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Statement: Pioneer Institute in Support of Accessory Dwelling UnitsMay 2, 2024 - 12:50 pm
Study: Expand Voc-Tech Seats, Don’t Require Lottery- Based AdmissionsMay 2, 2024 - 8:50 am
Colonel Peter Hayden on U.S. Cyber Command & National SecurityMay 1, 2024 - 1:52 pm
Losing Local Labor: Retaining Workers Remains a Massachusetts ChallengeApril 30, 2024 - 10:49 am
Outmigration and the Labor ForceApril 25, 2024 - 11:44 am
Study Finds Obstacles to Search for Opioid SubstituteApril 25, 2024 - 9:11 am
Annual Massachusetts Outmigration Hits 39,000, Up 1,100% Over The Last Decade: BU StudyApril 24, 2024 - 1:00 pm
Hoover at Stanford’s Stephen Kotkin on Stalin’s Tyranny, WWII, & the Cold WarApril 24, 2024 - 12:33 pm
Superior Court Judge Invalidates “Equity Theft” Law as UnconstitutionalApril 23, 2024 - 1:04 pm
Tax Man Confounded: Why High Rates Haven’t Yielded Higher RevenueApril 23, 2024 - 12:58 pm
How do student absences affect students?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Related Education Blogs /byA 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 […]
Health $ Elbow Out Kids, Cops and Trees
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare, News, Related Education Blogs /byJust 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 […]
Payment Reform: No Government Mandate Needed
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare /byThe 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 […]
Full Disclosure
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byAEI 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 […]
Decrease Insurance Premiums or You’ll Be Sleeping with the Fishes
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare, Transparency /byA 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 […]