MORE ARTICLES
Massachusetts’ Workforce Growing Older and More Diverse, Remains Highly EducatedApril 18, 2024 - 9:26 am
Johns Hopkins’ Ashley Berner on Educational Pluralism & DemocracyApril 17, 2024 - 2:53 pm
Why the secrecy? Pioneer Calls for Open Meetings Dealing with Steward’s Impact on Patient Care.April 16, 2024 - 1:59 pm
Industrial Policy Reimaged: Can Government Improve Free MarketsApril 16, 2024 - 12:34 pm
39th U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky for National Poetry MonthApril 10, 2024 - 12:16 pm
A Practically 100% Guaranteed Free RideApril 9, 2024 - 1:21 pm
Posting Patient Prices: Transparency Cure for Hospital Blank ChecksApril 9, 2024 - 11:51 am
Pioneer Institute Statement on the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ March Tax Revenue CollectionsApril 4, 2024 - 3:34 pm
U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Hilary Crow on K-12 Civics EducationApril 3, 2024 - 12:08 pm
Constitutional Property Taking: Exclusionary Zoning’s Costs to Owners and SocietyApril 2, 2024 - 10:54 am
Raining Cats and Dogs: Massachusetts Local Budgets
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, News /byA Boston Globe headline today seems to imply cities and towns are being irresponsible by saving, yet many local officials appear to be anticipating dark clouds ahead. As Jim Stergios, executive director of Pioneer is quoted in the article, “They [Massachusetts communities] know the stimulus money is gone, and that in 2011 and 2012, they’re going to get hammered.’’ As the town administrator of East Bridgewater expounds, “Since the state is out of control in the way they dole out their money, you have to solidify your own finances.” When will the state get it? Since 2008, Pioneer has been working with 14 Middle Cities to address some of these pressing fiscal issues in post-industrial cities. Without measuring performance, improvement […]
Patrick-Baker Compared to Brown-Coakley
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byScott Brown’s election in January 2010 was supposed to be the beginning of a Republican wave. Comparing the vote totals between the major party candidates in the special Senate election and yesterday’s gubernatorial race provides some insight. In total*, Patrick beat Baker by 153,000 votes. Comparing raw vote totals with the Brown-Coakley election, Patrick improved his raw votes by 5% – getting 105% of the votes that Coakley got. On the other hand, Baker severely underperformed Brown’s raw vote totals, attracting only 82% of Brown’s votes, an almost 200,000 vote difference. If you put Baker and Cahill’s totals together, you are up to 95% of the vote. Looking at the municipal level shows gives some additional texture: Patrick outperformed Coakley […]
Giving Voters the Information They Need
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog /byHere we sit on election eve. Before us are decisions not only for Governor and Treasurer, but also questions about reducing the sales tax and others. Our discussions to date – though many, varied and at times heated – have been general in nature. “Should we cut the sales tax or not.” “Cutting the sales tax will reduce State Aid to your community by $2 million.” These discussions are interesting but largely unhelpful (though I appreciate community-by-community data, which at least provides a basis for discussion). The question is, however, what does this mean to you, to me, to the people government serves? Would a loss of $2 million cause 1,000 fewer potholes to be paved in Town X each […]
Health Care in the Mid-terms: What the Polls really tell us
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Healthcare, Healthcare /byTrying to read the tea leaves of poll numbers on the general public’s opinion of Obamacare has been especially confusing this election cycle. Either 70% still want a public option or 70% deride Obamacare. Pundits gladly spin these numbers in support of their viewpoint, but could there be truth hidden in the seemingly contradictory numbers. An interesting article written by Robert Blendon and John Benson in The New England Journal of Medicine last week tried to uncover some of the nuance. Some of the more interesting numbers presented: “18% of registered voters believed that Congress should implement the bill as it currently stands, 31% thought Congress should make additional changes to increase the government’s involvement… and 41% believed that Congress […]
Do we misdiagnose younger students as ADHD?
/2 Comments/in Blog, Related Education Blogs /byThe PreventDisease.com website highlighted a couple of studies strongly suggesting that the answer is yes. The two studies in question are: The importance of relative standards in ADHD diagnoses: Evidence based on exact birth dates, by Todd E. Elder is available in the Journal of Health Economics. Measuring Inappropriate Medical Diagnosis and Treatment in Survey Data: The Case of ADHD among School-Age Children, by William N. Evans, Melinda S. Morrill, and Stephen T. Parente is also available in the Journal of Health Economics. ADHD is a frequently diagnosed behavioral disorder among American students. As the PreventDisease.com folks note, “currently there are no neurological markers for ADHD.” (An excerpt from a great Frontline investigation can be found here.) The website summarizes […]