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2008 Was A Bad Year In The Markets

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PERAC has released the 2008 results for the state and local pension funds. And the results are ugly — losses of close to 30% in many cases. It is only fair to note that PRIM (the state pension fund) lost 29.5% in 2008, while the 55 systems that invested on their own lost significantly less, with a median loss of 26.3%. Pioneer (and the Patrick Administration) have advocated for some time that smaller local pension funds should be incorporated into the state fund. See Pioneer’s white paper on local pension funds This position, using only 2008 data, would have cost money for those local funds. It is largely a function of asset allocation — PRIM has much greater exposure to […]

Duncan Rex – he means it on charters

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In a press release entitled “States Open to Charters Start Fast in ‘Race to Top’: Education Secretary Seeking Autonomy with Real Accountability for School Innovators,” Arne Duncan made it very clear what he wants. As the press release states: U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan told reporters during a conference call this afternoon that states must be open to charter schools. Too much is at stake for states financially and for students academically to restrict choice and innovation. And more to follow: “States that do not have public charter laws or put artificial caps on the growth of charter schools will jeopardize their applications under the Race to the Top Fund,” Secretary Duncan said. “To be clear, this administration is […]

EOT and MBTA Do Good with BRT

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Enough acronyms for you? BRT stands for Bus Rapid Transit. The state’s transportation planners (yes, you, Jim Aloisi!) are doing a very good thing with their latest plan to implement aspects of Bus Rapid Transit on the existing Route 28 Bus Route. They are marketing it as “28X” and they will be implementing (as feasible) dedicated lanes, stand-alone stations (as opposed to stops) and off-board ticketing. See details here, here, and here. This last item is of particular importance. On-board fare collection on buses has proven to be the Achilles Heel of automated fare collection (which this space has long supported). The continued use of paper tickets (versus CharlieCards) results in serious dwell time delays. Moving that delay off the […]

Chicago 45, Boston 0

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After watching Beckett pitch masterful innings of shutout, no-hit ball against Detroit last night, I thought I would go back to my national series on other cities big education wins and the whiffs Menino has been making on charters. (A wink to my colleagues who know that I don’t even know who the running backs are for the Patriots; all I can say is that drinking was involved last night, so watching the game worked.) After the New York 20, Boston 0 post, which highlighted the fact that Mayor Bloomberg is starting 20 (count ’em) new charter schools this summer, let me chime in with Chicago’s big win over Boston — this time 45 to zippo. Azam Ahmed of the […]

St. Patrick’s, er, I mean Evacuation Day

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Couple of items on the manufactured scandal over Evacuation and Bunker Hill Days. (For those of you who don’t know, the two days are official Suffolk County holidays celebrated, respectively, on March and June 17ths. Bunker Hill Day is pretty self-explanatory. Evacuation Day is a little more arcane – it celebrates the day in 1776 when the British army evacuated Boston. Both houses of the Legislature recently considered amendments to eliminate the holidays, in what I would guess is a vain attempt to throw beleaguered taxpayers a bone. Both amendments were narrowly defeated.) First, despite some rather overblown rhetoric emanating from the Legislature – cue Angelo Scaccia, whose defense of the holidays includes this tidbit (You can read the full […]