THE PIONEER BLOG

A Tale of Two Economies: Job Creation in Massachusetts

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In the State of the Union Address last night, President Obama spoke at length about how the country can kick-start the great American job engine. Here in Massachusetts, we hear that we are doing well compared to the rest of the country. And in part it is true that Greater Boston (though not the rest of the state) is faring better than many older industrialized states. But overall we have a stagnant job base and we face huge challenges. In the video presentation below, Pioneer Executive Director Jim Stergios provides a comprehensive overview of findings from our seven-report series on job creation and economic development in the Commonwealth, entitled, “Massachusetts’ New Economy.” [youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaePzajNdpc[/youtube] The “Massachusetts’ New Economy” series […]

Jim Stergios

Give Brockton students a choice

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The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education’s vote later this month on a new set of charter school proposals is an opportunity to give thousands of Massachusetts kids access to a great school. The list of proposed charters includes the following schools in cities outside of Greater Boston: Argosy Collegiate Charter School in Fall River the replication of Boston’s successful City on a Hill Charter Public School in New Bedford the replication of Springfield and Holyoke’s successful SABIS charter model in Brockton (the International Charter School of Brockton) the replication of Chelsea’s successful Phoenix Charter Academy in Springfield, and YouthBuild Charter Academy in Lawrence In the Greater Boston area, there are also two charter proposals, replications of the Pioneer […]

Jim Stergios

Bureaucratic teacher evaluations bring no change

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Back in April 2011, the Globe editorial page touted “Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester’s proposed regulations linking teacher evaluations to student performance” as “a long-awaited step toward rewarding effective teachers and unmasking incompetent ones.” Many have seen the new evaluation system as a huge step forward, but I’ve always been highly skeptical that it will do anything but create a lot more paper. In this regard, as I noted at the time, I think the Worcester Telegram & Gazette was the media outlet with the most detailed and most accurate view of the new evaluations: The state’s new regulations for the evaluation of educators… establish that MCAS test results will play some role in teacher evaluations; they state that student and […]

Joshua Archambault

Data Neglect at Massachusetts’s Data Agency (CHIA/DHCFP)

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The agency responsible for much of the publicly available data on healthcare in Massachusetts appears to be falling asleep at the wheel. The newly renamed Center for Health Information and Analysis (CHIA) has fallen woefully behind on releasing regular reports on their website. While Massachusetts embarks on a massive reconfiguration of our marketplace (Chapter 224) and so much national attention lingers on the state’s 2006 experiment, the agency that has helped to inform policymakers is missing in action. In some cases, regular reports have not been updated since before the current Commissioner took over 16 months ago. In my mind, this raises some serious questions about what CHIA is being asked to do under Chapter 224. How can the state guide a $18 […]

Jim Stergios

WBUR RadioBoston debate on Guv’s Texas-sized budget and tax increases

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A good debate with Northeastern University’s Peter Enrich on RadioBoston today. More to come in several op-eds, blogs and Pioneer’s annual The Good, The Bad and the Ugly series.

Jim Stergios

Duking it out on NECN on the governor’s transportation plan

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Jim Braude referees, as I duke it out with Stephanie Pollack on the Governor’s transportation proposal. You can read more here for more of Pioneer’s position on the topic.

Jim Stergios

The incredible shrinking voc tech dropout rate

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On January 6th the Boston Globe published a thoughtful opinion piece on the cost of dropouts by Alan Leventhal, who in his day job serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Beacon Capital Partners. It opened with a good overview of the challenge in the country: EQUAL OPPORTUNITY for education has been a social and moral imperative of our society. In the looming budget battles, it is now an economic imperative. The secondary education system annually produces 1 million dropouts nationally — 10,000 in Massachusetts alone — at a staggering cost to society. The cost of a dropout over a lifetime has been estimated at up to $500,000 in lost wages, increased entitlements, and criminal justice spending. If the […]

Joshua Archambault

Mass Connector Up to $180 Million to Change Tires on the Exchange

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The Boston Globe reported on its website yesterday that the Massachusetts Connector was awarded a Level Two establishment grant worth $81 million. I have written before on the Pioneer blog about the fire hose of federal dollars coming to New England for exchanges,  but Massachusetts was always seen as just needing to make “minor” tweaks to be in compliance. In fact, many supporters of the ACA contend that the Massachusetts health care law is the exact same as the federal version, some have even used colorful language to make this point. (The irony is that this individual sits on the Connector governing board and should know better.) NE Exchange Money MA Planning Grant $1,000,000 Level-1 Establishment Grant (a) $11,644,938 Level -1 Establishment Grant (b) $41,679,505 […]

$1B a Year More for Transportation?

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Pioneer’s Jim Stergios spoke with Transportation for Mass.’s Kristina Egan about MA Gov. Deval Patrick’s proposal to increase transportation spending by $1 billion a year. Watch this great “Face to Face” clip via our friends at MassINC

Jim Stergios

Lots of art, little science in transportation plan

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Rich Davey’s attempt at recreating the magic of Steve Jobs missed the mark in presenting the policy reasons for lots more transportation spending. At the release of the new transportation plan, his Jobs-like headset masked just how over-miked and overstated were the opportunities within our reach if we just put more fuel in the transportation accounts, as well as the too-good-to-be-true “multiplier” effects that will come with the new government spending. No, there was no discussion of the negative (even regressive) nature of much of what is being proposed. Payroll tax increases, no worry. Gas and green taxes, no problem. Then, of course, all of the projects cited – every last one of them – is a “need.” There was […]

Jim Stergios

I could support the bottle bill if…

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Last year saw a lot of movement within the legislature on the bottle bill, but ultimately no action. The bottle bill seeks to expand the types of beverage containers that require a 5-cent deposit to include water and juice bottles. In theory it sounds really good. Create an incentive for individuals and businesses to redeem their deposit and therefore keep plastic bottles from getting thrown into the regular trash stream and from being strewn all over the streets and highways. Here are my problems with it: (1) At the most personal level: When I recently brought regular water bottles (the cheap kind!) to a local Whole Foods, there was more than a frown about my bringing non-Whole Foods Lemon Italian […]

Joshua Archambault

What is ahead for Chapter 224 in 2013

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In an effort to achieve greater transparency, I decided to pull the requirements listed in the new healthcare law in Massachusetts that promises to save the Commonwealth billions. I have blogged about my skepticism numerous times before. It is important to keep in mind that these are the explicit implementation requirements or permissions granted to existing or new agencies in 2013. Many other implementation actions were intentionally left vague or were not assigned a start date, but can commence in 2013 or in the years to come. Those statutory requirements are not included in this list. The list also does not include the significant requirements that will take place every year, such as reporting by the Health Policy Commission (HPC) or the Center for Health Information Analysis (CHIA). Let me […]

Jason Turesky

SABIS Charter Lessons from Springfield

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MassReportCards.com data show some surprising information about graduation and college attendance rates in Springfield.

Joshua Archambault

FY13 Healthcare Spending Tips 50% of State Budget ($16.5B)

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During the formation of the FY 13 budget the Governor and his staff made a point to highlight the fact that healthcare spending now composes 41% of the spending. They warned: Based on long term forecasts conducted by the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, were health care costs to continue to grow at these historic rates, they would consume approximately 50% of state spending by 2020. Health care spending has crowded out key public investments that, among other things, likewise significantly impact the health and welfare of the people in the Commonwealth. The historic trends are also unsustainable for local governments, businesses and families, forcing all of these groups to make difficult choices between paying for health care and other […]

Jason Turesky

Pioneer’s www.massreportcards.com makes comparing schools a breeze

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It’s no surprise to hear that public schools in wealthy communities tend to outperform those in less fortunate areas.  The surprise is the ease of measuring this disparity and many others, too: just take a look at the numbers on Pioneer Institute’s education transparency website, www.massreportcards.com. For example, Weston and Lawrence high schools serve opposite ends of the income spectrum.  Weston consistently ranks as one of the wealthiest towns in Massachusetts while Lawrence ranks among the poorest. This dichotomy is mirrored in their respective high schools’ graduation rates and post-graduation plans. As one might expect, Weston has a whopping 96 percent graduation rate with less than one percent of students dropping out.  Compare that to Lawrence, where less than half […]