graham — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Better Government
Description: You call this a “crisis”? While Senate President Therese Murray and her fellow legislators use phrases like “doom and gloom” and “disaster” to describe the state budget, I notice two other words that keep popping up: Quinn bill. [read more...]

Police Chiefs Threaten To Quit Over Quinn Bill
WBZ TV

Author(s): Beth Germano — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Better Government
Description: It's one of the most controversial topics on Beacon Hill, the Quinn Bill that provides salary hikes for police officers with college educations. [read more...]

Perry on Sales Tax Increase
Cape Cod Today

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: If taxes are the answer to our slow economy, it should be to lower them and let the American people stimulate the economy. Government does not need or deserve any additional tax revenue. The well publicized ethical and patronage problems within state government need to be corrected rather than additional taxation of the hard working people of Massachusetts. Sadly, it once again appears the solution to this year's budget crisis will be to continue the earmarking and pork spending with additional taxes to fund them. The battle continues! [read more...]

Police keep their eyes on Quinn Bill funding
Arlington Advocate

Author(s): Andy Metzger — Press date: 2009-05-14
Category: Better Government
Description: At least a half-dozen officers – from patrolman to captain – are worried that the state will significantly cut funding to the Quinn Bill, which can make up a quarter of officers’ salaries, and have reportedly considered retiring in response. [read more...]

Viveiros: State health plan an option
Fall River Herald News

Author(s): Michael Holtzman — Press date: 2009-05-10
Category: Better Government
Description: While the city contemplates changing its health insurance carrier for the first time in decades, officials say a comparison with the state’s Group Insurance Commission plan should be analyzed and could save even more money than the recent bids received from private firms. [read more...]

21st-century skeptics
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-05-04
Category: Education
Description: State education officials went shopping for an "enhanced" assessment test for students that responds to the "changing needs of the MCAS program as it moves into the future." But buyer beware. "Enhanced" could turn out to be a synonym for "soft" or "diffuse." [read more...]

Best of two school worlds for voke students
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): Elaine Thompson — Press date: 2009-05-04
Category: Education
Description: For 17-year-old Christopher J. Tisdell it was all about options when he chose to leave his hometown high school to go to a vocational-technical high school. [read more...]

Pension Reform Before Revenue
Radio Boston

Author(s): Mark Navin — Press date: 2009-05-04
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick has been pushing pension reform on Beacon Hill, and despite the state’s dire financial need, says he might veto tax increase legislation unless lawmakers include reform as part of their agenda. Some say the move is a political one, with the Governor and others grabbing onto a populist issue that would have little real financial effect, while others say, if not now, when is the right time for pension reform? [read more...]

Mass. legislators plan to reform pension laws to avoid abuses
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Dan Ring — Press date: 2009-04-25
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - Before she retired last January, former state Rep. Mary S. Rogeness, of Longmeadow, voted against this year's state budget. She said that spending was too high. Yet, despite her concern about state finances, Rogeness, the former second-ranking Republican in the House, used two obscure sections in state law to significantly boost her state pension. [read more...]

Protestors throw 'Tea Party' at Boston Common
The Suffolk Journal

Author(s): Jeff Fish — Press date: 2009-04-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Last Wednesday, April 15, was the day taxes were due for millions of Americans and for some, the chance to voice their outrage over the current tax system at rallies in over 300 locations across all fifty states. The "tea parties," as they were called, condemned higher taxes and government spending and the one in the Boston Common across from the Mass. State House emphasized the Boston Tea Party, which was an act against the tea taxes implemented by the British. [read more...]

Budget woes may cause Mass. legislators to cut reimbursements for police officers who obtain degrees
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Stephanie Barry — Press date: 2009-04-21
Category: Better Government
Description: The men and women in blue may be beset by a black fiscal era if a proposal to yank $50 million in state funding for so-called Quinn Bill reimbursements prevails in the state Legislature. [read more...]

Outside Capitol, protesters call for budget cuts, less government
Arlington Advocate

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2009-04-15
Category: Better Government
Description: As lawmakers inside reviewed a new spending plan featuring extensive budget cuts, more than 300 protesters on Wednesday swarmed Boston Common, demanding a smaller government and reduced appropriations at the state and federal levels. [read more...]

The Illinois Three
The Yorktown Patriot

Author(s): Richard J. Bishirjian — Press date: 2009-04-14
Category: Better Government
Description: The once great state of Illinois has been known to wink at the hijinks of its politicians. The presidential election of 1960 was won by Democrat JFK because of vote fraud conducted by the administration of Chicago mayor Richard Daley. [read more...]

Boston Tax Day Tea Party Protest to be Held at MA State House
GOPMOM.COM

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-04-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, MA, April 09, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Inspired by the growing Tea Party movement sweeping the nation, organizers have scheduled a Tax Day Tea Party to take place at the Massachusetts State House on Wednesday, April 15th from 12:00 pm – 3:00 pm. The protest will feature speakers from Massachusetts’ grassroots, business and conservative leadership, welcoming over 1,500 followers who have committed to attending to voice their displeasure with the egregious growth of government and the irresponsible policies our local, state and federal governments are pursuing. Speakers, led by emcee Todd Feinburg of WRKO-AM 680, will take to the steps at 12:00 PM, offering their opinions and suggestions as to how to best deal with the recession and the government’s role therein. [read more...]

Mass. gasoline-tax increase is too big
Providence Journal

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-04-07
Category: Better Government
Description: There is a giant gap between the resources we have and the capacity required to address Massachusetts’s transportation needs. Closing the gap will entail both reform and new revenue. In the short term, the state gasoline tax is the only viable option, but Governor Patrick’s proposal to raise it 19 cents is too much, too fast. [read more...]

Our View: Pursue tax delinquents
South Coast Today

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-04-02
Category: Better Government
Description: In the relentless pursuit of public revenue, one source gets overlooked: collecting on taxes we're already owed. The editorial page editor's blog touched on the issue a few weeks ago, reflecting on the apparent prevalence of unpaid taxes among Obama appointees [read more...]

Beware of wolves in suits
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jeff Jacoby — Press date: 2009-04-01
Category: Better Government
Description: The Special Commission on Pension Reform, which convened for the first time yesterday - six months past the deadline specified under Massachusetts law - comprises nine public employees, one retired public employee, three officials from the public-employee retirement systems, and two economists from private universities. By my reckoning, that makes 13 commission members from the public sector and two from the private sector, which calls to mind the old jape about democracy being two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. It's an amusing quip, assuming you're not a sheep. [read more...]

Our view: Real pension reform long overdue
Salem News

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick and legislative leaders are promising reform of the state's costly public pension system. But such legislation should go beyond putting a halt to those provisions that allow well-publicized abuses of the system to change that will make this benefit fair and affordable for all. [read more...]

Will schools ever get better with Democrats in control?
WRKO Radio

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2009-03-27
Category: Education
Description: Will schools ever get better with Democrats in control? We talk school reform with Jamie Glass, Director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, a conservative Massachusetts think tank. [read more...]

Patrick late in launching pension panel
Arlington Advocate

Author(s): Michael Norton and Gintautus Dumcius — Press date: 2009-03-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. - The pension reform commission Gov. Deval Patrick touted with fanfare Sunday came six months after a statutory deadline for the panel’s establishment. [read more...]

Misconceptions About Water Pricing
Huffington Post

Author(s): Robert Stavins — Press date: 2009-03-16
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Throughout the United States, water management has been approached primarily as an engineering problem, rather than an economic one. Water supply managers are reluctant to use price increases as water conservation tools, instead relying on non-price demand management techniques, such as requirements for the adoption of specific technologies and restrictions on particular uses. In my March 3rd post, "As Reservoirs Fall, Prices Should Rise," I wrote about how -- in principle -- price can be used by water managers as an effective and efficient instrument to manage this scarce resource. [read more...]

Senate prez insists on reform first
Maynard Beacon-Villager

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2009-03-13
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - Senate President Therese Murray reiterated her insistence Thursday that the state wring cost-savings out of the transportation system before hitting up payers of taxes and tolls, firing back at Patrick administration criticism that “reform before revenue” is a “meaningless slogan.” [read more...]

Mass. jobless benefits fund headed for deficit, requiring federal loans
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Michael Norton — Press date: 2009-03-12
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. - With unemployment rocketing upwards, the state fund that covers unemployment checks will tilt into the red in each of the next three years, requiring federal loans and possibly employer surcharges to keep pace with exploding payouts to the jobless. [read more...]

Rep. Lewis announces healthcare reform opportunity
Stoneham Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-03-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Stoneham - State Rep. Jason Lewis announced an opportunity for residents of Stoneham and Winchester to get involved in improving the healthcare system. Massachusetts is playing a leading role in healthcare reform efforts, but the goal of affordable, accessible healthcare for all remains elusive. [read more...]

Our view: Your chance to sound off on gas tax
Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-03-09
Category: Better Government
Description: If so, you can be heard by two Statehouse leaders at Methuen City Hall on Tuesday, March 10, at 5 p.m., when the co-chairmen of the Legislature's Transportation Committee — state Rep. Joseph Wagner, D-Chicopee, and Sen. Steven Baddour, D-Methuen — will hold a hearing on the proposed tax and the various transportation reform bills now pending. [read more...]

Metco grads lag on college choices
Boston Globe

Author(s): Peter Schworm — Press date: 2009-03-08
Category: Education
Description: Nearly 90 percent of high school students in the Metco program are going on to college, far surpassing the rate for minority students in the Boston public schools. But Metco graduates of suburban high schools, which traditionally have been feeders for top-tier universities, attend decidedly less selective and prestigious colleges than their classmates. [read more...]

Pioneer Institute seeks opinions on health care
The Daily Item

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-03-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer Institute, a non-profit research group, is sponsoring its 18th Better Government Competition, which seeks ideas from individuals about ways to improve the quality and affordability of private health care. [read more...]

State delays debut of MCAS history exam by 2 years
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-02-25
Category: Education
Description: Andrew Jackson, Martin Luther King Jr., and Franklin D. Roosevelt will have to wait for a place in the state's 10th-grade MCAS exams, after the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education decided yesterday to delay the history test's premiere as a high school graduation requirement. [read more...]

Mass. students get MCAS history reprieve; to save ed dept. $2.5M
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-02-25
Category: Education
Description: The history MCAS exam, scheduled to become a graduation requirement for the Class of 2012, has been put on hold after Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester raised doubts over whether the state would adequately fund student assessment in the current financial crisis. [read more...]

A 21st-century caution
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-02-24
Category: Education
Description: State education commissioner Mitchell Chester says he is surprised at the sharp criticism of a task force proposal to introduce "21st-century skills" - such as media literacy, critical thinking, and working in groups - into local classrooms. But he shouldn't be shocked. The 21st-century skills movement could return Massachusetts to an era of low academic standards. [read more...]

State education chief, citing economic crisis, recommends delaying new MCAS tests
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-02-19
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester is recommending that the state back off its plan to require high-school students, starting with the class of 2012, to pass a history and social-science MCAS exam in order to graduate. [read more...]

How much good will the stimulus do you - or the economy?
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Dan McDonald — Press date: 2009-02-18
Category: Better Government
Description: While the tax credits available to Massachusetts taxpayers in the $787 billion stimulus package are numerous, some financial experts say such provisions actually do little to jump-start the economy. [read more...]

As Baker makes the rounds, party turns it lonely eyes his way
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2009-02-17
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. - The basement of a West End bar was the scene one night last week for one of several de facto draft rallies occurring across the state in recent weeks. [read more...]

Symposium exhibits student work
Boston College Heights

Author(s): Matthew DeLuca — Press date: 2009-02-09
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: From "Teaching Theology in India" to "The Implications of Genetic Manipulation," students gathered Friday to present research projects they have worked on over the last year. Among them were Tara O'Hanlon, A&S '09; Claire Duggan, A&S '10; and Conor McGovern, A&S '09. O'Hanlon, whose presentation was titled "Investigating the Massachusetts Housing Crisis," said that her project sprung from a summer internship she held. "I have had an internship for the past two years at a think tank in Boston called Pioneer Institute, and they do a lot of public policy work working with state and local governments," O'Hanlon said. "I basically was looking at the issue of where to develop new affordable housing units in Massachusetts and looking at the debate about whether to build them in some of the already poor cities or whether to build them in wealthier communities." [read more...]

Maine is latest to toss its coin toll system
Boston Globe

Author(s): Noah Bierman — Press date: 2009-02-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Anyone of a certain age who went on family driving trips as a child knows the thrill and terror that come when Mom and Dad let you toss coins into the toll basket. [read more...]

Educational equity built on basic skills
Boston Herald

Author(s): Charles L. Glenn — Press date: 2009-02-06
Category: Education
Description: During my 21 years as the state official responsible for equal educational opportunity, we found it nearly impossible to grasp what urban students were actually learning, or even what they should be learning. [read more...]

Mixed message
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-02-01
Category: Education
Description: Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s proposal to ease the perennial turmoil over charter school funding is welcome. However, the potentially stultifying conditions his plan would impose, if not excised from the legislation, could well outweigh the benefits of a less contentious funding procedure. [read more...]

Stealing home
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-02-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Twelve years ago Susette Kelo, an EMT who raised five sons, bought her first house. She loved her little pink cottage and its view of the Thames River in New London, Conn. [read more...]

Mayor Tom Menino slims stimulus wish
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-01-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Mayor Thomas M. Menino trimmed some of the fat from his pork-laden economic stimulus wish list for President Obama, submitting a new, slimmed down slate of job-creating road and building projects. [read more...]

For Granite State biz, Patrick's bedrock
Boston Herald

Author(s): Michael Graham — Press date: 2009-01-29
Category: Better Government
Description: The good news is that Deval Patrick has been declared "America's Best Governor" by the state's taxpayers and small business owners. The bad news? That state is New Hampshire. [read more...]

Sacred cows on chopping block as Mass. confronts budget crisis
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-01-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Popular programs once considered untouchable on Beacon Hill are suddenly receiving new scrutiny as Gov. Deval Patrick and his administration prepare to close a $1.1 billion budget hole. [read more...]

Community Calendar
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-01-20
Category: Better Government
Description: •The Wachusett Chamber of Commerce will hold an Early Bird Networking Breakfast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. Jan. 22 at The Manor Restaurant, 42 West Boylston St. Steve Poftak will present “State of the Massachusetts Economy.” The cost is $20. [read more...]

New wave of state cuts loom


Author(s): State House News — Press date: 2009-01-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Calling the economic downturn unprecedented and predicting it may last well into 2010, the Patrick administration on Tuesday lowered its estimate of available tax revenues for the current fiscal year by another $952 million and joined legislative leaders in announcing they expect to see an increase in state tax collections in fiscal 2010, which begins on July 1, of only $130 million. [read more...]

Boom lowered again on revenue expectations, new wave of cuts looms
Marblehead Reporter

Author(s): Michael Norton and Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2009-01-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston - Calling the economic downturn unprecedented and predicting it may last well into 2010, the Patrick administration on Tuesday lowered its estimate of available tax revenues for the current fiscal year by another $952 million and joined legislative leaders in announcing they expect to see an increase in state tax collections in fiscal 2010 of only $130 million. [read more...]

MASSACHUSETTS’ IMPRESSIVELY SUCCESSFUL VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Providence Journal

Author(s): Julia Steiny — Press date: 2009-01-11
Category: Education
Description: Acceptance letters to Massachusetts’ vocational schools have become sought-after prizes. Voke schools? Why on earth? Because they’re really good. [read more...]

Work together to save services
Metrowest Daily News

Author(s): Charles Chieppo and Steve Poftak — Press date: 2009-01-11
Category: Better Government
Description: This fall, Gov. Patrick cut $600 million from the state budget after first quarter tax revenues came in lower than projected. With House Speaker Sal DiMasi's recent warnings that local aid could be slashed by as much as 10 percent in the upcoming budget, municipalities have little choice but to tighten their belts even further. [read more...]

MASSACHUSETTS’ IMPRESSIVELY SUCCESSFUL VOCATIONAL SCHOOLS
Providence Journal

Author(s): Julia Steiny — Press date: 2009-01-11
Category: Education
Description: Acceptance letters to Massachusetts’ vocational schools have become sought-after prizes. Voke schools? Why on earth? Because they’re really good. According to a recent report by the Pioneer Institute, the 26 stand-alone vocational high schools have, on average, considerably lower drop-out rates than the comprehensive high schools. And their test scores (on the MCAS) are also above the state average. Since 2001, their MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) scores have risen 40 points. Huge. In places like Worcester, the vocational school is the highest scorer in the district. [read more...]

Work together to save services
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Charles Chieppo and Steve Poftak — Press date: 2009-01-11
Category: Better Government
Description: This fall, Gov. Patrick cut $600 million from the state budget after first quarter tax revenues came in lower than projected. With House Speaker Sal DiMasi's recent warnings that local aid could be slashed by as much as 10 percent in the upcoming budget, municipalities have little choice but to tighten their belts even further. [read more...]

Brownsberger, others to talk public employee compensation Jan. 13
Arlington Advocate

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-01-07
Category: Better Government
Description: State Rep. Will Brownsberger, D-Belmont, and Rep. Jay Kaufman, D-Lexington, will talk about public employee compensation issues with Jim Stergios, President of the Pioneer Institute, at a public forum from 7:30 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13, in the Selectmen's room in Belmont Town Hall. [read more...]

Stay the Course
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-01-05
Category: Education
Description: While Massachusetts education officials repeatedly have offered strong assurances that the state is fully committed to continuing and improving the 16-year-old education reform effort, a persistent undercurrent of resistance to objective standards of achievement and accountability for results is reason for concern. [read more...]

The Latest Doomed Pedagogical Fad: 21st-Century Skills
Washington Post

Author(s): Jay Mathews — Press date: 2009-01-05
Category: Education
Description: Today on this page, we are ushering in the new year with the hottest trend in pedagogy, the latest program teachers are told they cannot live without. It is called 21st-century skills. Education policymakers, press agents and pundits can't get enough of it [read more...]

PATRICK PANEL IDENTIFIES EDUCATION FINANCE, COST SAVINGS OPTIONS
State House News

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2008-12-31
Category: Education
Description: Additional funds will be necessary to maintain basic educational services and to pursue "vital" investments in public education, but any revenue-generating measures should be tied to restructuring and cost-saving reforms, according to the final report of Gov. Deval Patrick's Readiness Finance Commission released on Wednesday. [read more...]

Content vs. ‘skills’
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-12-21
Category: Education
Description: Not everybody who produced the “21st Century Skills” report for Gov. Deval Patrick wants to dumb down curriculum standards. But along with former Senate President Tom Birmingham, an author of the 1993 reform law, we fear the report would “drive us back to vague expectations.” [read more...]

21st-Century Skills Are Not a New Education Trend but Could Be a Fad
U.S. News and World Report

Author(s): Andrew J. Rotherham — Press date: 2008-12-15
Category: Education
Description: In public education today, "21st-century skills" are all the rage. Educators, business leaders, and elected officials are united around the idea that there are new skills students must have to be successful in today's economy. [read more...]

The middle of nowhere
Boston Globe

Author(s): David Scharfenberg — Press date: 2008-12-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Nearly five years after Messrs. Romney and Menino cut the ribbon on the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, there is much to recommend the cavernous hall. [read more...]

Tom Menino to Barack Obama: Gimme!
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2008-12-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Mayor Thomas M. Menino, facing the prospect of draconian cuts at home, is whipping up a pork-stuffed Christmas wish list for the man he hopes will play Santa Claus, President-elect Barack Obama. [read more...]

Newsnight: 21st Century Skills Report
NECN

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-12-10
Category: Education
Description: Governor Deval Patrick had reason to crow yesterday. On the latest trends in international mathematics and science study, Massachusetts students outperformed their peers nationwide. In fact they were right up there with kids from Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore. [read more...]

Worth the investment
Boston Globe

Author(s): Eric Schwarz — Press date: 2008-12-07
Category: Better Government
Description: IT IS sad to see the Pioneer Institute, with which I have often agreed in the past, take such a backward-looking and reflexively negative position on the recent suggestions of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education's Task Force on 21st Century Skills ("Before 21st-century skills, teach basics," Op-ed, Nov. 29). [read more...]

We must acknowledge shortcomings of MCAS
Boston Globe

Author(s): Dan French — Press date: 2008-12-07
Category: Education
Description: IN "BEFORE 21st-century skills, teach basics," authors Jim Stergios and Charles Chieppo warn the state education board against adopting the 21st Century Skills Task Force's recommendations, which would embed skills such as communication, problem solving, and technology literacy into state tests. The authors claim that doing so would water down standards. [read more...]

Strong private practice
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-12-06
Category: Better Government
Description: It’s good that the idea of privatizing the Massachusetts Turnpike, as the city of Chicago and state of Indiana have done with a couple of their toll roads, is on the legislative radar screen. Our lawmakers are not totally brain-dead. [read more...]

Lawmakers consider privatizing Turnpike
Metro

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-12-04
Category: Better Government
Description: Urged Wednesday to take advantage of the equity held in public infrastructure, including the Massachusetts Turnpike, and to reach for more efficient management and upfront revenue that can come from privatization deals, lawmakers expressed interested in the concept but caution about locking into long-term toll hikes and turning over management of large public assets to private companies. [read more...]

Pols mull Pike privatization
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2008-12-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Beacon Hill lawmakers today will consider privatizing the Pike as an alternative to massive toll hikes, but union officials warn that selling off the highway would leave commuters even more vulnerable to random increases. [read more...]

Pete of Pioneer
McDermott Ventures

Author(s): Tom Palmer — Press date: 2008-11-28
Category: Better Government
Description: That wasn't Pete Peters, the founder of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, talking. It was Ed Crane, president and founder of the Cato Institute, talking about Peters. Lovett C. "Pete" Peters started the Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts think tank whose backbone is the free market place, 20 years ago when he was 75. [read more...]

Softer skills for ed reform
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-20
Category: Education
Description: IT'S NATURAL to worry when policy makers in education start debating the need to promote "21st-century skills" - softer, nonacademic abilities such as global awareness, media literacy, critical thinking, and self-direction. But the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which helped to push the state to the top of the class on national assessments in English and math, has earned the right to make its case. [read more...]

Lowell Sun Talk Live: Pioneer Institute on MA Ed Reform, Charters, MCAS, and 21st Century Skills
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-20
Category: Education
Description: Jamie Gass, the Pioneer Institute's Director for School Reform, joins The Sun Editor Jim Campanini to discuss how a Barack Obama presidency will impact education policy in Massachusetts. [read more...]

MCAS under seige
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-17
Category: Education
Description: The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to receive recommendations Tuesday of an advisory committee, the 21st Century Skills Task Force. Judging by subcommittee documents, the task force may want to dumb down the high MCAS standards that have made Massachusetts schools the best in the nation. [read more...]

Grassroot Insight Audio Interview
Grassroot Institue of Hawaii

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-17
Category: Better Government
Description: An interview with Liam Day, Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships at The Pioneer Institute in Boston, MA. [read more...]

Forum: Vocational schools are statewide success story
The Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Alison Fraser — Press date: 2008-11-16
Category: Education
Description: There is no shortage of spirited debate over state education policy. MCAS, charter schools and merit pay for teachers all make headlines. But the Commonwealth's regional vocational-technical high schools don't spark much debate, because most everyone agrees they are a Massachusetts success story. [read more...]

Resurrecting the GOP
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-13
Category: Better Government
Description: It has become a sad parlor game these days: how low can the state Republican Party go? Yesterday party chairman Peter Torkildsen announced he would finish out his term, which runs through the end of the year, and not seek another. No surprise there after the party’s dismal showing this election day. Sure, the “Obama surge” was like a force of nature, but long before Nov. 4 - when the GOP lost three of its paltry 19 House members - this state’s Republican Party was in shambles. [read more...]

Consolidate our schools
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-11-13
Category: Education
Description: In late October, the Nauset Regional School Committee and Lower Cape elementary school committees invited officials from Harwich, Chatham, Truro and Provincetown to consider further regionalization of school services. [read more...]

YOUR VIEW: It's time for Beacon Hill to make hard choices
New Bedford Standard Times

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2008-11-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Every time an economic downturn hits, Beacon Hill reverts to the failed remedies of the past: across-the-board cuts that target social services, preserving pet projects and public employee benefits at all costs, and passing the burden on to future generations. [read more...]

Bridges to be raised
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2008-11-10
Category: Better Government
Description: In exchange for increased commuter rail service to Worcester, the state is spending $50 million to raise a series of bridges so double-decker freight cars can travel underneath them. [read more...]

Shared services getting a fresh look
Boston Globe

Author(s): Michele Morgan Bolton — Press date: 2008-10-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Everyone seems to believe, in theory, that it's smart to regionalize municipal services. But try to put a plan in place and communities and the unions that represent their workers have historically balked, choosing instead to protect their turf. [read more...]

Don't forget charter schools
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-10-28
Category: Education
Description: It makes sense that Gov. Deval Patrick is scaling back his very ambitious education-reform initiatives given that the state is struggling with a $1 billion budget deficit and the nation's economy is in a downward spiral. [read more...]

Local Nonprofits Offer Insight on the Unfolding Financial Crisis
MassNonProfit

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-10-26
Category: Better Government
Description: While Massachusetts nonprofits across the sector are preparing to absorb the impacts of the current financial crisis that has hit the state, along with the rest of the country, those impacts will be uneven, according to long-time observers. [read more...]

State proves a bad business partner to safety-net hospitals
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2008-10-23
Category: Better Government
Description: I SUPPOSE we should be pleased that Pioneer Institute's public position in favor of reducing the supplemental payments to the Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance for services to low-income Medicaid patients has been adopted. We are not. [read more...]

$3.2B benefits IOU draining coffers
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2008-10-23
Category: Better Government
Description: A staggering $3.2 billion IOU to pay off health and other benefits lavished on city worker unions has come due in Boston as the city grapples with a budget crisis that’s raising fears of massive layoffs and service cuts and even tax hikes for Hub residents and businesses. [read more...]

Valley Tech stands out
Milford Daily News

Author(s): Lisa Przystup — Press date: 2008-10-18
Category: Better Government
Description: The school called Valley Tech is making a name for itself among the state's vocational-technical schools. Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School is the first voke school to have 100 percent of its students pass the MCAS graduation requirement, according to a recent report by the Pioneer Institute, a non-partisan public policy think tank. [read more...]

Transit project is a legal obligation
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-10-16
Category: Better Government
Description: CHARLES CHIEPPO ("The T's unchecked expansion and its consequences," Op-ed, Oct. 12) writes, "Unchecked expansion has bankrupted the MBTA," while admitting that "investing in transit is not . . . a bad idea, but failing to provide a way to pay for [it] is." [read more...]

Don’t get fooled again
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-10-10
Category: Better Government
Description: The last time the bottom fell out of the state’s economy, local officials were forced to cope with midyear cuts in state aid and government agencies struggled to do more with less. [read more...]

Cities, towns scouting to save money
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-10-10
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — Models for regionalizing local government services like schools, emergency dispatch centers and public health programs should get a second look, according to new report, as cities and towns search for new ways to save money in a struggling economy. [read more...]

Mass. treasurer reports a 'home run' $750m bond deal
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-10-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill said yesterday that the state was finally able to sell $750 million in revenue bonds at favorable interest rates, averting potentially dire financial problems and securing enough money to keep the state afloat until late November. [read more...]

In line with state, Lynn school rolls down slightly
The Daily Item

Author(s): Dan Baer — Press date: 2008-10-08
Category: Education
Description: Enrollment in the Lynn Public Schools is slightly lower this year than last, again keeping with state trends that show a decline in school enrollment throughout Massachusetts. [read more...]

Lynn's school enrollment declining
The Daily Item

Author(s): Dan Baer — Press date: 2008-10-07
Category: Education
Description: LYNN - Enrollment in the Lynn Public Schools is slightly lower this year than last, again keeping with state trends that show a decline in school enrollment throughout Massachusetts. [read more...]

Public-private disconnect
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-09-26
Category: Better Government
Description: JIM STERGIOS exaggerates the virtues of the MCAS when he writes "that all students, notwithstanding class or ZIP code, attain a minimum level of knowledge" ("The MCAS and the goal of schools," Op-ed, Sept. 17). Missing from Stergios's "primer" is the fact that private schools are exempt from the MCAS requirements. [read more...]

Barbara Anderson: Winds of change blowing in Washington and on Beacon Hill
The Salem News

Author(s): Barbara Anderson — Press date: 2008-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: "One day a wind blew through the Ingleside garden... the first wind of autumn. All at once the summer had grown old. The turn of the season had come." — L.M. Montgomery, Canadian author (1874-1942), "Anne of Ingleside" Change. The dramatic change of seasons. This is the reason many of us living in New England don't indulge in California dreaming. [read more...]

1 in 5 fail portion of Grade 10 MCAS
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2008-09-17
Category: Better Government
Description: The percentage of sophomores who passed the MCAS exam on the first try this year declined for the first time because thousands of students failed the science section, a new graduation requirement, according to statewide scores released yesterday. [read more...]

Free-market advocates open for business
Delaware Online

Author(s): Maureen Milford — Press date: 2008-09-17
Category: Better Government
Description: Increased transparency in Delaware government will be one of the first areas tackled by a new market-oriented think tank that held its inaugural event Tuesday at Wilmington Country Club near Greenville. [read more...]

Police, union jeer civilian-flagger plan
The Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-09-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — The attempt by Gov. Deval L. Patrick to replace some police details with civilians flaggers at roadside construction sites drew the scorn of hundreds of police officers and union officials last night who blasted the proposal as a threat to public safety. [read more...]

Police crowd hearing to protest flagger proposal
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2008-09-15
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON -- Hundreds of police officers and union officials packed a hearing room to protest the Patrick administration's plan to use civilian flaggers at some roadside construction sites. [read more...]

State's cash flow tightening further
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Michael Norton and Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2008-09-15
Category: Better Government
Description: As government overseers borrow more and earlier in the fiscal year just to keep the state’s bills paid, the record borrowing maneuvers are keeping the state’s cash balance from sinking deeply into the red, although that balance is scheduled to hit a “dangerously low” point in December. [read more...]

Gov. Blames MBTA Executives For Financial Problems
WBZ-TV

Author(s): Joe Shortsleeve — Press date: 2008-09-12
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (WBZ) ― Governor Patrick laid the blame for the MBTA's financial troubles right on the desk of T General Manager Dan Grabauskas. [read more...]

Bumpy road ahead for critics of details
Boston Globe

Author(s): Ralph Ranalli — Press date: 2008-09-11
Category: Better Government
Description: For no other reason than pure jealousy, you might think that city and town leaders would jump at the chance to crack down on police details at road projects and construction sites. [read more...]

State council got lost in the shuffle
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2008-08-29
Category: Better Government
Description: It just might be the sleepiest offshoot of state government: the Massachusetts Quasi-Public Corporation Planning Council. No one can even remember when the 15-year-old planning council last met, despite a law requiring monthly meetings. [read more...]

T crises, controversies sully Mr. Fix-it image of Grabauskas
Boston Globe

Author(s): Noah Bierman — Press date: 2008-08-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Daniel A. Grabauskas arrived at the MBTA as the guy who could fix the unfixable. He had transformed the state's Registry of Motor Vehicles, a pit that held drivers virtually hostage for two or three hours when they renewed their licenses, into a place with Wal-Mart-style greeters at the door, a modern computer system, and 15-minute waiting times. [read more...]

Payroll belies problems
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-08-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Back in the bad old days of recession in the early ’90s then-Gov. William F. Weld knew he had a massive budgetary catastrophe on his hands. So months after taking office he announced a furlough of 50,000 state employees. [read more...]

State payroll swells as economy tanks
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2008-08-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick has added almost 2,000 new workers to the state payroll in the past year even as he warns of dire budget cuts in the face of a $1 billion deficit, a Herald review shows. [read more...]

Number of state workers on the rise
WBZ-TV

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-08-25
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (AP) The state has added about 1,900 new workers in the past year even as Gov. Deval Patrick warns of possible budget cuts to help deal with a $1 billion deficit. [read more...]

Report: State Adds 1,900 Jobs In Budget Crunch
WBZ-TV

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-08-25
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (AP) ― The state has added about 1,900 new workers in the past year even as Gov. Deval Patrick warns of possible budget cuts to help deal with a $1 billion deficit. The Boston Herald reports that since July 2007, the agencies that oversee state prisons and highways have had the most new hires. [read more...]

Arrests are more than just a detail
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Van Sack — Press date: 2008-08-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Here’s what’s been lost in all the controversy over cop details: officers who work those lucrative shifts actually DO make arrests. Boston police officers on detail nabbed at least 66 alleged perps - including 10 gunmen, eight robbers and 10 pervs - while manning detail posts over the past year alone. Going back to Jan. 30, 2007, cops on detail have made at least 105 arrests. [read more...]

LETTER: Pioneer pitted regions against one another
South Coast Today

Author(s): Ellen Murphy Meehan — Press date: 2008-08-16
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute's executive director's recent piece ("Massachusetts health care reform at risk," Aug. 1) advocated for a short-term and much too simple financing plan for health reform that sought to pit hospitals in different regions against one another and ignored the long-term challenges safety-net hospitals and the state face under health reform. [read more...]

Gov. Deval Patrick’s plan raises red flag
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2008-08-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick is expected to release a controversial plan today aimed at yanking pricey police details off state-run construction projects - saving $5 million a year. Some critics are holding their applause, however, until Patrick shows them the money. [read more...]

Limits proposed on police details
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-08-13
Category: Better Government
Description: The Patrick Administration released new regulations today that for the first time will allow civilian flagmen on most state road projects, a plan expected to draw the ire of police unions that will lose control of some of their well-paid details. [read more...]

State To Cut Back Police Details
WBZ-TV

Author(s): Joe Shortsleeve — Press date: 2008-08-13
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (WBZ) ― We have all seen them -- police officers directing traffic around road construction. They cost the state millions each year and now there is a first step to end the expensive practice. [read more...]

The Boston Massacre


Author(s): Rich Duprey — Press date: 2008-08-08
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: There are certain things you just shouldn't do as an investor: chase performance, jump out of good mutual funds because they've momentarily cooled, or try out the latest "hot" investing fad. Yet each of those things is exactly what Massachusetts' state pension fund is doing. It could be that the $50.6 billion fund is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons, but you might want to check your own assumptions so you don't find yourself in a similar situation. [read more...]

Legg Mason Out as Massachusetts Dumps Stock Pickers (Update1)
Bloomberg.com

Author(s): Christopher Condon — Press date: 2008-08-06
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The Massachusetts state pension fund pulled $2 billion in assets from Legg Mason Inc.'s Bill Miller and four other firms as part of a plan to shift all U.S. equity assets from managers who actively pick stocks to buy and sell. [read more...]

Patrick signs $3b bill to fix bridges
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-08-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick signed legislation yesterday to fix up to 300 of the most dilapidated bridges in Massachusetts, a plan he hopes will bring the state's infrastructure up to par after years of neglect. [read more...]

Guv signs $3B bridge repair bill
Wicked Local Belmont

Author(s): Jim O’Sullivan — Press date: 2008-08-04
Category: Better Government
Description: The number of faulty bridges in Massachusetts will decline 15 percent over the next eight years under a $3 billion repair plan Gov. Deval Patrick signed Monday, the administration said. [read more...]

Can't get there from here
Boston Globe

Author(s): Kimberly Sanfeliz — Press date: 2008-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Two key bridges over the Charles aren't exactly falling down, but they're shaky enough to prompt the question: What if Boston lost its links to its brainy northern neighbor? [read more...]

State behind in spending on public colleges
Boston Globe

Author(s): Peter Schworm — Press date: 2008-08-03
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts ranks near the bottom nationally in state spending on public colleges and universities, new statistics show, a shortfall blamed in part for tuition increases and deteriorating campuses and for undercutting the system's quest to achieve greater national prominence. [read more...]

Governor supports boosting pensions of county retirees $5 a month per worker translates to thousands for towns
Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2008-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: It's an increase of only $5 a month for county retirees, but it would cost communities fighting to make financial ends meet tens of thousands of dollars each year. [read more...]

Pension boost OK'd for state workers
Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2008-08-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts lawmakers, moving quickly and without debate in the final hours of the legislative session, approved a pension increase for state workers that could cost more than $3 billion over the next 20 years, sparking criticism from fiscal watchdogs who say the state cannot afford such a costly benefit. [read more...]

Consider impact on safety net hospitals
Boston Globe

Author(s): Dennis D. Keefe — Press date: 2008-07-29
Category: Better Government
Description: JIM STERGIOS'S Op-ed ("Doing the math on healthcare," July 22) was a wrongheaded, though perhaps understandable, reaction to the current climate as we wrestle with burgeoning healthcare costs. We're big fans of Massachusetts' healthcare reform but, as we now know, its success has spurred many unintended or unforeseen consequences. [read more...]

Urge employers, insurers to step up
Boston Globe

Author(s): Mike Fadel — Press date: 2008-07-29
Category: Better Government
Description: AS WE enter another critical phase in the ongoing development of Massachusetts' healthcare reform, Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute mounted an attack on the state's two key safety net hospitals: Boston Medical Center and Cambridge Health Alliance. [read more...]

County retirement board seeks pension boost
Salem News

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2008-07-29
Category: Better Government
Description: A plan to boost the pensions of Essex County retirees could cost cash-strapped cities and towns tens of thousands of dollars a year. The bill, pushed by the Essex Regional Retirement Board, would raise the annual cost-of-living increase to the pensions of 1,623 retirees. If approved by the governor, it would be the first cost-of-living adjustment for Essex County retirees since 1987, but the proposal would cost 48 cities, towns and municipal authorities a total of $535,000 a year. [read more...]

Comparing Jobless Benefits
WBUR Radio

Author(s): Curt Nickisch — Press date: 2008-07-25
Category: Better Government
Description: The Labor Department says the number of newly laid-off people filing for unemployment benefits rose to the highest level since the Gulf Coast hurricanes in 2005. And the jump has come now at a time when many Americans are finding it tough to pay gas and food bills, even when they do have work! [read more...]

Hospital payments central to federal health care negotiations
State House News

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2008-07-23
Category: Better Government
Description: Annual state government payments to two Boston-area teaching hospitals are increasingly at the epicenter of a local and national firestorm over the affordability of Massachusetts's health insurance access laws. [read more...]

Hospital payments central to federal health care negotiations
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2008-07-23
Category: Better Government
Description: Annual state government payments to two Boston-area teaching hospitals are increasingly at the epicenter of a local and national firestorm over the affordability of Massachusetts’s health insurance access laws. [read more...]

Alarmed Over Boston Firehouse Costs
Fire Fighting News

Author(s): Con Chapman — Press date: 2008-07-22
Category: Better Government
Description: When it comes to firefighting, Boston is a city of many firsts - the first fire engine, the first electric alarms and the first use of radio dispatchers. Unfortunately, the city also ranks first in one other important category - cost. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, over the past four decades Boston has spent more per capita on municipal fire service than any other American city. [read more...]

Pension rip-offs
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-07-21
Category: Better Government
Description: The case of a Boston firefighter who took part in a national bodybuilding competition while collecting a tax-free disability pension sparked an outcry for public-pension reform, with good reason. The rip-off was stunningly bold. The episode resonates because it is symptomatic of the Bulgerization of the system — the attitude, on Beacon Hill and beyond, the system is fair game to be milked to the maximum. While erstwhile Senate president William M. Bulger didn’t invent pension-law manipulation, his successful bid to boost his six-figure pension as UMass president by counting his housing allowance as income certainly inspired a trend, with former public college presidents among the first trying to board the gravy train. [read more...]

Is there a soft side to conservatives?
Wicked Local Westborough

Author(s): Len Mead — Press date: 2008-07-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Your Westborough News editors recently suggested, “You know, Len, its summer. Why not give readers a vacation from those ‘hard,’ liberal-pounding topics you write about for a change? How about a ‘soft’ article?” Soft, eh? Knowing these poor editors have their ears scorched off when readers call to object to something I write about, I decided, OK: let’s search for the “soft side” to conservatives. [read more...]

Bill to spur affordable housing on hold
Boston Herald

Author(s): Scott Van Voorhis — Press date: 2008-07-18
Category: Better Government
Description: A proposal to spur construction of thousands of modestly priced starter homes has quietly fizzled on Beacon Hill. Backers are blaming the plunge in housing prices, which has made the issue a harder sell, both to the general public and to lawmakers. But the business groups backing the measure say it’s needed now more than ever, because the decline in prices isn’t enough to make homes affordable for many middle-class buyers. [read more...]

House, Senate approve budget
State House News

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-07-03
Category: Better Government
Description: The House and Senate yesterday approved a $28.2 billion state budget that significantly taps into the state's rainy day fund and boosts scores of budget accounts that lawmakers describe as critical priorities. [read more...]

State's $28b budget delayed
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-07-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: It's July 1. Do you know where your state budget is? In what has become an annual ritual, Massachusetts lawmakers are blowing the deadline on the start of the new fiscal year, engaging in extra-inning negotiations, and passing a stopgap budget to keep state government running while they try to work out their differences. [read more...]

School agenda lauded
Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Jacqueline Reis — Press date: 2008-06-29
Category: Education
Description: Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s education agenda, the product of his Readiness Project, is getting a remarkably good reception for something that will take at least 12 years to implement and likely cost more than a billion dollars. [read more...]

Ed Reform Plan Reaction Mixed
WBUR Radio

Author(s): Monica Brady-Myerov — Press date: 2008-06-26
Category: Education
Description: HOST INTRO: Now that Governor Deval Patrick's sweeping education reform plan is on the table, reaction is mixed. The Readiness Project is meant to build on education reform of the 1990s and educate citizens in a fast-paced, technologically driven world economy. But the reforms touch some political minefields. WBUR?s Monica Brady-Myerov reports. [read more...]

Rewarding innovation in education
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Jim Campanini — Press date: 2008-06-25
Category: Better Government
Description: What are some of the best educational reform ideas in America and where are they being implemented? Sadly, the answer is not in Massachusetts, which was once the recognized leader of bold ideas. Today's innovation hot spots are Florida, Ohio, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C. Tonight, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Boston, the programs that are improving educational opportunities for students and instruction methods for teachers and administrators will be unveiled at the Pioneer Institute's 2008 Better Government Competition awards dinner. [read more...]

Watered down watchdog
Boston Herald

Author(s): Boston Herald editorial staff — Press date: 2008-06-18
Category: Education
Description: In return for their generosity, taxpayers deserve assurances that their money is being well spent. That has been the job of the office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA), which by all accounts has performed well. In fact, it may have performed too well, incurring the wrath of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, among others. [read more...]

Bill would curb power of school audit agency
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2008-06-18
Category: Education
Description: A controversial state agency that routinely audits school districts would have its independence curtailed as it gets shifted into the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education under a bill advanced by a Beacon Hill committee last week. [read more...]

Retiring in one state and then working in another boosts income for superintendents
Daily News Tribune

Author(s): Jessica Scarpati — Press date: 2008-06-17
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: When high-salaried officials retire in Massachusetts and collect a comfortable pension, they can take another public sector job across state lines to boost their incomes. [read more...]

Report: State must be careful with proposed bridge-repair plan
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-06-17
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A new report gives kudos to Gov. Deval Patrick's "aggressive" plan to fix state-owned bridges before they fall into further disrepair, but it also offers state leaders cautionary advice. [read more...]

No bridge boondoggles
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-06-17
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Governor Patrick's $3 billion bridge repair program, which is proceeding through the Legislature, is long overdue and should not be put off any further. That said, once it is up and running, the state must be vigilant so it doesn't turn into a boondoggle, like so many public works projects have had a tendency to do. [read more...]

Mass. Governor Expected to Sign $1B Life-Sci Bill Into Law This Week


Author(s): Alex Philippidis — Press date: 2008-06-16
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick early this week is expected to sign into law the act that will shower the state’s life-science industry with $1 billion in funding over 10 years, according to a Massachusetts lawmaker. Lawmakers last week quickly passed the final version of the bill, An Act Providing for the Investment in and Expansion of the Life Sciences Industry in the Commonwealth, which will set aside $500 million in capital investments for construction and improvement projects; $250 million in tax credits for life-science companies in return for new jobs in the state; and $250 million for direct grants for researchers, including seed money to address federal funding shortfalls. [read more...]

State education oversight office could be cut, weakened
Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2008-06-12
Category: Education
Description: The Legislature is considering eliminating an independent state office which in the past has been critical of the Haverhill and North Andover school systems, but whose oversight function is lauded by some education advocates. [read more...]

Charter school officials wary of governor's reform
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-06-12
Category: Education
Description: The first glimpse of Gov. Deval L. Patrick's education reform agenda came in the form of a new model for alternative public schools, but leaves many questions as to what the governor has in mind for traditional charter schools. [read more...]

Stotsky Contributes to Report on National Identity


Author(s): — Press date: 2008-06-09
Category: Education
Description: Sandra Stotsky, holder of an endowed chair in teacher quality at the University of Arkansas, contributed to a report about America’s national identity released June 3 by the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation of Milwaukee. [read more...]

Restructuring can transform a school
South Coast Today

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2008-06-04
Category: Education
Description: New school superintendents are taking over in urban districts across Massachusetts, including right here in New Bedford. But how much change will they really bring? History tells us the likely answer is "not much." We'll probably get a lot of hand wringing about teacher quality and how rigid union work rules obstruct progress. These are valid concerns, but it is too easy to blame teachers for failing schools. Only leadership will bring change — and real opportunity for inner-city students. [read more...]

Get the facts
Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-06-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Before acting on a plan to boost the pensions of state retirees, the Legislature needs to get a detailed cost analysis of the impact the boost will have on pension reserves. The state has made laudable progress toward fully funding the system — passing the 85 percent mark in January last year — and should not begin backsliding on that commitment now. [read more...]

Bigger pensions drawing protests
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-05-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts lawmakers are proposing bigger pensions for state and municipal employees that could cost $6 billion or more, according to some estimates, triggering a chorus of complaints from fiscal watchdogs and local leaders who say the money is not there to pay for it. more stories like this Retirement changes head to negotiations Retirement changes would affect N.H. retirees' benefits Natick's pension fund may be out $2.6m in shaky Asian hedge fund investment As override vote looms, all agree cuts are coming [read more...]

State helping pay for TV ads
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2008-05-27
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Boston Beer Co. has long made television commercials in Boston to promote its Samuel Adams ales and lagers. But when a production company finishes a new round of Sam Adams advertisements this year, Massachusetts taxpayers could wind up paying as much as 25 percent of the tab. [read more...]

Calls for change as more Bay State kids drop out of school
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Candy Chan — Press date: 2008-05-25
Category: Education
Description: The numbers are startling. Nine percent of Fitchburg students dropped out during the last academic year. In Fall River, 274 students -- about 10 percent of the city's ninth- through 12th-graders -- failed to complete high school. With similar increases around the state, administrators are pointing to a lack of funds and the high-stakes MCAS examination as the reason. [read more...]

Police, union leaders sharply counter calls to curb details
State House News

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2008-05-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Although fiscal analysts continued to argue that curbing police details in favor of cheaper civilian flagmen could save taxpayer dollars, police unions, officers and labor leaders offered a sharp rebuttal on Tuesday, arguing that the enhanced public safety provided by police officers has saved lives and prevented costly, violent crime. [read more...]

Bill to fix seven key bridges
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Carroll — Press date: 2008-05-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Seven area bridges classifed "structurally deficient" would be repaired or replaced if a bill filed last week by Governor Deval Patrick, and backed by leaders in both the House and Senate, is passed. more stories like this Swarming to public transit, cheaper gas Senate unveils budget; GOP to try to revive casinos Mass. unveils plan to speed repairs for up to 300 bridges Patrick: Casinos plan could still fly Patrick to press for clean energy [read more...]

Cahill warns pension increase could hurt bond rating
State House News

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2008-05-17
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A retirement allowance increase for former public employees, added to next year’s state budget through an unusual floor vote in the House and then adopted by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, could lead to a downgraded bond rating for the state, said Treasurer Timothy Cahill. [read more...]

Grip loosening on local aid lifeline
The Sun Chronicle

Author(s): Travis Andersen and Matt Kaley — Press date: 2008-05-06
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Different analysts have different theories about the factors behind the state's municipal budget crisis: Weak growth in state tax revenues. Rising health care and energy costs. Cash-strapped voters reluctant to pass Proposition 2 1/2 overrides. [read more...]

W.P. Carey hopes $50M gift benefits Hopkins and Baltimore
Maryland Daily Record

Author(s): Robbie Whelan — Press date: 2008-05-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: If you ask William Polk Carey, the 77-year-old real estate investor with a Baltimore pedigree that stretches back nearly 300 years, why he gave Johns Hopkins University $50 million to start a stand-alone business school, he’ll talk about restoring Baltimore to its Revolutionary War-era economic glories. [read more...]

Ed. commissioner says state needs to better prepare students
Boston Globe

Author(s): Rodrique Ngowi — Press date: 2008-04-28
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts educators need to set higher standards for curriculum, assessment and accountability to ensure that students who graduate from high schools are better prepared for college or careers, the state's incoming education commissioner said Monday. more stories like this [read more...]

Report Finds Serious Flaws In Longfellow Bridge
WCVBTV

Author(s): Jim Morelli — Press date: 2008-04-26
Category: Better Government
Description: An independent inspection found the Longfellow Bridge is in worse condition than first thought, but a top state official said the findings overstate the problems. NewsCenter 5’s Jim Morelli reported the study does not say the bridge is in danger of collapse but that it is in serious condition and needs immediate repairs. [read more...]

Downtowns are reborn
Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Martin Luttrell — Press date: 2008-04-26
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Newly-elected Fitchburg Mayor Lisa A. Wong wants to restructure her city’s government in an effort to improve business recruitment and redevelop former mills for commercial and residential use. Worcester is analyzing foot traffic downtown, planning for commercial growth that will keep people downtown beyond the work day. [read more...]

Reviving The 'Middle Cities'
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Livia Gershow — Press date: 2008-04-25
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong and Worcester Economic Development Director Timothy McGourthy outlined their efforts to revitalize their cities' downtowns at a conference this morning. The event, organized by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute public policy research center, focused on the ways that the older, industrial cities the institute calls "middle cities" can plan for economic development. [read more...]

Testing the teachers
Boston Globe

Author(s): Kathleen A. Madigan — Press date: 2008-04-23
Category: Education
Description: MASSACHUSETTS Senate minority leader Richard Tisei recently observed, "We always seem to be chipping away at the Education Reform Act." more stories like this Bush moves ahead on No Child Left Behind No Child Left Behind faces changes NH chosen for pilot student assessment program The school experiment that's paying off The education gap Sadly, he's right. [read more...]

A road less traveled: Under the hood of transportation reform
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2008-04-12
Category: Better Government
Description: The recent announcement of the transportation reform bill featured a who’s who of Beacon Hill leadership, including Gov. Deval Patrick, Senate President Therese Murray, and House Speaker Sal DiMasi. Their press conference attracted a great deal of attention, but for the wrong reasons. Substance was quickly overwhelmed by the focus on the strained Patrick-DiMasi relationship and paid police details. [read more...]

Analyzing the Bridges Proposal
WBUR-FM

Author(s): Bob Oakes — Press date: 2008-04-10
Category: Better Government
Description: When David "Doc" Westerling co-wrote Pioneer Institute's report on the Longfellow Bridge last year, he called it "Our Legacy of Neglect." He said the historic structure was emblematic of the state's infrastructure problems.... [read more...]

Budgeting through a recession
Boston Globe

Author(s): Greg Torres — Press date: 2008-04-09
Category: Better Government
Description: THE CASINO gambling debate has dominated discussion on Beacon Hill, while the state's real house of cards - its budget - stands vulnerable to the winds of recession....In the 1980s, the Pioneer Institute published a landmark study of government expenditures that posed an important question: Had the evolution in public spending in the previous decade been "by choice or by chance?" The answer then was both.... [read more...]

Governor seeks $3.8b to fix bridges
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-04-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick plans today to unveil a $3.8 billion bond proposal to repair 411 deteriorating bridges throughout the state over the next eight years, a project he will argue not only improves road safety but also pumps cash into the economy to buffer Massachusetts from a recession....The Pioneer Institute last year released a report titled "Our Legacy of Neglect," documenting a lack of funding for transportation infrastructure in Massachusetts.... [read more...]

Experts say health care, retirement will put pressure on local budgets
The Sun Chronicle

Author(s): Ted Nesi — Press date: 2008-04-01
Category: Better Government
Description: "I'm always wary (that) big predictions that there's going to be some sort of demise or a 'big bang' are oversold," said the Pioneer Institute's research director, Steve Poftak...."I think you're going to see the state give municipalities more tools to control cost, and you're going to see more pressure put on municipalities to use those tools," he said, pointing as an example to the state opening up its GIC health coverage plan to municipalities.... [read more...]

A tale of two towns
The Sun Chronicle

Author(s): Ted Nesi — Press date: 2008-03-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Not all local budgets are created equal. Take Mansfield and Rehoboth, for example. In 2007, Mansfield spent $2,915 per resident on its town government, while Rehoboth spent $1,595 - about half as much....But Steve Poftak, of the Pioneer Institute, said it's understandable that citizens have concerns. "I think people have a desire for more accountability in government," he said, especially when taxes go up every year, mostly to keep up with rising salary and benefit costs. "They're taking in more money every year, and it's essentially going to fuel the status quo, which I think people find frustrating."... [read more...]

Boom busting budgets
The Sun Chronicle

Author(s): Ted Nesi — Press date: 2008-03-31
Category: Better Government
Description: ...In addition, over the years state and federal governments have placed a dizzying array of mandates on municipalities: affordable housing regulations, environmental rules, emergency preparedness orders, anti-discrimination policies and many more....The Pioneer Institute, a market-oriented think tank in Boston, is studying the cost of mandates placed on communities by the state government to find out whether the benefit is worth the money and whether towns or the state should pay.... [read more...]

Lawmakers target police details for cutbacks
Bourne Courier

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2008-03-28
Category: Better Government
Description: Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, led a chorus against the politically prized construction site police details, promising that civilian flagmen could be on duty for many projects within months due to new transportation and public safety regulations....Pioneer Institute think tank called the measures “a valuable first step in the process of improving the effectiveness and accountability of our transportation spending.”... [read more...]

Showing its age
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-03-15
Category: Better Government
Description: It has nothing to do with the Big Dig, but the crumbling concrete tiles that line the ceiling of the Prudential Tunnel under the Hynes Convention Center, over the Massachusetts Turnpike in Boston, have caused a flurry of activity and concern recently — and with good reason....Both that report, from the Transportation Finance Commission, and one from the Pioneer Institute clearly indicate that lack of maintenance has taken its toll on bridges and highways across the state.... [read more...]

Boston crews reinforce Longfellow Bridge’s deteriorating beams
Daily Commercial News and Construction R

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-03-11
Category: Better Government
Description: ...When the restoration begins, the state wants to keep the Red Line running. The ambitious Longfellow restoration is now expected to cost US$200 million. Comparably, the Longfellow cost US$249 million — in today’s dollars — to build a century ago, according to a report issued by the Pioneer Institute last summer.... [read more...]

Mass. must be leery of more public debt
Providence Journal

Author(s): Charles D. Chieppo and Steve Poftak — Press date: 2008-03-04
Category: Better Government
Description: ...By virtually any measure — such as per-capita debt and debt as a percentage of personal income — the commonwealth is deeper in hock than almost any other state. Debt service is one of the largest line items in our annual budget and one of the drivers of a structural deficit that has topped $1 billion in each of the last two years.... [read more...]

Bridging the gap
Boston Globe

Author(s): Stephanie Ebbert — Press date: 2008-03-03
Category: Better Government
Description: The Red Line thunders overhead as construction workers perched on a platform repair the gritty underbelly of the Longfellow Bridge, using bolts and clamps, cutting torches, and steel to patch the worn bridge piece by piece....When the restoration begins, the state wants to keep the Red Line running. The ambitious Longfellow restoration is now expected to cost $200 million. Comparably, the Longfellow cost $249 million - in today's dollars - to build a century ago, according to a report issued by the Pioneer Institute last summer.... [read more...]

Columnist lambastes Massachusetts on incentives
FierceBiotech.com

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-02-27
Category: Better Government
Description: In a column in the Boston Globe, Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, criticizes Massachusetts' plan to provide Shire with $48 million in incentives for an expansion project in Lexington. State government, he insists, should not be a venture capital group; the payoff is years away and why should life sciences be favored over industries like the financial services industry, which creates more jobs.... [read more...]

The Great Biotech Giveaway
High Beam Research

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2008-02-27
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: THE CONVENTIONAL wisdom is that we are heading into a recession. So on the surface, the deal negotiated by state leaders to secure a $394 million expansion in Lexington of Shire PLC, with 680 new jobs, is good news. The problem is that landing the British drug maker's expansion cost taxpayers $40.5 million in state and $7.5 million in local incentives, or nearly $70,000 per job. At that rate, reaching the goal Governor Patrick set out in his State of the State address for the administration's $1 billion life sciences proposal - to "add another 250,000 jobs over the next decade" - will cost upward of $15 billion. That's Big Dig territory.... [read more...]

Economic drag
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-02-24
Category: Better Government
Description: A policy brief from the Pioneer Institute spotlights chronic obstacle to job creation and retention in Massachusetts: The state’s overly generous unemployment insurance system. The report makes clear that the system is broken in two ways. First, companies that provide steady employment subsidize employers in construction and other industries that have seasonal layoffs. Second, the benefits are far more generous than those enjoyed by workers in nearly every other state.... [read more...]

High costs, high taxes
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve Bailey — Press date: 2008-02-15
Category: Better Government
Description: The late, great car salesman, Ernie Boch, used to say that his prices were lowest because his costs were lowest. In Massachusetts, when it comes to unemployment insurance, it is just the opposite: Our taxes are highest because our costs are highest....In a report last month, the Pioneer Institute spelled out in detail those problems and the fixes. The state has some of the most generous benefits in the nation and the easiest eligibility criteria.... [read more...]

Drug maker shire promises 680 jobs
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2008-02-14
Category: Better Government
Description: After months of playing coy, the British drug maker Shire PLC says it plans to go forward with a $394 million expansion in Lexington that is expected to create 680 jobs over the next eight years, one of the largest economic development projects in the state....Jim Stergios, executive director for the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank, said it would be better for the state to focus on finding ways to reduce the cost of doing business in Massachusetts, such as lowering the cost of unemployment insurance, instead of offering tax breaks to specific firms.... [read more...]

Living in the sticks
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2008-02-14
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The New England Public Policy Center’s study, “Can young professionals afford to buy a home in Massachusetts?”‘ (“Housing costs not so bad,” Feb. 11) restates what we know: It is expensive to buy a home in Massachusetts....Curious then that the study downplays the impact that higher prices have on the choices of skilled, young professionals, who can move and are highly sought after in other parts of the country.... [read more...]

Governor’s reorganization plan will roll back education reform
Stoneham Sun

Author(s): Sen. Richard Tisei — Press date: 2008-02-11
Category: Education
Description: When the Massachusetts Legislature passed the 1993 Education Reform Act, it signaled a renewed commitment by the state to improve the quality of education offered in our public schools....The Pioneer Institute, a public policy think tank, recently noted that “few reforms have done more to make the Commonwealth a great place for children to grow up” than the MCAS and charter schools. “In 1993,” the Pioneer Institute said, “Massachusetts barely made the top 10 in national assessments. Today, the Commonwealth not only leads the nation in student performance, but our rate of improvement is unparalleled among high-performing states.”... [read more...]

Bid to override Patrick veto of special pension bill put off
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune

Author(s): Rachel Kolokoff — Press date: 2008-02-07
Category: Better Government
Description: An attempt to override Gov. Deval Patrick's veto of a bill to restore a $36,000-a-year pension for a former western Massachusetts official, convicted of an environmental crime, was put off in the House yesterday when the measure was suddenly withdrawn....Special exemptions to public pension rules cost money. A Pioneer Institute study last year found that legislative-approved exceptions to public pension rules cost the state $125 million.... [read more...]

Rate increase to hit employers hard
Stoneham Sun

Author(s): Sen. Richard Tisei — Press date: 2008-02-07
Category: Better Government
Description: When the state sends out its quarterly unemployment insurance bills next month, Massachusetts businesses will be hit with a substantial rate increase, one that will end up costing employers $153 million in new taxes this year....A new report released last month by the Pioneer Institute indicates the commonwealth provides unemployment benefits that are 76 percent above the national average.... [read more...]

Editorial: Real Stimulation
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-02-04
Category: Better Government
Description: ...The Bay State can afford its own "stimulus package" that would ease the burden on businesses created by the often abused, decreasingly useful and ridiculously expensive unemployment insurance system....Massachusetts business owners paid an average of $629 per employee into the state's unemployment insurance system in 2006, according to a new policy brief authored in part by John O'Leary of the Boston-based Pioneer Institute. That was more than twice the national average of $298 per employee and second only to Alaska where the cost is about $750.... [read more...]

Fix for schools?
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-01-29
Category: Education
Description: Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s plan to create a Cabinet-level education secretariat appears eminently sensible in concept. Yet, lawmakers considering the plan at today’s Statehouse hearing should consider why Massachusetts should move to fix a system that, by most measures, is not broken....One reasonable concern, raised by the Pioneer Institute, is the potentially unhealthy authority the cabinet secretary could exert over the currently independent policymaking boards.... [read more...]

Sciortino: Comeptition challenges you to help public education
Somerville Journal

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-01-29
Category: Better Government
Description: Representative Carl Sciortino has announced an exciting opportunity for Somerville residents to get involved in improving public education in Massachusetts. Pioneer Institute, a non-profit research group is sponsoring the 17th Better Government Competition, which seeks ideas from individuals about ways to improve the quality and performance of K-12 education. Implementation of previous winning ideas have saved Massachusetts taxpayers more than $450 million.... [read more...]

State leaders debate using rainy day fund
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-01-28
Category: Better Government
Description: As the state and national economy slides toward recession, Massachusetts political leaders face the difficult decision of deciding if and when to dip into the state's hefty store of reserves...."It's one-time money, a one-time thing when we're projecting state revenues to continue to grow. Obviously, if we hit an economic downturn, if indeed it is raining, then we can talk about the rainy day fund," said Steve Poftak, research director at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank.... [read more...]

Hope and skepticism collide
Boston Globe

Author(s): Matt Viser — Press date: 2008-01-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick may soon learn what happens when the politics of hope and change collide with the fiscal realities of shrinking revenues, a looming economic recession, and a skeptical Legislature...."There were some big thoughts last year, and we haven't seen any of that this year," said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute... [read more...]

Competition Seeks Ideas for Education
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): — Press date: 2008-01-20
Category: Better Government
Description: PITTSFIELD - State Sen. Benjamin B. Downing, D-Pittsfield, announces an opportunity for those with ideas on how to improve the state's education system....The Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit research group, is sponsoring its 17th Better Government Competition, which this year is seeking ideas to improve the quality and performance of K-12 education in Massachusetts.... [read more...]

Baehr's quest shines light on Lowell schools
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2008-01-16
Category: Education
Description: Lowell Superintendent Karla Brooks Baehr's front-running candidacy to become the state's next education commissioner has put the city's schools under a microscope as the Board of Education and the public weigh her successes and failures of the past seven years....“If you look at the student-assessment data and the amount of funding the district has received, I don't think anyone could regard her tenure as much of a success,” said Jamie Gass, director of education research at the Pioneer Institute.... [read more...]

New education czar must be from outside
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Robert Z. Nemeth — Press date: 2008-01-13
Category: Education
Description: The state Board of Education is facing an enormously important task. It is about to select the next commissioner of education, who is expected to ensure that nearly 1 million students in Massachusetts public schools achieve the academic progress they need to succeed in today’s competitive world....Jamie Gass, director of the Pioneer Institute’s Center for School Reform, told me: “As Tom Birmingham has noted, education reform has stalled in Massachusetts. Consequently, competitiveness and student achievement will depend on the next commissioner redoubling our commitment to charter schools, teacher testing, MCAS, district accountability and school-based management.”... [read more...]

UMD estuaries program a model of collaboration
New Bedford-Standard-Times

Author(s): John Hoey — Press date: 2007-12-17
Category: Better Government
Description: The Standard-Times' recent criticism of the Massachusetts Estuaries Project following a state audit was unfair and disregarded numerous pertinent facts....It is important to note that the auditor has not raised a single concern about the quality of the project. The MEP, in fact, was cited in 2007 by the Pioneer Institute for being a successful and innovative model of collaboration. A policy brief released by the Pioneer Institute stated... [read more...]

Point-counterpoint or union spin?
Boston Globe

Author(s): Ronald N. Cogliano — Press date: 2007-12-15
Category: Better Government
Description: LOVETT PETERS of the Pioneer Institute is correct when he states that only 20 percent of the construction workforce is unionized in Massachusetts ("Paying the bills," Op-ed, Nov. 24). That figure comes from US Department of Labor and US Census Bureau data for 2006.... [read more...]

State audit questions actions in UMD estuaries project
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): David Kibbe — Press date: 2007-12-11
Category: Better Government
Description: The Massachusetts Estuaries Project, created by the state in 2001, studies estuaries from Duxbury to Cape Cod to help municipalities deal with development and pollution issues....The program was lauded by the Pioneer Institute this year, which estimated it would save municipalities $25 million to $35 million over six years....“In no way are we questioning the quality and effectiveness of the program,” said Mr. DeNucci’s spokesman, Glenn Briere. “It’s public money, and you need accountability.”... [read more...]

Charters still grade A
Boston Herald

Author(s): Charles Chieppo — Press date: 2007-12-05
Category: Education
Description: Two recent reports document the success of important education reforms....In addition to improving student achievement, longer school days and pilot schools share another important characteristic: We have the commonwealth’s charter schools to thank for them. Boston’s pilot schools were a direct response to the creation of charters in 1995 and longer school days have been a staple at a number of charter schools.... [read more...]

Road rage
Boston Magazine

Author(s): John Wolfson — Press date: 2007-11-27
Category: Better Government
Description: ...“If you asked the governor which agency is doing the best job on maintenance,” says the Pioneer Institute’s Poftak, “I’d say he’d be hard-pressed to know. And that’s no knock on him. We just don’t have it set up for anyone to have that kind of information.”...At the Pioneer Institute conference, Secretary Cohen said it surprised him to discover that MassHighway and the Turnpike Authority order road salt separately.... [read more...]

Closed meetings draw criticism
Boston NOW

Author(s): State House News Service — Press date: 2007-11-13
Category: Education
Description: ...Referred to as the "Readiness Project," the blue ribbon panel and its subgroups were formed by an executive order Patrick signed in August, aimed at offering recommendations to the governor for both future legislative proposals and next year's state budget.... [read more...]

Roadway investment suggested
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2007-11-09
Category: Better Government
Description: The commissioner of the Massachusetts Highway Department yesterday said the state should invest more in the day-to-day maintenance of roads and bridges before they start to deteriorate or become unsafe....The Pioneer Institute, a public policy think-tank, released a report earlier this year that drew attention to the state’s $17 billion backlog of bridge and other public-structure maintenance. The report said the state should spend more money on maintenance to prevent problems and the high cost of repairs in the future.... [read more...]

Bay State enters post-Big Dig era
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Robert Z. Nemeth — Press date: 2007-11-04
Category: Better Government
Description: “Looking back 50 or 60 years on the history of transportation in Massachusetts, there has been a different emphasis in just about every decade,” state Secretary of Transportation Bernard Cohen explained during a recent interview.... Next is the post-Big Dig era that comes with a whole new set of priorities, policies and expectations. The Transportation Finance Commission and the Pioneer Institute estimated that, at the current rate of investment, the transportation funding shortfall over the next 20 years would be between $15 billion and $19 billion.... [read more...]

New guide to help lure businesses
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Mary Jo Hill — Press date: 2007-10-25
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: ...During his news conference yesterday, Mayor Dan H. Mylott announced the release of a guide, titled “Navigating Through Regulations,” that walks aspiring businesspeople through the steps needed to open 20 different kinds of businesses in Fitchburg. The Pioneer Institute, a statewide think tank, worked with Fitchburg officials to put together the booklet. The same information also can be found on the group’s Web site at www.pioneerinstitute.org.... [read more...]

Legislature Pares Back Patrick Spending Wishes
iBerkshires.com

Author(s): Gintautus Dumcius — Press date: 2007-10-24
Category: Education
Description: ...Others said it indicated the moves could represent how much traction the governor's education reform efforts are having. "In some respects, it is a gauge of the level of support for the governor's education policies in the Legislature," said Jamie Gass, director of education research and programs at the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research... [read more...]

Help for Fitchburg entrepreneurs
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Livia Gershon — Press date: 2007-10-24
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: If you’re thinking of starting a small business in Fitchburg, your life just got a little bit easier. The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy group, is releasing a guide to government regulations affecting small businesses in the city.... [read more...]

Fitchburg offering guide to opening a business in the city
Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise

Author(s): Brandon Butler — Press date: 2007-10-24
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: City officials will be releasing a guide for entrepreneurs on how to open a business in Fitchburg. The city worked with the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based policy group, to create the guide, which will give business owners a step-by-step process of how to invest in the city. "This is a document we've worked on for years," Mayor Dan H. Mylott said.... [read more...]

Permit process gets easier
Taunton Daily Gazette

Author(s): Charles Winokoor — Press date: 2007-10-23
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: ...The guide was compiled and published by Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based, non-profit think tank that does research on issues related to enhancing the business and educational environment in the Bay State. On Monday, Mayor Charles Crowley personally thanked Pioneer Institute executive director Jim Stergios for having selected Taunton as one of 10 cities so far — including New Bedford, Brockton and Lowell — to have been selected as a recipient.... [read more...]

Fitchburg Pride

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-10-19
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A new guide to doing business in Fitchburg was officially released this afternoon at Mayor Dan Mylott's weekly press conference. Mylott, along with the Dan Curley, Executive Director of the Fitchburg Industrial Development Commission, and Jim Stergios, Executive Director of The Pioneer Institute, released the 126-page guide "Navigating through Regulations & Licensing Requirements" in hopes of helping those interested in starting a business in the city.... [read more...]

NATIONAL VIEW: Mass. testing
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Guy Darst — Press date: 2007-10-05
Category: Education
Description: ...But his biggest surprise is the scope of a planned overhaul of what is probably the nation's best public school system — a reform effort he calls his "Readiness Project." He has asked for reports on 66 proposals ranging from making school days longer to dropping tuition in community colleges. The fear is that he's about to emasculate testing requirements put in place more than a decade ago....according to an analysis of 76 EQA reports by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, 44 of those 76 districts had curricula that did not meet state standards — their students could have been facing MCAS without having been taught some of the material on the tests.... [read more...]

"Impatient" Patrick creating "Big Idea" backlog on Beacon Hill
Associated Press

Author(s): Steve Leblanc — Press date: 2007-10-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick's "Big Idea" list keeps getting longer....But critics say that by trying to juggle too many balls at one, Patrick may end up dropping them all....The casino bill also could create a traffic jam effect for the rest of Patrick's agenda, according to Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute. "If the casino bill bogs down discussions on all the other things, you run the risk of creating a lame duck governor for at least six months," Stergios said. "How do you deal with education if maybe some of the casino revenue is intended to go toward education?" [read more...]

Between the Lines: Patrick Rolls the Dice
The Valley Advocate

Author(s): Tom Vannah — Press date: 2007-09-27
Category: Better Government
Description: ...Patrick now says he'll spend casino-related revenue, optimistically estimated at $400 million per year, on roads and bridges. Apparently he's responding to a convenient mid-summer Pioneer Institute report placing the cost of bringing and keeping state infrastructure up to snuff at $19 billion—money the state doesn't have.... [read more...]

Mass. Testing
Wall Street Journal

Author(s): Guy Darst — Press date: 2007-09-22
Category: Education
Description: ...But his biggest surprise is the scope of a planned overhaul of what is probably the nation's best public school system -- a reform effort he calls his "Readiness Project."...The EQA examines the performance of dozens of school districts across the state each year. And according to an analysis of 76 EQA reports by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, 44 of those 76 districts had curricula that did not meet state standards -- their students could have been facing MCAS without having been taught some of the material on the tests. The governor this year recommended defunding the agency and the legislature agreed, giving it just enough funding to wind up its work. Ms. Schaefer, calls the move "a mistake." Instead, she says, the agency "should have been strengthened." [read more...]

Cities face challenges
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Marcia Blomberg — Press date: 2007-09-19
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Older industrial cities such as Holyoke, Springfield and Chicopee should band together with others across the state to press for coordinated grant programs and additional state assistance, a public policy expert urged at a session yesterday. James Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, said 14 so-called "middle cities" across the state are facing increased fiscal pressures that must be addressed.... [read more...]

Sounding Reville for schools
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Clive McFarlane — Press date: 2007-09-19
Category: Education
Description: In his first stint as a board member, he was appointed by former Republican Gov. William F. Weld. This time, he was appointed by Democratic Gov. Deval L. Patrick. This tells you that Mr. Reville’s educational expertise on the local, state and national front is well-respected and transcends ideological barriers....Mr. Silber’s mercurial leadership ushered in a period of acrimony and polarization that eventually led James A. Peyser, former executive director of the Pioneer Institute and a man who believes that the only good public school is a charter school, to grab leadership of the board.... [read more...]

State of cities set for forum
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Marcia Blomberg — Press date: 2007-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: HOLYOKE - The latest economic research on the state's cities will be presented on Tuesday at the first in a series of economic forecasting forums.... Business and community leaders attending the breakfast meeting will hear from Barry Bluestone, the executive director of Northeastern University's Center for Urban and Regional Policy, and James Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, an independent public policy research group in Boston.... [read more...]

Bridge Repairs Face Roadblocks
WCVB-TV Channel 5

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-09-11
Category: Better Government
Description: ..."We certainly don't rule out the possible need for new revenues, but we think just to pour money into a system that doesn't work, doesn't make sense," said Steve Poftak, of the Pioneer Institute. Poftak said there are too many agencies, such as Massport, Mass Highway and the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, doing the same thing. There is a lot of duplication in some areas, yet too many other needs are ignored.... [read more...]

MCAS foes, grade thyselves
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jamie Gass — Press date: 2007-09-08
Category: Education
Description: IN HER Aug. 30 letter "State ed policy and the 'whole child,' " Deborah Meier recycles myths perpetuated by opponents of school reform, claiming that the dark phantom of the Pioneer Institute had an "extraordinarily narrow hold" on "the state Board of Education for years." Sadly, Meier and too large a segment of the education establishment oppose greater school accountability and high standards. Why? [read more...]

Nellhaus eyes steady hand amid education changes
Boston Globe

Author(s): Ken Maguire — Press date: 2007-08-31
Category: Education
Description: ...Amid what could be groundbreaking changes, though, somebody's got to turn on the lights in the morning and keep the engines running. That's Jeffrey Nellhaus, the state's new acting commissioner of education.....Jamie Gass, director of education research at the Boston think tank Pioneer Institute, said he's confident in Nellhaus' abilities."Considering the topsy-turvy state of the commissioner's search ... and Beacon Hill getting wobbly on MCAS, I think everyone's relieved that Jeff's steady leadership is at the helm," Gass said.... [read more...]

Longfellow Needs Smithy
Boston Herald

Author(s): Casey Ross — Press date: 2007-08-24
Category: Better Government
Description: ... The Pioneer Institute found the Longfellow to be in deplorable condition, with heavy rust and cracks threatening to undermine its strength. A recent report on the Longfellow revealed that the bridge has gradually slipped into a state of disrepair because of years of neglect that have crippled hundreds of other bridges statewide... [read more...]

Crews removing loose strips on Longfellow Bridge
Boston Globe

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2007-08-24
Category: Better Government
Description: ...A July 30 report from the Pioneer Institute detailed the destitute condition of the Longfellow Bridge, a steel-and-granite structure completed in 1908. The bridge supports the MBTA's Red Line operations and, according to MassHighway, carries 28,000 vehicles and 90,000 transit users a day.... [read more...]

Workers remove 'loose' 200-pound strips along stretch of Longfellow Bridge
State House News

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2007-08-23
Category: Better Government
Description: Construction crews on Thursday night began removing scores of loose 200-pound decorative strips from the Longfellow Bridge, which connects Boston and Cambridge... [read more...]

The toll of neglect
Boston Globe

Author(s): Charles D. Chieppo — Press date: 2007-08-21
Category: Better Government
Description: A TOLL INCREASE is scheduled to take effect next year on the Massachusetts Turnpike, but it won't raise nearly enough money, according to news reports last week, to cover the agency's expenses. This development once again highlights years of underinvestment in and mismanagement of the Commonwealth's infrastructure. If we are to invest more in these critical assets, we must generate new revenue in a way that's fair -- and use the revenue to buy reform by reordering our spending priorities... [read more...]

And You Wonder Why Fares Keep Going Up
Boston Magazine

Author(s): John Keohane — Press date: 2007-08-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Like the weather, Bostonians live to hate the T. The trains are dirty and occasionally violent. The bus drivers are foul-mouthed sociopaths who appear to get their kicks from inexplicably blowing past a half dozen people standing at a bus stop in the rain. Fares keep rising, without a commensurate improvement in customer service. Minority neighborhoods routinely get the shaft... [read more...]

Move to get new bridge on fast track
Weymouth News

Author(s): Ed Baker — Press date: 2007-08-21
Category: Better Government
Description: “Weld made some inroads on getting caught up with repairs on the state’s bridges,” Hedlund said. “He spent a couple of hundred million dollars on bridge repairs which is really not a lot when you consider how much the Longfellow Bridge will cost to repair.” A recent report released by the Pioneer Institute, a public policy research group, estimates the Longfellow will cost $180 million to repair with the potential for cost overruns reaching into the hundreds of millions. Hedlund said Weld should have directed more funding under the state’s capital improvement plan to fixing bridges and roads instead of spending millions on new MBTA commuter rail projects. [read more...]

More is less
Quincy Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Julie Jette — Press date: 2007-08-18
Category: Better Government
Description: ...A pair of economists from Harvard and Yale say the most cost-effective way to encourage people to use less water might be simply to raise its price. In a recent paper, Sheila M. Olmstead of Yale University and Robert N. Stavins of Harvard University say municipal rebates on low-flow toilets, rain barrels and shower heads can actually do more harm than good for local utilities. The economists prepared their study for The Pioneer Institute... [read more...]

Massachusetts can balance housing and open space
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Jack Clarke — Press date: 2007-08-16
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The Pioneer Institute said Massachusetts businesses are at a competitive disadvantage with other parts of the country because of high property costs. In addition, the Massachusetts Association of Realtors says that the cost of housing is dependent on the cost of land.... [read more...]

Public pensions ripe for abuse
new Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Peter Friedman — Press date: 2007-08-16
Category: Better Government
Description: The "defined benefit" pension system in Massachusetts brings out a lot of passion among the public, although much of the controversy results from misunderstanding and even misinformation. In most cases, under reasonable economic assumptions, the system is fair to the employee and the taxpayer....Unfortunately, the system breaks down in cases where there is a large disparity in earning over a career. The Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research has issued a peer-reviewed white paper that concludes, "While the (state) pension system is not overly generous for typical employees, it is riddled with exceptions, ambiguities, and loopholes that allow some of them to abuse the system and collect unwarranted benefits, resulting in tremendous cost to the state and ultimately the taxpayers."... [read more...]

Federalism & infrastructure
Boston Phoenix

Author(s): Harvey Silverglate — Press date: 2007-08-15
Category: Better Government
Description: ... In a case of perfect accidental timing, the Pioneer Institute finished a review of our Commonwealth’s public bridges the same week as the collapse in Minneapolis and designated 558 of them “deficient."... [read more...]

The industry that time forgot
Boston Globe

Author(s): Barry B. LePatner — Press date: 2007-08-12
Category: Better Government
Description: ...The deadly and dramatic collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis -- and the growing tally of troubled roads and bridges -- has brought home just how much building must be done to make our infrastructure safe. In Massachusetts alone, the repair tab could be more than $17 billion, according to a recent Pioneer Institute study.... [read more...]

State of neglect
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): Worcester Telegram — Press date: 2007-08-06
Category: Better Government
Description: While a new report on the stunningly bad job the state has done on maintaining and repairing many of the state’s public facilities, including roads and bridges, carries an equally stunning price tag of $17 billion, it is a promising example of the work the Patrick administration is doing to consolidate and streamline transportation issues across the state... [read more...]

Patrick: State can spend $12 billion without new taxes, gambling
Boston Herald

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2007-08-06
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick said the state can afford to spend an additional $12 billion over the next five years on a host of expensive projects without relying on new taxes or gambling revenues.... [read more...]

Patrick to unveil $12 billion, five-year spending plan
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press — Press date: 2007-08-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick is scheduled to unveil a key initiative on Monday that will pump $12 billion of borrowed money into education, transportation and housing over the next five years... [read more...]

Terror by neglect
Daily News Tribune

Author(s): Deborah E. Gauthier — Press date: 2007-08-05
Category: Better Government
Description: We're spending hundreds of millions of tax dollars every year preparing for terrorists who might be planning attacks against our tunnels, bridges and buildings... [read more...]

Longfellow, other spans scrutinized
Boston Globe

Author(s): Stephanie Ebbert and Ryan Haggerty — Press date: 2007-08-04
Category: Better Government
Description: State officials revealed yesterday that the time-ravaged Longfellow Bridge is a steel arch truss bridge similar in design to the bridge that collapsed in Minneapolis Wednesday and are examining inspection reports for two dozen bridges, including the Longfellow. [read more...]

OUR VIEW: It can happen here, too
The Patriot Ledger

Author(s): The Patriot Ledger — Press date: 2007-08-04
Category: Better Government
Description: An eight-lane interstate bridge linking Minneapolis and St. Paul buckles at evening rush hour. As many as 50 vehicles plummet more than 60 feet into the Mississippi River, some falling on top one of another. A school bus hangs in the balance; at least five people die, about 100 are injured, and many are missing... [read more...]

‘Structurally deficient’ rating eyed in Bay State: Looking for trouble
Boston Herald

Author(s): Marie Szaniszlo and Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2007-08-04
Category: Better Government
Description: Defect-hunting state engineers are working overtime this weekend to inspect nine steel-truss bridges in Massachusetts - including Boston’s frail Longfellow Bridge - that have the same “structurally deficient” rating as the Interstate 35W span that collapsed Wednesday in Minneapolis, killing at least five people....The collapse in Minneapolis has focused attention away from new projects and onto old ones. David Westerling of the Pioneer Institute said the timing is “uncanny.” “You need to step back and appreciate what you have and take care of it,” said Westerling, co-author of a report detailing the state’s neglect of its infrastructure, especially the Longfellow Bridge, which connects Boston and Cambridge. [read more...]

Maintenance plan can prevent bridge, road calamities
WHDH-TV 7

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2007-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: "Maintenance is not sexy. There are no ribbon cuttings for replacing a gasket for a boiler." So said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute, after his public policy think tank engaged in perhaps the most perfectly timed report release in the history of Beacon Hill. This past Monday, the institute released a 39-page report not only highlighting the poor condition of the Longfellow Bridge in Boston, but making a much larger point about transportation infrastructure. "No matter which entity is responsible, every state asset suffers from the same treatment," said the report, titled, "Our Legacy of Neglect." "We fail to adequately budget for maintenance; even worse, we actively create perverse incentives that discourage state managers from maintaining state assets." [read more...]

The road not taken on bridge repairs
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Here's a question for anyone who drives to work each day on a Massachusetts highway: How many bridges do you travel over on your way to work?...The Pioneer Institute, a non-partisan think tank, issued a report just days before the Minneapolis tragedy concluding that the state's roads, bridges and other public assets suffer from decades of neglect....Yet, according to the Pioneer Institute's report, the price tag for the years of neglect totals at least $17 billion....The governor and the Legislature should establish a separate and permanent fund for maintenance and repairs so the state's infrastructure is not doomed to decay. [read more...]

588 Mass. bridges 'deficient'
Boston Globe

Author(s): By Stephanie Ebbert and Michael Levenson — Press date: 2007-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Approximately 10 percent of the 5,500 bridges in Massachusetts are classified under federal standards as "structurally deficient," including 65 well-traveled bridges with such serious defects that they may need to be replaced and at least 10 with a design similar to the span that collapsed in Minneapolis on Wednesday....This week, the Pioneer Institute, a think tank, released a report titled "Our Legacy of Neglect," documenting a lack of funding for transportation infrastructure in Massachusetts.... [read more...]

How safe are we?
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2007-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: After a bridge on a busy highway in Minneapolis collapsed during rush-hour traffic Wednesday evening, killing at least four people and injuring at least 79, Massachusetts officials said they are revisiting inspection reports for similar bridges in the state....Massachusetts’ long backlog of maintenance for aging bridges came under fire in a report released Tuesday by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy think tank. The report found that the state faces at least $17 billion in deferred maintenance costs for bridges and other public structures....Steve Poftak, director of research at the Pioneer Institute and co-author of the report, said the percentage of structurally deficient bridges in Massachusetts is consistent with the national figure.... [read more...]

Still high and dry
The Sun Chronicle

Author(s): Jim Hand — Press date: 2007-08-02
Category: Better Government
Description: State officials announced with great fanfare last year that the closed Spatcher Pool would reopen this summer after a $1.2 million renovation.... [read more...]

Inspectors to review all bridges similar to one in Minn. collapse
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc, Associated Press — Press date: 2007-08-02
Category: Better Government
Description: State inspectors have launched a review of all bridges in Massachusetts similar in design to the one that collapsed in Minneapolis, sending dozens of cars plummeting into the Mississippi River. Article Tools Printer friendly Single page E-mail to a friend Mass. RSS feed Available RSS feeds Most e-mailed Share on Digg Share on Facebook Save this article powered by Del.icio.us More: Globe City/Region stories | Latest local news | Globe front page | Boston.com Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts While the state has 32 of the so-called steel truss bridges, none are considered in danger of collapse, Gov. Deval Patrick said Thursday.... [read more...]

State officials hope to fix local bridges before it's too late
Daily News Transcript

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2007-08-02
Category: Better Government
Description: ...The Pioneer Institute also released a recent report focusing on the aging Longfellow Bridge between Boston and Cambridge, saying the span is symptomatic of broader infrastructure problems.... [read more...]

Sweet deals for some: Back door bargains add to state pension's debt
Gloucester Daily Times

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2007-08-02
Category: Better Government
Description: ...The contrast, critics say, is emblematic of the Massachusetts public pension system open to abuse by lawmakers who exploit loopholes to benefit well-connected friends and special interest groups and often themselves....The special deals come at a cost to taxpayers. A Pioneer Institute study estimated the price tag for loopholes in the law at $125 million last year on top of the more than $1 billion taxpayers paid into the system to make up for shortfalls.... [read more...]

A tale of two pension funds
The Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Shawn Regan — Press date: 2007-08-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Geographically, Haverhill and Lawrence are Massachusetts neighbors, but they are worlds apart when it comes to the performance of their retirement funds... [read more...]

Far-flung resorts draw retirement board
The Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2007-08-01
Category: Better Government
Description: ...But a report last year by the Pioneer Institute questioned the value of travel by board members, given that they hire professional advisers to manage their pension investments. The Boston think tank said board members across the state exploit weak controls on travel expenses for questionable trips to popular tourist destinations... [read more...]

Sweet deals for some
The Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2007-08-01
Category: Better Government
Description: David San Antonio died in 2004 of a rare genetic disorder that left him blind and wracked with tumors. Those who knew him say that before he died, the 38-year-old Methuen, Mass., police officer accidentally checked the wrong box when filing for his city pension, leaving his widow and two children without benefits... [read more...]

Retiree health care expenses a 'ticking time bomb'; Bill rivals cost of the Big Dig
Daily News of Newburyport

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2007-08-01
Category: Better Government
Description: ...Like other states, Massachusetts pays for retirees' health care costs from its annual budget, a "pay-as-you-go" system. The tab for fiscal 2007 was $319 million, up from $240 million just five years earlier....Compounding the problem, state workers can retire at a relatively young age. The median age for the approximately 1,300 state employees who retired in 2005 was 58, according to a study by the nonprofit Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Patrick raises state's bond cap
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2007-08-01
Category: Better Government
Description: ...Two recent reports found that the state is facing huge deficits to maintain its existing infrastructure.One, by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, found the state is facing at least $17 billion in immediate deferred maintenance costs, from roads and bridges to jails and universities.... [read more...]

Neglect plagues Longfellow Bridge
BostonNOW

Author(s): Galen Moore — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Years of neglect could force the Longfellow Bridge to be closed if repair work is not quickly undertaken, according to a study released yesterday. In a report titled "A Legacy of Neglect," Boston-based Pioneer Institute said the ailing span is typical of bridges, roads and state-owned property throughout Massachusetts. The state has made repairs only twice in the bridge's 100-year history, the report found. Now, the bridge's steel deck is rusted through in places, and its signature "salt-and-pepper" stone towers are leaning and cracked.... [read more...]

Longfellow Bridge Repairs
WBZ News Radio 1030

Author(s): Lana Jones — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute reports that deferred maintenance will cost Massachusetts $17 billion in the coming years. Case in point: the Longellow Bridge. WBZ's Lana Jones talked with civil engineer David Westerling and Research Director Steve Poftak. [read more...]

Report: Mass. Doing Bad Job Caring For Roads, Bridges
WCVB-TV Channel 5

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts is doing a poor job keeping critical public assets in good repair -- from roads and bridges to jails and universities -- and is facing at least $17 billion in deferred maintenance costs, according to a report to be released Tuesday....Among the recommendations in the study by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute is the creation of a special facilities maintenance fund. The report says the state should consider the maintenance costs for a project even before it is built, and factor those costs into the initial estimate. [read more...]

Report: Mass. doing poor job keeping infrastructure in good repair
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts is doing a poor job keeping critical public assets in good repair -- from roads and bridges to jails and universities -- and is facing at least $17 billion in deferred maintenance costs, according to a report to be released Tuesday.Among the recommendations in the study by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute is the creation of a special facilities maintenance fund. The report says the state should consider the maintenance costs for a project even before it is built, and factor those costs into the initial estimate.... [read more...]

Report: Longfellow Bridge a symbol of state's negligence
Cambridge Chronicle

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: With images of crumbling rust and cracked granite, a report released today tells the story of the state's infrastructure failures via the history of a single bridge, and castigates Beacon Hill for what the authors term "our legacy of neglect."... [read more...]

Patrick raises state's borrowing limit
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick is raising Massachusetts' borrowing limit, saying the state needs more money for transportation projects, public safety improvements and repairs to the university system, beaches and parks... [read more...]

Report: Mass doing a poor job keeping infrastructure in good repair
WPRI/Fox News Providence

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2007-07-31
Category: Better Government
Description: ...A new report says Massachusetts is doing a poor job keeping critical public assets in good repair....From roads and bridges to jails and universities the study by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute says the state is facing at least $17 billion in deferred maintenance costs. [read more...]

DEC wins 2007 Better Government Competition
Shirley Oracle

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-07-27
Category: Better Government
Description: DEVENS -- Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC) was honored by the Pioneer Institute as the winner of the 16th Annual Better Government Competition for its unified permitting system for the redevelopment of Fort Devens....Gov. Deval Patrick keynoted the event and acknowledged the importance of the DEC's unified permitting system in attracting firms such as Bristol-Myers Squibb to the Commonwealth. [read more...]

Study: Raising water prices best way to cut usage
Boston Globe

Author(s): Thomas C. Palmer, Jr. — Press date: 2007-07-21
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Raising the price of water is more effective than using regulations like water bans in promoting conservation, according to a study by Sheila M. Olmstead of Yale University and Robert N. Stavins of Harvard University. The study, released this week by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research in Boston, concluded that residential water use varies according to price, as electricity and gasoline use do. Mandatory water-use bans work better than voluntary ones, the study found, but do not reduce use as much as price increases. [read more...]

Pay for transportation repairs by extending tolls beyond Pike
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Joseph M. Giglio — Press date: 2007-06-29
Category: Better Government
Description: A recent Massachusetts Turnpike proposal to introduce electronic tolling and congestion pricing, under which motorists would pay more to drive during peak hours, is a step in the right direction. But the burden of building and maintaining transportation assets should be borne by more of the Commonwealth’s drivers.... [read more...]

Governor seeks larger education board
Boston Globe

Author(s): April Simpson — Press date: 2007-06-27
Category: Education
Description: Governor Deval Patrick is seeking to expand his influence over the state Board of Education by appointing four new members to the nine-member panel, said Dana Mohler-Faria, Patrick's special adviser on education...."Any effort to dilute that or have a governor with an undue amount of influence on that board is something to be concerned about," said Jamie Gass, director of education research and programs at Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. "I don't know that adding additional members makes a lot of sense with the appointing authority that he has."... [read more...]

State's billion-dollar biotech question
Boston Globe

Author(s): Stephen Heuser — Press date: 2007-06-20
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Six weeks after Governor Deval L. Patrick captured national attention with a proposal to spend $1 billion on biomedical research, one sticky question still hangs over the plan: Who will actually get the money?Patrick has won praise from life-science leaders for the inclusiveness of his approach to building and luring a competitive industry. But as his plans become more concrete, letting biotech leaders suggest ways to give cash to their own industry raises potential conflicts of interest, said Steve Poftak , director of research at the Pioneer Institute , a public-policy think tank in Boston. "This is a very specialized area in which you need a lot of expertise, but a lot of the people with expertise stand to be beneficiaries," he said. "You have to be careful that you don't get a situation where the people making the policy become the recipients of the program." [read more...]

NewsNight
NECN

Author(s): Jim Braude — Press date: 2007-06-20
Category: Education
Description: These days, Governor Deval Patric is weighing his words very carefully when it comes to his support for the M-CAS test. meanwhile, M-CAS critics are turning up the heat. Lisa Guisbond of Fair Test and Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute join NewsNight. [Link is to video clip of entire segment] [read more...]

Voice against MCAS gains statewide stage
Boston Globe

Author(s): Andrea Downs — Press date: 2007-06-17
Category: Education
Description: After more than a decade of activism for school causes, Brookline's Ruth Kaplan is about to step onto a bigger stage....On the other hand, Kaplan's choice was called "an ominous development" by Jamie Gass, director of education research and programs for the Pioneer Institute, a think tank with a history of supporting the MCAS tests and charter schools. [read more...]

Hack-ism takes toll on us all
Boston Herald

Author(s): Margery Eagan — Press date: 2007-06-17
Category: Better Government
Description: Meanwhile, day after day they read about flagrant public-contract, -benefit and -pension abuse, from police details to double-dipping...The Pioneer Institute, a local think tank, estimates that the annual cost to Massachusetts taxpayers is $125 million, an awful lot of money we could throw at the children we’re supposedly so worried about. [read more...]

Lawmakers should reject Patrick proposal to drop EQA
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Howard A. Greis — Press date: 2007-06-11
Category: Education
Description: Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s proposal to eliminate the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability (EQA) continues the commonwealth’s recent trend of attacking some of the very things that have made Massachusetts a public education success story since passage of the 1993 Education Reform Act....The value of EQA’s work was on display last November when the Pioneer Institute, using data from 76 EQA reports, found that more than half the districts reviewed had not aligned curricula with state frameworks. But now the accountability piece of the education reform bargain is under attack. [read more...]

Questions raised on $1B biotech plan
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2007-06-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: ...All of the positive jobs-growth, export and salary numbers create a “multiplier effect” that greatly enhances the importance of the biotech industry and justifies aggressive support by the state, Sum said. ...Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, said Patrick is “absolutely right on” by proposing state research grants to make up for recent cuts in National Institutes of Health funding. But he questioned whether the state should be getting involved in giving venture capital-like funds or tax credits to specific companies. Stergios warned the state is ill-equipped to determine what firms should receive funding. [read more...]

Patrick's plans raising doubt and enthusiasm
Boston Globe

Author(s): Lisa Wangsness — Press date: 2007-06-06
Category: Better Government
Description: ..."I think there's certainly a tremendous amount of vision in the education plan, but I approach the financing side of it with a great deal of trepidation," said Steve Poftak, research director for the Pioneer Institute..."I think it's going to be tremendously difficult to come up with the funds for each one of these initiatives." [read more...]

Hard time to be a Yanks fan in the Hub
Boston Globe

Author(s): Don Aucoin — Press date: 2007-06-01
Category: Better Government
Description: ...Charles Chieppo, senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, while conceding that the Yankees are "so pathetic this year," points out that the current squad is not the first underperforming Yankees team in history. Chieppo first became a Yankees fan in 1966, when they finished last in the American League.... [read more...]

Accountability Issue
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-05-15
Category: Education
Description: In its 2008 budget, the Massachusetts House properly reinstated the state Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, which was excluded from the Patrick administration budget proposal. The state Senate, now in the thick of its own budget debate, should follow suit. The education watchdog bureau has received an authoritative endorsement from a number of the organizations that have been the state’s most constant supporters of education reform. A letter urging continuation of the office, sent to state senators on Thursday, was signed jointly by Associated Industries of Massachusetts, Boston Municipal Research Bureau, Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, Mass Insight Education, Pioneer Institute and Worcester Regional Research Bureau. [read more...]

State unemployment insurance system ripe for reform
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Richard C. Lord — Press date: 2007-05-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Associated Industries of Massachusetts (AIM) has urged elected officials many times to act to improve the state's economic and investment climate.... In a recent white paper entitled "Measuring Up: the Cost of Doing Business in Massachusetts," the Pioneer Institute details the impact of the state's business costs on competitiveness and on profit. For anyone interested in increasing private sector, for-profit job creation in the commonwealth, this report is a "must read." One area singled out for particular attention is the Massachusetts UI system and the non-competitive costs imposed as a consequence.... [read more...]

Patrick Eyes Boost in Borrowing Power
WCSH-TV

Author(s): Katie Krupnik — Press date: 2007-05-13
Category: Better Government
Description: ...Lawmakers have no oversight of the cap, but Wall Street pays close attention and will punish the state with high interest rates if borrowing gets out of control. Steve Poftak, research director at the Beacon Hill think tank Pioneer Institute, cautions against bonding as a way to expand programs. He says building new assets without the funding to maintain them can be problematic. [read more...]

Patrick eyes boost in borrowing power
Boston Herald

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2007-05-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick...thinks Massachusetts is ready to add more spending power to its credit card.... Steve Poftak, research director at the Beacon Hill think tank Pioneer Institute, cautioned against bonding as a way to expand programs. "If we build new assets without the funding to maintain them, we just make the problem worse," said Poftak... [read more...]

Has Massachusetts school reform stalled?
Providence Journal

Author(s): Thomas Birmingham — Press date: 2007-05-04
Category: Education
Description: ...We are a state that prospers not because of a vast abundance of natural resources, but by our wits. We are a state whose competitiveness is peculiarly reliant on an educated work force....I recently spoke at a Pioneer Institute event provocatively titled “Has Education Reform Stalled in Massachusetts?” Its intent was to re-inject the enthusiasm that heretofore had characterized our efforts to improve public schools. [read more...]

Decades late and billions short
Providence Journal

Author(s): David Mittell — Press date: 2007-05-03
Category: Better Government
Description: First of two parts -- NO ONE BETTER understands the financial trap that has ensnared public transportation in Massachusetts than Charles Chieppo, a veteran of state government and the Pioneer Institute, who helped the MBTA implement the 1999 law requiring “forward-funding” budgeting. (Previously, the legislature simply reimbursed the MBTA for whatever it had spent the year before.) Mr. Chieppo now writes about fiscal issues in many newspapers, including for these pages. [read more...]

Close the gap
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-04-29
Category: Education
Description: Even as average test scores rose impressively in Massachusetts after the launch of the state's 14-year education reform effort, it has become clear that many children - notably minority group members in low-income families - were being left behind. Addressing that imbalance issue should be a top priority on Beacon Hill and across the state this year. [read more...]

Failing schools need more oversight, new ideas
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-04-29
Category: Education
Description: More innovation and continued oversight are key to continuing the progress in fixing the commonwealth's underperforming schools....Several groups, including the Pioneer Institute and the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, are raising the alarm regarding the new governor's proposal to eliminate the state Office of Educational Quality and Accountability... [read more...]

Change of course needed to encourage housing growth in the commonwealth
Salem News

Author(s): Mark Leff — Press date: 2007-04-26
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick, countless business leaders and many members of the Legislature have joined the chorus of voices indicating that we need to increase the state's housing stock to more effectively support our innovation economy....Overzealous land-use regulation in Massachusetts is not a matter opinion; it is fact. A study by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research that accumulated data on zoning and related rules... [read more...]

Commitment to Education Reform will Define Us as a Society
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): Thomas F. Birmingham — Press date: 2007-04-24
Category: Education
Description: The bloom is off the education reform rose in Massachusetts. I recently spoke at a Pioneer Institute event provocatively titled “Has Education Reform Stalled in Massachusetts?” Its intent was to re-inject the enthusiasm that heretofore had characterized our efforts to improve public schools. [read more...]

Verizon suspends push for Mass. TV franchises
Boston Globe

Author(s): Carolyn Y. Johnson — Press date: 2007-04-18
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: After spending an average of 15 months in each of 45 communities to win approval to offer television service, Verizon Communications Inc. has had enough for now: The company says it will stop seeking new applications in Massachusetts until it finishes all pending projects...."You're investing a lot of money and not knowing what's going to happen, whereas in other states it's a more certain, much more truncated time period," said Jim Stergios , executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a market-oriented think tank. "For any developer, for anybody in any business -- if you can reduce risk it means a lot to them." [read more...]

New guide to ease burden on entrepreneurs
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Tom Spoth — Press date: 2007-04-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Starting a small business in Massachusetts is not for the faint of heart...Dozens of federal, state and local boards can create a seemingly indecipherable alphabet soup of permits, waivers and licenses...With that in mind, the city has partnered with the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public-policy organization, to create a guide to help entrepreneurs navigate regulations and licensing requirements in Lowell. It's appropriately entitled, "Navigating Through Regulations and Licensing Requirements in Lowell."... [read more...]

Opinion: Pioneer Institute report shortchanges Leominster
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Dean Mazzarella — Press date: 2007-04-02
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: While I appreciate the good work of the Pioneer Institute and its care for the state's urban cities, I must comment on the Feb. 19 opinion of Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute....It is true that the City of Leominster faces urban issues. But while readers may see a dismal picture of our city, one quick visit will tell a completely different story. [read more...]

Local officials challenge findings of pension study
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Steve Urbon — Press date: 2007-03-19
Category: Better Government
Description: The "underperforming" pension systems of Plymouth County and the city of Fall River would face an immediate state takeover under Gov. Deval Patrick's plan to boost investment returns and save money for local taxpayers....But the plan has riled many of the state's 105 pension plan managers and prompted accusations that some damning comparisons being made by the state are unfair. [read more...]

Memo to gov: Analyze this
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-03-17
Category: Education
Description: If Gov. Deval Patrick wants to cripple education reform in Massachusetts, he ought to come right out and say so. He shouldn’t be trying to kill the one independent, objective review body in the state government. The governor’s proposed budget would eliminate the $3.7 million that supports... [read more...]

Accountability falls victim to Patrick's budget ax
Salem News

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-03-08
Category: Education
Description: Part of the deal when the Legislature enacted the Education Reform Act in 1993 and began to pour billions more into Massachusetts schools, is that there would be some accountability for how that money was spent. One measure is student performance on the MCAS test. Another are the audits conducted by the state's Office of Educational Quality and Accountability. Yet in the $27-billion spending plan for the fiscal year that begins July 1, which includes an additional $200 million in Chapter 70 education funding, Patrick proposes eliminating the EQA. Expected savings: A mere $3.7 million, which is hardly going to keep the state budget out of the red. [read more...]

Leaders feel city undersold in state think tank report
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Shaun Sutner — Press date: 2007-03-04
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Municipal officials say their “city on the move” has been slighted by a new MassINC report that they say at times inaccurately paints the city in unflattering terms compared to the Boston area and fails to highlight many signs of progress in the local high-tech economy....Mrs. Schaefer said she prefers a similar, but less publicized, report (also released last month) from Boston’s Pioneer Institute, which surveys a similar group of what it calls “Middle Cities.” That report, “Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment,” offers more concrete proposals such as directly tying state aid to the cities to their success in meeting specific economic benchmarks. It also examines the results of direct state intervention in Chelsea and Springfield and uses the experience of those economically failed cities to try to prevent other regional cities from sliding into insolvency. [read more...]

An effective formula
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-03-02
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts’ bold, 14-year experiment in education reform at times has been frustrating and contentious. In recent years, however, the effectiveness of the approach embraced by the reformers and, equally important, by educators across the state has received welcome validation....Former state Senate president Thomas M. Birmingham, a chief architect of education reform, acknowledges the significant progress as demonstrated by Bay State students’ outstanding performance not only in MCAS results, but also in SAT exams, the National Assessment of Educational Progress and other measures. Addressing a Pioneer Institute Policy Discussion in November, however, he warned that commitment to reform seems to have stalled, as seen in the defunding of proven programs such as teacher signing bonuses to attract the best and brightest, the small-class-size initiative and, worst of all, MCAS remediation programs. [read more...]

Widening gap between public and private pensions
Salem News

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2007-03-01
Category: Better Government
Description: The recent headline in USA Today said what an increasing number of taxpayers are thinking: "More and more retirees are finding that it pays to have worked for the government instead of the private sector."That story concerned the growing gap nationwide between the pension benefits earned by those who work for the public, and what those who toil in the private sector can expect upon retirement. Here in Massachusetts, studies by groups including the Pioneer Institute have highlighted the high cost and occasional abuses of the Bay State's generous taxpayer-subsidized pension system. [read more...]

Money for Accountability?
Boston Business Journal

Author(s): Jamie Gass — Press date: 2007-02-23
Category: Education
Description: ""The Education Reform Act can be reduced, in essence, to two propositions. We will make a massive infusion of state dollars into our public schools, and in return we will demand high standards ... and accountability from all." So said former Senate President Thomas Birmingham, one of the architects of the landmark Massachusetts legislation." [read more...]

Pension Pinch
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-02-23
Category: Better Government
Description: "... is so riddled with loopholes that abuse adds $125 million a year to pension costs, a comprehensive study last year by the Pioneer Institute found..." [read more...]

Novel ‘Property Tax Relief Fund’ deserves a close look
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-02-22
Category: Better Government
Description: "As the Patrick administration and Legislature hammer out the fiscal 2008 state spending plan, a novel incentive system aimed at helping communities rein in soaring property taxes deserves budget-writers’ serious consideration." [read more...]

Bay State still lags on school reform
The Providence Journal

Author(s): Jamie Gass — Press date: 2007-02-20
Category: Education
Description: "BOSTON--THE EDUCATION REFORM Act can be reduced, in essence, to two propositions. We will make a massive infusion of state dollars into our public schools, and in return we will demand high standards . . . and accountability from all.” So said former Senate President Thomas Birmingham, one of the architects of the landmark Massachusetts legislation." [read more...]

Opinion: Let�s put our local aid dollars where the local leadership is
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2007-02-18
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: "Despite an enormous amount of commitment and energy from political, business and community leaders, major urban centers face what seems an almost insurmountable litany of challenges. A recently released Pioneer Institute white paper, Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment..." [read more...]

Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment
Valley Advocate

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-02-12
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: At last week's Pioneer Institute panel discussion, a new working paper on "building the next urban economy" was presented and made available. Written by the institute's executive director, James Stergios, the paper is called "Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment" (PDF). Along with the paper itself, the institute also makes available the slide presentation (PPT) that accompanied Stergios's unveiling of the report. [read more...]

Pension predicament
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-01-28
Category: Better Government
Description: "University of Massachusetts trustees opened the door a crack when they gave William M. Bulger a fat “housing allowance” intended to boost his compensation and, predictably, Bulger wannabes now are trying to throw the door..." [read more...]

A BOOST FOR BOSTON: Convention center draws crowds and helps local economy, but still falls short of
The Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Steve Adams — Press date: 2007-01-27
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: "BOSTON - Attendance projections are on a record-setting pace as the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center enters its third full year of operation. More than 400,000 visitors are expected this year..." [read more...]

Tales from the trenches
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve Bailey — Press date: 2007-01-16
Category: Better Government
Description: John O'Leary spent two years in the trenches running the most expensive unemployment insurance system in the nation. That, of course, would be the Massachusetts unemployment insurance system....In a new analysis, O'Leary and Steve Poftak, research director at the Pioneer Institute, the conservative Boston think tank, say Massachusetts leads the nation in unemployment insurance taxes - an average of $637 per employee in 2005, or about twice the national average of $315. They blame the huge disparity on a number of factors, including: generous benefits, massive cross-subsidies for certain industries, the ability of the self-employed to lay themselves off, and what they call "frequent fliers" - those who turn up on the unemployment rolls year after year.... [read more...]

Treasurer seeks to blunt impact of Bulger pension
Salem News

Author(s): Edward Mason , Staff writer — Press date: 2007-01-10
Category: Better Government
Description: "Massachusetts Treasurer Timothy Cahill is moving to limit the damage of a November court ruling allowing former University of Massachusetts President William Bulger to enhance his state pension by including the value of job perks." [read more...]

Gov. Patrick, take pointers from Tony Blair
The Providence Journal

Author(s): Alan Petrillo — Press date: 2007-01-10
Category: Better Government
Description: "AFTER MORE THAN a decade of conservative rule, the playbook for the election was a familiar one. The right’s candidate promised fiscal restraint and toughness on crime, hammering the liberal challenger with hard-hitting ads. It had worked before, but this year turned out to be different." [read more...]

Pension deals still the norm at State House
Daily News of Newburyport

Author(s): — Press date: 2007-01-02
Category: Better Government
Description: After this paper published its series this summer on the burgeoning crisis in state retirement benefits, "Pension Tidal Wave," legislators crowed long and loud about their desire to reform the system.... ...favors are the norm on Beacon Hill, and they come at a cost to the rest of us taxpayers. A Pioneer Institute study last year put the cost of such legislated loopholes at $125 million.... [read more...]

GUEST VIEW: Time to overhaul transportation planning
SouthCoastToday.com

Author(s): Stephen Smith & Jim Stergios — Press date: 2006-12-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: "November's election settled many things, but transportation policy was not one of them. Recent events have demonstrated the price we pay for a disjointed transportation system." [read more...]

Remember the urban children
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2006-12-26
Category: Education
Description: "AMID A DAUNTING list of challenges you face on the heels of your historic election, I hope, Governor-elect Patrick, you will focus on an issue with which you are intimately familiar: giving urban kids access to educational opportunity." [read more...]

Study Finds Charter School Teachers Are Stakeholders (available upon request)


Author(s): — Press date: 1998-07-01
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

State audit questions actions in UMD estuaries project
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): — Press date: 0000-00-00
Category: Better Government
Description: The Massachusetts Estuaries Project, created by the state in 2001, studies estuaries from Duxbury to Cape Cod to help municipalities deal with development and pollution issues. ...The program was lauded by the Pioneer Institute this year, which estimated it would save municipalities $25 million to $35 million over six years....“In no way are we questioning the quality and effectiveness of the program,” said Mr. DeNucci’s spokesman, Glenn Briere. “It’s public money, and you need accountability.”... [read more...]