MORE ARTICLES
All of the Above: Nick’s Year of Homeschool, Virtual High, Online College, and KaiPod MicroschoolJanuary 31, 2025 - 11:15 am
Notre Dame Law Assoc. Dean Nicole Stelle Garnett on Catholic Schools & School ChoiceJanuary 29, 2025 - 11:45 am
Pioneer Institute Study Compares MA Workforce Development System to Those in Peer StatesJanuary 29, 2025 - 11:32 am
Alexandra Popoff on Vasily Grossman & Holocaust RemembranceJanuary 27, 2025 - 9:32 am
Navigating Personalized Learning: Meghan’s Role as a Guide at KaiPod MicroschoolJanuary 23, 2025 - 11:54 am
Pioneer Institute Study Calls for Reforms to Ensure that Pharmacy Benefit Manager Practices Benefit Patients, Healthcare PayersJanuary 23, 2025 - 9:22 am
Mapping Mass Migration: New England State and County Population Change, 2020 to 2023January 21, 2025 - 1:48 pm
Stanford’s Lerone Martin on the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Civil Rights MovementJanuary 17, 2025 - 11:13 am
Microschool First Impressions: Curious Mike & Spencer Blasdale Visit KaiPodJanuary 16, 2025 - 12:00 pm
McAnneny’s January Musings – Legislative Transparency Takes Center Stage in the New YearJanuary 15, 2025 - 1:55 pm
To lead or follow
/0 Comments/in Blog, News /by Liam DayI apologize, but I need to digress from Pioneer’s usual topics of research and commentary. Though politicians are ultimately responsible for public policy, politics is not something Pioneer usually delves into. That being said, David Runciman’s piece on political hypocrisy in the Ideas section of today’s Globe bothered me. To begin with, Mr. Runciman never exactly defines what he means by political hypocrisy. In fact, the definition, at least as he conceives it, seems inordinately broad, including, for example, a politician who might change his or her stance on an issue in the face of evidence supporting a contrary position. What is hypocritical about that, I don’t know. I would have thought the hypocrite is the politician who, having considered […]
A taste of feuds to come
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, News /byIt is interesting to view from afar what is happening with other governors. If you want to get a taste of the fight to come on pricey new proposals, the appetite for new revenues and dependence on casinos as a cure-all, read a report by Steve Stanek of Budget & Tax News reports on Gov. Rod Blagojevich of Illinois. The Illinois General Assembly in 2007 was supposed to finish its business in May, but seven months later lawmakers remained in session to wrestle with mass transit funding in Chicago and the surrounding counties. Political observers say the record overtime session was due at least in part to personal animosities between Gov. Rod Blagojevich (D) and key lawmakers. As the Italians […]
Why go down this road again
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /byMore on the Patrick administration’s moves to gut education reform. The Patrick proposal creates a Secretary of Education. It gives the Secretary broad budgetary power, reducing the Commissioner of Education to being a department head. It stacks, packs and racks up the members of the Board, so that the power starts from the Governor, flows through the Secretary and leaves the Commissioner and Board to rubber stamp. Once upon a time, in a not far off time, the current Chairman of the Board, S. Paul Reville, did not think this such a good idea. For the full testimony see here. The testimony was provided in June 2003, when a previous Governor proposed a weak Secretary (no real budgetary power, no […]
Transportation and Technology
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government /byA tip of the pen to the newly created Metrowest Regional Transportation Agency. Have you ever waited endlessly at a bus stop for a bus that never came? They’ve used their GPS capability to provide a real-time map of all their buses, which is viewable by rout. Would that larger transit system would utilize technology in the same way.
To tell the Whole Truth, Nothing but the Truth
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /bySome people have noted that Pioneer is overstating the risk to education gains posed by the Governor’s proposal to “pack the board.” Some even take exception with the term “pack” which clearly refers to FDR’s notorious attempt to jam through legislation that could not pass muster at the Supreme Court. Well, none other than Governor Patrick’s pick to be Chairman of the Board of Education has opined against the major elements of the Governor’s plan: “So, Horace Mann and generations of subsequent leaders in the State House saw fit, for well over a century, to insulate educational policy from the ebb and flow of politics. This as accomplished by putting some distance between the chief policy making entity, the Board […]