THE PIONEER BLOG

Steve Poftak

The Challenge of Regionalization

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This space is a big fan of regionalization (see here and here), but we acknowledge the challenges involved. A recent report by the state on the potential of a Hamilton-Wenham tie-up highlights many of them. First, an incentive program put in place to encourage regionalization would, curiously, penalize the communities for an actual merger. By going from the Hamilton-Wenham Regional School District (which exists currently) to a single, consolidated town, they will lose $500k+ in transportation reimbursements. This reduces the overall merger savings from $1.3m (against a budget of $42.9m) to $750k. Second, the devil really is in the details of tax rate harmonization. Hamilton has a higher mil rate than Wenham, so a tax rate in between the two […]

Jim Stergios

Subway incentives to promote seat belt compliance

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Joe Giglio and Charlie Chieppo had a nice piece, High-tech Highway Funding, in the Globe today on the need for broader and more strategic use of technology to improve transportation service and create an effective revenue stream for transportation needs. Some people – not naming names – some people love this idea but worry that technology can be, well, misused, let’s put it that way, to, uhm, well, also reduce the ability to violate speed limits. Not that they are right. Again, I am not naming names, nope. A similar issue arises with today’s announcement by state and local public safety officials and advocates about an impending seat belt law “enforcement blitz,” as the Statehouse News Service put it, which […]

Liam Day

Teachers Unions Do Not Equal Teachers

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In the wake of yesterday’s State House hearing on his proposal to create in-district charter schools in Boston, the Globe has an article exploring Mayor Menino’s motivation for changing his stance on charters, which he has historically (and quite vocally) opposed. I will leave aside for now my thoughts on the Mayor’s proposal, and simply point out in the article what I thought was a curious paragraph, one that highlights a problem that too often plagues public discussions of education reform: The party’s shift has elicited feelings of betrayal among teachers, who feel that too much blame is placed on them and that political leaders are failing to take responsibility for not providing funding and other resources teachers say are […]

Steve Poftak

Even More Zoo Thoughts

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(Disclaimer: I am in the tank for the Franklin Park Zoo. I’m a member, I go there often, I know Executive Director John Linehan (not well)) With that out of the way, I wanted to add a few items to the discussion: 1) Clause M of the Section 5 of Chapter 92b of the MA General Laws — I’m curious why this hasn’t come up sooner — it prevents the Zoo from charging admission to students on school trips. I understand the impulse but it seems unfair to expect the zoo to stand on its own (kind of) without letting them charge an important group of customers. 2) The Two-Headed Monster — The political dynamic created by the two locations […]

Jim Stergios

Duncan Rex, Daniels Rex

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Great news out of Indiana. We have in the past few weeks seen movement in Chicago, Tennessee, and Rhode Island to remove caps on charter schools or to implement new charter school laws. Duncan Rex is pushing the clock forward quickly, leveraging new Race to the Top funds to gain reforms at a pace that was until now impossible. From the July 1 Indiana News comes great tidings on Indiana’s progress. Because of wise fiscal stewardship by Governor Mitch Daniels, Indiana is one of a handful of states with a surplus in this fiscal crisis. And unlike Alaska, Indiana does not have oil and other resources to sustain a glide path on revenues. He is managing his way through it. […]

Jim Stergios

Minneapolis 180, Boston 0

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This just in from our friends at the Institute for Justice: The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals has come down with a decision that protects a freer market for tax medallions in Minneapolis. The Institute for Justice Minnesota Chapter intervened in the case on the side of the city of Minneapolis to defend its free-market reforms that removed a cap on the number of taxis allowed to operate within city limits. The reforms, finalized on March 30, 2007, will open the market to entrepreneurs who are fit, willing and able to serve the public, increase the number of cabs by 180 in the coming years, and eliminate completely the cap on the number of cabs in Minneapolis by 2011. In […]

Jim Stergios

Welcome to Massachusetts, Secretary Duncan!

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U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan is in town this Thursday for an event at the Museum of Science and what is likely to be an announcement from Governor Patrick that he is seeking to lift the cap on charter schools in Massachusetts in order to access the Race to the Top funding. Still lack of clarity on the proposal, but it seems to be looking like no quotas on specific populations and a proposed increase in the net district spending on charters from 9% to 14%. Given the reputation Massachusetts has gained over the past few years (en bref, they’re not welcoming to new charters!), this is not enough. To get KIPP and other national, proven players to declare Massachusetts […]

Liam Day

Thank You, Finally, Adrian Walker

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It’s about time. I’ve been watching the Zoo New England drama unfold in the Globe and the Herald since the incendiary headlines in Saturday’s papers and been wondering how long it would take for someone to call the Zoo’s bluff. Now, I like the Zoo, have been there twice in the past 13 months, but I believe there are three things to keep in mind as you watch this political stand-off: 1) Apparently the Zoo’s not so poor it can’t afford it’s own PR firm. 2) The Zoo still hasn’t disclosed what the location fee was it received from the studio filming the new Kevin James movie there (Read down a few paragraphs here.) and 3) A significant number of […]

Steve Poftak

File Photo Fun at the Globe

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Page A10 of today’s Globe has a background piece on Charlie Baker. Someone with a sense of humor picked out a photo of Baker in action during his tenure in the Executive Branch. It shows him seated at a table with…….current Patrick Administration Secretary of A&F Leslie Kirwan (back when she worked for Baker.)

Jim Stergios

A bit of soul searching

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Matt Murphy of the Lowell Sun writes today on an issue that Pioneer has been banging the drum on for some time: the growth in the state’s payroll notwithstanding the fact that we are in a recession. (See our Countdown to Fiscal Sanity, item #9, for more.) Murphy notes that While many private-sector companies continue to shed jobs at alarming rates, state employees have been largely spared the anxiety of getting a pink slip. The state payroll, in fact, has grown by about 2,200 employees since the recession came to Massachusetts last fall, leaving roughly 98,278 workers dependent on the state for a paycheck, according to payroll records that include the University of Massachusetts and other public colleges. Meanwhile, Fall […]

Steve Poftak

Things That Irritate Me

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– Lack of Legislative transparency — Our Legislature seems to work extra hard to make things hard to understand. In some cases, it is turning around 300 page bills in less than 24 hours, meaning no one can read it with any level of care. In other cases, it’s the lack of available data about pending legislation, as detailed by State House News in a article yesterday (sub. req’d). I’d note that the Connecticut Legislature has a much more sophisticated site that allows you to track bills and sign up for email updates when anything happens related to your interests. – No 311 in Boston — Boston has an iPhone app for constituent complaints but you still have to “bumble […]

Steve Poftak

Pioneer Beats BRA

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Warning: Blatant Self-Promotion Ahead Yesterday’s paper had a sad tale of delay at the Boston Redevelopment Authority. A Deputy Director was hired five years ago to build a database of community benefits from development projects. She currently oversees three other staffers and the office has a yearly run rate of almost $300k in salary alone. She notes that ““[w]e’ve been developing an automated data system, but it’s still in draft form,” Colley said. “But you can’t do that overnight or in a year or two years or three years.” I note that Pioneer has three ‘automated data systems’ in the pipeline that will all be done in under two years. We released an online decision support tool that allowed municipal […]

Steve Poftak

Obstacles to Reform – Lowell Edition

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The Lowell School Superintendent tried to put out an RFP to determine if using a private vendor for school food services would save money. Other cities have done this and it is also standard practice at most colleges and universities (even the state-funded ones). So, what did this exploration of potential savings earn her? An expletive laced series of threats from school committee member Regina Faticanti. Read the whole thing here. Fun fact — Regina Faticanti is a member of the School Committee’s Discipline subcommitee.

Jim Stergios

Charters alive in Rhodey!

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The mayor of my hometown, Cumberland (RI), Dan McKee has gained recognition among charter folks nationwide for a new concept, Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, which he is proposing along with a number of Ocean State mayors. These would be in essence regional charter schools driven by mayors tired of the continued failure within the school districts. It is great to see local leaders in RI standing up, much like Mayors Fenty (DC), Bloomberg (NY), and many others across the nation. (Editor’s note: Boston may get there, it seems, this election.) Last week, the Rhode Island House Finance Committee turned its nose at the new schools, cutting $1.5 million in proposed aid for two new charter schools. Yesterday, after U.S Education […]

Steve Poftak

Layoff Confusion

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The fluid nature of the budget process and the semantics around layoffs and hiring freezes has left me confused. The “final” BPS budget called for laying off 100+ teachers. Twenty-five teachers received “layoff notices” in May and a 105 provisional teachers were told they would not be invited to return. (I’m using quotes because it seems as if it is standard practice to give these notices to some number of school staff who are then rehired before the start of the school year.) Then, the BTU objected to the Teach for America program, believing it displaces “hundreds of good surplus” teachers. Yet, the BPS website has hundreds of open positions (not all teaching, to be sure) and BPS is actively […]