THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

One more time on education funding

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Given my previous post about the report from the US DOE’s Inspector General criticizing Massachusetts for cutting education funding and then using stimulus funds to fill the hole, the Governor may want to weigh assertions in his new video such as his “extraordinary efforts to invest infrastructure and education.” (See 1:25 and 1:50.) On infrastructure, absolutely. And the bridge repair plan, though flawed in some ways, is something that Pioneer supported strongly. Smart move. But on education? Nope. (Pssst. Candidates Baker, Cahill and Mihos, this video is really well done. It shows you the rhetoric and human connection the Governor is capable of. You may have good ideas and you may be running solid campaigns, but do yourselves a favor: […]

Jim Stergios

US DOE's Inspector General questions MA funding of education

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The Alliance for Excellent Education has released a report, Straight A’s, that is scathing about the misuse of stimulus money in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. It cites a report from the US DOE’s Inspector General criticizing the three states for using the stimulus funds in a way that was not intended in the stimulus legislation. (See the OIG’s memo and the Federal OESE’s response here.) The Patrick administration has not done anything illegal but the feds don’t like it. Basically, what happened is that the ARRA had a loophole and it has led to unintended consequences – reductions in state funding for education commensurate with what the three states thought they could use the federal money for. The feds clearly […]

Steve Poftak

Make It So

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Just today, Candidate for State Treasurer Steve Grossman said that if elected he would….”create an opportunity for universal financial literacy… And the [treasury] should be the place where you set up an office of financial education and provide those tools.” (from State House News, sub. req.) Abracadabra, an office of financial education in the State Treasurer’s office that provides financial literacy training. Next request, Mr. Grossman?

Jim Stergios

Interesting numbers on MA K-12 teachers

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A very interesting story comes out of the Census data compiled by the Education Intelligence Agency on trends for K-12 teachers. The district-by-district comparisons further demonstrate the loss in student enrollment in our larger urban districts since 2001-2: – Boston shed 9.3% of its students (down to 56,388) – Worcester 8.6% – Lynn 10.7% – New Bedford 11.4% – Fall River 13.6% – Haverhill 11.6% – Cambridge 20.5% – Somerville 14.1% Ken Ardon noted this last year in a policy piece for us: The primary cause of the decline is demographics – the population of Massachusetts is aging and the children of Baby-Boomers are rapidly moving through school. The Census data suggests that Boston also shed a whopping 22% of […]

Jim Stergios

K-12 enrollments down, number of teachers up

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Our Education Intelligence Agency operative once again comes in with some very interesting material to consider. With the Census Bureau’s release of data, EIA has produced a set of tables on enrollment, staffing and spending in public school districts across the country, and growth/decline since 2001-2. The state-by-state comparisons show that teacher hiring has outpaced enrollment growth in 38 of the 50 states. In Virginia, student enrollment grew by 5 percent, and the number of K-12 teachers increased 20. In Massachusetts, enrollment statewide declined 1.5 percent, and the number of teachers has increased over 6 percent. (The overall US average is 2.7 percent growth in enrollment and 5 percent growth in K-12 teachers.) Nothing necessarily good or bad in that, […]

Steve Poftak

Walking the Walk

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A number of state legislators did not accept an automatic pay raise last year, citing economic conditions. But did you know that Senator Steven Panagiotakos of Lowell has forgone most of the payraises since 1994. It’s cost him close to a quarter of a million dollars. Impressive.

Steve Poftak

Well, that's going well….

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A bit of weirdness in today’s Globe article on the final meeting of the MBTA board of directors: Board members had also been expecting to hear a report from the MBTA’s chief of operations, Richard Leary, in response to safety concerns raised by the federal government about a fatal crash on the Green Line in May 2008. Board members voted last month to require Leary to deliver the report before the board dissolved. But Leary, who is eligible for retirement, did not show up at the meeting, and the T’s interim general manager, William A. Mitchell Jr., said he did not know where Leary was. “He has been nonresponsive on coming forward,’’ said Janice Loux, a board member who has […]

Jim Stergios

Cleaning up my emails

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No, not those emails, silly. No reference to new computers or troubled staffers moved to campaigns. (Note that the Kineavy emails are now available online.) Instead, I am talking about the great suggestions for reading that get passed to me. Here is one, and it comes from Mike Antonucci, who suggests an article by Mike Petrilli in the new edition of Education Next entitled Disappearing Ink. Ed Next is a great magazine, but Petrilli’s article stood out in my mind, because we interact with reporters an awful lot. And the landscape is changing very fast. And Petrilli is right to delve into the question of whether we can have a good public debate about education when the pressures in the […]

Jim Stergios

This is dumb smart growth

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While Pioneer has done quite a lot of work on water pricing and on wetlands regulatory reforms, given the fiscal crisis and President Obama’s call for school reform, we have set environmental issues a little to the side for the moment. Over the next few months, I’ll post a few questions on environmental issues, which any gubernatorial candidate will need to weigh. So, basic question on smart growth. I understand the politics of targeting $50 million a year for open space protection. I also understand the shortcomings, such as goal-setting based on dollars out rather than environmental significance (i.e. agricultural value, habitat protection, or drinking water source protection). But in the term “smart growth”, there is, well, growth. Land protection […]

Steve Poftak

Do I hear $1.9 Billion?

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Yep, you sure do. The total cost of the South Coast Rail Link gets pegged at that figure in today’s New Bedford Standard-Times. That’s up from $1.4 billion last year, and the 2003 estimate of $670 million. Guess we better build it fast at these rates of increase….

Liam Day

Where is Rahm Emanuel?

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When he was selected last year by President Obama to be his chief of staff, it was assumed Rahm Emanuel was chosen so he could be the new President’s muscle. His public reputation, earned during his years in the Clinton administration and in Congress, where he also for a time headed the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and publicly feuded with Howard Dean over electoral strategy, was one for being something of a head cracker. He was, after all, the basis for the character of Josh Lyman on the West Wing. Nevertheless, as the national health care debate has unfolded, both in and outside the hallowed halls of Congress, the Democrats have too often allowed their opponents to hijack the agenda […]

Steve Poftak

Is it too much to ask…

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…to change the name of the line items at the Department of Developmental Services? DDS used to be the Department of Mental Retardation and a name change has been in the works since at least the early part of this year. Yet, the FY10 budget, passed in June, contain six separate line items using the term “mentally retarded”. Details, I realize, but easy ones to fix.

Steve Poftak

Scenes from the Parade

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The Roslindale parade was held yesterday. The Globe even covered it! My unorganized thoughts: – Sam Yoon is working very hard for Michael Flaherty. He (and his supporters) were out marching and he was hustling up and down the side of the route, shaking hands and working the crowd. (One wag lamented: “Too bad he wasn’t like this when he was running”) – The contrast between the Menino presence and the Flaherty-Yoon presence was palpable. Menino was the first marcher, with just two aides and his wife. It felt almost perfunctory. He didn’t come off the route, even during breaks, to shake hands. Flaherty-Yoon had a large contingnent of chanting, sign-waving supporters and both men aggressively worked the crowd. – […]

Steve Poftak

Enter the Job-Month

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During last year’s casino debate, there was an awkward period when huge job creation estimates were being thrown around — 30,000 new jobs was the high point. It turned out that the these estimates were derived by multiplying the number of jobs by their duration (e.g. 10,000 construction jobs for three years equals 30,000 “jobs”). I see the logic, but it overstates the number of actual jobs created. The Feds have no taken this analysis to the next level — coming out with an estimate of 122,000 new jobs from stimulus spending. Turns out that this figure is based on job-months (which would result in the above equation becoming 10,000 jobs for 36 months equals 360,000 jobs!).

Steve Poftak

What could honor Gandhi more than…

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…a $23,000 “limited-edition fountain pen in 18-carat solid gold… engraved with Gandhi’s image and tricked out with a saffron-colored mandarin garnet on the clip and a rhodium-plated nib” from Montblanc?