MORE ARTICLES
Frontier Institute’s Trish Schreiber on School Choice & Charter Schools in MontanaMarch 12, 2025 - 11:03 am
The Lost Decade Calls for Replacing “Social Justice Education” with Education Rich in Liberal ArtsMarch 12, 2025 - 10:19 am
The House Call – Cambridge Adopts a Zoning Ordinance Allowing 4 to 6-Story Residential Buildings CitywideMarch 10, 2025 - 11:44 am
Closing the Doors, Leaving a Legacy: Embark Microschool’s StoryMarch 6, 2025 - 12:28 pm
Study: Inclusionary Zoning Helps Some, but Can Jeopardize Broad-Based AffordabilityMarch 6, 2025 - 9:43 am
UK Oxford’s Robin Lane Fox on Homer & The IliadMarch 5, 2025 - 10:24 am
Director/Actor Samuel Lee Fudge on Marcus Garvey & Pan-AfricanismFebruary 26, 2025 - 1:31 pm
State Report Card on Telehealth Reform: Progress Slowed in 2024 Leaving Patients Without AccessFebruary 26, 2025 - 12:02 pm
Wildflower’s 70+ Microschools, Eight Years Later: Did Matt’s Vision Become Reality?February 20, 2025 - 2:31 pm
Pioneer Institute Study Says MA Housing Permitting Process Needs Systemic ReformFebruary 19, 2025 - 7:09 pm
And then there were two
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, News /byThe Senate Ways and Means Budget contains a provision (scroll down to section 48) allowing two of the twelve public skating rinks in Greater Boston to be put out for long-term leases. That’s down from the twelve that the Governor’s budget (to his credit) allowed, but up from the zero allowed in the House budget. We looked at the effect of long-term leasing on the public skating rinks outside of Greater Boston and what did we find? – Increased Availability: Rinks operated under competitive contracting are now available an average of 43 weeks per year in fiscal year 2005, versus 34 weeks per year under the previous management system in fiscal year 1991. – Continued Affordability: The average hourly cost […]
If you think education is expensive, try foreclosure.
/0 Comments/in Blog, Economic Opportunity, Housing, News /byThis year’s collapse of mortgage lending—also rendered as a crisis, a bubble bursting, the inevitable result of misguided policy x, and so on—has gotten a lot of press recently. In response, some have called for more regulation, tighter credit, or another solution that’ll make the problem worse. In welcome contrast, this Springfield Republican story highlights the first requisite of a healthy marketplace: well-informed buyers and sellers. HAP, Inc. led by Pioneer author Peter Gagliardi, helps both lenders and borrowers know exactly what they’re getting into. HAP’s “Yes You Can” homebuyers’ fair offers good rates and clearly stated terms to borrowers—but only those who’ve taken the time to learn more about home finance. In turn, HAP introduces those educated buyers to […]
Only big businesses move, right? Wrong!
/0 Comments/in Blog, Economic Opportunity /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonEven if we lose all our headquarters, even if big business expansions go elsewhere, we can always count on small businesses to stay here and grow, right? Wrong. We’ve all heard the constant drumbeat about Fidelity’s moves and expansions elsewhere—they’re going to New Hampshire, packing off to North Carolina, they’ve been lassoed by Texas, and they have a great base in my lovely birth state Li’l Rhodey. A small digression in defense of Rhodey for you Mass snobs who can only venture to Plum Island, the Cape or Vineyard: Rhode Island has everything you could want—coffee syrup, Saugy hot dogs, the Cranston accent can cut through any clump of earwax, and the beaches are Florida compared to Salisbury and anything […]
Holy Reconstitutions, Batman!
/0 Comments/in Blog, News, Related Education Blogs /by Scott W. Graves and Micaela DawsonAll right, so the Governor has made a $1 billion bet on the biotech industry. And he is also betting that there will be 15,000 jobs at the end of the $1.4 billion New Bedford-Fall River rainbow—I mean, rail line. All this suggests that he will be a betting man on gambling as well. But before you go and cancel your bus tickets to Foxwoods, we have another pretty big gamble coming up in the next couple of weeks. Governor Patrick is widely rumored to have up his sleeve an ace that will please the unions, superintendents, and school committees—a reconstitution of the Board of Education and the creation of a Secretary of Education. The Secretary’s post, according to the […]
A Troubling Pattern Emerging?
/0 Comments/in Better Government, Blog, Blog: Better Government, Economic Opportunity /byFriday’s Globe has two articles on recent actions by the Governor — a view on his $1B biotech initiative and news of a $3.6 million bailout for the dairy industry. The biotech story discusses how this funding will help start-up companies through the ‘valley of death’ when financing is scarce. Having had a ringside seat to the internet bubble’s expansion and eventual collapse, I’d suggest that the valley of death has some utility and the notion that the government understands the science and market well enough to determine who should make it through strikes me as highly unlikely. The dairy farmer bailout is more direct. Dispensing with the typical niceties of concealing subsidies in tax credits or rebates, the bailout […]