THE PIONEER BLOG

Liam Day

Is he just spinning or out of the loop?

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The other day my esteemed colleague Steve Poftak and I, in separate posts here and here, both jumped on a schizophrenic statement in a Boston Globe editorial to the effect that there is excess infrastructure and staffing in Boston’s public schools, yet, at least according to the Globe, the City should eliminate transportation for students attending private and parochial schools as a way to offset cuts. (As I wrote in my original post, I don’t disagree with the premise that the City shouldn’t be on the hook for the transportation costs of students whose parents choose not to send them to public school. I simply have a problem with the discrepancy between the excess capacity the Globe cites and the […]

Steve Poftak

Enough about Marian Walsh, let's talk about Quasi-Public Conduits

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The Patrick Administration’s publicly stated (still!) strategy for placing Senator Walsh in the Assistant Director’s position at HEFA is to facilitate the merger of HEFA and MassDevelopment. As part of their business, each of these entities serves as a conduit for non-profits to issue debt. The Administration believes that the overlap between these two entities is bad, as it drives down fees to the non-profits, limiting the amount of money these entities collect. Paul Levy, among others, points out that having a competitive environment allows non-profits to access financing at lower rates. Which is a good thing, I think. I would also note that if overlap is an issue, MassDevelopment and MassHousing have competed with each other for a much […]

Steve Poftak

Assignment Desk: No Compensation Provision of Pension Reform

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To: Hilary Chabot, Matt Viser and whomever else is writing on pension reform. Pension reform plans put forward by the Senate and the Governor each have provisions to stop local officials serving in largely voluntary positions from receiving pension service credit for time in those positions. The problem is that each of the bills restricts this reform to “unpaid local officials” (in this case of the Governor) or “municipal officials” who served in positions with “no compensation” (in the case of the Senate). Why shouldn’t this count towards state positions and those local positions that receive a nominal salary, as many moderators and selectboards do? No offense to those providing those important services, but credit towards a state pension should […]

Steve Poftak

Begging to Be Unpacked

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(Great minds think alike — My colleague beat me to the punch. I’m posting anyway.) Today’s Globe has an editorial calling for an end to the practice of funding transportation for schoolchildren attending private school in Boston. Within the piece there was this little nugget: Crowded school districts in many suburbs are only too happy to pay to transport private school students while saving the much higher cost of educating them. But such equilibrium does not exist in Boston, where the infrastructure and staffing can support thousands more children than currently attend the public schools. [Emphasis Added] That’s a mouthful — given that the Mayor is planning on laying off hundreds of teachers, I’d like to know if these layoffs […]

Liam Day

When falling demand and inflexible management collide

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There’s a rather curious editorial in today’s Globe. I don’t necessarily quibble with its basic premise, that the City of Boston should not be on the hook for the transportation costs of those students whose parents choose to send them to a private or parochial school. At one point, however, the editorial states that Boston’s infrastructure and staffing can support thousands more children than currently attend the public schools. The estimated $2 million spent on busing Boston’s private school students would be better used to offset cuts in public classrooms. This struck me as a paradoxical juxtaposition. If there is so much excess capacity in the system, then should we not be encouraging cuts, not looking for ways to offset […]

Jim Stergios

Take a deep breath and relax on union infiltration of charters

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Our Education Intelligence agent comes through with an interesting find. Elizabeth Green at Gotham Schools has the scoop: “Teachers at two New York City KIPP charter schools today asked state labor officials to sever their ties from the city teachers union, in petitions signed by every single teacher at the two schools.” The KIPP Academy and KIPP Infinity staffs (totaling about 60 members) sent out a press release about their decision: “In recent months, the UFT has made clear its desire to play a more active part in the day-to-day operations of our schools. Two examples illustrate this point. In January, the UFT sent a letter to the KIPP: Infinity Board of Directors with the goal of beginning collective bargaining […]

Liam Day

Live Blogging the President's Press Conference

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Sort of. I’m not really in the East Room of the White House, but on my couch doing work as I listened to what the President had to say tonight. He has a tendency, a verbal tick almost, to try to buttress his answers with: That’s not just my opinion, but the opinion of many others. Or some variant thereof. I only caught the last half hour and he used it three separate times. It’s almost as if it’s his tell and we should all know he’s bluffing whenever he uses it. Hey, ifTeddy KGB can get caught listening to his Oreos, it can happen to the best of us.

Liam Day

Is KIPP really scalable?

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Yesterday on Slate, in her review of Jay Mathews’ new book on KIPP, the Knowledge is Power Program, which now runs 66 schools in 19 states mostly geared to disadvantaged and minority students, Sara Mosle begins with an interesting remark: Let me begin—before I’m denounced as a traitor to the cause of educational reform—by saying that I’m inclined to agree. What she’s inclined to agree with is Mathews’ assessment of KIPP as the best program serving underprivileged students in America today. The reason for putting it so baldly out there at the top of her review is that Ms. Mosle goes on to question whether KIPP, despite her admiration of its success, is replicable to a scale sufficient to the […]

Steve Poftak

Eye on Paul Levy

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This space has long been in the tank for Paul Levy. His leadership of BIDMC has recently been much praised — he put the issue of a budget deficit to his staff and they responded with a collection of salary cuts and budget savings that allowed the lowest wage workers to keep their jobs and lowered layoffs by the hundreds. I’m curious how this will affect a certain union’s efforts to demonize his leadership and the institution itself. (There is a link, but I’m not posting it.) I’m guessing that their perplexing (and costly) approach of convincing BIDMC employees that their institution was corrupt and nefarious is over.

Steve Poftak

Question on Legislative Management?

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The Carol Aloisi story was in yesterday’s Globe, but no one has stopped to ask about how legislative staff gets hired. From the story, Ms. Aloisi was “was assigned by DiMasi’s office to work for Springfield Representative Cheryl Coakley-Rivera in 2005”. Then, “his office reassigned Aloisi to Kaprielian’s office in August”. Next, Garrett Bradley shows up, finds her in the office and puts her to work. “Aloisi came with Bradley’s new State House office assignment in February, the lawmaker said.” Are legislative staffers typically assigned by the Speaker’s office? Do individual legislators not choose and hire their own staff?

Steve Poftak

Bailout Fever Continues

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Even those nesting Russian dolls are getting some of the action — Russia is buying $28 million worth of the stuff to compensate for reduced demand.

Jim Stergios

Love thy Labor

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Mayor Menino is asking bargaining units in Boston to accept wage freezes and other compensation reductions in order to minimize layoffs. Well, in from our former companion state, Maine, comes some very helpful advice as to how unions can interact with the other side of the table in tough times. From our Education Intelligence Agent Mike Antonucci comes this report: I learned the Maine Education Association’s “Dos, Don’ts of Bargaining in Tough Times” aren’t appreciably different from bargaining in good times, or bargaining in OK times, or bargaining in the End Times. Still, this one caught my eye: “Insist that all other steps to reduce costs be implemented, including reduction-in-force if it is unavoidable, before reductions in employees’ compensation are […]

Jim Stergios

Newsflash: You may be a second class citizen

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The Providence Journal reported late last week that a group of mayors and town administrators, led by Cumberland Mayor Daniel J. McKee, announced yesterday the launch of plans for a novel kind of public charter school. The mayors hope their proposed Rhode Island Mayoral Academies, free from many of the rules and restrictions of regular public schools, will spread through the state as a new educational model. Unlike the state’s existing 11 charter schools, mayoral academies would not have to pay teachers a prevailing wage, contribute to the state teachers retirement system or offer teachers tenure protection. These freedoms would allow the academies greater control over school budgets, culture and personnel, and enable them to attract — and pay for […]

Jim Stergios

Long blog on biotech gift ban

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Good public policy is built on two pillars – and they pretty much boil down to common sense: Be fair and first do no harm. Giving preferential treatment to individual businesses or industries is bad public policy. The Governor and Legislature’s $250 million tax giveaway to the life sciences industry (even as they increased taxes and fees on other sectors by $300 million last year alone) isn’t fair. And it’s particularly unjustifiable as we enter a protracted economic downturn – a downturn that has already caused hundreds of millions of dollars in social service cuts. But it’s hard to comprehend the logic behind it, when we throw money at life sciences companies with one hand, and take it away with […]

Steve Poftak

Another Predictable Ideologue for Charter Schools

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“Provided this greater accountability, I call on states to reform their charter rules, and lift caps on the number of allowable charter schools, wherever such caps are in place.” Can you guess who it is? Yes we can. Oh, and for those who will fixate on the first clause, take a look at this 2003 report on charters by the Fordham Institute.