THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

Mandatory Volunteerism

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The last decade has seen an explosion in the number of middle and high schools mandating volunteerism. I am not a fan of forcing volunteerism, and “mandatory volunteerism” offends those who treasure meaningful language. But within a set of courses and activities aimed at rounding out children so that they will become effective participants in civil society, such requirements may make sense. That is especially so if students can choose the volunteer program and not be restricted to school-approved activities. Choosing what you are passionate about is critical to being a good citizen. Clearly, such mandates are not things we impose on adults. Which is why it is so disconcerting to see the federal department of education treat state and […]

Jim Stergios

Are Turnaround Schools Just Spin?

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The waiver from the federal No Child Left Behind Act will, as noted yesterday, have a number of effects, with three big ones being: It moves the goalposts for accountability back years (at least 2017, more likely 2024) and weakens the accountability goal (from proficiency for all students to making progress on the achievement gap) It gets rid of all of the law’s school choice and parental options, which were to kick in after a number of years of continued school failure It centralizes innovation and change strategies in Malden (the world HQ of the state department of education) The first effect listed above is a simple punt on accountability. But the last two bullets mark a move away from […]

Jim Stergios

Moving the Goalposts on NCLB

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Massachusetts and nine other states made news last week by seeking and receiving waivers from major provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The waiver was never a favorite of mine but I think the way it was upended and why says a lot about the centralizing worldview of federal and state policymakers. First thing is to separate process and substance. The process on the waivers is wrongheaded—and likely illegal. Stay tuned for more on that. On the substance, US Department of Ed Secretary Arne Duncan outlined the key requirements he wanted Massachusetts to fulfill, on standards (what Sec. Duncan calls college- and career-readiness standards), instruction and leadership, and accountability. On standards, Massachusetts met the feds’ requirement […]

Joshua Archambault

Hold the Cork for The Connector

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The Connector made a “big” announcement about the Business Express program today– that all carriers are now selling in the exchange. But a little context is needed before we throw a party. In a September 2010 paper, I addressed the limited benefit of the Business Express program in the Connector. …Business Express (BE) also suffers from design limitations and does little to address the underlying reasons behind premium increases. It does reduce the monthly fee that small employers typically pay to third-party administrators from $35 per subscriber to $10 per subscriber, saving employers roughly $300 per employee per year. However, this reduced fee is not unique to the Con­nector. The Massachusetts Business Association contends that it offers a similarly low-priced plan. […]

Joshua Archambault

Case of the Missing State Reports

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The Division of Health Care Finance and Policy (DHCFP) plays an important role in the Bay State with their regular data reports. This data helps policymakers and those outside government plan and adjust to changes in the market. So, I have been wondering for months why DHCFP has fallen way behind releasing a number of regular reports. For example, a Key Indicators report was due in December 2011. This is a quarterly report that the Division has released religiously for years. The last report on-line is from May. What gives?

Steve Poftak

Driving Costs at Boston Public Schools

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Education spending is one of those things that makes everyone feel good — we all want the best for kids, right? But that good feeling begins to fade when you see that many of the drivers of increased spending aren’t directly related to classrooms. In the (laudably detailed) proposed budget for FY13, Superintendent Johnson notes that health insurance is flat for the upcoming year but will increase by $7.7m in FY14 (on a base of $127.7m in total benefit spending). As noted in a 2010 research report, spending on health benefits increased by more than the increase in state education aid from 2000 to 2007. In other words, all the additional tax dollars the state spent on education during that […]

Jim Stergios

A Halfhearted School Budget in Massachusetts

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You know you’re in for trouble when a school district with major graduation and dropout rates problems announces a new budget and leads with the hiring of five new nurses. That is not the definition of urgency. The big new Boston budget of $856 million came with big headlines about more nurses and an overhaul of Roxbury’s Madison Park Vocational Technical High School. $856 million for about 54,000 students. That breaks down to almost $16,000. Of course it does not include additional funding sources and is not the complete picture. Last year’s NCES estimates pegged Boston as the most expensive urban school district in the country, clocking in at around $21,000 per student. There is an obvious problem with the […]

Steve Poftak

Manufacturing’s Moment?

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Manufacturing has a bad image these days. For those of us inside Route 128 , it can feel like there’s nothing left. But the reality for the rest of the state is very different. Manufacturing still employs approximately 260,000 people or 8% of the workforce. And these people are working in good jobs at good wages – in the areas where manufacturing is still going on, wages in the industry are above the area median. If you’d like to know more about manufacturing in Massachusetss, I’d encourage you to look at work by the state’s Commonwealth Corporation and Northeastern’s Barry Bluestone. With Obama’s State of the Union, there’s increased attention to the industry. (I’m happy to see the attention paid […]

Steve Poftak

Carmen Ortiz is Making Beacon Hill Nervous

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Think you’ve had a tense few weeks at work? Consider potential targets of US Attorney Carmen Ortiz’s probe into wrongdoing at the state’s Probation Department. The Globe Spotlight Team and the Ware Report detailed the madness, absurdity, and outright corruption of the Probation Department. It’s tough to do it justice in a few words — rigged hiring, pay-to-play promotions, alleged quid pro quo between department leaders and legislators, and on and on. On January 17, the Globe reported that the US Attorney’s office had “essentially completed their investigation” and indictments were imminent. Given the number of legislators mentioned prominently in the Ware Report, this had to be cause for concern. Tick, tick, tick. Still waiting. Ten days later, the Lowell […]

Editorial Staff

Pioneer and Northeastern Present State Transportation Scorecard

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Use Pioneer’s Transportation Dashboard, an online, interactive application designed to model a performance measurement system that could be deployed by the state’s Department of Transportation. It features an array of publicly-available data in an easy-to-digest format, and includes the latest information on key indicators of performance such as congestion, throughput, safety, construction management, and environmental stewardship.

Joshua Archambault

BCBSF of MA and Health Affairs Spinning the MA Reform

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The Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of Massachusetts (BCBSF) put out an annual survey this week on the Massachusetts health reform law, along with a Health Affairs piece that has left me shaking my head. The presentation of the results seems to overstate the findings and draws unlikely conclusions about the federal law. In my humble opinion, Health Affairs has lost some credibility with the pieces they publish on Massachusetts. Editor-in-chief Susan Dentzer admitted the publication’s bias in a recent speech to the Massachusetts Association of Health Plans. A New Era in American Health Care: What it Means for Health Plans, Providers, Employers & Consumers from Eric Linzer on Vimeo. On the actual BCBSF report, just a couple of comments: […]

Steve Poftak

The Weakest Link?

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Like most places, Massachusetts uses elections to insure accountability in government. Don’t like how things are being run? Vote’em out. So, it’s interesting to note that some of the most egregious breakdowns in public accountability over the past few years have occurred in that netherworld between bureaucrats and elected officials — the board of directors. To be sure, the private sector has struggled with how to insure the accountability of boards of directors, but the public sector seems to be far behind in this area. What are the key indicators of weak governance? Review the peformance of the Essex Country Regional Retirement Board, the Chelsea Housing Authority Board, and the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative Board. In each case, a board […]

Jim Stergios

Chipping away at charters

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Charter school approvals are granted in February. They shouldn’t be. They should have been granted on January 16th this year–Martin Luther King Day–for one simple reason: No education policy change has done more in Massachusetts to alleviate achievement gaps than charters. None. We too often hear about how education is the civil rights issue of the 21st century. The fact is that education was the Civil Rights issue of the 20th century, starting with the landmark Brown v. Board of Education ruling and the battle to ensure that all kids, regardless of race or creed, had equal access to good schools. Today, the face of Civil Rights has many colors, and the principal battleground is in inner cities, places like […]

Editorial Staff

Introduction to the Massachusetts Transportation Dashboard

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Author(s): Steve Poftak — Publication date: 2012-01-24 Category: Better Government Abstract: Pioneer’s Transportation Dashboard is intended to communicate the performance of the state’s transportation system and inform the public about the effectiveness of the state’s transportation leadership. As a single-page of primarily visual communication, it necessarily simplifies the complex nature of the transportation system. Pioneer developed the dashboard in partnership with Northeastern University’s School of Engineering, led by Professor Ali Touran. We offer the dashboard as a starting point for the development of richer and deeper analysis of system performance. [wpdm_package id=52]

Steve Poftak

Meet the Transportation Dashboard

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How well did the Patriots do this weekend? That’s easy. Look at the scoreboard. How well has the state spent your tax dollars since the enactment of transportation reform? Well, that’s harder. There’s some reports that highlight the changes in management structure and some of the cost savings. But what about the things that really matter to the customer. Some of those measures are in a .pdf file on the MassDOT website, if you know where to look. (And the MBTA actually is a bit more forward with their data.) Pioneer thinks something bolder, more public, and customer-focused is needed. Using simple desktop tools, we put together a transportation dashboard with public data. It’s far from perfect, but we hope […]