THE PIONEER BLOG

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

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by Lauren Corvese

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?

/0 Comments/in , , , , , /by Mary Connaughton

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 […]

Editorial Staff

What True Education Reform Leaders Think About MCAS & Charters

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An op-ed in Tuesday’s Boston Globe urges Massachusetts policymakers to adopt the Common Core-aligned PARCC test because MCAS is supposedly too outdated to help prepare our schoolchildren for future success. But as Pioneer has argued in our recent book, and numerous reports, op-eds and public appearances, Common Core and PARCC are academically mediocre and inferior to the Bay State’s homegrown MCAS and historically successful standards. Education leaders and the public should be reminded about the tremendous progress that Massachusetts’ students have made as a result of the implementation of the state’s previous standards and MCAS tests. At a Pioneer forum in 2013, two of the three co-authors of Massachusetts’ landmark 1993 Education Reform Act questioned the state’s decision to jettison […]

Lauren Corvese

How UMass can cut the $11 million

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Yesterday, the Statehouse News Service reported that UMass President Marty Meehan announced UMass needs to cut $11 million because the Legislature did not include this sum in their supplemental budget bill.  Meehan is upset that his lobbying efforts did not yield state funding for the collective bargaining agreement UMass reached with faculty and staff unions to pay $10.9 million in retroactive wages.  Since the wages have already been paid, the university will have to look elsewhere to offset the cost. Meehan, who is “puzzled” and “disappointed,” said it will be difficult to find $11 million to cut from this year’s budget. Really? Pioneer recently looked into UMass’ spending and found a lot of fat to cut. From 2009 to 2014, […]

Lauren Corvese

5 Reasons Students will Love the New Higher Ed Bill

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Expanding scholarships, savings incentives, refinancing loans, collaboration efforts, and finding a new funding formula are all a great start, but could more be done? Tuition and fees at UMass have gone way up, average student debt for UMass Amherst graduates has hit $30,000, and if the relationship between university costs and debt continues, this year’s freshmen are looking at owing over $36,000 when they graduate. The rise in college costs and student debt remain prominent issues with no relief in sight.  With the recent media buzz over the UMass tuition and fee hikes of more than 5 percent, it’s no wonder that the state legislature has teed up a new higher education bill: H. 1068.  The bill, sponsored by co-chairs […]

Scott Haller

MBTA Scorecards: A Work in (Backwards) Progress?

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Three weeks ago the MBTA announced the long-awaited return of comprehensive performance reports. These ‘weekly’ scorecards include on-time performance data for both the commuter rail and the T’s subway system, the first regularly posted data regarding the subway since 2014. The MBTA has expressed that these reports are a work-in-progress and that they will be bolstered in quality and scope over time. Regaining the public’s trust is a critical part of the MBTA’s mission following disastrous winter performance, and while the new scorecards are a step in the right direction, Pioneer has already noted various ways that they could be improved. It seems that there is another way to improve the reports: Actually post them! As a constant watchdog of […]

Editorial Staff

Pathways to Equal Opportunity: Vocational-Technical Education & the Liberal Arts

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A century ago, two prominent African-American educators, W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington, initiated a national debate between proponents of vocational-technical education and those who favor liberal arts as the best means of achieving equality of opportunity. This debate continues today. Please join us as a noted historian, biographer, college president, and reformers discuss this important and timeless education policy topic.

MuckRock

September’s Come and Gone – and Where’s Public Records Reform?

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How fitting is it that a bill meant to strengthen our anemic public records law morphed into a perfect illustration of just how sorry government transparency is in Massachusetts? As I wrote about at the beginning of the month, public records reform came in with a roar at the start of summer. The combination of journalists, open government advocates, and even everyday concerned citizens who packed the State House, bringing testimonies of the abuse, incompetence, and neglect they’ve experienced first hand made one thing clear – we needed change, and we needed it now. Massachusetts should take its rightful place as pack leader when it comes to good government, not a straggler, lingering among the worst of states. And it […]

Barbara Anthony

How To Tell If The Price Is Right: Fostering Transparency in Healthcare Prices for Massachusetts Consumers

/0 Comments/in , , , , , , /by Barbara Anthony and Sarah Idelson

Notwithstanding a Massachusetts law requiring the clear, prompt disclosure of price estimates to patients upon request, recent studies by Pioneer of a sample of hospitals, specialist physicians and dentists throughout the state showed that it is still not easy to obtain this information, often requiring some persistence and longer than the two days allowed by law (“Survey: Price Information Difficult to Obtain by Massachusetts Hospitals,” June 24, 2015; “State Healthcare Price Transparency Law Still Not a Reality,” August 12, 2015). The 2012 Massachusetts law requires healthcare providers to give consumers procedure prices within two business days of request (Chapter 224 of the Acts of 2012, “An Act Improving the Quality of Health Care and Reducing Costs Through Increased Transparency, Efficiency […]

Scott Haller

New MBTA Performance Reports: Work In Progress

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This week, the MBTA began publishing new weekly performance reports which provide daily summaries of on-time performance for all subway lines (except the Green line), buses, and commuter rail lines. The reduction in quality compared to previous performance reports raises questions following terrible winter performance and the resulting diminished public confidence. The MBTA used to publish monthly performance reports for all modes of transit including data on vehicle availability, distances traveled between breakdowns, on-time performance and more. The reports also included a summary page at the beginning describing ridership changes, and an addendum explaining the performance measures. The new reports contain only on-time performance data. (Examples of the previous scorecard layout for commuter rail and subway lines) The last report […]