COVID-19 Roundup from Pioneer: How some countries are succeeding, Tips for maintenance staff safety, Shelter in place?, Equity in remote learning policies

Pioneer staff share their top picks for COVID-19 stories highlighting useful resources, best practices, and questions we should be asking our public and private sector leaders. We hope you are staying safe, and we welcome your thoughts; you can always reach out to us via email:  pioneer@pioneerinstitute.org.

Our Top Picks for COVID-19 Pandemic News:

Jim Stergios, Executive Director, shares some news about the supply chain from Forbes: Puerto Rico Can Help The U.S. End Its Dependence On Chinese Pharmaceutical Ingredients.

William Smith, Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences: Here‘s one Stanford University professor’s take on where this could go.

Mary Connaughton, Director of Government Transparency: New York Times’ health reporter Donald McNeil writes: “If we had enough tests for every American, even the completely asymptomatic cases could be found and isolated… Obviously, there is no magic wand, and no 300 million tests. But the goal of lockdowns and social distancing is to approximate such a total freeze.”

Barbara Anthony, Senior Fellow in Healthcare: Terrific, must-read piece, in The Boston Globe: “Understanding what works: How some countries are beating back the coronavirus.”

Our Picks for Public & Private Sector Best Practices:

Barbara Anthony, Senior Fellow in Healthcare, offers some tips to help ensure the safety of our residential building maintenance and management staff.

Mary Connaughton, Director of Government Transparency: As a public service, along with major national news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, many of our state’s newspapers have lifted their paywalls and are offering free online access to Coronavirus coverage including the Boston Herald, Berkshire Eagle, The Boston Globe (through Boston.com), Metrowest Daily News and many other regionals. If your newspaper is doing the same – please let us know. We’d love to give them a shout out for this terrific public service. Keeping people informed saves lives.

Micaela Dawson, Communications Director: Kudos to Chelmsford-based company Zoll for ramping up ventrilator production to fight COVID-19. Read the story in the Boston Herald.

Questions for Our Public & Private Sector Leaders:

Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker has just issued a stay-home advisory and emergency order regarding non-essential businesses. Should he issue a shelter-in-place order? Let us know your thoughts – take our poll below.

Do YOU have interesting articles to share with us? Please email us, or message us through our social media channels below!

UVA Law Professor Kimberly Robinson On Legal Debate About Education As Federal Right

0 Comments

/

May 8, 2020

This week on “The Learning Curve,” Cara and Gerard continue coverage of COVID-19’s impact on K-12 education, joined by Kimberly Robinson, Professor at the University of Virginia School of Law and the Curry School of Education, about her new book, "A Federal Right to Education: Fundamental Questions for Our Democracy," and the need for states to establish a “floor of opportunity” to ensure educational equity.

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/The-Learning-Curve-9.png 512 1024 Editorial Staff https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Editorial Staff2020-05-08 10:33:362023-08-26 12:30:52UVA Law Professor Kimberly Robinson On Legal Debate About Education As Federal Right

The past seven weeks of Massachusetts unemployment claims total 25.8 percent of the civilian workforce.

0 Comments

/

May 8, 2020

The U.S. Department of Labor released its weekly report on jobless claims Thursday morning at 8:30 a.m., reporting that Massachusetts received 55,448 initial unemployment insurance (UI) claims during the week ended May 2. This brings the total of regular UI claims filed in Massachusetts since March 14, the beginning of the unemployment surge, to 781,110. 

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/blue-and-white-n95-mask-3993242-scaled.jpg 1707 2560 Greg Sullivan https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Greg Sullivan2020-05-08 09:06:062020-05-25 11:25:59The past seven weeks of Massachusetts unemployment claims total 25.8 percent of the civilian workforce.

National Study Finds Most States Lack Healthcare Price Transparency Laws

May 7, 2020

At a time when the coronavirus pandemic has caused massive shifts in state policies on telehealth and scope of practice in healthcare, a new Pioneer Institute study underscores that most of the 50 states continue to suffer from weak laws regarding price transparency.  The study identified states that have laws that require carriers, providers or both to provide personalized cost information to consumers before obtaining healthcare services.  Fully 33 states placed in the lowest of the three broad analytic tiers on the strength of their state healthcare transparency laws. 

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Most-States-Lack-Healthcare-Price-Transparency-Laws.png 512 1024 Editorial Staff https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Editorial Staff2020-05-07 07:30:582020-12-11 12:29:57National Study Finds Most States Lack Healthcare Price Transparency Laws

Explosion in ESL enrollment creates new opportunities, challenges

0 Comments

/

May 6, 2020

  The U.S. Census Bureau estimates that, between 2010…

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/pexels-photo-3380743.jpg 1222 1880 Andrew Mikula https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Andrew Mikula2020-05-06 11:59:472020-05-28 09:37:50Explosion in ESL enrollment creates new opportunities, challenges

COVID-19 will likely lead to a recession. Can Massachusetts municipal budgets handle one?

0 Comments

/

May 6, 2020

Using municipalities' experiences during the Great Recession, a new policy brief examines the likely impact of COVID-19 on local property taxes, as well as political implications for state aid. We list the municipal revenues by category among the least tax-reliant communities in Massachusetts, show the trajectory of tax revenue growth rate in Massachusetts state and local governments, and rank stabilization fund assets per capita among Massachusetts Gateway Cities.

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Massachusetts-municipal-budgets.png 512 1024 Andrew Mikula https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Andrew Mikula2020-05-06 09:43:042021-02-15 16:06:22COVID-19 will likely lead to a recession. Can Massachusetts municipal budgets handle one?

Conquering COVID-19: When and From Where Will Vaccines and Therapies Emerge?

0 Comments

/

May 5, 2020

This week on Hubwonk, Host Joe Selvaggi is joined by Pioneer’s Bill Smith, Visiting Fellow in Life Sciences, and Dr. Peter Kolchinsky, Harvard-trained virologist, biotech investor and author of the new book, The Great American Drug Deal, to learn how the SARS-CoV2 works, what a vaccine may look like, and how we might produce it to scale.

https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/Common-Core-Debacle-6.png 512 1024 Editorial Staff https://pioneerinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_440x96.png Editorial Staff2020-05-05 10:41:082020-05-25 11:27:24Conquering COVID-19: When and From Where Will Vaccines and Therapies Emerge?