THE PIONEER BLOG

Jim Stergios

What we should we ask of the new UMass president?

/1 Comment/in , /by

With former Congressman and current chancellor of the University of Massachusetts at Lowell Marty Meehan having pulled out of the running for the presidency of the overall UMass system, we are left with three finalists: Charles Bantz, the chancellor of Indiana University-Purdue University in Indianapolis, Robert Caret, the president of Towson University in Maryland, and Phillip Clay, chancellor of MIT IUPUI’s website trumpets that it is one of the top five “up and coming” American universities that U.S. News and World Report says people should be watching, and the 8th best public college in the Midwest according to Forbes magazine. IUPUI has a strong mix of undergraduate (22,000) and graduate and professional students (8,000). Its progress in raising the quality […]

Steve Poftak

MBTA Parking Proposal Should Go Further

/0 Comments/in , /by

The MBTA is proposing to securitize its parking revenues (roughly $30m per year) in order to fill a budget gap next year and pay down some debts, according to a Globe article. Also, the T will continue to run the lots and set prices. First, its not clear to me that this proposal creates value, except by solving a short-term fiscal problem (at potentially great expense). If this is just a pure securitization of a future stream of income (without the promise of operational improvements that would provide better service and/or generate more revenue), then its just taking money from the future to the present. Its even worse if the money goes to fund operating costs, then you’ve taken future […]

Joshua Archambault

Troubling Cost Trends in Massachusetts Health Care

/0 Comments/in , , /by

Two trends that might determine the long term success of health reform here in Massachusetts: 1) The Boston Globe ran an article about the immense upward cost pressure on the state’s Medicaid program. I blogged about the enrollment and cost increases in Medicaid about a week ago, here. In addition, under the federal law, at least 90,000 people will be moved from the current state subsidized privately run CommonCare plans into Medicaid. However, the double hit of enrollment increases are not the only issue: “The state is also being pushed by Washington, which is cutting back its support. The federal government, which had been paying 62 percent of the state’s Medicaid costs as part of the stimulus program, will pay […]

Joshua Archambault

GLOBE OP-ED: Mass. cities need new deal with public employees

/2 Comments/in , , , , /by

The Mayor of New Bedford– one of Pioneer’s Middle Cities– wrote an interesting op-ed that ran in the Boston Globe. He calls for a statewide task force to develop a new framework for public union contracts in the future. He outlines the fiscal mess that many local communities face, and advocates for immediate action to re-imagine how local governments are run. I wrote an op-ed giving some suggestions from the state level a few weeks ago. However, Mayor Lang’s strongest argument to support his call for action is that: “We cannot have a strong state unless we have strong municipalities. It is imperative that we find systemic and equitable solutions that will allow our cities to strengthen public safety, revitalize […]

Jim Stergios

Delivering a reality check

/1 Comment/in , /by

Back in October, a nasty teacher union v. school district battle came to a decision point in the Wrentham-Norfolk-Plainville area. Months had passed with the local union refusing to allow teachers to perform basic duties (writing letters of recommendation, providing parents access to updates online, etc.). As the Globe’s Brian McGrory noted, the unions were sore that the school committee didn’t want to agree to a new contract that would have given them a 28 percent raise over three years. Anyone who has been around the block in education knows the clout of the teachers unions and can easily twist his fingers in knots counting the obstacles and “actions” some local unions are willing to use to persuade school committees […]

Joshua Archambault

VIDEO: Is Beacon Hill Rigged?

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

On a quiet Friday afternoon during the holidays, Beacon Hill gave members not returning next session a chance to give farewell speeches. The one that stood out was most was Rep. Matthew Patrick calling out the status quo for doing business in the Massachusetts State House. “If you play your cards right, vote the right way, keep your criticisms to yourself, you have a chance of becoming a chairperson of a committee,” he said, adding that eventually, “You find yourself not participating in debates, not even listening, because you and everyone else knows what the outcome will be. It’s preordained. You continue to play the game until one day you find out that some lobbyists have more influence than you, […]

Jim Stergios

How do student absences affect students?

/0 Comments/in , /by

A story in the Providence Journal focuses on Central Falls, the tiny city best known in Massachusetts education circles as the place where the CF Schools Superintendent, with the support of RI Education Commissioner Deborah Gist, fired all of the district’s teachers unless they agreed to reforms that included spending more time in the classrooms. That story drew national headlines, but the city of Central Falls and the school district continue to garner headlines in Rhode Island. The city is facing bankruptcy, with the head of a special commission suggesting that the entire city be folded into Pawtucket. (The mayor of Pawtucket wasn’t so hot on that idea.) There are numerous stories that are still coming out concerning the school […]

Joshua Archambault

Health $ Elbow Out Kids, Cops and Trees

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Just wanted to share a dramatic graph from a recent Boston Foundation report. While the report focused on the money that is being sucked away from education, the graph above should raise big red flags on Beacon Hill about the stark increase in health care spending. The report was followed by an investigative look into the Medicaid expansion that has taken place during the economic downturn. It will be over 30% of the Massachusetts budget next year.  State House News Service Massachusetts taxpayers have delivered more revenue to the state Treasury nearly every month since October 2009, but the Patrick administration still faces a significant budget gap, largely because of soaring costs in the state Medicaid program. It may be […]

Joshua Archambault

Payment Reform: No Government Mandate Needed

/0 Comments/in , , /by

The move in the health sector towards payment reform took a big leap forward as 1,800 doctors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center signed a global budget contract with Blue Cross for HMO patients. In other words, doctors are given a fixed budget for the care for each patient during that year. Supporters of global payments hope that the quality of care will be improved. WBUR’s CommonHealth Blog posted an interview with Dr. Stuart Rosenberg about the move. What I found especially interesting was Dr. Rosenberg’s statement at the end of the video. 4:40 My idea is let’s just get on with the solution, and not wait for the government to pass a law. During a radio story carried on NPR, the […]

Jim Stergios

Full Disclosure

/0 Comments/in , , /by

AEI edu-wonk Rick Hess went blue in the face in his Education Week blog criticizing Pioneer’s call for an investigation of Massachusetts Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester in the wake of a Channel 5 story showing that Chester accepted free and discounted travel from groups with an interest in issues before him. Rick’s piece leans hard on references to a supposed Salem Witch Hunt (yup, that’s right in the title of his blog) and the piece just goes downhill from there. Building your case on a Salem Witch Hunt frame is a sure sign of overheated passion. It’s not just people in Salem who shake their heads at the hackneyed reference (as if that great merchant city’s history begins and ends […]

Joshua Archambault

Decrease Insurance Premiums or You’ll Be Sleeping with the Fishes

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

A study released this morning may lay out the possible future of state intervention in premium increases for health insurance. The Kaiser Family Foundation examined the different methods by which each state reviews proposed health insurance rates. They found: Many states use subjective standards to guide the review and approval of rates, such as that rates cannot be “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory” or that “benefits are reasonable in relation to premiums charged.” Such standards give states more flexibility, but can make the process appear arbitrary and opaque to consumers and the public. Does this sound familiar in Massachusetts? The election year– small businesses health care bill– granted the executive branch the authority to reject premium rate increases if they […]

Steve Poftak

Choice for me but not for thee?

/0 Comments/in , /by

The Globe’s op-ed page has been featuring several ‘guest’ columnists, including Junia Yearwood, a retired BPS teacher. One of her recent columns is a pretty vicious attack on charter schools — categorically accusing them of creaming students, ejecting difficult students, and making her former school a ‘dumping ground’. So, given her egalitarian views and support for the district schools, I was intrigued to learn that, for her own child, she sends them to the suburbs to be educated through the METCO program.

Elizabeth Prasse

Tax-Exempt Organizations 101

/0 Comments/in , /by

During this year’s election season, controversy arose regarding disclosure requirements for tax-exempt organizations that spend money on political advertisements. In particular, the Chamber of Commerce and the identity (or lack thereof) of its donors came under scrutiny. This debate is just the tip of the iceberg in a very important area: government regulation and oversight of tax-exempt organizations. Organizations that are created under Section 501(c)(3) and related provisions of the Internal Revenue Code are generally exempt from paying federal income taxes, and under Massachusetts law, they are also generally exempt from paying state and local taxes. In other words, we have decided as a society that certain types of organizations are worthy of public support and should be excused from […]

Jim Stergios

Ryan & Rivlin on containing health care costs

/0 Comments/in , /by

This week’s Economist has an article worth reading on the various proposals to curb the burgeoning federal deficit. In it, you can view a comparative table of deficit cutting options (would include it here but it’s worth reading the whole thing). As Economics 21 notes, Many critics have taken Bowles-Simpson to task for “hand-waving” at Medicare cost growth by declaring an intention to cap Medicare to a growth rate of GDP growth + 1% while retaining its defined benefit structure. Given that Medicare has grown at a far faster rate in recent years, the idea is that this is a highly unrealistic projection. Happily, left and right have come together, respectively, in the persons of Paul Ryan (WI) and Alice […]

Steve Poftak

Groupon for the Public Sector?

/2 Comments/in , /by

Groupon (and its group-buying competitors) are all the rage in retail right now. There’s a pretty healthy debate going on regarding the pros and cons of the Group-on model (see here, here, here, here, here and so forth), so I was intrigued a few weeks back when I saw that a quasi-public entity was the featured Boston Groupon of the day. Zoo New England runs the Franklin Park and Stone Zoos and receives a subsidy from the state of several million dollars. Its CEO, John Linehan, was kind enough to speak with me about the Zoo’s thinking behind the Groupon offer. (See Disclosure below) Much of the criticism of Groupon centers on several themes – does it draw new customers […]