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Day 12: Choice Now

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Countdown to World-Class Schools summarizes 12 actions the incoming governor can take to make our schools the best in the world. All achievable. All for under $50 million. It’s fascinating to watch the “moral” opposition to school choice (even public school choice) of officials who’ve benefited from private educations or now send their kids to private schools. Certainly, President Obama, Governor Patrick, Lieutenant Governor Murray and Ed Secretary Paul Reville all attended pretty special schools, and the President and the Governor exercise this option to school their own kids. Good for them. But don’t parents who have less money also deserve a similar option? (At right is a picture of Milton Academy, where the Governor went.) I say this not […]

Public Safety Funds: Where Are They Going?

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Public Safety Funds: Where Are They Going? Contact Samantha Levine-Neudel at 617-723-2277 ext. 211 or slevine@pioneerinst.wpengine.com [wpdm_package id=27] BOSTON – A new report underscores the lack of clarity around how federal and state public safety grants are distributed to Massachusetts cities and towns. Where Are Public Safety Funds Going?, a new study published by Pioneer Institute, recommends changes to how to track these funds and ensure fair and data-driven distribution, as well as accountability for resulting improvements on key public safety measures. In 2001, after the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, which distributes public safety funds to state and local governments, local administrators turned their attention to the distribution of funds. They also questioned the rationale for the […]

Best Wishes To Curt

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Today’s news reports that Curt Schilling has accepted the deal offered by the state of Rhode Island and is relocating his company there. (Our previous thoughts on the topic and Curt’s response is here.) The Herald’s report describes state economic development officials as being on the defensive. They shouldn’t be.* Schilling’s got every right to get the best deal for his company. And the loss of jobs (roughly 200 from the website, it appears) is acutely painful. But, if you look at the big picture, as Pioneer has — here and here — you see that firm relocation has a negligible impact on job creation. Of course, you hate to see any jobs go, but the reality is that what […]

The Limits of Data: Weighted Edition

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One tip for aspiring data hounds — always ask for weighted data. What do I mean? What’s the on-time performance for commuter rail? In NY, it’s 96%! Huzzah, right? Wrong, that’s on the basis of trains, not weighted by passenger. Anecdotal evidence suggests rush-hour trains (which are packed with people) have a much higher rate of delay. By not weighting on-time data by passenger, NY’s on-time performance fails to tell the whole story and fails the credibility test with the most important user group of all — the customers.

Day 11: Put virtue in virtual school regulations

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For Aristotle, virtues required wisdom, the ability to find balance between extremes. So, famously, he noted that courage was neither cowardice nor charging ahead with a devil-may-care attitude. Regulations require that kind of balance even in a virtual age. Virtual learning is a huge untapped opportunity in Massachusetts. Some people consider its potential to individualize instruction and address some portion of the ever-present classroom problem of kids learning at different paces as game-changing. The conversation sometimes feels like the conversation on stem cell research–perhaps overblown, perhaps not. The fact is we are early in finding out. The issue of the pace at which kids learn is an important one. Many kids are bored because teachers have to adjust lessons to […]