Entries by Micaela Dawson

To gas tax or not to gas tax

/by

Kathleen Hunter’s piece, The Long and Taxing Road, in the July 2007 Governing magazine has some good information on Oregon’s experiment to understand the ability to replace or supplement the gas tax with technology (also a big theme here at Pioneer, see the transcript from our 2006 event Creating Mobility). Hunter notes: Every time [motorists’ odometers] blipped up by a mile, they owed the state of Oregon a tax of exactly 1.2 cents. The trip to Eugene from Portland, a 100-mile journey on Interstate 5, would cost $1.20. And that’s not counting for gas. The technology in place outside Portland counts miles traveled, avoids counting roads outside of Oregon, and can charge different amounts based on where in Oregon the […]

Hats off to the land of the Yanks

/by

New York may have fast fallen off the playoff charts. But the drumbeat of school reform is incessant these days, as incessant as the creaking rails and sounds of truck deliveries in Times Square. The Times, again this morning, brings glad tidings from a Mayor who is, as far as I am concerned, pitching fast balls as Mayor Menino and all of our mayors stand there with bat still firmly stuck on their shoulders. There are dozens of new charters, there is a Deval-style merit pay system, a focus on AP… And so it is this morning, where the Times reports on the Mayor’s new accountability system which gives an easy to digest grade to each school. The idea is […]

Fixin for a fight

/by

The Governor has frequently talked about his openness to lifting the cap on charter schools, but only with a financing fix, which certainly means reducing the funding to charters below the average per-pupil expenditures within the district school system. Say community X spends $10K per student in the traditional district schools, the new formula would halve that amount for parents of kids in the district who choose to go to a charter school. That’s what the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and Mass Association of School Committees want. The Governor has shown openness to this view, which of course makes charters financially unviable. I’ve often wondered about this proposal given all the court cases out there pushing for equitable funding […]

Dear critic, Do you or don’t you

/by

support the Massachusetts Health Care Reform? We get the question all the time, especially from other think tanks and national press outlets trying to figure out what this all means as the presidential election starts to show signs of life. (When presumed frontrunners of each party start hammering on each other, you know the line-up is soon to winnow down.) At the end of the day, Pioneer supports whatever will lead to better health care outcomes and contain the rising cost of care. It’s an empirical question, or to put it more colloquially, the proof is in the pudding. And anyone who’s been an in-patient knows it’s hard to be patient with what passes for dessert in the hospital. (Do […]

Brunch in Boston

/by

Brunch in Boston – or anywhere really – is a time to get caught up and let the conversation meander. No policy or politics this morning. Just some thoughts on kids, grey hair and Engelbert Humperdink. My brunch partner has an issue with America and its cultural decline. I know this is a broad and ugly topic, and it has gotten to the point where some blame our cultural loss for the Islamic Fundamentalist movement’s fire. Guys, I don’t get it. I mean, my sausage, yogurt and fruit (not a traditional mix, I know) was accompanied by Tom Jones over the wire. First we got the oldies-but-goodies like “What’s new pussycat?” with its deep refrain of Pussycat, pussycat, I love […]

Merit pay gaining steam

/by

As AP and the New York Times reported, New York Mayor Bloomberg is intent on throwing everything and the kitchen sink at education. Charters, AP-specific programs, testing and accountability, and now merit pay. I know Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier don’t think much of Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein’s reforms, but from afar we would give our left and right hands for the kind of can-do attitude and willingness to stake out big, structural changes. The lack of a new generation of education leaders on Beacon Hill is having its impact. Note the departure now of Mike Duffy of City on a Hill to, yup, New York City. The merit pay plan in New York is reminiscent in part of […]

Three choice selections on educational options

/by

In the Sunday Globe, Jim Peyser had a terrific (and hopeful) piece on the transformation of the New Orleans public school system. You think New Orleans is so different from many of our Middle Cities? Think again — and review Pioneer’s Rehabbing Urban Redevelopment. Failing schools, deep and troubling crime trends, and no economic opportunity. All that’s missing is Katrina. Then we can say how shocked we are at the “appearance” of a permanent underclass. Money quote from Peyser: The public schools in New Orleans were under water long before the levees broke. What has happened since the disaster, however, is redefining urban public education. Instead of simply rebuilding the old district, based on the old institutions, policy leaders in […]

Not rocket science – competition works

/by

The Sunday Globe ran a great story on the dawn of a new industry – the space rocket business. No, it is not some George Jetson (“with Jane, his wife”) cartoon. Burt Rutan, Jeff Greason, and Dave Masten are all hanging out in the Mojave desert designing, engineering and building rockets. As the Globe noted, Fifty years after the Soviets launched the satellite Sputnik into space, Mojave has found itself at the center of a private space race that boosters say is as important – and risky – as the nationalistic race between the Soviets and the United States.This time, a group of ambitious entrepreneurs is leading the competition to launch regular Janes and Joes into space. So why the […]

DiMasi Rex

/by

Ready, AIM, fire! Call it what you want–line in the sand, declaration of war, shot across the bow. Can it be that, a few years into his reign as Speaker of the House, DiMasi is morphing into Amicus Consortii, the grown-up in the room, DiMasi Rex ready to brandish the sword of fiscal discipline? To push this overwrought string of descriptors further than it ever ought to have gone, is he the “salvatore” of business? OK, if you read on, I promise to cut that junk out. The Associated Industries of Massachusetts event on Friday showcased House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi, and as the State House News noted he asserted that state government does not need ‘new revenue sources’ and proposed […]

Tired, cynical – Them is fightin words

/by

At Tuesday’s hearing on charter schools, the Mass Association of School Superintendents (MASS) trotted out their “tired” and “cynical” attempt to snuff out charters. “Tired”, “cynical”? Well, don’t ask me, read today’s inspired Globe editorial on charter schools, which opens by calling the supes’ bill “shifty” and not “merit[ing] serious consideration.” There is a lot of speaking truth to power, or at least to the MASS Protectors of the Status Quo. EACH YEAR opponents of state-supervised charter schools in Massachusetts perform the same tired dance steps on Beacon Hill in an effort to stamp out these distinctive examples of education reform. It’s a cynical exercise and an insult to the families of roughly 19,000 young people waiting for an opportunity […]

More quotes on charters

/by

The challenge to the reign of the education establishment is showing all kinds of crevices among Democrats and those positions that had once protected the status quo. From James A. Williams, Superintendent of Buffalo Public Schools: “I’m not afraid of charter schools. I want to learn from them.” And from Arne Duncan, CEO of Chicago Public Schools: “[Creating charter schools] is about a lot more than education. It’s really about a movement for social justice. Our kids desperately need to have the best education possible.” “I’m not an ideological person but I like the competition and choice [charter schools] provide.” Again, thanks to M. Goldstein for forwarding these.

After the charter hearing, more quotes

/by

Paul Vallas, Superintendent of the New Orleans Recovery School District “I have said over and over again that if charters are performing, they should be expanded” “I think charters provide an excellent tool for school districts to expand educational choice. But I like charters that work. The great thing about charters is that if the school is failing, you don’t have to try to reconstitute it. You can just shut it down” Thanks again to Mike Goldstein of the MATCH School for passing these on.

After the charter hearing, some quotes

/by

I hope our legislators are open to understanding the wisdom of these statements from Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Public Schools: “Our parents are on the waiting lists and it seems to me unconscionable, quite frankly, when we have parents who want these opportunities and these choices, and they’re being denied them.” “Giving people choices is always empowering and almost always will lead to better outcomes for kids… You want people to vote with their feet and then take appropriate action (as the district).” “To me it’s unimaginable that we wouldn’t be allowed to create more charter schools. It’s not like you’ve got a whole bunch of high-performing schools in the South Bronx or Central Brooklyn. What […]

Ed Policy Schizophrenia

/by

A great press release from the Mass Department of Education notes: For the second time, Massachusetts has outscored every other state in the country on three of four National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) exams, and has tied for first on the fourth, Governor Patrick announced at the Aborn Elementary School in Lynn on Tuesday.The only other time one state has ever ranked first on all four NAEP exams was when Massachusetts outscored the nation for the first time in 2005. So the grand bargain of the 1993 Ed reform Act (more money, more accountability and more innovation) is working. But the press release suggests that the administration’s “left” hand does not know what the “right” hand is doing. Makes […]

Deb Meier v. The Powerful, Dark Phantom that Pioneer is

/by

I can see it now: The heavy-footed, giant, unforgiving Dark Phantom of Pioneer up against meek, never-attacking Deb Meier, who is only armed with a sling-shot to take on her powerful adversary. On the blog she shares with Diane Ravitch, Bridging Differences, Deborah laments again the oh-so-powerful Pioneer. She continues to show hurt: You suggest I needn’t worry about annoying those “with more power”. But I felt badly recently when (as I mentioned) somebody took after Mission Hill school as a way to attack me on another issue altogether. So they can “touch me”—but not stop me! Alas, my travels remind me that others have less wiggle room—even for saying what’s on their minds. Deb, you wrote in a letter […]

News flash – healthcare costs are rising fast

/by

Thought I would remind you of that just in case you forgot. The April Governing magazine notes that State and local spending for health care is rising significantly. Medicaid accounts for the bulk of those expenditures, especially as the costs of long-term care continue to rise. Pointing to a recent study published in Health Affairs policy journal, Governing goes on to assert that fallout from Medicare Part D, the federal government’s prescription drug program, is also contributing to the increase. Private payers are covering fewer health care costs, thus increasing the need for state and local governments to step in. “We are,” the study noted, “moving incrementally away from traditional sources of insurance, such as employer-based coverage, to a system […]

Who will train Portland to love transit?

/by

So, back to Randal O’Toole’s Debunking Portland. Everyone would have to admit that a key goal of the whole Portland effort was to reduce the use of cars. So a couple of decades, if not more, into this experiment and how are we doing? Overall Transit Usage is Down “More than 97 percent of all motorized passenger travel (and virtually all freight movement) in the Portland area is by automobile.” “Portland transit usage grew faster than driving in the 1990s,” but “transit’s share declined in the 1980s, when the region’s first light-rail line was under construction. In 1980 more than 2.6 percent of motorized passenger travel in the Portland area used transit. By 1990, that had fallen to 1.8 percent. […]

Portland is a City that Doesn’t Work?

/by

I walk to work, and I cannot for the life of me understand how people can sit in traffic for hours. I love cars–especially fast cars. Schizophrenic? No, just a pretty even-handed observer of the Smart Growthies’ passion for mass transit and walkable cities and the car-lovers’ and business’ passion for get up and go. I have given up on seeing an absolutely objective narrative of how well or poorly Portland’s Urban Growth Boundary/transit-oriented development experiment has gone. I would note that Randal O’Toole of the Cato Institute, long-time resident of Portland and author of the about to be released The Best-Laid Plans: How Government Planning Harms Your Quality of Life, Your Pocketbook and Your Future, is as systematic an […]

Questionable ties

/by

From a website providing “the history of the necktie” come several hypotheses re: M. Day’s refusal to provision himself of a necktie: He is anti-Chinese: The first neckties, it seems, date back to the China B.C. He is anti-Croat or anti-French. Per the above-mentioned site: “The Sun King,” Louis XIV of France, was intrigued and delighted by the colorful silk kerchiefs worn around the necks of Croatian mercenaries. A crack regiment, the soldiers were presented at court around 1660 so the King could thank them for a victory against the Hapsburg Empire… Many experts believe the French word for tie, cravat, is a corruption of “Croat.” Or he is a revolutionary. Per the same: In fact, French kings maintained an […]

McKay is increasingly OK

/by

Florida’s McKay scholarship program is increasingly a model to other states (but, no, not Massachusetts). The McKay program provides nearly 20,000 scholarships to Florida special-needs students to attend private scools, if that is the preference of their parents. In May Gov. Sonny Perdue of Georgia signed a similar bill into law. The state senate in Nevada, which is not especially known for educational experimentation, passed a bill calling for a McKay-style program earlier this year. On October 5, Pioneer is holding an event marking the release of a report on the use of tax credits and tax deductions to promote scholarships for students in failing schools or other select groups such as students who have special needs. Boston University School […]

PACho Libre?

/by

OK, I swear to god this is true. Friends at the Mackinac Center passed this on. The Michigan Education Association PAC has a wonderfully revelatory video they released in the spring. It’s called PACho Libre and, yes, you can see it for yourself by clicking here. A dark day in the future pro wrestlers have wrested control of the public schools and given a body slam to thinking and learning (and of course to funding). Up steps a teacher, who, uh, wearing a Nacho Libre mask, courageously takes on the wrestlers and then goes toe-to-toe with the equivalent of Vince McMahon, the real enemy, who is “The Legislator.” Gulp. The suspense is too much. Now this 21-minute piece of nonsense […]

Not yet a Declaration of Independence but Getting There

/by

In an op-ed in the Saturday Globe, Father Monan and Michael Keating deliver some very good news on the Trial Court. In March 2002 Pioneer released A Declaration of Independence, a detailed and highly critical report on the mismatch of resources to court caseload. On the heels of the Pioneer report, Chief Justice Marshall established the Visiting Committee on Management in the Courts and invited Father Monan, Chancellor of Boston College, to chair the committee. The Monan Commission “issued an harsh assessment of court operations” a year after the Pioneer report and developed numerous recommendations. Two points of good news from the Mass Trial Court that deserve special highlight: The Trial Court has adopted the National Center for State Courts’ […]

WaPo on School Standards

/by

The Washington Post on September 10 had this to say as Congress begins to deliberate on the fate of No Child Left Behind: Does this country want to make schools better — or just make schools look better? If Congress is true to the noble idea that all children, no matter their races, family incomes or circumstances, can learn to read and do math, it must reject suggestions that make a charade of standards and accountability. Can’t get much clearer than that. But how about giving real relief to parents who are stuck in failing schools? I believe (emphasis on “believe”, as in I have heard from reliable sources) that the number of students in the Worcester Public Schools whose […]

It’s about the children – ugly, mean and expensive

/by

On October 5, Pioneer is releasing a survey of state tax deduction and tax credit programs in other states that have been used to offer scholarships to inner city kids. Come one, come all. Other states have charged ahead of Massachusetts in promoting parental involvement and school choice.  New York is pushing charters, and New City is moving to create dozens of new charter schools through the Uncommon Schools effort.  Florida, Minnesota and Arizona have long advanced tax deduction and tax credit programs.  And then in February Utah passed a far-reaching voucher law. If you think proponents of the status quo and self-interest are taking this all sitting down, you are decidedly wrong. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on […]

Quo Vadis?

/by

Ross Gittell in the New England Journal of Higher Education/Summer 2007 edition (“Demographic Demise”) neatly summarizes why the New England region should be concerned about future growth. The data on our inability to recruit and retain the 25-34 cohort is pretty dramatic. Overall, New England’s population grew by only eight percent—far less than the national average of 18 percent. Yes, but we get quality and energetic, bright young workers, right? Wrong. Even granting the ballooning of the baby boomer population, and therefore a seven percent decline in the 25-34 year old set nationwide, Gittell notes that “most alarming” is that the 25-34 set declined by about 25 percent in New England over the 15-year period. All NE states were in […]

Mass Health Care, USA

/by

Mitt Romney is now doubling back to health care after his symbolic take in Iowa.  USA Today reports that Mitt is leaning on the Mass model but that the universal mandate and many features in the Bay State law (read “bureaucracy and mandates”) are not part of his health care platform.  Here is an abridged version: Federal incentives aimed at freeing health insurance markets from regulations The use of “free care” pool money from the feds to subsidize a portion of the price of private insurance for low-income uninsured individuals A more robust version of health savings account Full deductibility of qualified medical expenses which will allow Americans to deduct the cost of their health insurance and out-of-pocket medical expenses. Flexibility for states to test-drive reforms to […]

Good God, professors bow to the Left?

/by

Who wudda thunk it? I mean, I never saw any hint of politicized courses at university! Marcella Bombardieri today reports in the Globe that 75% of the $7 million given to campaigns by academicians went to Democrats. I am shocked–shocked! 81% at MIT, 82% at Harvard, 90% at BU, 99% at Northeastern, and 100% at Tufts. More importantly, Bombardieri notes at the top of her article Professors and others in the education field have given more to federal candidates running in 2008 than those who work in the oil, pharmaceutical, and computer industries — a sign of how academia has become a much bigger player in the political cash sweepstakes. We need laws–yes, laws!–to stem the controlling influence of the […]

Bored with education progress

/by

It was something of a blast from the past that Governor Patrick appointed Paul Reville to chair the Board of Education. Entirely expected given that Paul chaired the First Task Force that led to the Second Task Force. But the appointment does say something about the “blast from the past” quality of education debates. Paul was on the board from 1991 to 1996. A bipartisan agreement (Weld-Birmingham-Finneran) led to the replacement of Paul and others and the appointment of the top vote-getting Democrat (and previously electoral opponent to Weld) John Silber to the helm of the BOE. Positive qualities Paul brings to the BOE are that he listens, and that he has some broader academic training (M.A.), which could be […]

Thoughts on housing and Middle Cities

/by

Housing is critical to the viability of Middle Cities, because housing development is the ticket to bringing a younger demographic and spending power back downtown—and therefore to fiscal solvency. These cities are built for and the leadership in these cities comfortable with high-density construction, especially if funding for school costs is available. Then why is there no 40R construction in these cities? The problem lies in the state requirement that all communities, notwithstanding the specific city or town’s attainment of the state’s 10 percent affordability threshold, deed restrict 20 percent of total 40R units to households earning no more than 80 percent of area median income (AMI). Most of these cities easily exceed the state’s affordability goals. Holyoke more than […]

The new math of convention madness

/by

The Boston Business Journal today reports that the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority is issuing an RFP to expand the Bonston Convention & Exhibition Center. The request for proposals is for the development of a master plan for the BCEC that will provide an envelope for future expansion of the facility. Gloria Larson calls the BCEC “as successful as we hoped.” Golly, Gloria, one might call that a pretty big plea from low expectations.  She notes, in fact, that The building has exceeded our expectations, and it is the right time to explore what we should do with the undeveloped portion of the property. A master plan is the best way to start the dialogue. In a previous post, I noted that while […]