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Smaller, Fewer is Not Better
/2 Comments/in Blog, News /byWhile the rest of the US created jobs after the 2001 recession, Massachusetts shrank. Understanding why is important if we want to avoid a ‘jobless recovery’ from the most recent recession. The above chart shows US jobs (thin black line) versus MA jobs (bold red line) starting in 2001. What you see is both dropping in response to the recession but the US economy comes back by 2005 and creates net new jobs. The Massachusetts economy never comes back far enough to reach early 2001 levels. Two connected factors explain a significant portion of our stagnation – Massachusetts is failing to create new businesses at the same rate it did in the ‘90s and the new businesses we manage to […]
If walls could speak
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, Related Education Blogs /byWalk into a building and you can already tell a lot about an institution. An excellent teacher can be found in a building that screams stasis, but a culture of excellence in a school will not over time abide such a feeling of immobility. That’s why you can feel the energy in a school that works–and most often you can see it upon coming to an entrance, walking the hallways, and viewing the classroom walls. And walking through the section of Our Lady of Grace in Chelsea, home to Phoenix Charter Academy, the walls of the classrooms show serious purpose. Sure, the school does not have the level of resources that district schools get for facilities; but that’s part of […]
Bob Haynes will leave labor worse than he found it
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /byNobody should shed any tears for Bobby Haynes, the longtime president of the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, when he rides off this fall into the kind of gilded retirement he generally decries for private-sector CEOs – unless, of course, it is an $11-million package for the former CEO of a nonprofit health corporation on whose board Haynes is paid a cool $72,000 to sit. Nor should they give him any thanks. Haynes, who announced his retirement this week, is leaving labor worse than he found it. And not because public employee unions look to be “losing” a battle on Beacon Hill over health care benefits. It is because Haynes, described by the Boston Globe as a “tough-talking former iron worker,” is more […]
Pioneer Institute Announces Winner of 20th Annual Better Government Competition
/in Better Government, Press Releases, Press Releases: Government /byPioneer Institute Announces Winner of 20th Annual Better Government Competition
Mend over matter
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Economic Opportunity, News /byFor those of you who are inclined to think that Massachusetts is on the mend and on the move, perhaps some graphics will shake you from your dream-space. G. Scott Thomas of the Business Journals provides the goods: Texas has enjoyed an unequaled economic boom the past 10 years. The inventory of private-sector jobs in Texas increased by 732,800 between April 2001 and the same month this year, according to an On Numbers analysis of new federal employment data. Meanwhile, Massachusetts is 42nd in the nation for job creation oops, 8th in the nation for job loss since 2001. In the past year (April 2010 to April 2011), the state of TX has added 250,000 jobs. In the past year, […]