THE PIONEER BLOG

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 […]

Joshua Archambault

ACA Impact, Part 5: New $63 Per-Head Tax

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The headline from the AP this morning Surprise: New Insurance Fee in Health Overhaul Law The fee will total $12 billion in 2014, $8 billion in 2015 and $5 billion in 2016. That means the per-head assessment would be smaller each year, around $40 in 2015 instead of $63.

Jim Stergios

A new law expanding virtual schools?

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Back in January 2010, there was a lot of hope that the charter school expansions associated with the new law would work out well. The data on that is largely tremendous. The new charters are faring very well, thank you. There were other elements in the law including the creation of statewide “virtual schools,” schools where students could do much of their coursework online. That promise was not kept, as the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education put into place what were onerous regulations that dissuaded all but the Superintendent of Greenfield Schools from attempting to create such an entity. Susan Patrick, perhaps one of the most informed policymakers on virtual education, noted at a recent event in Massachusetts that […]

Jim Stergios

Advice to the President and Arne Duncan

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In 2009, Pres. Obama effectively used the “bully pulpit” to expand charter schools, changes that were adopted by state legislatures around the country. During the next three years, the administration opted for a “top down” approach, with Race to the Top pushing state compliance with federally defined state reforms. These included not yet field tested Common Core standards, not yet complete national tests and bureaucratic teacher evaluation systems. In a second Obama administration, these efforts are likely to get bogged down in the complexities of implementation; importantly for Massachusetts, they undo key reforms that have driven our remarkable success. Instead, I’d advise the president to do three things. First, revert to using the bully pulpit, this time to improve the […]

Joshua Archambault

ACA Impact, Part 4: $3.89 Billion in New Insurance Taxes Over 10 Years

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I have written many times before on this blog about individual provisions in the ACA/ Obamacare and their impact on Massachusetts. Some examples include: Obamacare Means Big Changes for Romneycare How SCOTUS ACA/Obamacare Ruling Impacts Mass ACA Impact, Part 1: Low-income Residents will Pay More for Healthcare and Insurance ACA Impact, Part 2: $14B in Medicare Cuts for Massachusetts ACA Impact, Part 3: Cadillac Tax on Middle-Class and Up, $87K for Small Biz Employee Will the ACA Bankrupt the Mass Connector? Understanding ACA’s Essential Health Benefits for MA: Square Peg in a Round Hole? A Dive into the MA Health Reform Waiver & Why it Matters to the Future of the ACA Will Mass Set up a Basic Health Plan […]

Jim Stergios

The perfect storm facing Jewish Day Schools

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More than 100,000 students in 10 states – including Rhode Island and New Hampshire – are currently educated under tax credit programs. Massachusetts has so many exceptional private and parochial education options, and our school children deserve the same options. Jewish Day Schools, for example, are facing a perfect storm of rising costs and declining philanthropic support.