Robert Gavin of the Globe covered our new report Failure to Thrive underscoring the collapse in firm size and the failed policy focus the state has had for 20+ years on relocating firms to Massachusetts. I hope Kofi Jones (spokeswoman for the state’s economic development office) didn’t miss the point. Yes, Gov. Patrick, and all the Governors before him for the last quarter century, have “support[ed] and retain[ed] home-grown businesses and spurr[ed] innovation in Massachusetts.’’ But most of it has been summits (here insert “regional competitiveness councils”) and talk — and, again, not just this Governor. Two takeaways: (1) Governors have long spent way too much energy picking winners and losers (biotech tax credits, film tax credits, etc.) and paid […]

It’s too bad that this new Cato report on health care reform in Massachusetts http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11115  is not in a policy journal like Health Affairs as many more people would read it.  It certainly provides some interesting analysis and food for thought regarding the reform’s outcomes.  The results are in line with what I reported recently in the first chapter of Pioneer’s series evaluating the reform http://www.pioneerinst.wpengine.com/pdf/100113_interim_report_card1.pdf  The authors use CPS data to look at reductions in the uninsured, crowd-out from private to public coverage, and improvements in health.  They provide some interesting data assessing the effect of non-response on insurance questions pre and post reform.    They posit that the misreporting of insurance status is greater given the mandate to have […]

From our Education Intelligence Agent: The National Education Association board of directors approved a $1 million donation from the union’s contingency fund to the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate. The contribution will be made in $200,000 installments over the next five years. Among other things, the institute will have a training program for incoming U.S. Senators. Hmm. If the first senator-elect to use it is Scott Brown, I think the NEA may need to do some extra training.

Twittering is not something I do, but Dearest Colleague Poftak does. Seems Republican gub candidate Charlie Baker criticized Guv Patrick for having to be kicked and dragged to support hard changes to schools that are failing. I suppose all is fair in politics and war, but I wonder if the response from Sydney Asbury, the Guv’s campaign manager (“Gov Patrick delivers where you & Weld failed and MA kids now benefit- facts beat spin every time”) shows the weakness I have seen over and over in the Guv’s staff. They don’t know history, and it hurts them. Just weigh this: Ed reform of 1993 + best academic standards in the country + kickoff of MCAS process + charter cap lift […]

From our man in Havana (the Education Intelligence Agency) comes an analysis of NEA’s financial disclosure report for 2008-09 fiscal. What did our EIA agent find? The national union contributed almost $26 million to a wide variety of advocacy groups and charities. The total more than doubles the amount disbursed in the previous year… In this list, EIA has deliberately omitted spending such as media buys, or payments to pollsters or consultants that have no obvious ideological component… All of these were paid for with members’ dues money (the union’s federal PAC is a separate entity funded through voluntary means): A Smarter Colorado – $87,000 ActionAid UK – $5,000 All Stars Helping Kids – $5,000 Alliance for Justice – $7,000 […]