It may seem safe to assume that the more well-funded a town’s police department is, the better equipped that town is to combat crime. In smaller towns and suburbs where crime may not be rampant, one would therefore expect crime levels to have an inverse relationship to police funding. However, using Pioneer Institute’s MassAnalysis transparency tool, a clear relationship between police expenses and crime rates in the mature suburban towns in Middlesex County can be called into question.
Seven Middlesex County towns are considered to be “mature suburban towns”: Reading, Burlington, Wakefield, Stoneham, Winchester, Maynard, and Natick. At $352 per capita, Burlington spent the most on police in 2022. Reading spent the second most at $272 per capita, while Natick spent the least at $208 per capita. The average per capita police department expenses for these towns in 2022 was $253. Burlington, Reading, and Winchester all spent more than this average, while Natick, Stoneham, Maynard, and Wakefield spent less.
Figure 1. Mass Analysis
Based on these data, it may seem logical to assume that since Burlington and Reading have higher per capita police expenditures, they must have the lowest crime rates. One might also expect Natick and Stoneham to have the highest crime rates. But the crime rate data in some of these Middlesex County towns is quite puzzling when examining it alongside police expenditure data.
Despite spending the most on policing, Burlington had the highest rate of property crime in 2022, twice as high as Stoneham’s. Burlington also had the highest rate of motor vehicle theft, with a rate that was about four times higher than Natick’s. Additionally, Reading had a burglary rate that was about three times higher than Winchester’s.
Figure 2. Mass Analysis
Figure 3. Mass Analysis
Figure 4. Mass Analysis
In some towns there appears to be a correlation between crime rates and police expenditures. While Reading’s 2022 burglary rate ranking was surprising, Stoneham and Natick, with the lowest per capita police expenses, had the two highest rates. Furthermore, despite Burlington placing at the top of the list for motor vehicle theft, Reading and Winchester’s rates were the lowest by a wide margin.
There is also interesting data on violent crime. There seems to be a stronger correlation between police funding and crime rates in this category. Reading, Winchester, and Burlington, the three towns out of the seven that spent more than the per capita average for police, had the lowest rates of violent crime. But Burlington’s rate was about eight-and-a-half times higher than Reading’s, despite their margin in police expenses per capita being the greatest among towns ranked sequentially in this group.
Figure 5. Mass Analysis
It is clear that police expenditures are not the only driving force behind the crime rates in Middlesex County’s mature suburban towns. While these data are only from one year and in towns where crime is not considered a huge problem, the mismatch between police expense rankings and crime rate rankings for these towns show that other factors are at play in dictating a town’s crime rates. These data can be connected to other studies that challenge a correlation between police funding and crime rates throughout the country. While funding is important for a police department, considerations outside the realm of finances must be taken into account by policymakers when addressing crime.
About the Author
Matt Mulvey is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at the Pioneer Institute. He is a rising senior at Swarthmore College where he is a political science major and history minor.
Massachusetts’ education system is famously excellent, routinely ranking at the top of the nation. Even in Massachusetts, however, some public school districts such as Brookline, Newton, Wellesley, and Weston consistently perform better than others and post higher standardized test scores.
In fact, according to Mass Report Cards, in the 2022-23 school year, 88 percent, 84 percent, and 75 percent of sophomores at Weston High achieved scores meeting or exceeding expectations respectively on the English Language Arts, Math, and Science MCAS tests, far exceeding the respective statewide public school averages of 60 percent, 53 percent, and 50 percent.
Many attribute this success to funding; all these towns dedicate significant resources to their public schools. Brookline spent $128,842,776 on education in 2022. Newton meanwhile spent $211,713,673. They ranked 12th and 5th in Massachusetts, respectively, for total education spending. Wellesley and Weston are far smaller towns than Brookline and Newton and thus allocate less money to their public school system. However, they still dedicate significant money, leading to their stellar rankings and reputations.
Figure 1: Mass Analysis (2022)
Despite spending liberally on education, these towns fall short in a key metric often associated with a school’s success: spending per student. Brookline ranks 48th, Newton 79th, Wellesley 57th, and Weston 25th, according to Mass Analysis. These rankings are not low, but they are far from the powerhouse numbers one might expect from some of the state’s top-rated public schools, as these four school systems respectively ranked 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 2nd in Massachusetts, according to Niche.com.
This may be caused by resources available outside of schools, as these towns are among the wealthiest in Massachusetts. In 2023, Brookline’s average single-family tax bill was $21,322, the second highest in Massachusetts, while Weston was the highest with an average single-family tax bill of $23,893. While Newton and Wellesley are not quite as wealthy by this metric, they are still among the wealthiest towns in the state, creating many opportunities outside of school, such as private tutoring or internships.
Figure 2: Mass Analysis (2023)
Corresponding to the wealth of these towns is their low crime rates. Since, according to the NIH, high crime rates can negatively impact academic performance, these towns experience another advantage. In 2021, the violent crime rate in Brookline was 221 per 100k population, significantly less than the 301 per 100k population across Massachusetts. Wesley, Weston, and Newton all experienced higher violent crime rates than Brookline, but were still well below the statewide average. This could contribute to the better results these schools produce.
Figure 3:Mass Analysis (2021)
Household environment can also play a significant role in educational performance, as students in more affluent families are more likely to gain knowledge at home than students in poorer families. Studies have shown that a significant gap in vocabulary can develop even between toddlers who grow up in rich and poor households respectively. Thus, students in wealthy towns like Brookline, Weston, Newton, and Wellesley, have advantages even before schools are taken into account. Since the wealth of these towns also leads to lower crime rates and more opportunities for students, these schools attain excellent results even without spending the most money per student.
About the Author: Raif Boit is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at Pioneer Institute for the summer of 2024. He is a rising freshman at Harvard College.
There are less than seven weeks left to the Massachusetts Legislature’s formal sessions with much unfinished business to attend to. Analogizing Massachusetts legislators to students, they are waiting until the night before a 10-page paper is due to begin the assignment that was given early in the semester. While some students can thrive under that type of pressure and hand in a top-rate assignment, for most students, procrastination does not lend itself to high-quality work. That is likely to be the outcome for this legislative session given the sheer number of meaty bills that have passed both branches in different forms and still await resolution by conference committees before the July 31st deadline.
It would be one thing if the legislature was part time and got paid a token amount, but that is not the case. To the contrary, Massachusetts is one of only 10 states with a full-time legislature, yet we are in the minority of states that have yet to pass a FY2025 budget.
The legislature’s unfinished work falls to a small number of legislators who are assigned to the various conference committees that must resolve differences between each branch’s version of a bill. The chairs of the Ways and Means Committees carry the heaviest load, sitting on several of them. This doesn’t make much sense given that, among state’s with full-time legislatures, Massachusetts has the third highest number of legislators at 200, so there are plenty of elected officials to choose from when considering conferees. It is like relying on one student to do a group assignment.
Taking the student analogy perhaps one step too far, this is not introductory course work that students can bluff their way through. The following bills by topic show the scope of pending legislation and the serious and wide-ranging topics it addresses.
| TOPIC | BILL No. |
| Economic Development | H.4459 |
| FY2025 Budget | H.2 |
| Housing Bond | H.4138 |
| IT Bond | H.4242 |
| Gun Reform | H.4139 / S.2572 |
| Hospital Oversight and Reforms | H.4643 |
| Prescription Drug Pricing | S. 2520 |
| Early Education | S.2707 |
| Rainy Day Interest Investment | H.4446 / S.2554 |
| Salary Transparency | H.4109/ S.2484 |
| Time Off for Voting | H.4217 |
| Parentage Equality | H.4672 |
Among the legislation in conference is the economic development bill that will outline the state’s strategic vision for the next couple of years. This bill will also determine what policies and multi-billion-dollar investments are necessary to make Massachusetts competitive at a time of unparalleled economic change and growing competition among the states for businesses and people.
Also in the mix is Governor’s Healy’s top legislative priority, her Housing Bond bill that makes the largest housing investments in the state’s history to address the crisis gripping the Commonwealth. The House and Senate have both put their respective stamps on it so the final version is still to be determined. It is important that these investments be comprehensive, well-balanced and impactful to stem the outmigration of young residents to places with lower housing costs.
Addressing the high cost of child care and health insurance, the other two top problems fueling outmigration, must also be resolved. Both pose challenges. The state is making sizable new investments in child care at a time of tax revenue uncertainty, so ensuring that the money is put to its best use is critical, as will be figuring out the funding stream to pay for it in future years. The size of the healthcare sector in Massachusetts requires that the solutions being proposed are the right ones, because they will have an outsized impact on taxpayers, employees and employers in addition to patients and providers. The same is true for the prescription drug pricing bill, given the growing amount of the health insurance premiums devoted to pharmaceuticals and the importance of the pharmaceutical and life science sectors to the state’s economy.
Making sure that the Massachusetts state government can operate efficiently, securely and with good data requires investing in the state’s technology, yet another issue that must be addressed. There are also several legislative proposals dealing with social issues ranging from gun reform to salary transparency. One pending bill that seems unnecessary requires employers to provide paid time off to vote at a time when voting has never been so convenient given mail-in, absentee and early voting options.
Finally, the state must decide whether interest earned on the state’s Rainy Day Fund should be used for operating expenses or put back into the trust fund to grow its balance.
That is a lot of work to save for the end of the session, particularly when the rest of the session’s workload has been light. According to The Boston Globe, it’s the slowest start to a legislative session in at least 40 years. While the grade for this legislative session is still incomplete, it may be time to require the legislature to take a time management course so that next year they get better results by adopting a steadier pace and spreading the work out over the entire term.
“She’s a good girl. She helps me a lot. She has big, big dreams. I don’t have the money, but she has big dreams. I hope she’s going to get everything, but she works so hard. She works so hard in school.”
“Our family is needing to make some really big sacrifices because we believe this is important, and so, we’re basically going to do whatever it takes… Sometimes we look at each other and go ‘I don’t know if I can do it again another month…’”
“A lot of the families have to sacrifice and work multiple jobs… And just scraping together enough money to just make tuition, just the basics.”
“It is discriminatory, that parents who want to choose an alternative to public school for their children, would not in any way receive any compensation for that, whether it be tax credit, whether it be a voucher…”
In the 1840s, nativist movement leaders formed official political parties and local chapters of the national Native American Party (later the American Party), although they continued to be commonly known as the Know-Nothing Party. Politicians sought to insert provisions into state constitutions against Catholics who refused to renounce the pope. The Know-Nothing movement brought bigotry and hatred to a new level of violence and organization.
The party’s legacy endured in the post-Civil War era, with laws and constitutional amendments it supported, still today severely limiting parents’ educational choices. A federal constitutional amendment was proposed by Speaker of the House James Blaine prohibiting money raised by taxation in any State to be under the control of any religious sect; nor shall any money so raised or lands so devoted be divided between religious sects or denominations. These were then named the Blaine Amendments of 1875.
in recent decades, often in response to challenges to school choice programs, the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated great interest in examining the issues of educational alternatives and attempts limit parental options. Massachusetts plays a key role in this debate. The Bay State was a key center of the Know-Nothing movement and has the oldest version of Anti-Aid Amendments in the nation, as well as a second such amendment approved in 1917. Two-fifths of Massachusetts residents are Catholic, and its Catholic schools outperform the state’s public schools, which are the best in the nation.
It may seem safe to assume that the more well-funded a town’s police department is, the better equipped that town is to combat crime. In smaller towns and suburbs where crime may not be rampant, one would therefore expect crime levels to have an inverse relationship to police funding. However, using Pioneer Institute’s MassAnalysis transparency tool, a clear relationship between police expenses and crime rates in the mature suburban towns in Middlesex County can be called into question.
Seven Middlesex County towns are considered to be “mature suburban towns”: Reading, Burlington, Wakefield, Stoneham, Winchester, Maynard, and Natick. At $352 per capita, Burlington spent the most on police in 2022. Reading spent the second most at $272 per capita, while Natick spent the least at $208 per capita. The average per capita police department expenses for these towns in 2022 was $253. Burlington, Reading, and Winchester all spent more than this average, while Natick, Stoneham, Maynard, and Wakefield spent less.
Figure 1. Mass Analysis
Based on these data, it may seem logical to assume that since Burlington and Reading have higher per capita police expenditures, they must have the lowest crime rates. One might also expect Natick and Stoneham to have the highest crime rates. But the crime rate data in some of these Middlesex County towns is quite puzzling when examining it alongside police expenditure data.
Despite spending the most on policing, Burlington had the highest rate of property crime in 2022, twice as high as Stoneham’s. Burlington also had the highest rate of motor vehicle theft, with a rate that was about four times higher than Natick’s. Additionally, Reading had a burglary rate that was about three times higher than Winchester’s.
Figure 2. Mass Analysis
Figure 3. Mass Analysis
Figure 4. Mass Analysis
In some towns there appears to be a correlation between crime rates and police expenditures. While Reading’s 2022 burglary rate ranking was surprising, Stoneham and Natick, with the lowest per capita police expenses, had the two highest rates. Furthermore, despite Burlington placing at the top of the list for motor vehicle theft, Reading and Winchester’s rates were the lowest by a wide margin.
There is also interesting data on violent crime. There seems to be a stronger correlation between police funding and crime rates in this category. Reading, Winchester, and Burlington, the three towns out of the seven that spent more than the per capita average for police, had the lowest rates of violent crime. But Burlington’s rate was about eight-and-a-half times higher than Reading’s, despite their margin in police expenses per capita being the greatest among towns ranked sequentially in this group.
Figure 5. Mass Analysis
It is clear that police expenditures are not the only driving force behind the crime rates in Middlesex County’s mature suburban towns. While these data are only from one year and in towns where crime is not considered a huge problem, the mismatch between police expense rankings and crime rate rankings for these towns show that other factors are at play in dictating a town’s crime rates. These data can be connected to other studies that challenge a correlation between police funding and crime rates throughout the country. While funding is important for a police department, considerations outside the realm of finances must be taken into account by policymakers when addressing crime.
About the Author
Matt Mulvey is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at the Pioneer Institute. He is a rising senior at Swarthmore College where he is a political science major and history minor.
Massachusetts’ education system is famously excellent, routinely ranking at the top of the nation. Even in Massachusetts, however, some public school districts such as Brookline, Newton, Wellesley, and Weston consistently perform better than others and post higher standardized test scores.
In fact, according to Mass Report Cards, in the 2022-23 school year, 88 percent, 84 percent, and 75 percent of sophomores at Weston High achieved scores meeting or exceeding expectations respectively on the English Language Arts, Math, and Science MCAS tests, far exceeding the respective statewide public school averages of 60 percent, 53 percent, and 50 percent.
Many attribute this success to funding; all these towns dedicate significant resources to their public schools. Brookline spent $128,842,776 on education in 2022. Newton meanwhile spent $211,713,673. They ranked 12th and 5th in Massachusetts, respectively, for total education spending. Wellesley and Weston are far smaller towns than Brookline and Newton and thus allocate less money to their public school system. However, they still dedicate significant money, leading to their stellar rankings and reputations.
Figure 1: Mass Analysis (2022)
Despite spending liberally on education, these towns fall short in a key metric often associated with a school’s success: spending per student. Brookline ranks 48th, Newton 79th, Wellesley 57th, and Weston 25th, according to Mass Analysis. These rankings are not low, but they are far from the powerhouse numbers one might expect from some of the state’s top-rated public schools, as these four school systems respectively ranked 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 2nd in Massachusetts, according to Niche.com.
This may be caused by resources available outside of schools, as these towns are among the wealthiest in Massachusetts. In 2023, Brookline’s average single-family tax bill was $21,322, the second highest in Massachusetts, while Weston was the highest with an average single-family tax bill of $23,893. While Newton and Wellesley are not quite as wealthy by this metric, they are still among the wealthiest towns in the state, creating many opportunities outside of school, such as private tutoring or internships.
Figure 2: Mass Analysis (2023)
Corresponding to the wealth of these towns is their low crime rates. Since, according to the NIH, high crime rates can negatively impact academic performance, these towns experience another advantage. In 2021, the violent crime rate in Brookline was 221 per 100k population, significantly less than the 301 per 100k population across Massachusetts. Wesley, Weston, and Newton all experienced higher violent crime rates than Brookline, but were still well below the statewide average. This could contribute to the better results these schools produce.
Figure 3:Mass Analysis (2021)
Household environment can also play a significant role in educational performance, as students in more affluent families are more likely to gain knowledge at home than students in poorer families. Studies have shown that a significant gap in vocabulary can develop even between toddlers who grow up in rich and poor households respectively. Thus, students in wealthy towns like Brookline, Weston, Newton, and Wellesley, have advantages even before schools are taken into account. Since the wealth of these towns also leads to lower crime rates and more opportunities for students, these schools attain excellent results even without spending the most money per student.
About the Author: Raif Boit is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at Pioneer Institute for the summer of 2024. He is a rising freshman at Harvard College.
There are less than seven weeks left to the Massachusetts Legislature’s formal sessions with much unfinished business to attend to. Analogizing Massachusetts legislators to students, they are waiting until the night before a 10-page paper is due to begin the assignment that was given early in the semester. While some students can thrive under that type of pressure and hand in a top-rate assignment, for most students, procrastination does not lend itself to high-quality work. That is likely to be the outcome for this legislative session given the sheer number of meaty bills that have passed both branches in different forms and still await resolution by conference committees before the July 31st deadline.
It would be one thing if the legislature was part time and got paid a token amount, but that is not the case. To the contrary, Massachusetts is one of only 10 states with a full-time legislature, yet we are in the minority of states that have yet to pass a FY2025 budget.
The legislature’s unfinished work falls to a small number of legislators who are assigned to the various conference committees that must resolve differences between each branch’s version of a bill. The chairs of the Ways and Means Committees carry the heaviest load, sitting on several of them. This doesn’t make much sense given that, among state’s with full-time legislatures, Massachusetts has the third highest number of legislators at 200, so there are plenty of elected officials to choose from when considering conferees. It is like relying on one student to do a group assignment.
Taking the student analogy perhaps one step too far, this is not introductory course work that students can bluff their way through. The following bills by topic show the scope of pending legislation and the serious and wide-ranging topics it addresses.
| TOPIC | BILL No. |
| Economic Development | H.4459 |
| FY2025 Budget | H.2 |
| Housing Bond | H.4138 |
| IT Bond | H.4242 |
| Gun Reform | H.4139 / S.2572 |
| Hospital Oversight and Reforms | H.4643 |
| Prescription Drug Pricing | S. 2520 |
| Early Education | S.2707 |
| Rainy Day Interest Investment | H.4446 / S.2554 |
| Salary Transparency | H.4109/ S.2484 |
| Time Off for Voting | H.4217 |
| Parentage Equality | H.4672 |
Among the legislation in conference is the economic development bill that will outline the state’s strategic vision for the next couple of years. This bill will also determine what policies and multi-billion-dollar investments are necessary to make Massachusetts competitive at a time of unparalleled economic change and growing competition among the states for businesses and people.
Also in the mix is Governor’s Healy’s top legislative priority, her Housing Bond bill that makes the largest housing investments in the state’s history to address the crisis gripping the Commonwealth. The House and Senate have both put their respective stamps on it so the final version is still to be determined. It is important that these investments be comprehensive, well-balanced and impactful to stem the outmigration of young residents to places with lower housing costs.
Addressing the high cost of child care and health insurance, the other two top problems fueling outmigration, must also be resolved. Both pose challenges. The state is making sizable new investments in child care at a time of tax revenue uncertainty, so ensuring that the money is put to its best use is critical, as will be figuring out the funding stream to pay for it in future years. The size of the healthcare sector in Massachusetts requires that the solutions being proposed are the right ones, because they will have an outsized impact on taxpayers, employees and employers in addition to patients and providers. The same is true for the prescription drug pricing bill, given the growing amount of the health insurance premiums devoted to pharmaceuticals and the importance of the pharmaceutical and life science sectors to the state’s economy.
Making sure that the Massachusetts state government can operate efficiently, securely and with good data requires investing in the state’s technology, yet another issue that must be addressed. There are also several legislative proposals dealing with social issues ranging from gun reform to salary transparency. One pending bill that seems unnecessary requires employers to provide paid time off to vote at a time when voting has never been so convenient given mail-in, absentee and early voting options.
Finally, the state must decide whether interest earned on the state’s Rainy Day Fund should be used for operating expenses or put back into the trust fund to grow its balance.
That is a lot of work to save for the end of the session, particularly when the rest of the session’s workload has been light. According to The Boston Globe, it’s the slowest start to a legislative session in at least 40 years. While the grade for this legislative session is still incomplete, it may be time to require the legislature to take a time management course so that next year they get better results by adopting a steadier pace and spreading the work out over the entire term.
Puzzling “Relationship” Between Police Expenses and Crime Rates in Middlesex County
/in Blog, Blog: Transparency /by Matt MulveyIt may seem safe to assume that the more well-funded a town’s police department is, the better equipped that town is to combat crime. In smaller towns and suburbs where crime may not be rampant, one would therefore expect crime levels to have an inverse relationship to police funding. However, using Pioneer Institute’s MassAnalysis transparency tool, a clear relationship between police expenses and crime rates in the mature suburban towns in Middlesex County can be called into question.
Seven Middlesex County towns are considered to be “mature suburban towns”: Reading, Burlington, Wakefield, Stoneham, Winchester, Maynard, and Natick. At $352 per capita, Burlington spent the most on police in 2022. Reading spent the second most at $272 per capita, while Natick spent the least at $208 per capita. The average per capita police department expenses for these towns in 2022 was $253. Burlington, Reading, and Winchester all spent more than this average, while Natick, Stoneham, Maynard, and Wakefield spent less.
Figure 1. Mass Analysis
Based on these data, it may seem logical to assume that since Burlington and Reading have higher per capita police expenditures, they must have the lowest crime rates. One might also expect Natick and Stoneham to have the highest crime rates. But the crime rate data in some of these Middlesex County towns is quite puzzling when examining it alongside police expenditure data.
Despite spending the most on policing, Burlington had the highest rate of property crime in 2022, twice as high as Stoneham’s. Burlington also had the highest rate of motor vehicle theft, with a rate that was about four times higher than Natick’s. Additionally, Reading had a burglary rate that was about three times higher than Winchester’s.
Figure 2. Mass Analysis
Figure 3. Mass Analysis
Figure 4. Mass Analysis
In some towns there appears to be a correlation between crime rates and police expenditures. While Reading’s 2022 burglary rate ranking was surprising, Stoneham and Natick, with the lowest per capita police expenses, had the two highest rates. Furthermore, despite Burlington placing at the top of the list for motor vehicle theft, Reading and Winchester’s rates were the lowest by a wide margin.
There is also interesting data on violent crime. There seems to be a stronger correlation between police funding and crime rates in this category. Reading, Winchester, and Burlington, the three towns out of the seven that spent more than the per capita average for police, had the lowest rates of violent crime. But Burlington’s rate was about eight-and-a-half times higher than Reading’s, despite their margin in police expenses per capita being the greatest among towns ranked sequentially in this group.
Figure 5. Mass Analysis
It is clear that police expenditures are not the only driving force behind the crime rates in Middlesex County’s mature suburban towns. While these data are only from one year and in towns where crime is not considered a huge problem, the mismatch between police expense rankings and crime rate rankings for these towns show that other factors are at play in dictating a town’s crime rates. These data can be connected to other studies that challenge a correlation between police funding and crime rates throughout the country. While funding is important for a police department, considerations outside the realm of finances must be taken into account by policymakers when addressing crime.
About the Author
Matt Mulvey is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at the Pioneer Institute. He is a rising senior at Swarthmore College where he is a political science major and history minor.
Why The Best Public Schools Are The Best
/in Blog: Education, Blog: Transparency /by Raif BoitMassachusetts’ education system is famously excellent, routinely ranking at the top of the nation. Even in Massachusetts, however, some public school districts such as Brookline, Newton, Wellesley, and Weston consistently perform better than others and post higher standardized test scores.
In fact, according to Mass Report Cards, in the 2022-23 school year, 88 percent, 84 percent, and 75 percent of sophomores at Weston High achieved scores meeting or exceeding expectations respectively on the English Language Arts, Math, and Science MCAS tests, far exceeding the respective statewide public school averages of 60 percent, 53 percent, and 50 percent.
Many attribute this success to funding; all these towns dedicate significant resources to their public schools. Brookline spent $128,842,776 on education in 2022. Newton meanwhile spent $211,713,673. They ranked 12th and 5th in Massachusetts, respectively, for total education spending. Wellesley and Weston are far smaller towns than Brookline and Newton and thus allocate less money to their public school system. However, they still dedicate significant money, leading to their stellar rankings and reputations.
Figure 1: Mass Analysis (2022)
Despite spending liberally on education, these towns fall short in a key metric often associated with a school’s success: spending per student. Brookline ranks 48th, Newton 79th, Wellesley 57th, and Weston 25th, according to Mass Analysis. These rankings are not low, but they are far from the powerhouse numbers one might expect from some of the state’s top-rated public schools, as these four school systems respectively ranked 3rd, 5th, 6th, and 2nd in Massachusetts, according to Niche.com.
This may be caused by resources available outside of schools, as these towns are among the wealthiest in Massachusetts. In 2023, Brookline’s average single-family tax bill was $21,322, the second highest in Massachusetts, while Weston was the highest with an average single-family tax bill of $23,893. While Newton and Wellesley are not quite as wealthy by this metric, they are still among the wealthiest towns in the state, creating many opportunities outside of school, such as private tutoring or internships.
Figure 2: Mass Analysis (2023)
Corresponding to the wealth of these towns is their low crime rates. Since, according to the NIH, high crime rates can negatively impact academic performance, these towns experience another advantage. In 2021, the violent crime rate in Brookline was 221 per 100k population, significantly less than the 301 per 100k population across Massachusetts. Wesley, Weston, and Newton all experienced higher violent crime rates than Brookline, but were still well below the statewide average. This could contribute to the better results these schools produce.
Figure 3:Mass Analysis (2021)
Household environment can also play a significant role in educational performance, as students in more affluent families are more likely to gain knowledge at home than students in poorer families. Studies have shown that a significant gap in vocabulary can develop even between toddlers who grow up in rich and poor households respectively. Thus, students in wealthy towns like Brookline, Weston, Newton, and Wellesley, have advantages even before schools are taken into account. Since the wealth of these towns also leads to lower crime rates and more opportunities for students, these schools attain excellent results even without spending the most money per student.
About the Author: Raif Boit is a Roger Perry Transparency Intern at Pioneer Institute for the summer of 2024. He is a rising freshman at Harvard College.
Massachusetts Legislature Procrastinates Once Again
/in Blog, Blog: Better Government, Blog: Economy, Economic Opportunity, Economic Opportunity, Featured, News, Transparency /by Eileen McAnnenyThere are less than seven weeks left to the Massachusetts Legislature’s formal sessions with much unfinished business to attend to. Analogizing Massachusetts legislators to students, they are waiting until the night before a 10-page paper is due to begin the assignment that was given early in the semester. While some students can thrive under that type of pressure and hand in a top-rate assignment, for most students, procrastination does not lend itself to high-quality work. That is likely to be the outcome for this legislative session given the sheer number of meaty bills that have passed both branches in different forms and still await resolution by conference committees before the July 31st deadline.
It would be one thing if the legislature was part time and got paid a token amount, but that is not the case. To the contrary, Massachusetts is one of only 10 states with a full-time legislature, yet we are in the minority of states that have yet to pass a FY2025 budget.
The legislature’s unfinished work falls to a small number of legislators who are assigned to the various conference committees that must resolve differences between each branch’s version of a bill. The chairs of the Ways and Means Committees carry the heaviest load, sitting on several of them. This doesn’t make much sense given that, among state’s with full-time legislatures, Massachusetts has the third highest number of legislators at 200, so there are plenty of elected officials to choose from when considering conferees. It is like relying on one student to do a group assignment.
Taking the student analogy perhaps one step too far, this is not introductory course work that students can bluff their way through. The following bills by topic show the scope of pending legislation and the serious and wide-ranging topics it addresses.
Among the legislation in conference is the economic development bill that will outline the state’s strategic vision for the next couple of years. This bill will also determine what policies and multi-billion-dollar investments are necessary to make Massachusetts competitive at a time of unparalleled economic change and growing competition among the states for businesses and people.
Also in the mix is Governor’s Healy’s top legislative priority, her Housing Bond bill that makes the largest housing investments in the state’s history to address the crisis gripping the Commonwealth. The House and Senate have both put their respective stamps on it so the final version is still to be determined. It is important that these investments be comprehensive, well-balanced and impactful to stem the outmigration of young residents to places with lower housing costs.
Addressing the high cost of child care and health insurance, the other two top problems fueling outmigration, must also be resolved. Both pose challenges. The state is making sizable new investments in child care at a time of tax revenue uncertainty, so ensuring that the money is put to its best use is critical, as will be figuring out the funding stream to pay for it in future years. The size of the healthcare sector in Massachusetts requires that the solutions being proposed are the right ones, because they will have an outsized impact on taxpayers, employees and employers in addition to patients and providers. The same is true for the prescription drug pricing bill, given the growing amount of the health insurance premiums devoted to pharmaceuticals and the importance of the pharmaceutical and life science sectors to the state’s economy.
Making sure that the Massachusetts state government can operate efficiently, securely and with good data requires investing in the state’s technology, yet another issue that must be addressed. There are also several legislative proposals dealing with social issues ranging from gun reform to salary transparency. One pending bill that seems unnecessary requires employers to provide paid time off to vote at a time when voting has never been so convenient given mail-in, absentee and early voting options.
Finally, the state must decide whether interest earned on the state’s Rainy Day Fund should be used for operating expenses or put back into the trust fund to grow its balance.
That is a lot of work to save for the end of the session, particularly when the rest of the session’s workload has been light. According to The Boston Globe, it’s the slowest start to a legislative session in at least 40 years. While the grade for this legislative session is still incomplete, it may be time to require the legislature to take a time management course so that next year they get better results by adopting a steadier pace and spreading the work out over the entire term.