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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
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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
Pension Reform II may cost you money
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byI’ve blogged in the past about the comments of several members of the Pension Reform Commission who have talked about possibly raising the amount spent on pensions for public employees. Now that the Commission has submitted their initial list of potential proposals to PERAC’s actuary for costing, several members have reinforced my initial opinion: “The whole idea of cost neutrality, I don’t know how you balance that when it gets to the legislature,” said state Sen. Kenneth Donnelly, a former commissioner with the Public Employee Retirement Administration Commission. “I think the chairman (Munnell) believed it would be good to have a cost-neutral proposal. I don’t know if that’s really possible,” the Arlington Democrat said. and “Reform does not mean ‘take […]
Important Announcement on US Senate Race
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byI will not be a candidate for US Senate. First, I’d like to thank the many (ok, several) citizens who urged me to enter the race. I know that many of you saw the fine website — www.draftpoftak09.com – produced by my dear friends at Liberty Dewey O’Neil Rasky Regan Denterlein Communications. Thanks again for your entirely unsolicited grass roots support. (And my apologies to the elderly residents of Kansas City who thought they were signing up for an effort to draft former Royals infielder Freddie Patek. Helpful hint: I’m taller.) Second, I’d like to thank my adoring and supportive family who helped me through the many hours of anguished deliberation (with the notable exception of my unfunny brother-in-law, who […]
Dramatic Standoff at U.S. DOE
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byA follow-up on my previous post. Former Democratic D.C. Councilman Kevin P. Chavous, longtime D.C. education activist Virginia Walden Ford, the Rev. Anthony Motley, Black Alliance for Educational (BAEO) Board Chair Dr. Howard Fuller, BAEO President Gerard Robinson, and education reform leader Darrell Allison defiantly blocked the entrance to the US DOE’s building. From Kevin’s email: The protesters refused to leave the premises for nearly an hour, leading to a standoff with police. Apparently on orders from federal officials, no arrests were made. … The protesters—who sought to block the entrance of the Department because “the President and the Secretary have blocked low-income parents from accessing the schools of their parents’ choice”—were cheered on by 50 families and supporters, including […]
Civil Disobedience Protest in DC for School Choice
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /byFrom the desk of Kevin Chavous, who spoke at an event we held on school choice and the Know-Nothing Amendments, is an announcement that this morning, as the school day begins, is “First-Ever School Choice Civil Disobedience Protest Set for Washington, D.C. at U.S. Dept. of Education.” [Check out their website !] Their goal is to save the endangered D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. Washington, D.C. (September 8, 2009)—In the first-ever act of school choice-related civil disobedience, prominent education reform leaders will block entrance to the U.S. Department of Education building today at 9:30 A.M. and demand that President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan act immediately to save and strengthen the D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program. The protest will take […]
300 jobs created in Boston
/0 Comments/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe above statistic was used in both our press release for our Questions for Boston’s 2009 Mayoral Candidates Project and by moderator Jon Keller in the last debate (see transcript here, I don’t know the site and cannot vouch for overall accuracy). That number is based on information provided on the state’s Division of Unemployment Assistance website (see here) that utilizes information from the federal Local Area Unemployment Statistics Project. I used that website to get a monthly number for the number of employed Boston residents from 1990 to 2009. (see the raw data here) Taking the low water mark of 1990 – September — and subtracting that from May 2009 (which was the most current available at the time […]