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Cheryl Brown Henderson on the 70th Anniversary of Brown v. Board of EducationMay 15, 2024 - 11:48 am
Examining Diversity’s Dividends: Can Studies Survive Contact with Peer ReviewMay 14, 2024 - 10:44 am
Commentary On The Senate Ways And Means Committee FY2025 Budget May 9, 2024 - 1:11 pm
POLITICO’s Peter Canellos on Justice John Marshall Harlan & Plessy v. FergusonMay 8, 2024 - 11:55 am
Promoting Policy Probity: Confessions of Hubwonk’s Humble Host at 200May 7, 2024 - 10:59 am
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
Fun Brownie Recipe
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byHow many pages does it take the federal government to address the pivotal issue of brownie ingredients, baking, and storage? 26.
Uncomfortable Juxtaposition
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byFrom Today’s Globe: “Massachusetts education officials are quietly putting together a proposal to scrap the controversial MCAS exams in English and math and replace them with new tests they are developing with about two dozen other states.” From 2006 Globe and State House News accounts (sorry, MA library card req. for access): …Thomas F. Birmingham, a former Senate president and a candidate for governor in 2002, said at a Pioneer Institute breakfast forum Thursday. “In this regard, I’m a bit discomfited that one of the leading candidates for governor is, in my opinion, ambiguous on the issue of even retaining MCAS as a graduation requirement.”… …In an e-mailed statement… Patrick spokeswoman Libby DeVecchi said the campaign has reached out to […]
Stop floating – start swimming
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byMonica Brady-Meyerov has an interesting report on WBUR. Seems the state is thinking about pulling up stakes on its Race to the Top application. The submission deadline of June 1 is coming up fast. It’s Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester who floats the bad news. “We are full speed ahead working toward a submission,” Chester said, “but we are doing a calculus as to whether or not the competition is stacked against Massachusetts or whether or not it’s a level playing field.” Competition stacked? Not a level playing field? Not sure what that means, but there are two things the Ed Commish seems to want movement on: Chester says it’s “maddening” that in the first round of the grant competition the […]
Best (?) of Massachusetts
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byOn Tuesday, The Boston Globe published its annual Best of Massachusetts Business list. This is of the genre of U.S. News & World Report’s college rankings, which is to say more circulation-promotion than journalism. The Globe did explain its methodology and some readers may find something useful in it. What I gleaned is based on a recent conversation with Chris Bertelsen of Aviance Capital Management, a highly respected financial analyst. Chris noted that American companies are currently positioned to do very well. The rub is that opportunity knocks not mainly in the United States in its current economic condition, but in rising economies including (but not confined to) Brazil and India. (He interestingly has doubts about China.) The Globe confined […]
Unintended Consequences?
/0 Comments/in Blog, Healthcare, News /byThe Wall Street Journal reports today that the recently passed health care bill will soon negatively hit brokers’ bottom lines. This is due to regulation of insurers’ medical loss ratio (the amount of the health care premium dollar that goes to paying claims). I don’t personally like the MLR requirements in the bill as I think they can be easily gamed and they don’t really get at the heart of growing health care costs. That being said, if this requirement encourages insurers to pay brokers a fixed dollar amount (as opposed to a % on the premium) then it’s one of the unintended consequences I’m happy about. Don’t get me wrong, there are some brokers who are doing really good […]