MORE ARTICLES
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
Choice for me but not for thee?
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byThe 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.
Tax-Exempt Organizations 101
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byDuring 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 […]
Ryan & Rivlin on containing health care costs
/0 Comments/in Blog, Healthcare /byThis 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 […]
Groupon for the Public Sector?
/2 Comments/in Blog, News /byGroupon (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 […]
Does the heroic reform model work?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Education, Blog: School Choice, Jim Stergios, Related Education Blogs /bySchool Choice Models & Public School Reform from Mike Dean on Vimeo. With the recent electoral defeat of Mayor Adrian Fenty, a strong advocate of school reform and school choice, and the subsequent resignation of DC schools chancellor Michelle Rhee, many have reflected on the attempt to fix the DC schools from within. The recent release of the film Waiting for ‘Superman’ has, while drawing attention to the plight of children trapped in mediocre public schools, also advanced the motif of the “heroic superintendent.” I’ve never been terribly convinced by the “heroic superintendent” line of thinking. And my guess is that the long line of foundations and private investors who have bet the house on a single personality’s heroic endeavors […]