THE PIONEER BLOG

Editorial Staff

JOIN US! Big Business & Big Labor – Teaching U.S. Economic History

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SAVE THE DATE: JANUARY 25, 2016. In this our second Gilded Age marked by international corporations and powerful labor unions, K-12 students need to understand the fundamentals of the economic history…

Editorial Staff

Happy Holidays!

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This holiday season, we thank you for your support over the years. Best wishes for a happy, healthy, and prosperous New Year! – Your Friends at Pioneer

Lauren Corvese

Horsing Around at the Gaming Commission

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It’s time to quit horsing around at the Gaming Commission. Even given the dwindling popularity of the sport, Massachusetts would want to maximize the number of owners coming here to race their horses, right?  After all, with new casino gambling in the state, a portion of gaming proceeds are slated to help keep the tracks afloat. In fact, it is projected to contribute nearly $18 million a year to Massachusetts’ thoroughbred horse racing industry. Horse racing, though a more traditional gaming venue, helps keep a portion of Massachusetts workers employed, including vendors, owners, trainers, jockeys, and racetrack workers themselves, as well as the supporting community of veterinarians and feed suppliers. The industry provides entertainment and an opportunity for legal gambling. […]

Jim Stergios

West Virginia, Massachusetts and why the End Common Core ballot is going forward

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When it comes to the “confidence game” that has been played around the country to advance Common Core standards, there are few places where connivance was more on display than in West Virginia.  As noted in a post in March of 2012, you had there “noted national standards boosters” including “former Governor Bob Wise, now of the Alliance for “Excellent” Education,  and Steven Paine, former state superintendent of schools for West Virginia, and CCSSO’s former Board President.”  West Virginia was also “ground zero of the agenda of “softy” 21st century skills and the home of Dane Linn, head of education policy for the National Governors Association (NGA), another leader of the push for national standards.”   Last I looked, in […]

Editorial Staff

Helping Children Impacted by Mental Illness

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Mental illness, the theme of our 2016 Better Government Competition, impacts all of us. It takes a toll on our education, healthcare, and criminal justice systems, and affects our economy. We cannot end mental illness, but we can do much more to ensure that those who live with it receive better treatment. Preventive mental health care is an area of critical importance, and an unparalleled opportunity. Approximately half of all mental health issues begin before the age of 17, and 75 percent begin before the age of 24. Despite this, an estimated 80% of children with mental health issues ages 6-17 receive no help. This leads to an average delay of 9 years between the onset of symptoms and intervention. […]

Scott Haller

Document Request Reveals Which Commuter Rail Trains Are Frequently Delayed

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There is a unique relationship between the MBTA and its riders founded on a trust we give the authority in return for reliable transportation services. This is especially true for commuter rail passengers who pay more, expect more, and invest more in their commuting plans; whether it’s planning on dropping the kids off at school, bringing them to practice, or making it home in time to cook dinner, these riders have a lot more at stake if the trains are running slow. Lately this relationship has become strained, catalyzed most recently by last winter’s poor performance. From a 2009 peak of about 40 million riders, the commuter rail’s annual ridership dropped to approximately 35 million in 2013 despite adding service […]

Mary Connaughton

Massachusetts Needs Its Own CBO

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State Senator Jamie Eldridge is on to something.  The State House News Service recently reported that he filed a bill to bring greater transparency to the legislative process by establishing an agency similar to the Congressional Budget Office to put a concrete price tag on legislation before it is passed.  This is an idea Pioneer has long held to be of great merit – so much so that we included it in our recently published Agenda For Leadership. While the details of the bill differ somewhat from those in our proposal, we agree with Senator Eldridge – there needs to be an independent office to perform this vital function. Pioneer believes the office must be truly independent – not an […]

Jim Stergios

What is the Lawn on D Costing Us?

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Jon Chesto’s report in the Globe on Monday noted that the Lawn on D, an almost three-acre parcel immediately behind the South Boston Convention Center, is currently costing about $2.7 million to operate and generating about $424,000 in revenues, sponsorships, etc.  Both the operating costs and the revenues are up in 2015, from $2.1 million and $190,000, respectively, in 2014.  So the annual loss has also grown from 2014 to 2015, from about $1.9 million to around $2.3 million. There are many questions that should arise here.  Start with equity.  Should an authority be spending that much on programming at one park while other Boston’s neighborhoods compete for limited funds in a stressed City of Boston budget? Then there is […]

MuckRock

Massachusetts Public Records Reform Shouldn’t Make Delay the Law of the Land

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By Michael Morisy Over the past few years, something unusual has quietly happened when it comes to public access: Small changes for the better. But while legislation passed by the House includes some great and much needed improvements – it fails to address, and in some case worsens – Massachusetts public records law’s problems, leaving the state dangerously behind its peers. It’s worth acknowledging what has gone right in the Bay State. For one, the results of the past year’s worth of public records appeals are now posted online by the Supervisor of Public Records. This is a tremendous resource for requesters and agencies, and a much appreciated policy change from an office that once claimed it didn’t keep an […]

Lauren Corvese

State Contractor Confirms: GLX Cost Overruns Due to Bid Process

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As Pioneer first pointed out in a September blog post and again in Research Director Greg Sullivan’s interview with Fox 25 Investigates, the bid process is to blame for the sharp increase in price estimate for the MBTA’s Green Line Extension project.  The contractor the state recently hired to investigate the price increase came to the same conclusion: the new procurement method (called Construction Manager/General Contractor, or CM/GC) used for the GLX contract did not foster price competition and left the MBTA open to financial risk. Echoing Pioneer’s past statements, the contractor claims that the MBTA should have foreseen cost-overruns and that “officials botched the implementation of a new contracting process — one that had not been used in Massachusetts.”  […]

Editorial Staff

Why Mental Health, Why Now?

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When the topic of “Improving Mental Health” was chosen, the importance resonated immediately. It may be more relevant than at any other point in our nation’s history. Every area of core government function is affected by the status of mental health. Our failure to find answers and reduce inefficiencies costs the Commonwealth innocent lives and millions of dollars each year.

Editorial Staff

Enter Pioneer Institute’s 2016 Better Government Competition – Winning Prize: $10,000!

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Enter the 2016 Better Government Competition Each year, Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Competition focuses on one of the country’s biggest challenges. For 2016, Pioneer seeks innovative ideas to improve quality and access to care for individuals living with mental illness. We invite you to submit entries on innovative approaches to insurance, health care, human services and partnerships between government agencies and mental health care providers. Sample topics are listed below. An independent panel of judges will select a winner, who will receive a $10,000 prize, and four runners-up, who will each receive a $1,000 prize. In addition, Pioneer will select four entrants for Special Recognition. At a June awards dinner, Pioneer will honor and highlight all of the winners. Their […]

Editorial Staff

Pioneer Statement on Next-Generation MCAS Announcement

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We applaud the Baker administration for proposing that Massachusetts retain its academic independence and testing autonomy, but the Commonwealth should reject any further participation in the PARCC consortium. MCAS has served Massachusetts very well for nearly two decades. The test and the pre-Common Core standards were the key to Massachusetts’ leadership position that was forged by the 1993 Massachusetts Education Reform Act and demonstrated by historic gains on national and international tests. As its name suggests, “Next-Generation MCAS” should largely be based on the pre-2011 MCAS and, where appropriate, include questions and modes from other models such as PARCC. This will provide continuity and foster accountability by allowing performance to be measured over time. Next-Generation MCAS should also use questions […]

Editorial Staff

Fordham report predictable, conflicted

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Guest Post by Richard P. Phelps On November 17, the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) will decide the fate of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) and the Partnership for Assessment of College Readiness for College and Careers (PARCC) in the Bay State. MCAS is homegrown; PARCC is not. Barring unexpected compromises or subterfuges, only one program will survive. Over the past year, PARCC promoters have released a stream of reports comparing the two testing programs. The latest arrives from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute in the form of a partial “evaluation of the content and quality of the 2014 MCAS and PARCC “relative to” the “Criteria for High Quality Assessments”[i] developed by one of the organizations […]

Mary Connaughton

A Step Forward on Meaningful Public Records Reform?

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Yesterday’s Boston Globe editorial has it right – the time for the legislature to act on meaningful public records reform is now, while at least a modicum of momentum remains for its enactment.  Waiting much longer likely signals the bill’s death knell. Sadly, though, if a bill does emerge from the House Ways and Means Committee it may be something far less than what we’d hope for.  The bill proposed by Rep. Peter Kocot, which drew swarms of government transparency enthusiasts to Beacon Hill to testify in its support, contained meaningful tools to promote open government.  Among them: penalties for untimely compliance, reduced costs for requestors, requirements for digital responses and provisions for agencies to reimburse legal fees to those […]