Entries by Editorial Staff

KaiPod Learning’s Amar Kumar on Homeschooling Pods & Blended Education

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard talk with Amar Kumar, founder and CEO of KaiPod Learning, a network of in-person education centers for online learners and homeschoolers, based in Massachusetts. They discuss how the pandemic dramatically changed parents’ sentiments about their traditional public schools, opening the door to wider private school choice options, including homeschooling, micro schools, and pods.

Right To Save: Paying Healthcare Consumers To Shop For Value

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with healthcare policy expert Josh Archambault about the findings from his Cicero Institute report, The Right to Save: The Next Generation of Price Transparency. He outlines how to incentivize healthcare consumers to utilize price information to reduce out-of-pocket costs, and lower healthcare costs for everyone.

Stanford’s Pulitzer-Winning Prof. Jack Rakove on James Madison, The Federalist Papers, & U.S. Constitutionalism

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard talk with Dr. Jack Rakove, Coe Professor of History and American Studies and Professor of Political Science Emeritus at Stanford University, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution. Professor Rakove reviews the biography of James Madison, often called the “Father of the Constitution,” and the influence of classical and Enlightenment learning on his farsighted political thought and leadership.

Grading State Governors: Do Higher Taxes Equate To Higher Value?

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Cato Institute’s Chris Edwards about the new report he co-authored entitled, “Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors 2022.” They discuss how Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker’s fiscal stewardship compares with other states, and explore whether higher tax rates and spending correlate with better state performance and resident satisfaction.

Development Coordinator

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Pioneer Institute is hiring a Development Coordinator, responsible for supporting donor stewardship and office operations. He or she will work closely with the Annual Fund Director, the Development Associate, and the Chief Operating Officer. This is a unique opportunity to work with one of the country’s most effective think tanks, especially for individuals with a deep interest in public policy and social impact.

The Causes and Potential Cures for Inflation

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This week on Hubwonk, Harvard economist and Pioneer Institute board member Ed Glaeser interviews Larry Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and President Emeritus of Harvard University, for a special episode on the origins of inflation, its impact on the American economy, and a roadmap to recovery.

Sheetal Bahirat Turns a Profit on Food Waste

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This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Sheetal Bahirat, founder and CEO of Hidden Gems Beverage Company, maker of Reveal Avocado Seed Brew, and immigrant from India. Food waste is an understudied and underutilized component of our daily lives with huge implications for our bodies and the planet – it is the number one contributor to climate change.

Republicans at a Crossroads: Weighing the Boost and Baggage of the Trump Train

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with political scientist and author, Northeastern University Professor William Mayer, about the new book he has edited, The Elephant in the Room: Donald Trump and the Future of the Republican Party. They discuss how former president Trump has changed, and has been changed, by the GOP, and which path the Republican party is likely to take in the future.

How did tax hikes work out for Connecticut?

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Pioneer Institute’s Charlie Chieppo shares data on the economic impact of tax increases in Connecticut – which has the 2nd highest state and local tax burden in the country and ranks 49th in private sector wage and job growth. As Massachusetts considers a proposal to raise income taxes, it is important to learn from the experience of other states. Learn more.

Supreme Judicial Preview: Court Poised To Face Controversy

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with constitutional scholar Thomas Berry about the important questions being decided in the more high profile cases facing the newly opened session of the Supreme Court. They discuss how the addition of newly appointed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson could add a fresh perspective on the concept of originalism.

NYT Best Seller Laurence Bergreen on 530th Anniversary of Christopher Columbus Discovering the New World

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On this special Columbus Day edition of “The Learning Curve,” guest host Pioneer Institute’s Mary Z. Connaughton talks with Laurence Bergreen, a prize-winning biographer, historian, chronicler of exploration, and the author of Columbus: The Four Voyages, 1492-1504. Mr. Bergreen discusses what people should know about the life, career, and myths around Christopher Columbus, the courageous, ruthless, and complicated explorer and navigator, on the 530th anniversary of his history-changing and ever-controversial discovery of the New World.

NACSA’s Dr. Karega Rausch on Charter Public School Authorizing

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Karega Rausch, President and CEO of the National Association of Charter School Authorizers. Dr. Rausch shares some of his background, his interest in K-12 education reform and charter public schools, and lessons from Indiana and other states that inform his work.

Income Inequality Explored: Wage Gap Overlooks Government Intervention

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with John F. Early, economist and author of the newly released book, The Myth of American Inequality, about the history of income inequality, its true size, and trends. They also discuss how census data used in policy decision-making misses nearly all the effects of government intervention and distorts the truth about the income American families actually have to spend.

Hoover at Stanford’s Dr. Niall Ferguson on Britain, the English-Speaking World, & the Politics of Catastrophe

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This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara Candal and Gerard Robinson talk with Dr. Niall Ferguson, the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard. He is the author of 16 books, including “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe.”

Study: Legislators Must Answer Key Questions Before Setting Policy for App-Based Rideshare/Delivery Workers

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After Massachusetts’ Supreme Judicial Court declared an initiative that was to appear on the November ballot unconstitutional, the issue of how to classify app-based rideshare/delivery workers is back in the hands of the state Legislature.  A new study published by Pioneer Institute distills from the research literature eight questions legislators must answer before determining how to address this fast-growing industry.

Train Wreck Averted: Labor Ties American Economy to the Tracks

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This week on Hubwonk, host Joe Selvaggi talks with Dominic Pino, Thomas L. Rhodes Fellow at the National Review Institute, about his research and writing on the recently averted rail strike, including how the rail industry is organized, what labor’s demands were, and how the prospect of a nationwide rail strike exposed vulnerabilities within the American economy.

Two Stars in a Glowing Voc-Tech Education System

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“A Tale of Two City Schools: Worcester Tech and Putnam Academy Become Models for Recovery” is a new white paper by Pioneer Institute that analyzes how Worcester Tech and Putnam Academy — schools with high numbers of low-income and special needs students — leapt from the bottom of Massachusetts voc-tech rankings to become leaders among local schools.

Patrick Anquetil on America’s Freedom to Innovate

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This week on JobMakers, host Denzil Mohammed talks with Dr. Patrick Anquetil, immigrant from France and co-founder and CEO of Portal Instruments in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a clinical stage medical device company developing a needle-free drug delivery platform. As Patrick shares, there was no way he could have started a business like this in his home country.

Replicating the Massachusetts Model of Vocational-Technical Education

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This new report — “Replicating the Massachusetts Model of Vocational-Technical Education” — is a toolkit that can empower state leaders to transform their vocational-technical schools for the better. It builds on “Hands-On Achievement,” a book detailing the Massachusetts model that Pioneer published earlier this year.