THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

Virtually There

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If Massachusetts has because of lack of leadership within the Board and the Department of Education, ground to a halt on digital learning, other states are moving fast. Let me give you two examples — one (Michigan) where the governor is particularly interested in digital learning and trying to make big changes fast; the other (Arizona) where “blended learning” is at the cutting edge. A month or so ago, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder laid out his education agenda. Admittedly, Gov. Snyder comes to his new gig with a strong background in computer technology, having in the past helmed Gateway Computers. Drawing off research from a local think tank, he saw how digital learning programs could save money and increase student […]

Joshua Archambault

Beacon Hill’s Budget MassHealth Mirage

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Today the Legislature will vote on the final state budget. I wanted to take one last opportunity to highlight the unrealistic assumptions that are being used for the MassHealth (Medicaid) program. If the state is unable to achieve these “savings” and instead follows historic spending trends, it could be looking at a $900 million gap, just for MassHealth. For years, Medicaid costs have advanced robustly, at roughly 7% per year which is a big number given that it’s building on a base of billions. See Pioneer’s work on this here. The Legislature is hoping for the state to drive down its per Medicaid enrollee costs by 3.5% next year. How have we done at that recently? On average, per enroll […]

Steve Poftak

Hold the Victory Lap

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The Conference Budget contains substantive reform to municipal health care. But let’s be clear – it looks a lot more like the weaker Senate version than the stronger House version. Happily, the Conference Budget’s municipal healthcare reform is free of the ‘poison pill’ provision that actually raised costs. This provision was slipped into a redrafted amendment which presented to members as a “technical amendment” by the sponsor, Senator Clark. That’s a phrase typically reserved for correcting obvious errors that don’t change the intent of the underlying legislation. To his credit, Senator Marc Pacheco was the only voice in the chamber to ask if he could review the amendment to make sure nothing substantive had changed. (State House News Service transcript, […]

Joshua Archambault

HCFA & GBIO’s Misdiagnosis

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Health Care for All and the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization held a rally today at the State House to call for a zero percent increases in premiums for health insurance. The intent may be worthy, but the mechanism is misplaced. Focusing on a cap of premium increases is like trying to prevent all car accidents by adding an extra bumper at the end of a production line. (The analogy only goes so far, I know) Until consumers understand the cost impact of their health care decisions, and small businesses are relieved from the burden of state mandates and over regulation in Massachusetts, this cap will be an unrealistic goal that will result in one more year of finger pointing without […]

Steve Poftak

Have Much Drinking Should You Do At Ed Meetings?

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OK, I tried in my previous post to give a higher level policy analysis of why you should care about the unfolding scandal regarding what appears to be an egregious corruption at the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative and Merrimack Education Center. Next, we’ll move on the prurient details: When was the last time you had nine drinks? Each guest at the non-profit Merrimack Education Center’s 2008 annual meeting Friday dinner averaged 8.8 drinks at the event. The dinner the next night was a model of decorum with the average plummeting to just under seven drinks per person. All told, the weekend event had a bar tab of $154 per attendee.

Jim Stergios

Virtually Worlds Apart

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Mirror-mirror on the wall, which states are pushing innovation most of all? Not Massachusetts. A number of other states are at this point moving faster than Massachusetts on key educational innovations. The good news for Massachusetts is that last January the state passed a law to double the number of charter schools. Further good news is that students in our charters consistently do better than their district peers; in other states that level of consistency is not always the rule. The bad news for Massachusetts is that states like Florida, Colorado, Michigan, Arizona and so many others are pushing forward with digital learning much faster than the Bay State is. In fact, the education bureaucracy is putting some of the […]

Joshua Archambault

Misinformation About Massachusetts Reform from the Left

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Jonathan Cohn, Senior Editor of The New Republic tries to undercut the controversial McKinsey study on employer sponsored health insurance (esi) under Obamacare at Kaiser Health News. I wanted to take a moment to highlight one talking point that I have seen repeatedly in the media from the left to defend the federal law and bash the McKinsey study. …studies have consistently shown a very different result: that the majority of employers will continue to offer health insurance, even after health care reform… While these predictions could be wrong, obviously, their findings are consistent with what happened in Massachusetts, where a similar coverage scheme actually bolstered employer-sponsored insurance. (I added the link to DHCFP data here in MA) The problem with […]

Steve Poftak

Big Trouble in the Merrimack Valley

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No one is happier with the Whitey Bulger arrest than John Barrenco. It’s knocked the problems with the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative off the front pages, but there’s a big problem up in the Merrimack Valley area and it appears that a lot of people are going to be in trouble by the time it’s all sorted out. First, a disclaimer: All items below are based on allegations and all the accused are innocent until proven guilty in court of law. With that out of the way, a quick synopsis of the allegations against Barrenco – he served, for a number of years, as the head (or was effectively in control) of both the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative (a public […]

Michael Morisy

After Dozens of Rounds of Layoffs, More State Employees Than Before

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Even after dozens of rounds of layoffs and promises of cutbacks state employment continued to be a growth industry in Massachusetts through the recession, according to analysis of data from the Comptroller of the Commonwealth and from the Human Resources Division. Several state departments, after a dozen or more layoffs, actually ended up with an increased headcount. Under the threat of massive budget shortfalls in 2008, Governor Deval Patrick promised a slashed budget and “painful” reductions in state staffing numbers. In total, he said 1,000 jobs would be eliminated, spanning a variety of services and departments. While the governor admitted the cost would have tangible impacts on everything from RMV wait times to services for the disabled and deaf, the […]

Joshua Archambault

Doc Gives Grim Diagnosis to “HCR II” in MA

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WBUR’s CommonHealth blog posted an interview with Dr. Wayne Glazier on payment reform that hits so many of the important issues on this complex topic. I have written on the Governor’s proposal a few times before and testified in front of the Joint Committee on Health Care Financing outlining some of my concerns. However, Dr. Glazier provides a front line perspective that many on Beacon Hill try to simplify in an effort to pass health care reform “phase II” quickly. 1) Global payments don’t get the patient involved in containing costs. The consumer needs to get involved. The current situation puts us in a very bad spot. My patient says ‘I want to go to UMass for my surgery,’ and […]

Steve Poftak

Stepping Back in Time on the T

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One of the joys of living in an ‘old’ city like Boston is when it reveals a hidden, seemingly unknown piece of itself. Having traveled enough to fear the growing homogenization of the American streetscape by chain stores, but having lived in and around Boston for most of my life, I was suprised and thrilled to discover the Mattapan Line. Its a small spur off the terminal point of southbound Ashmont Red Line that runs only three miles, stops at 8 stations, and carries about 4,500 passengers on a given weekday. As careful readers will note, I’ve got a thing for transit and its the railcars on the Mattapan Line that are the real treat. Take a look at the […]

Steve Poftak

Convention Center Chronicles – Wrap-Up

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Expanding the Convention Center and adding a Headquarters hotel are going to be heavy financial lifts for this area. We are talking about an initial cost of $212 million to $361 million (all estimates from here), even before new construction can begin. The Convention Center Authority believes it can ‘self-fund’ this, meaning their existing income streams (hotel taxes, sales taxes, Duck boat and trolley tour surcharges, Boston-based car rental/Zipcar surcharges) have enough excess* to support bond funding of this amount. Then, some public entity will need to come up with a minimum package of $200m to support construction of a 1000 room hotel that will need $310 – $500 million in private funds (much of it debt, to be sure) […]

Taylor Armerding

Senate mischief prove collusion with unions

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Two thoughts to add to Jim Stergios’s excellent post below on the state Senate’s cloaked attempt to gut a good-faith effort by the House to give municipalities the tools they need to control employee health care costs. The House plan would let cities and towns save as much as $100 million a year – money that could be put toward sustaining public services. Amendments to the Senate budget would take it all away. First, the Senate’s mischief is a classic example of the collusion between elected officials and the unions, when the parties are supposed to be on opposite sides of the table. The reason cities and towns are in the trouble they are in now is because at contract […]

Steve Poftak

Convention Center Chronicles — Marginal Impact and Demand

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What do we get? And who will come? Those are the questions that have not been properly answered despite reams of powerpoints and consultants reports. In its presentation “Case for Expansion“, The Convention Center Authority makes the case that we “lost” out on a number of conventions because of our small size, availability or cost. (Note that expansion only addresses the first cause.) It is not clearly stated anywhere whether we ‘lost’ these shows (as in the contract would absolutely, positively been signed) or whether we were unable to compete for these shows against other cities. The Authority then extrapolates from these losses a large amount of forgone economic impact, making the case for expanding the BCEC. The problem with […]

Jim Stergios

Tide turning on municipal health savings

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The Globe‘s editorial page came out with a very clear view on the House and Senate proposals on the issue of how to contain municipal health care costs. LAST-MINUTE provisions inserted in the Senate budget undermine much of the effort on Beacon Hill to give cities and towns the tools they need to control the rising health care costs of municipal workers. It’s a setback to the stellar work of the House, which earlier passed a plan to save an estimated $100 million annually by allowing municipalities to place their workers in the state’s less-costly Group Insurance Commission or a similar plan… Unions and special interests battered the House, seeking to weaken the municipal health reform effort. The House stood […]