THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

Are Teachers Changing Their Unions?

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The recent deal brokered by Stand for Children with the Massachusetts Teachers Association (and at the end supported by the AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts chapter of the American Federation for Teachers) made some progress in making student performance a larger consideration in evaluating teachers and lessened the role of seniority. The Globe editorial board put it this way: Stand for Children was plowing ahead with a tough ballot initiative that would have eliminated nearly all aspects of teacher seniority in the state’s public school systems. It went so far as to put non-tenured teachers with three years or less experience — so-called provisionals — on par with the most senior teachers during layoffs. With the 107,000-member Massachusetts Teachers Association gearing […]

Jim Stergios

The obvious lesson for innovation schools

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Two-and-a-half years have passed since the passage of the reform law (“An Act Relative to the Achievement Gap”) that will, over time, double the number of charter school students and established a new category of in-district reform called innovation schools. (The law also made virtual schools possible, but the state’s department of education decided two years ago to tie a few regulatory double-knots on that type of reform, as I’ve blogged here and here.) In districts where MCAS scores lagged in the bottom 10 percent statewide, the cap on the number of number of students who could attend charter schools was doubled from 9 percent to 18 percent. We saw an increase of 16 charter schools in year one and […]

Joshua Archambault

Jon Gruber’s RomneyCare/ObamaCare False Narrative

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This morning, Steve LeBlanc of the Associated Press has another Massachusetts focused story up titled “Mass. Health Law May Bode Well for Federal Law.” The piece is based on a common flawed assumption. The piece fails to mention Massachusetts’ pre-reform circumstances in contrast to other states now. It expects that the same actions and behaviors will play out in the same way in other states. To expand on my quote in the story, can we honestly suppose New Mexico with 20+% uninsured, no guarantee issue in their individual market, employer sponsored insurance rates of 48.6 percent, lower income levels, lower education level, low-medical infrastructure, and a geographically spread out state to see the exact same results as the Commonwealth? Contrast that with the  starting place […]

Joshua Archambault

Are Fewer People in MA Paying the Indiv Mandate Penalty?

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Since the Supreme Court upheld the ACA/Obamacare, there has been a renewed interest in the Massachusetts healthcare law. I have blogged many times before to caution readers and the media not to assume the two laws will lead to the same results, because they won’t, mostly as Massachusetts is not the same patient with the same ailments as New Mexico, or Michigan, or even Florida. I know I am fighting against the conventional wisdom,  but this issue warrants discussion as Congress passed a national program and modeled the behavior and cost estimates (incorrectly in my opinion) partially on our experience here in the Bay State. As a result of the national interest, I assume we will see more local reports […]

Jim Stergios

The SCOTUS ruling’s impact on education policy

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Internet traffic has been especially heavy for the past 32 hours as people across the US are trying to understand just what the decision yesterday by SCOTUS means. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is an extremely complex piece of legislation famously weighing in at well over 2,000 pages and already a couple of years into implementation leading to thousands more pages of regulations and guidance to fill in the gaps left to the U.S. Health Secretary Sebellius. As people learned the news yesterday, of course, some had extra pep in their step; others required pepto-bismol. Such high-profile ruling with broad implications for federal-state relations is bound to touch on education policy — and it does. The discussion of the Commerce […]

Joshua Archambault

Pioneer Press Release on SCOTUS ACA Ruling

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The Way Forward: Despite Supreme Court Ruling, New Start Needed on Health Care Reform Pioneer Institute calls for Congress to replace most of the federal health law and clear the way for state-based reforms BOSTON – Despite the US Supreme Court’s decision to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA), Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research calls for a new approach to solving the nation’s health care problems. “The fact that this decision was made in essence by a single justice highlights the need for real solutions that can gain broad consensus across the country. The Court’s decision today will set off further state and federal conflicts that will likely end up in the courts once again,” says […]

Jim Stergios

Making more than symbolic change in our schools

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Today’s lead story in the Globe relates the three years of “reform” by Sito Narcisse at English High: An extraordinary three-quarters of English High’s teachers and administrators have quit or been let go during the past three years, school records show, as headmaster Sito Narcisse pushed through one controversial initiative after another — from school uniforms to single-sex classrooms to eliminating the grade “D,” forcing students to earn a “C” or fail. Teachers who did not go along with Narcisse’s approach were “not the right fit,” in his words, and he sent 38 of them packing, while dozens of others retired or resigned. Given the continued drift in the school’s MCAS scores and observations of kids napping in class and […]

Steve Poftak

MBTA Doing More With Less

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Rather than big dollar expansion projects, the MBTA’s Key Bus Routes program stands as an example of modest incremental investments that can yield improved service (and potentially increased ridership). The program released its initial design for improvements to the 39 bus route on Tuesday and the results are promising. They are eliminating a handful of stops, moving some bus stops, marking them more prominently, and lengthening several of them. The goal is to lower the number of stops and create stops that are clear of illegal parkers and can be more easily used by drivers (as opposed to having them stop in the flow of traffic). The presentation also makes non-specific commitments to improved traffic signal coordination and technology-driven ‘anti-bunching’ […]

Steve Poftak

Public Pensions and Workforce – State Police Version

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The recent announcement that State Police Superintendent Marian McGovern was going to retire prompted me to look into her compensation and her choices. (N.B. I don’t know the Superintendent and don’t question her commitment to public service. The point here is simply to look at the economic incentives provided by the current public pension system.) My first question was: Why did she wait so long? The State Police are “Group 3” employees and the only Commonwealth employees who do not have a retirement age factor in their pension calculation (only years of service). That contributes to relative early retirements — the average State Police retiree in 2009 was 53.7 years old while the average Group 1 retiree (the majority of […]

Joshua Archambault

The Myth of Cost Control Legislation

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The House passed their version of “cost control” last night in a 148-7 vote. Sadly for taxpayers and the general public, there was little debate on the bill itself and the few minutes of debate on the floor revolved exclusively around a handful of amendments. Changing 18% of our state economy with little debate, no hard questions, in a few hours, no problem? Was this how we did it for health reform 1.0? The leadership accepted most special interest amendments in an effort to garner votes. Most of these provisions will be taken out in conference committee. What We Know 18% of the Massachusetts economy is health care related; 20% of patients account for 80% of costs, 5% of patients […]

Joshua Archambault

Guide to Mass Payment Reform Amendments: Sex Ed, Podiatry, and Acupuncture

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Find me on twitter: @josharchambault For those following at home, the House will debate their version of payment reform today and tomorrow. You can watch here starting at 1 pm and read the redraft of the bill here. 275 amendments have been filed, and legislators appear to be more focused on social policy, labor policy, and special-interest carve outs than health delivery and payment reform. Some of the more colorful amendments consist of: Social Policy: Studying sex ed in charter schools.(#30) 4 amendments dealing with family planning (#32, 139, 264, 265), removing ultrasound diagnostic imaging from the definition of an advanced diagnostic imaging service (#179), and health care equity (#217). Labor Appointments: There are 5 amendments giving appointments to the Massachusetts Nurses Association […]

Jim Stergios

Falling short on the Lawrence school turnaround

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In November 2011, the Board of Education decided to put the city of Lawrence’s public schools into receivership. With that announcement the power to install a receiver for the district was given to the state’s education commissioner. The January appointment of Jeffrey Riley as receiver by the Education Commissioner was well received. Riley has experience as a Teacher for America and also as a principal of a challenging school. His work as the Chief Innovation Officer in Boston’s schools was marked by a steady but persistent push for change. So, yesterday the receiver and the commissioner made public the state’s turnaround plan for the Lawrence Public Schools today with fanfare and much talk about urgency. The Lawrence Eagle Tribune lists […]

Jim Stergios

A big test at Madison Park Vocational

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Over the past decade, while there has been incremental success in most suburban schools, and limited incremental success raising achievement in a few urban school districts, the big stories in raising student achievement have come in the state’s 70 or so Commonwealth charter schools and its 27 regional career-vocational technical schools. Currently, there are 63 CVT schools in the Commonwealth with about half serving regional populations while the other half is under the direct jurisdiction of larger districts. The regional voc-techs have many similarities with charters: They operate outside the direct control of a single district superintendent, and in fact have their own dedicated leadership (superintendents and elected school committees); they are schools of choice; they are highly focused on […]

Joshua Archambault

Mass House Pulls a “Charlie Brown” on Payment Reform Redraft

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The Massachusetts House rushed the release of their payment reform bill to beat the Senate the first time around. As a result, the next few weeks provided time for House lawmakers to receive feedback and improve the bill before it was to be voted on. Unfortunately, the bill’s authors missed the ball again, and made only small changes. Unfortunately, the House has decided to follow the Senate precedent of rushing passage of the final bill. 48 hours to file amendments, and only a couple more days before it is debated and voted on next week. [Changing 18 percent of our economy in two days, with many unanswered questions about added costs, lack of evidence of savings, and lots of new mandates, […]