Entries by Editorial Staff

Massachusetts Health Care Reform in Record Time

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http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2012/05/11/massachusetts-health-care-reform-record-time/ If you blinked over the past seven days, you might have missed the roll-out of two major pieces of legislation that will dramatically restructure health care delivery in Massachusetts.  While the Governor put his proposal out more than a year ago, it’s taken the Legislature a long time to take up the issue. And now suddenly, everyone is in a rush.  The House rushed their bill out the door at an oddly timed, late-afternoon press conference on Friday, May 4.  They plan on debating the bill in a month or so. The Senate is in even a bigger rush; their bill came out on Wednesday, May 9.  Amendments are due by 5 p.m. on Friday.  And debate begins on […]

Filling the job training gap

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http://www.commonwealthmagazine.org/Voices/Back-Story/2012/Spring/005-Filling-the-job-training-gap.aspx Adrian Walker’s column in the Boston Globe on Monday, outlining a tale of shockingly clueless leadership at Roxbury Community College, may have delivered as big a punch as all the many reports that have documented abysmal graduation rates and dysfunctional career-path programming at some of the state’s community colleges. Walker wrote about an effort by some of the state’s most high-powered business honchos to bring a job training program to RCC. Good paying jobs are, of course, key to breaking the generational cycle of poverty that is all too prevalent in minority neighborhoods surrounding the Columbus Avenue campus. That would seem to have made the job-training offer by the Massachusetts Competitive Partnership a no-brainer. Instead, RCC’s president, Terrence Gomes, […]

Taxachusetts redux

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http://www.pharmacychoice.com/News/article.cfm?Article_ID=884991 May 11Gov. Deval Patrick has ushered in the return of Taxachusetts taxing and spending more than ever, new figures show. The latest state numbers show Massachusetts has taken in a record $17.21 billion in income and sales taxes and other levies during the current fiscal year’s first 10 months. That’s $91 million more than the previous record of $17.13 billion that the state netted during the same period of fiscal year 2008 before adjusting for inflation. Other figures show Massachusetts will spend an all-time high of $30.6 billion in the 12 months ending June 30  up 14.1 percent in four years. “I think taxpayers have every reason to demand a slowdown in the growth of spending,” David Tuerck, of Suffolk […]

Legislator: Tech schools should change their admissions policies

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http://www.sentinelandenterprise.com/local/ci_20581617/legislator-tech-schools-should-change-their-admissions-policies#ixzz2NdY6GEln If a wait list is a sign of success, vocational-technical high schools across the state are thriving. But with more students being denied entry to the schools each year, one lawmaker is questioning whether they are serving the population of students for which they are intended. “Some families are choosing to send their kids to vocational schools when they are really on the college track,” said state Rep. Colleen Garry, D-Dracut. “These kids are taking the spots of kids who really need to learn a trade and are not going to go to college.” Garry authored an amendment to the fiscal 2013 House budget last month calling for the Department of Education to study the high-school dropout rates of […]

Wall Street Journal: Conservatives Oppose National Standards

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http://blog.heritage.org/2012/05/09/wall-street-journal-conservatives-oppose-national-standards/ Opponents of national standards and tests see the push as furthering “federal intrusion into state education matters,” asserts the Wall Street Journal today. While the standards have been touted as “voluntary” by proponents, the Obama Administration’s heavy promotion of the standards—tying Race to the Top dollars to a state’s adoption of the standards, by suggesting that federal Title I money for low-income schools could be tied to their adoption, and, most recently, by making No Child Left Behind (NCLB) waivers contingent upon a state’s adoption of common standards—makes them anything but “voluntary.” And if these standards were simply an option on the table for states to pick up of their own volition, it’s curious that U.S. Secretary of Education […]

Not grateful for “charter school cap lift”

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/05/not_grateful_for_charter_schoo.html The 2010 Achievement Gap bill that was passed by both the House and the Senate and signed into law by Governor Patrick lifted the limits on charter schools and the number of students in them in districts that were failing to see improvements in student achievement.  Rather than limiting the number of students to 9% in these largely urban districts, the law allowed up to 18% of students to attend charter schools. The six-year period for the expansion up to 18 percent of students was not coincidental.  It aligns with the six-year reimbursement schedule for districts, by which districts: receive 100% of the per-pupil funding for in the first year after a student leaves for a public charter; continues […]

Diminished literature curriculum hinders scholarship

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http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120508/OPINION/205080303/-1/NEWS06 April was National Poetry Month and there’s nowhere that designation should have more meaning than in Massachusetts, where John Adams’ 1780 state constitution explicitly instructs future leaders to “cherish the interests of literature.” Every region of Massachusetts has produced great poets. Transcendentalists Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau lived in Concord; Emily Dickinson lived in prolific seclusion in Amherst; Herman Melville, who wrote Civil War poems, lived in Pittsfield; and Edgar Allan Poe, author of “The Raven” and other creepy tales, was born in Boston. The Merrimack Valley has been referred to as the “Valley of the Poets” since Puritan author Anne Bradstreet and abolitionist poet John Greenleaf Whittier were buried there. In the Pioneer Valley, Greenfield’s Poet’s […]

Reactions To House Health Reform Plan: Confusion, Cheers, Concerns

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http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/05/health-reform-reactions Times like this separate the true health reform wonks from the wannabes. Did you spend your weekend poring through H.4070, An Act relative to Health Care Quality Improvement and Cost Reduction Act of 2012, which was finally unveiled Friday afternoon? For the hard core, this was a health cost weekend: No time for lilacs or Little League, what the heck does this thing say and what does it mean? (Here’s our initial summary.) Though many of the bill’s proposals were long expected, reaction tended to be muted on Friday because everyone needed a chance to digest. Now, the considered analyses are beginning to roll in, and we aim to make CommonHealth their home, much as it was during the […]

SB 172 Testing Consortium Dispute Colors Last Days of Legislative Session

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http://www.ediswatching.org/2012/05/sb-172-testing-consortium-dispute-colors-last-days-of-legislative-session/ Phew! There are only a few days left in Colorado’s legislative session, but there are still education bills left that deserve our attention. My new grown-up friends at Parent Led Reform today have their sights set on stopping Senate Bill 172, one of the shortest pieces of legislation you may ever lay eyes on: The bill directs the state to join as a governing board member a consortium of states that is developing a common set of assessments. For assessments in reading, writing, and mathematics, the state board will rely upon assessments developed by the consortium. What’s the big deal, you say? I thought you’d never ask. There’s a reason why the State Board of Education voted 4-3 to […]

The Great Experiment

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http://runningahospital.blogspot.com/2012/05/great-experiment.html If you read only one book about state and federal health care policy, it should be The Great Experiment: The States, the Feds and Your Healthcare.  Published by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, it is the most articulate and rigorous presentation of issues that I have seen, a stark contrast from many papers, articles, and speeches that slide by as “informed debate” in Massachusetts and across the country.  I learned more about health care policy from this book than from anything else I have read in the last decade. While the book is constructed as a number of chapters by experts in field, it has a consistent voice and and is highly readable.  There is an engaging explanation by Jennifer […]

Mitt Romney Homeland Security Record In Massachusetts: Domestic Spying, Wiretapping

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/04/mitt-romney-homeland-security-massachusetts_n_1467940.html Mitt Romney ran for governor of Massachusetts as the man who saved the 2002 winter Olympics. While much of his focus had been on righting the games in Salt Lake City after its organizing committee became mired in a U.S. bribery scandal, security was also a top priority. These were the first U.S. Olympic games since the bombing at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics and, taking place just five months after the 9/11 attacks, they presented an enticing and high-profile target for terrorists. Dealing with those threats in Salt Lake City led Romney not only to overhaul homeland security in the Bay State, but to shape policy on the national level. When he was sworn in as governor on Jan. […]

Controlling Education from the Top: Why Common Core Is Bad for America

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Why Common Core Is Bad for America Author(s): Emmett McGroarty and Jane Robbins — Publication date: 2012-05-10 Category: Education Abstract: The American Legislative Exchange Council’s Public Sector Board of Directors must decide whether to uphold the Education Task Force’s approval of the Comprehensive Legislative Package Opposing the Common Core State Standards Initiative. The Task Force’s public-sector members approved the package on a 14-6 vote, and its private-sector members approved the package on an 8-4 vote. This legislation provides a model for legislatures to reclaim state responsibility for education decision-making –which has been gravely impaired as a result of the Common Core. Common Core suffers from a number of systemic defects. We have already seen that the claims of state involvement […]

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards Cuts Ties to ALEC

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http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/01/1087935/-National-Board-for-Professional-Teaching-Standards-Cuts-Ties-to-ALEC The national certifying body for teachers in the United States, the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), participated in the Education Task Force of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) until April 2012. In an official statement sent to the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) today, NBPTS spokesperson Brian Lewis said, “Given recent events, the new NBPTS President and CEO decided to discontinue engagement with ALEC. As a result, NBPTS terminated its membership as an Education Task Force Member of ALEC effective April 18, 2012, and also withdrew from participating in the upcoming ALEC conference. . . . The decision to participate in ALEC had been made by previous NBPTS leadership.” Although primarily a non-profit organization focusing […]

N.J. rethinking high school tests

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http://articles.philly.com/2012-05-01/news/31519840_1_new-tests-graduation-rates-high-school-proficiency-assessment Gov. Christie announced Monday that he wanted to do away with the state’s current high school assessment exams and instead use end-of-course tests. Christie was endorsing recommendations of the College and Career Readiness Task Force, which found that the state assessments now in use — the High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) and the Alternative High School Assessment (AHSA) — are not aligned with standards New Jersey and most other states have adopted and are not a good gauge of whether students are prepared for college. Even students who pass the HSPA may require remedial courses in college, the task force found. In addition, the administration said the state has adopted a new, federally mandated method of calculating graduation rates […]

Why States Should Jump from National Education Standards Bandwagon

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http://www.texasinsider.org/why-states-should-jump-from-the-national-standards-bandwagon/ Texas Insider Report: WASHINGTON, DC – When “states signed on to common core standards, they did not realize…that they were transferring control of the school curriculum to the federal government,” said Sandra Stotsky, 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform, speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. Stotsky and four other education scholars from around the nation met to discuss the Obama Administration’s growing push for Common Core national education standards and why states should resist Washington’s attempt to further centralize education. The Obama Administration’s press for common education standards is not the first time the federal government has attempted to meddle in school curriculum, as Williamson Evers, research fellow at […]

Mass. Taxpayers Foundation Responds To Critics On Health Reform Spending

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http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2012/04/mass-taxpayers-foundation-critics A new Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation (MTF) study finds that in fiscal 2011, the state’s share of spending attributable to the 2006 health reform law was $453 million, or 1.4% of the $32 billion budget. And, when you look at the first five years of state spending for health reform, the annual increase, year-to-year, averaged about $91 million. In short, health reform hasn’t been a “budget-buster” as some critics have claimed. Pretty good news, right? Well, the Pioneer Institute‘s Josh Archambault and Amy Lischko aren’t so sure. While they largely accept the way MTF calculated the cost of health reform, they’ve applied some creative accounting to challenge the report’s conclusions. A little background might be helpful: With our focus on […]

UMass law school not meeting goals, foes say

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http://www.dolanmedia.com/view.cfm?recID=770766 A Boston-based think tank is claiming the University of Massachusetts School of Law has been quietly extending the timetable for still-unmet academic goals that were set when the school opened its doors in 2010. The fiscally conservative Pioneer Institute alleges that UMass has essentially moved the goalposts by putting off anticipated benchmarks for GPA and LSAT scores at the Dartmouth school. The findings — posted on the group’s website at www.pioneerinst.wpengine.com — surfaced following a prolonged public records request Pioneer engaged in with the school, according to the institute. It says it also based its assertions on a slide show presentation by the UMass-Dartmouth chancellor in February that detailed the public law school’s academic projections. Those projections differed from […]

Conflicts of interest in Mass’s adoption of national education standards

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“No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his integrity.” – James Madison, Federalist #10 In this season of US Supreme Court decisions we’re reminded that independent and objective judgment on key legal and public policy matters has been an aspiration in Anglo-America law and justice (not to mention scientific inquiry) for centuries. In America, it was John Adams in Massachusetts and James Madison of Virginia who were best at articulating the importance of independent judgment. The push for national education standards has brought to light a variety of troubling questions about the legality, cost, and academic quality that has been discussed here and […]

Palin Was A Prophet About Obama’s Education Takeover

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http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/04/26/palin_was_a_prophet_about_obamas_education_takeover_113966.html Sarah Palin was the first to recognize the problem: By participating in President Obama’s signature education initiative, the Common Core Standards, Alaska would lose control over its own curriculum. On May 31, 2009, then-Gov. Palin announced Alaska would adopt a “watch and wait” attitude: “If this initiative produces useful results, Alaska will remain free to incorporate them,” Gov. Palin said, adding that “high expectations are not always created by new, mandated federal standards written on paper. They are created in the home, the community and the classroom.” Texas Gov. Rick Perry, to his credit, was the next to recognize a federal boondoggle when he saw one: “I will not commit Texas taxpayers to unfunded federal obligations or to the […]

Nashoba Tech makes pitch to Shirley selectmen

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http://www.lowellsun.com/local/ci_20475903/nashoba-tech-makes-pitch-shirley-board Ayer’s application to join the Nashoba Valley Technical School District was not the focus of the annual presentation Superintendent Judith Klimkiewicz made to selectmen Monday night, but it was part of it. Even though selectmen didn’t vote on whether they support the application, they didn’t raise any concerns about it either. So far, the only community out of seven– Chelmsford, Groton, Littleton, Pepperell, Shirley, Townsend and Westford — whose officials have indicated they don’t support it is Chelmsford, said Nashoba Tech School Committee Chairman Jennifer Rhodes. She didn’t know what the problem was, though. “We’ve seen support in all the other towns,” she said. “Does Chelmsford still feel that way?” Selectman Kendra Dumont asked. Klimkiewicz said she didn’t know. […]

The power of the New Orleans school reform

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http://boston.com/community/blogs/rock_the_schoolhouse/2012/04/louisiana_marches_to_its_own_b.html For all the talk about a big national education agenda, the fact is that little implementation of the national standards is actually going on.  Lots of talk, lots of money being spent, but business as usual on the federal front. In a number of states, and without any connection to the federal ed department’s lumbering efforts, there’s been a tsunami of school choice programs.  Times-Picayune reports that The Louisiana House of Representatives has given final approval to the central pieces of Gov. Bobby Jindal’s sweeping agenda to restructure primary and secondary education in Louisiana.  With the 60-43 vote for House Bill 974 and a subsequent 60-42 vote for House Bill 976, Louisiana will, among other details, curtail teacher tenure […]

Why States Should Hop Off the National Standards Bandwagon

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http://blog.heritage.org/2012/04/23/why-states-should-hop-off-the-national-standards-bandwagon/ When “states signed on to common core standards, they did not realize…that they were transferring control of the school curriculum to the federal government,” said Sandra Stotsky, 21st Century Chair in Teacher Quality at the University of Arkansas’s Department of Education Reform, speaking at The Heritage Foundation on Tuesday. Stotsky and four other education scholars from around the nation met to discuss the Obama Administration’s growing push for Common Core national education standards and why states should resist Washington’s attempt to further centralize education. The Obama Administration’s press for common education standards is not the first time the federal government has attempted to meddle in school curriculum, as Williamson Evers, research fellow at the Hoover Institution, explained at Tuesday’s […]

Strauss, Kinney the right choices

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http://www.wickedlocal.com/swampscott/newsnow/x1783273805/EDITORIAL-Strauss-Kinney-the-right-choices#axzz2OHGE6ymJ One thing Swampscott’s top two boards lack is experience. On the Board of Selectmen, only Jill Sullivan has been on the board for more  than one term. No one on the School Committee has served for more than one  term. Experience brings with it a number of things that help a town committee  maneuver through the weekly business of the town. Most importantly is  institutional knowledge. Each problem a committee faces is less of a hurdle when  members can turn to one with more experience and say, “How did we handle this  last time?” But experience also brings with it knowledge of another sort. They know what  can and, often more importantly, what cannot, be done. They know what […]

Federal Overhaul Will Require Mass To Adjust its Health Reform Law

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http://www.californiahealthline.org/articles/2012/1/31/federal-overhaul-will-require-mass-to-adjust-its-health-reform-law.aspx#ixzz2O6SYjEp4 Although the 2006 Massachusetts health reform law contains many of the same  provisions as the federal health reform law, state officials must make changes  to comply with federal overhaul standards, Politico reports. About the Massachusetts Law The Massachusetts law was signed by GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney  when he was governor. Among the provisions that both laws have in common are: A health insurance exchange; An individual mandate; A requirement that insurers cover all individuals regardless of pre-existing  conditions; and Tax subsidies to help people pay for insurance. Working Out the Differences Despite the similarities, Massachusetts officials are working on  consolidating key differences between the state and federal laws. For example, the Massachusetts mandate levies higher fines than the […]

State Roundup: State Spending Drops $290 Billion In 5 Years

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News outlets examine a variety of state health policy issues, including articles from California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Oregon. Reuters: Revenue Wilted, States Rely On Cuts To Meet Budget Trapped in a revenue wasteland, U.S. states have cut spending by $290 billion over the last five years, with the largest reductions coming this year, according to a think tank that tracks state fiscal conditions. In fiscal 2012, which for most states began last July, cuts totaled $140 billion, “almost as much as the combined total for the previous four years,” according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. … More than half the 50 states cut higher education spending this year, and at […]

Senate begins budget ‘markup’ – Sign of a damaged Congress – ACA SCOTUS ruling could bring chaos – SCOTUS rules on generics – Ways and Means targets exchange subsidies

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http://www.politico.com/politicopulse/0412/politicopulse725.html TODAY: SENATE BUDGET BEGINS ‘MARKUP’ — The Senate’s top budget guru on Tuesday said he’s introducing the so-called “Simpson-Bowles” deficit report with hopes of building a bipartisan consensus before the end of the year. The committee will begin a markup on the plan today. Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad said he’ll release the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform’s report (http://www.fiscalcommission.gov) as a chairman’s mark. But it will be a “markup” in name only. Conrad said there will be time for opening statements and a vote won’t be planned for months. The North Dakota Democrat said that’s the time required to work through the “geeky” budget resolution and have bipartisan negotiations with the Simpson-Bowles document as a […]

Another take on “budget buster” report: Health law was more expensive, one analyst says

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http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2012/04/18/another-take-budget-buster-report-health-law-was-more-expensive-one-analyst-says/P3MWkYqHtZG5MMYUGX6PvM/story.html Josh Archambault appreciates that there are other people in the state, besides him, trying to calculate the overall cost of the 2006 Massachusetts law requiring most residents to have health insurance.  And, he said, he thinks a report out last week from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation mostly got it right. But one figure in the report, putting the annual increase in state spending for health reform between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2011 at about $91 million, just struck him as odd. The report, funded by the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, explained that the number came from calculating the difference between the 2011 and 2006 budgets and dividing that in half to account for the […]

Attracting Business Without Giving Away the Store

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http://www.governing.com/blogs/bfc/col-state-tax-incentive-economic-development-pew-study.html Each day, memories of the 1990s economic boom grow more remote, replaced by what feels like a permanent era of scarcity. In an effort to show that they are working to create jobs and promote economic activity, state leaders are increasingly turning to tax incentives for economic development. They range from credits, exemptions or deductions — either for specific industries or for companies that agree to hire a certain number of people — to enticements for companies to move to a particular neighborhood. Every state has at least one such program, and taxpayers invest billions of dollars in them each year, so it’s important that they are having the desired impact. Bad investments leave less money for education, health […]

Old foe resurfaces as law school pursues accreditation

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http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120415/NEWS/204150354/1003/TOWN02 The UMass School of Law may be up and running and financially healthy, but some of its old opponents are still taking aim at it at a critical time. Steve Poftak, budget chief under law school opponent Gov. Mitt Romney and now at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, posted an opinion blog in March criticizing the fledgling law school’s progress and transparency, or lack of it. He charged that the school has pushed back the target dates for meeting higher benchmarks in grade point averages, LSAT scores, and bar exam pass rates. UMass spokesman John Hoey pushed back on the pushback, saying that the law school is comfortably “at or near” its targets in all of those categories. Not […]