Entries by Editorial Staff

PioneerLegal Signs onto Amicus Briefs Urging U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Two Cases with Local Impact

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Petitions would affect group of local educators challenging compulsory union payments BOSTON – Pioneer Institute, through its public interest law initiative PioneerLegal, has signed onto amicus briefs at the invitation of the Pacific Legal Foundation that support petitions for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear two cases that would have a direct impact on Massachusetts. It is settled law that public employees who choose not to belong to the union that represents them can’t be required to pay fees to the union that would fund political activity. However, in 1977 the Supreme Court ruled in Abood v. Detroit Board of Education that employees who are not union members can be required to pay an “agency fee” that covers union contract […]

Public Statement: Pioneer Applauds MBTA Control Board For Seeking To Modernize Bus Maintenance

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Pioneer applauds the MBTA Fiscal and Management Control Board’s long-overdue action to use a competitive bidding process to modernize bus maintenance services.  Seeking competitive bids on bus maintenance will likely produce cost savings and service improvement, as it has for the T’s money room and warehousing and logistics. The Institute further recognizes that there will be vocal and politically motivated opposition to this action, but believes that the Control Board’s central concern must be representing the interests of MBTA customers.  It is extremely important for the T to take all reasonable actions to address its cost centers, especially in areas where costs are far more expensive than in comparable U.S. transit systems. (See Pioneer’s 2013 report,  The MBTA’s Out-of-Control Bus Maintenance […]

Study: Telemedicine Can Reduce Healthcare Costs, Improve Outcomes & Patient Satisfaction

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Calls on Massachusetts to adopt telemedicine through the Group Insurance Commission, MassHealth and other state-run health programs BOSTON – Massachusetts should more aggressively embrace telemedicine, which can reduce healthcare costs, increase patient satisfaction, and is more convenient for both patients and physicians, according to “Dialing up Telemedicine,” a new study published by Pioneer Institute. “Until now, Massachusetts has been tentative when it comes to reimbursing for telemedicine as part of Medicaid and other programs,” said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios.  “There’s more we can do to capture the lower costs and higher quality outcomes it can provide.” The most common form of telemedicine is live interactive appointments via videoconference that closely simulate in-person meetings between a patient and his […]

Extended Summer Enrichment Programs Most Effective, Cost-Efficient

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Part III of Pioneer Institute study series cites three approaches BOSTON – Massachusetts schools establishing summer enrichment programs to close the achievement gap between lower-income and higher-income students can have a greater impact by eventually expanding the program across multiple summers or for a full year, according to the last of a three-part series by Pioneer Institute on summer learning. The final paper, Expanding Educational Opportunities: Three Models for Extended Summer Enrichment Programs in Massachusetts, introduces three types of extended summer enrichment models: 12-month programs, multi-year summer-only programs, and multi-year, year-round programs. Many of the top schools interviewed as part of the project found it beneficial to extend their relationship with students into the school year utilizing one of those […]

“A Source of Wonderful Ideas and Terrific Innovation”

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“…yet another idea that came out of the Better Government Competition, in real-time, delivered by Pioneer Institute to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts…This organization, this event, for years and years and years has been a source of wonderful ideas and terrific innovation, and I want to, on behalf of the Commonwealth, thank you for your leadership and your work in so many different spaces…” – Governor Charlie Baker (view Governor Baker’s remarks in their entirety by clicking on the image above!) The Tall Ships weren’t the only attraction drawing a crowd to Rowes Wharf on Monday evening. Now in its 26th year, Pioneer’s Better Government Competition (BGC) Awards Dinner welcomed Governor Charlie Baker, MIT’s Dr. Joseph Coughlin, and BGC winner Kim […]

Study: States Should Provide Parents With More Information About Homeschooling Options

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Practice is growing rapidly; practitioners are becoming more diverse BOSTON – States should do more to acknowledge the viability of homeschooling as an educational option, and provide direction and information for parents seeking non-traditional schooling, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. “While homeschooling may not be the best choice for most families, the assumption that public school is the best option for all students is equally flawed,” said William Heuer, co-author of “Homeschooling: The Ultimate School Choice.” In 1980, an estimated 10,000 American families homeschooled.  By 2012, 1.8 million, or 3.4 percent of all K-12 students, were homeschooled.  That number likely topped two million last year, meaning more American students are now homeschooled than enrolled in parochial […]

Aging, Technology Take Center Stage at 2017 Better Government Awards Gala

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Last night, on an inspiring evening, against the backdrop of the beautiful Sail Boston parade of tall ships, Pioneer Institute held its annual Better Government Awards Gala. Longtime supporters and new friends gathered at the Boston Harbor Hotel to celebrate the country’s most innovative ideas to improve care for the aging, and leverage their skills in new ways. The audience heard from Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker, who discussed his administration’s initiatives on transportation, healthcare, and his new council to address healthy aging. Kim Brooks, the Chief Operating Officer of Senior Living at Hebrew Senior Life, accepted the top prize for her Better Government Competition entry, “The Right Care, Right Place, Right Time: Effectively Integrating Senior Care and Housing.”  And MIT AgeLab’s Joseph Coughlin, […]

Pioneer Institute Announces Winner of 26th Annual Better Government Competition

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MIT AgeLab Founder, Massachusetts Governor to Headline Awards Gala BOSTON – Pioneer Institute is pleased to announce that Boston-based Hebrew SeniorLife is the winner of the 26th annual Better Government Competition. The contest received nearly 100 entries from agencies and organizations across the U.S. on the topic, “Aging in America.” The winner, together with five runners-up and three special recognition recipients, will be honored at the Institute’s awards gala on June 19th at the Boston Harbor Hotel in Boston. The Keynote Speaker at the awards gala is Joseph F. Coughlin, Ph.D., Founder and Director of the MIT AgeLab, a research program that works with business, government, and non-profits to improve the quality of life of older people. Coughlin is a […]

Study Explores Potential for Medical Voc-Tech Education in Catholic Schools

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Programs could help stem enrollment declines, provide opportunity to disadvantaged students BOSTON – A new Pioneer Institute study explores whether medical vocational-technical education could be a tool to help area Catholic schools address declining enrollment and also provide economically disadvantaged students with the knowledge and skills that are in high demand among employers. “Some fear that vocational-technical education would tarnish Catholic schools’ brand as a runway to college,” said Alison L. Fraser, co-author of “The Healing Hand: Modeling Catholic Medical Vocational-Technical Schooling.”  “But it could also help stem the tide of declining enrollment while providing needy kids with an express lane to the middle class.” Recent history demonstrates that college-prep and vocational-technical education can be combined successfully.  After the commonwealth’s […]

Q & A on the Status of Senate Amendment 1031 (the Keenan/Pacheco Amendment)

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On Thursday May 25, 2017, the Massachusetts Senate adopted an amendment to the FY2018 state budget that would undermine the MBTA’s three-year exemption from the Pacheco Law, the MBTA’s one-of-a-kind anti-privatization law imposed by the legislature in 1993. The Senate amendment was filed at the behest of MBTA unions in an attempt to put the brakes on the MBTA’s plans to seek competitive bids on approximately one-third of its bus maintenance services, which cost more per hour of bus operation than at all other major transit agencies in the U.S.  The MBTA estimates that it could save up to 50 percent of its costs per hour of bus operation by doing so. This Q & A provides information about the status of the amendment.

Report Calls on FMCB to Seek Legislative Intervention on Projected 18-Year, $1.485 Billion T Pension Shortfall

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New evaluation commissioned by MBTA projects T contributions would increase by more than $1 billion under terms of current pension agreement BOSTON – With the current MBTA pension agreement set to expire in June 2018 and a new evaluation projecting a $1.485 billion increase in retirement costs over the next 18 years under terms of the current agreement, the T’s Fiscal and Management Control Board (FMCB) should take immediate action to protect the authority’s precarious finances, according to a new Policy Brief published by Pioneer Institute. “To make matters worse, an evergreen provision means terms of the current pension agreement will continue to be enforced unless amendments are agreed to by both parties or imposed via final and binding arbitration,” […]

Op-ed: Marshall Plan brought U.S. to apex of power

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By Jamie Gass June 5, 2017 “The cost of war in human lives is constantly spread before me, written neatly in many ledgers whose columns are gravestones,” said American five-star General George C. Marshall. “I am deeply moved to find some means or method of avoiding another calamity of war.” June 5 marks the 70th anniversary of Gen. Marshall’s 1947 Harvard University post-commencement address, where he announced the Marshall Plan’s $13 billion offer ($130 billion in 2016 dollars) to help rebuild World War II-torn Europe. “(D)eath and atrocity seemed to be everywhere,” said “Savage Continent” author Keith Lowe. Europe witnessed 35-40 million people killed, including six million Jews exterminated in the Holocaust. Forty million people were displaced. Thirteen million children […]

Op-ed: Will district schools embrace charter-like reforms?

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This op-ed appeared in CommonWealth magazine. TOM BIRMINGHAM Jun 2, 2017 LONG BEFORE MORE than $40 million was spent last year making the cases for and against charter public school expansion, I was skeptical about using a statewide ballot initiative to decide the question. I believe ballot initiatives are best reserved for instances where the Legislature is flouting public opinion, and that wasn’t so with Massachusetts charters, which were created and then increased several times via legislation. But now that the voters have spoken, the Commonwealth must pursue ways to incorporate the reforms into traditional public schools that have made Massachusetts charters so successful. The rejection of more charter schools at the ballot box means it could be a decade […]

Pioneer Experts Offer Contrasting Prescriptions For MA Healthcare

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BOSTON – New policy briefs from Josh Archambault and Barbara Anthony, two senior fellows in healthcare at Pioneer Institute, offer differing prescriptions for how Massachusetts should navigate uncertainty in the healthcare market, as Congress debates the fate of the federal Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Public Statement On UMass Boston Finances

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According to a State House News Service story yesterday, Education Secretary Jim Peyser told the House Bonding Committee that “the state will use a new process to evaluate capital projects and allocate funds, starting with the fiscal 2019 capital budget. Under the framework, campuses will respond to a request for proposals and their plans will be reviewed by a committee that will make recommendations to the governor.” This is a welcome development — a win for good government, UMass and taxpayers alike. Peyser noted that “uneven and episodic” maintenance has resulted in an “enormous deferred maintenance backlog that is getting worse, not better,” even going so far as to say that “the capital investment challenge facing higher education is similar to that […]

Celebrating National Charter Public Schools Week

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Great charter public schools are about great leadership. Charters in Massachusetts are the best in the country at bridging achievement gaps for our neediest students. They were authorized through the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act, authored by Bay State leaders like Governor William Weld, Senate President Tom Birmingham, and Representative Mark Roosevelt. They believe that access to a quality education is a civil right, as education is the steppingstone to a better life. Education reformers often hearken back to the civil rights movement, drawing inspiration from the bold leadership that changed the nation, from the plaintiffs in the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court case, the Little Rock Nine, and MLK’s March on Washington. Pioneer Institute recently hosted an […]

Study Applauds State Decision To Let Healthcare Spending Benchmark Decrease

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Calls on policy makers to continue pursuing efforts to trim healthcare spending BOSTON – A new Pioneer Institute Policy Brief applauds the decision by the Commonwealth’s Health Policy Commission to allow the benchmark for increases in the overall rate of healthcare spending to decrease this year, but urges state policy makers to remain focused on the larger culture changes that will be needed to rein in healthcare costs. “It’s important to keep our cost control expectations high,” said Pioneer Senior Fellow in Healthcare Barbara Anthony, who coauthored “Lowering the Healthcare Cost Growth Benchmark” with Scott Haller.  “But we must stay focused on the larger factors that drive healthcare costs.” Haller and Anthony urge the commonwealth to carefully study the performance […]

2017 Hewitt Healthcare Lecture: Innovations In The Massachusetts Healthcare Market

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BOSTON – While efforts to revise the federal healthcare law continue, Pioneer Institute is focused on real innovations in the healthcare market. “Evolving Healthcare Delivery Models” is the topic of the Institute’s 11th annual Hewitt Lecture in Healthcare, which will be held tonight at Harvard Medical School’s Joseph B. Martin Conference Center, 77 Avenue Louis Pasteur Boulevard in Boston. Former Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center President and CEO Paul F. Levy will moderate a panel discussion on the changing face of the healthcare market and innovations to meet consumer demand. The distinguished panel will include Dr. Tobias Barker, Fay Donohue, Dr. Rushika Fernandopulle, and Rob Graybill. Fay Donohue is an Advanced Leadership Initiative fellow at Harvard University. She also chairs […]

Pioneer is critical because UMass is critical

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The University of Massachusetts system is critical to the future of the commonwealth’s economy, and that is why Pioneer started drawing attention to the finances of the five-campus system in the spring of 2016 through the release of its three-part series. With a deferred maintenance backlog of more than $3 billion, the UMass system is in the midst of an irresponsible capital expansion program that has neglected that backlog. Gov. Baker may have provided the Boston campus with an emergency bailout of $78 million in state funding to demolish its much-discussed parking garage, but this is a BandAid and not a cure.  After all, the infusion of state funds comes in addition to the $74 million state taxpayers have contributed […]

So you want to know something about pensions?

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Now anyone can become a local pension system expert…  A stitch in time saves nine. But how much will the hole unravel before the seamstress gets the call? We all know procrastination is a bad habit, but it’s far worse if the procrastinators are stewards of the public trust. For far too long, policy makers at all levels of government have avoided hard choices in favor of compromising the public’s future. One of the most blatant examples of this decaying stewardship is the failure of governments to adequately fund pension plans at the time employees earn benefits and the expense is incurred. Leaders and legislatures all know that a day of reckoning must come for such irresponsible behavior, but it […]

Study Estimates $27 Million In Savings Annually From Consolidation Of Public Pensions

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Local retirement systems generate heavy costs, larger fiduciary risks BOSTON – Massachusetts’s 102 local pension systems typically report administrative costs that are much higher than those of the Massachusetts State Employees’ Retirement System (MSERS), according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. In “The Bay State’s Public-Pension Complex: Costly and Unaccountable,” Dr. Iliya Atanasov finds that the 102 local systems (84 municipal, 12 regional, and 6 “special” systems such as the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency and Massport) have average per-member administrative costs that are at least three times those of the MSERS.  Many are far higher. “Hyper-expensive agency funds like those of Massport and the Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency should be folded into the state system,” said Pioneer Executive Director […]

Op-ed: Why Mass. must not let up on testing students

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By Tom Birmingham   APRIL 13, 2017 Massachusetts’ story is well known in the education world. In the wake of the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act, student achievement shot up, and the Commonwealth’s students became the nation’s best performers. The law worked not only because it was good policy, but because the grand bargain at its core — a massive infusion of new state money in return for high standards and enhanced accountability — was politically viable. Parts of it have come under attack in the intervening decades, but a Massachusetts Teachers Association bill that would place a three-year moratorium on the graduation requirement that public school students pass state tests in English, math, and science represents the first frontal […]

Follow-Up Survey Finds Hospitals Still Fall Short On Price Transparency

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Estimated price of routine procedure at 21 Massachusetts hospitals shows price variations of up to 1,000 percent Read media coverage of this report in The Boston Globe, the Boston Herald, the Springfield Republican, Beckers Healthcare, State House News Service. Healthcare Finance, and The Lowell Sun. BOSTON – Eighteen months after an initial survey found little price transparency at Massachusetts hospitals, a follow-up study from Pioneer Institute reveals that it remains highly unlikely that ordinary consumers can get a hospital price estimate within two business days of requesting it, as required by state law. For “Massachusetts Hospitals Score Poorly on Price Transparency… Again,” researchers called 21 hospitals that had been part of the earlier survey to again request a self-pay estimate for an MRI of the left knee without contrast.  Only nine of the hospitals […]

Commemorating The 100th Anniversary Of U.S. Entry Into World War I

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On Tuesday, April 4th, at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston, Pioneer Institute held a forum (see press release) with award-winning historians and history teachers marking the 100th anniversary of U.S. entry into the First World War. The event was co-sponsored by the United States World War I Centennial Commission, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Massachusetts Historical Society, the International Museum of World War II, The Concord Review, the National Association of Scholars, and the Program on Education Policy & Governance at the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Pioneer Institute was proud to hold this forum in conjunction with the Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies. Pioneer believes […]

Study: Evidence Suggests MBTA Pension Low-Balled Costs And Liabilities

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Quarter-century of data shows costs at up to six times valuation assumptions, suggests MBTARF financial picture was made to appear artificially rosy BOSTON – Data from valuation reports and other financial documents suggest that suspect actuarial practices may have helped misstate the real costs of MBTA Retirement Fund (MBTARF) pensions, compounding to an estimated $200 million of underfunding over a period of 25 years from administrative expenses alone, according to a new study by Pioneer Institute. An actuarial valuation is intended to provide a reasonable approximation of the normal cost of pension benefits being earned, size up the long-term liabilities associated with the plan and determine the annual required contribution (ARC), the money going into the fund to ensure pensions […]

Teaching The First World War In Schools Is Topic For Pioneer History Forum

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Event to feature Pulitzer Prize winner, celebrated Pres. Wilson biographer, noted historians, and high school teachers BOSTON – A Pulitzer Prize winner and a finalist will each deliver keynote addresses at “The War to End All Wars: Teaching the First World War in Schools,” a Pioneer Institute forum to be held as part of the 47th Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies on Tuesday, April 4th, from 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the U.S. Senate in Boston. The forum commemorates the 100th anniversary of U.S. entry into World War I.  In April 1917, Congress declared war on Germany. David Kennedy, the Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History Emeritus at Stanford University, will […]

Finance Committee & Town Meeting Members: Benchmarking Tools for the FY2018 Budget Season

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Understanding how your community performs relative to its peers is critical in effectively scrutinizing municipal budgets. Pioneer Institute has reintroduced its FREE online tool, MassAnalysis, with the most up-to-date information available from the Department of Revenue and FBI to help you do just that. With a couple of clicks, you can develop a dashboard for your community based on its revenues, expenditures, demographics, employment, crime, debt, education, financial strength, taxes, and transportation. For example, the image below is a graph of the Town of Natick’s expenditures. On MassAnalysis, you can generate a peer group based on the metrics you choose to enter. The program will then display the most closely matched peer communities based on your selection. In this example, we picked peers […]

“The War to End All Wars”: Teaching the First World War in Schools

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Please join Pioneer Institute, the United States World War One Centennial Commission, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, the Northeast Regional Conference on the Social Studies, and other co-sponsors, at a forum with award-winning historians and history teachers marking the 100th anniversary of U.S. entry into the First World War. America’s first engagement as a major global actor, the rise of German militarism and the Soviet Union, and the geographic boundaries of the Middle East, are only some of the reasons why World War I is often considered the most influential event of the 20th century. Learn why we have a duty to ensure students know about our shared past. Featured Speakers: Cost: Free When: Tuesday April 4, 2017 from 10:00 AM to […]

Putting The T On A Clear Path To High Performance

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Pioneer Institute recently submitted public testimony to the Fiscal and Management Control Board weighing in on the MBTA’s draft Strategic Plan. The Institute commends the Board for its work to date and recognizes that there is still much more work to be done to set the MBTA on a sustainable course to accomplish its mission and attain a far greater degree of financial independence. Pioneer will continue to prod the MBTA toward improvement, but we recognize that an extension of the control board structure and the exemption from the anti-competitive Pacheco Law are critical if progress in the T’s performance is to be advanced with urgency. Our top priorities for the MBTA’s long-term strategy include the following: The MBTA’s over-arching principle for […]

Study Finds MBTA Had Nation’s Highest Bus Maintenance Costs In 2015

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Reducing costs to average of the most similar U.S. transit systems would have saved nearly $44 million For inquiries contact Micaela Dawson at mdawson@pioneerinstitute.org. View coverage of this report in the Boston Herald and on Fox 25. BOSTON – The most recent data available from the National Transit Database show that the MBTA had the highest vehicle maintenance costs per hour of bus operations among the 25 largest U.S. public transit agencies in 2015, and that reducing those costs to the average of the five agencies most like the T would have saved $43.7 million that year, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute. MBTA vehicle maintenance costs per hour of bus operations in 2015 were 70.6 percent […]