Blog

What is the relationship between public transportation usage and CO2 emissions in Massachusetts? To investigate this question, this blog uses a peer group of the only nine states with over 100 million total public transport trips in 2023, which are referred to as ‘high transport states’ throughout the blog.  

By failing to believe in students’ capabilities, and to set standards accordingly, we have condemned many to illiteracy and generally dire educational outcomes—in sum, incapability.  This need not be the case, and for a brief moment, in Massachusetts and other educational hotspots, it wasn’t.

National SAT scores have dropped to their lowest levels in years, and Massachusetts has also faced a moderate decline in scores. With fewer students in Massachusetts opting to take standardized tests, data from US Data Labs illustrates a complicated picture of academic performance and recovery in the state. 

Electric vehicles (EVs) have steadily been on the rise in the United States. New England cities, such as Boston and New Haven, have prioritized making them accessible. But capacity falls short of EV demand.

Want to make $1 million every year? The good news is that your chances are much better now than they were 10 years ago. Using Pioneer Institute’s US DataLabs Economy and Taxation applications, you can see just how many more people are making $1 million than were 10 years ago, and where they reside, using the information most recently available from the IRS. 

While Massachusetts may be known for having the worst drivers in the country, this judgment might unfairly punish drivers for a factor beyond their control—the quality of the roads and bridges they drive on. According to US Data Labs, Massachusetts has fallen behind the national average in both road and bridge quality over the past 15-25 years.

A new data tool from Pioneer Institute reveals that federal drug price controls—intended to reduce out-of-pocket costs for seniors—are instead making many prescription drugs more expensive for Medicare beneficiaries.  

This week's edition of Mapping Mass Migration features an analysis of newly released data from the Census Bureau, its March supplement of the Current Population Survey. Our analysis covers how migration trends have played out nationally since 1948, including the demographics of movers, the extent of their migration (within a county, across counties, to another state, etc.), and the most common reasons movers cite for changing their primary residence. The newsletter concludes with a brief discussion of what might account for a decline in overall migration rates nationally and where Massachusetts fits in.

As Pioneer Institute observes Sunshine Week,?we are disappointed by the legislature’s attempts to deny what the vast majority of voters want: an audit of the legislature by our State Auditor. Trying to avoid an audit further exacerbates the loss of public trust. After all, what are we left to think? Do they have something to hide? That is not the government our founders intended; nor is it what 72 percent of Massachusetts voters wanted. This year, during Sunshine Week, we are entirely focused on the top three actions to bring sunlight to the state legislature. They are: 

Connecticut, Louisiana and Tennessee missed the mark; Colorado and Pennsylvania saw improvements Boston, Mass – A new report reveals that while state legislatures were active in introducing telehealth bills in 2024, meaningful policy reforms remained elusive. The findings highlight how many states...