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Fixin for a fight

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The Governor has frequently talked about his openness to lifting the cap on charter schools, but only with a financing fix, which certainly means reducing the funding to charters below the average per-pupil expenditures within the district school system. Say community X spends $10K per student in the traditional district schools, the new formula would halve that amount for parents of kids in the district who choose to go to a charter school. That’s what the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents and Mass Association of School Committees want. The Governor has shown openness to this view, which of course makes charters financially unviable. I’ve often wondered about this proposal given all the court cases out there pushing for equitable funding […]

Home of the Bean, the Cod, and the Free Glass of Tap Water

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As much of the Sun Belt dries up, we may have to revise our tally of regional economic advantages. For generations we’ve been told to flee the Northeast for some air-conditioned car-ported open-shop Elysium. Today, though, the Quabbin Reservoir is making me feel like an early-’70s Alaskan. If we get our water-policy act together, the Commonwealth’s natural resources may, for the first time since the whale-oil days, actually give us a competitive edge. Please, though: no pipelines.

Dear critic, Do you or don’t you

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support the Massachusetts Health Care Reform? We get the question all the time, especially from other think tanks and national press outlets trying to figure out what this all means as the presidential election starts to show signs of life. (When presumed frontrunners of each party start hammering on each other, you know the line-up is soon to winnow down.) At the end of the day, Pioneer supports whatever will lead to better health care outcomes and contain the rising cost of care. It’s an empirical question, or to put it more colloquially, the proof is in the pudding. And anyone who’s been an in-patient knows it’s hard to be patient with what passes for dessert in the hospital. (Do […]

Brunch in Boston

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Brunch in Boston – or anywhere really – is a time to get caught up and let the conversation meander. No policy or politics this morning. Just some thoughts on kids, grey hair and Engelbert Humperdink. My brunch partner has an issue with America and its cultural decline. I know this is a broad and ugly topic, and it has gotten to the point where some blame our cultural loss for the Islamic Fundamentalist movement’s fire. Guys, I don’t get it. I mean, my sausage, yogurt and fruit (not a traditional mix, I know) was accompanied by Tom Jones over the wire. First we got the oldies-but-goodies like “What’s new pussycat?” with its deep refrain of Pussycat, pussycat, I love […]

Merit pay gaining steam

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As AP and the New York Times reported, New York Mayor Bloomberg is intent on throwing everything and the kitchen sink at education. Charters, AP-specific programs, testing and accountability, and now merit pay. I know Diane Ravitch and Deborah Meier don’t think much of Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein’s reforms, but from afar we would give our left and right hands for the kind of can-do attitude and willingness to stake out big, structural changes. The lack of a new generation of education leaders on Beacon Hill is having its impact. Note the departure now of Mike Duffy of City on a Hill to, yup, New York City. The merit pay plan in New York is reminiscent in part of […]