Press › Media Hits

On health care, state doesn’t know best
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jeff Jacoby — Press date: 2012-05-16
Category: Better Government
Description: Adding up the “dizzying and expansive” array of decrees in the House legislation, health care analyst Joshua Archambault of the Pioneer Institute finds 941 instances in which the bill mandates that something “shall” be done. Among these are more than 25 kinds of penalties, fines, and surcharges, for price control and punishment always go hand in hand. ‘’ Quote Icon Looming over all would be a new Division of Health Care Cost and Quality, a command-and-control behemoth that would dominate the state’s medical and health-insurance landscapes, with the power to affect billions of dollars and millions of lives. [read more...]

After Obamacare, What Does the Future Hold for Massachusetts’ Health Care Law?


Author(s): Marc Kilmer — Press date: 2012-05-16
Category: Better Government
Description: Josh Archambault, director of health care policy for the Pioneer Institute, notes any movement to repeal the law will have to come from the grassroots. Among the state’s GOP elected officials, he says, the “rhetoric has not been repeal.” In fact, Archambault doesn’t see much chance of a voter-led revolt. “I don’t anticipate any time in the near future the law being repealed by the voters. That doesn’t mean the legislature won’t tweak things,” he says. Howell disagrees. “A group of strong candidates running for office coupled with activists who want to repeal Romneycare can get it on the ballot, campaign on it, and very possibly wipe it off the books before it bankrupts the people and small businesses of Massachusetts,” she said. [read more...]

Colleges funnel fees to stave off reforms
Boston Herald

Author(s): Erin Smith, Chris Cassidy and Dan O’Brie — Press date: 2012-05-15
Category: Better Government
Description: The state’s 15 community colleges — facing a Patrick administration plan to control student fees and seize oversight of the schools — are using those same fees to pay for a high-priced Beacon Hill lobbyist to fight the governor’s proposal. “This is just one more example of the Massachusetts government’s money merry-go-round,” said Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute, decrying the use of student revenues by public colleges “to convince public officials to give them more public funds.” [read more...]

House quietly acts to reassign Chelsea court
Boston Globe

Author(s): Frank Phillips — Press date: 2012-05-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Romney and those who advocated for the reorganization charged that the Boston Municipal Court is politically protected at the State House, receiving budgets far greater than it needs, while catering to lawmakers’ patronage requests. At the time, the court handled 5,000 fewer cases than Springfield District Court, but employed 55 more workers and spent 2 1/2 times more money, according to a report by the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank. [read more...]

UMass law school not meeting goals, foes say
Mass Lawyers Weekly

Author(s): Dan McDonald — Press date: 2012-04-26
Category: Better Government
Description: A Boston-based think tank is claiming the University of Massachusetts School of Law has been quietly extending the timetable for still-unmet academic goals that were set when the school opened its doors in 2010. The fiscally conservative Pioneer Institute alleges that UMass has essentially moved the goalposts by putting off anticipated benchmarks for GPA and LSAT scores at the Dartmouth school. The findings — posted on the group’s website at www.pioneerinstitute.org — surfaced following a prolonged public records request Pioneer engaged in with the school, according to the institute. It says it also based its assertions on a slide show presentation by the UMass-Dartmouth chancellor in February that detailed the public law school’s academic projections. Those projections differed from the figures and dates set forth in the final application for the law school program that was submitted to UMass officials in the fall of 2009. UMass, meanwhile, dismisses Pioneer’s claims, saying they are born out of ideological bias rather than academic research. But the timing of Pioneer’s alleged findings comes at a delicate time for the school, which is in the middle of trying to secure provisional accreditation from the American Bar Association. ABA recognition plays a critical role in the reputation of a law school. If UMass were to receive accreditation, law school graduates could sit for the bar exam in any jurisdiction in the country. Currently, graduates can take the bar only in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Once admitted to either of those bars, they are eligible to take the exam in New Hampshire, Wisconsin and West Virginia. It is unclear when the ABA will announce its decision. The association declined to comment for this story, but Margaret D. Xifaras, a New Bedford attorney who sits on the board of trustees for UMass, said there could be an answer as early as this week. Others connected to the accreditation process have suggested a decision may not be made until later in the summer. ‘Not going to end well’ Steve Poftak, a research director at the Pioneer Institute, said the law school originally anticipated a 3.2 grade point average by the 2012-2013 academic year, but now does not expect to meet that goal until 2015-2016. The entering class for the last two years had a GPA of 3.0, according to UMass documents provided by Pioneer. The school is also softening its expectations for LSAT scores, Poftak said, with UMass now seeking an average score of 150 by 2015-2016; previously, the school had hoped to reach that milestone by the 2012-2013 school year. The average LSAT scores for incoming UMass law students for 2011-2012 was 144. “One of the things that’s really lacking for me is they didn’t say, ‘We’re going from point A to point B,’” Poftak said. “They said, ‘We’re going to point B, but we’re not going to tell you what point A is.’” UMass “never put in a realistic plan,” Proftak added, and now no one appears to be holding the school accountable. Charles D. Chieppo, a senior fellow at Pioneer who is an attorney, agreed that the school has managed to avoid being measured by any form of metrics. He further questioned how a law school, which he deemed “miles below ABA standards,” will improve without significant injections of cash. Additional funding will be needed to upgrade the library and to hire faculty, Chieppo said, noting that such initiatives may be necessary to meet and maintain ABA standards. “It’s not going to end well,” Chieppo said. “From beginning to end, it has reeked of a political deal. … There’s absolutely nothing about this entire deal that adds up.” ‘At, near or above all of our metrics’ For its part, UMass argues that the conservative Pioneer Institute has opposed the state’s only public law school since the day it was proposed. John Hoey, an assistant chancellor and spokesman at UMass-Dartmouth, said Poftak’s criticisms can be attributed, in part, to Poftak’s stint in the Executive Office of Administration & Finance under Republican Gov. Mitt Romney — something Poftak dismisses as irrelevant. Moreover, Hoey said it was unclear how Poftak derived his facts and figures, especially since the Pioneer director never spoke to either him or his colleagues. In fact, Hoey maintained, the school is “at, near or above” all its metrics. But when repeatedly asked for documentation to back up that claim, Hoey provided none. Xifaras, meanwhile, said the public policy research institute’s concerns that taxpayers will have to bear some of the cost of the school are proving unfounded. According to Hoey, since 2010, the state has received $1.3 million from the law school. All tuition money goes to state coffers, with only school fees staying “on campus,” he said. However, Poftak challenged UMass on that front as well. While the law school is showing positive net income, “the issue is what resources are being used from a balance sheet point of view to get the school up to a level where it might be accredited,” he said in an email. “Frankly, that’s a practical impossibility to determine given the size of UMass-Dartmouth and the complexity of its assets.” Sidebar: Years in the making and still miles to go It has been a long and often uphill battle for the University of Massachusetts School of Law. On March 31, 2005, the Board of Higher Education denied an application allowing UMass-Dartmouth to award juris doctor degrees. Four years later, Southern New England School of Law, which did not have American Bar Association accreditation, offered its real estate as well as “tangible and intangible assets to facilitate UMass Dartmouth being able to offer a J.D.” The offer was the equivalent of a $23 million gift. In February 2010, the state authorized UMass-Dartmouth to grant law degrees. Since that time enrollment has increased. In fall 2009, SNESL had a total student enrollment of 236, according to UMass documents provided by the Pioneer Institute, a public policy think tank. Last fall, that number was 335, below the university’s projection of 356. By fall 2012, UMass projects a student enrollment of 373, according to the documents. The school now finds itself in the midst of the ABA accreditation process, which can take years and involve multiple site evaluations. A law school cannot apply for provisional approval by the ABA until it has been in operation for one year; once it gains provisional approval, the school is closely monitored for at least three years. For full approval, a school must undergo a process identical to that of provisional approval, according to the ABA’s website. Undertaking the ABA accreditation process would have been difficult for SNESL, which did not have deep pockets as a small, independent nonprofit, according to UMass trustee Margaret D. Xifaras, the former chair of SNESL’s board of trustees. The financial stability of the five-campus UMass system is key for the ABA accreditation, she added. — Dan McDonald [read more...]

Another take on “budget buster” report: Health law was more expensive, one analyst says
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Chelsea Conaboy — Press date: 2012-04-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Josh Archambault appreciates that there are other people in the state, besides him, trying to calculate the overall cost of the 2006 Massachusetts law requiring most residents to have health insurance. And, he said, he thinks a report out last week from the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation mostly got it right. But one figure in the report, putting the annual increase in state spending for health reform between fiscal year 2006 and fiscal year 2011 at about $91 million, just struck him as odd. [read more...]

Opinion: Standardizing Schools
Wall Street Journal

Author(s): Lindsey Burke, Heritage — Press date: 2012-04-17
Category: Education
Description: Heritage Foundation fellow Lindsey Burke on the debate over national school standards. Cites Pioneer report. [read more...]

Old foe resurfaces as law school pursues accreditation
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Steve Urbon — Press date: 2012-04-15
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak, budget chief under law school opponent Gov. Mitt Romney and now at the Pioneer Institute in Boston, posted an opinion blog in March criticizing the fledgling law school's progress and transparency, or lack of it. He charged that the school has pushed back the target dates for meeting higher benchmarks in grade point averages, LSAT scores, and bar exam pass rates. [read more...]

Six Ways RomneyCare Changed Massachusetts
The Washington Post

Author(s): — Press date: 2012-04-12
Category: Better Government
Description: One concern, in both the Massachusetts and federal health reforms, has been about workforce: When millions gain health insurance, will there be enough doctors to see them? The Massachusetts experience suggests that, as health insurance expanded, fewer primary care doctors were accepting new patients. It's difficult to parse out, however, how much of this is specific to Massachusetts and how much is a national trend. Previous research has shown a declining willingness on the part of providers to accept patients with private health insurance. The Great Experiment: The States, The Feds and Your Health Care. Pioneer Institute, 2012. [read more...]

Debt from Big Dig hampers Mass. transportation
Associated Press

Author(s): Bob Salsberg — Press date: 2012-04-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Whether there's any appetite for new taxes remains to be seen. Steve Poftak, a transportation analyst at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, says the cost overruns and massive debt incurred by the Big Dig have left a bad taste in the public's mind. "There is a lot of cynicism built up, rightly or wrongly, from the Big Dig," he said. "People are very skeptical of the state's ability to do a good job with transportation dollars." [read more...]

What patients pay: Dr. Don Berwick and Jim Capretta debate shifting health care costs
Boston.com

Author(s): Chelsea Conaboy — Press date: 2012-04-06
Category: Better Government
Description: Dr. Don Berwick, former administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid, and Jim Capretta, who serviced as associate director at the White House Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush, took sharply different stances on what shifting costs to patients could mean during a wide-ranging debate last night hosted by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Ex-Medicare chief Berwick: "The medical device industry is doing a lot to protect patients"
Mass Device

Author(s): Arezu Sarvestani — Press date: 2012-04-06
Category: Better Government
Description: Berwick has long made waves with conservatives, who derided his lack of insurance experience and drummed up a controversy over statements he'd made about the British health care system. Last night, addressing a receptive audience at a Boston event sponsored by the free-market champion Pioneer Institute, Berwick stuck to his guns. [read more...]

BNN News Interviews Joshua Archambault, Director of Health Care Policy--Pioneer Institute
Boston Neighborhood Network News

Author(s): Josh Archambault — Press date: 2012-04-03
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Gov relies on panel for jobless reforms
Boston Herald

Author(s): John Zaremba — Press date: 2012-03-31
Category: Better Government
Description: The commission’s task is weighty, said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios, whose research team has long criticized Massachusetts’ unemployment eligibility requirements as too lax. “These folks are going to need a ton of courage to do any actual reform,” he said. “If reform is done right, we could create 10,000 jobs and we could pump $7.5 billion into the state’s economy in the next decade. The payoff is huge.” [read more...]

Number of six-figure pensions jump, with more to come
Fox 25 Undercover

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2012-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Budget-watcher Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute says the reason is simple math: state pensions are based on salaries, so as the number of big-salaried state workers grow, so eventually will the number of big pensions. “You're going to have a lot of people at six figures in salary. If they work 20 years for the state and they fulfill the other obligations to qualify for a pension, you're going to see high pensions,” Poftak said. Poftak said these big retirement benefits are here to stay for a long time, “Once an employee starts, the pension system that they started with is an obligation of the Commonwealth. They're not going anywhere any time soon.” [read more...]

ObamaCare
WRKO's Tom & Todd Show

Author(s): Josh Archambault — Press date: 2012-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Biden vs Romney
National Review Online

Author(s): Katrina Trinko — Press date: 2012-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, who was a member of Romney’s administration and is now executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a right-leaning Massachusetts think tank, argues that the veto was a win for taxpayers: “As regards government services, the governor always wanted to make sure we had the best value for Massachusetts taxpayers,” he says. “The fact of the matter is it’s very difficult to do manufacturing in Massachusetts because we are a high-cost state from a regulatory perspective, and we have to pay people higher wages because we’re a more educated population,” argues Stergios. “That makes it a lot harder to be in small-margin manufacturing sectors.” Stergios adds that Romney took certain steps — such as refusing to sign cap-and-trade legislation — with an eye to not making electricity any more expensive for manufacturers. [read more...]

WBURMass. Keeps Close Eye On Supreme Court Health Care Hearings
WBUR

Author(s): Martha Bebinger — Press date: 2012-03-29
Category: Better Government
Description: “It was a very thorough discussion both from the folks on the right and the left on the court, looking at a number of different issues we have raised,” said Josh Archambault, with the Pioneer Institute in Boston. The Institute signed onto a brief arguing that the federal government’s economic rationale for the individual mandate doesn’t make sense. “I was very surprised by how skeptical the justices have been and that is encouraging to us,” Archambault said. Not at the federal level perhaps, but Josh Archambault is one of many who argue that health care reform should be a state-by-state experiment. “I think the lessons that you pull from Massachusetts only apply to a number of states that are more similar to us,” Archambault said. “It’s very worrisome when we think that individuals and employers will act in the same manner in a New England state versus a southern or even western state.” For Archambault, Rosenthal and many other health care devotees in Massachusetts, it will be long wait for a Supreme Court decision that is not expected until June. [read more...]

Romneycare versus Obamacare
San Francisco Chronicle

Author(s): Debra J. Saunders — Press date: 2012-03-27
Category: Better Government
Description: "Free preventive services is a misnomer," the Boston-based Pioneer Institute's director of health care policy Josh Archambault, told me. "It will often be passed on through higher premiums." Archambault uses an apt analogy to compare Romneycare to Obamacare. "Massachusetts is a car. It's smaller. It's easy to fix. Problems can still arise, but it's much easier to steer." Obamacare, he continued, "is like a train. It still has wheels and an engine like the car, but it's much bigger, it runs through all areas of health care, and it's inflexible. Once the track is laid, it's very difficult to change the direction." [read more...]

Bay Staters weigh in on Obamacare case
Boston Herald

Author(s): Christine McConville — Press date: 2012-03-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Health insurance isn’t a one-size-fits-all kind of thing, the Boston-based Pioneer Institute tells the U.S. Supreme Court justices in an amicus brief, one of more than a dozen Massachusetts voices weighing in on the so-called Obamacare case now before the court. “We’re saying that New Mexico and Massachusetts are not similar patients ailing from the same disease, and it would be policy malpractice to treat them as if they were,” Joshua Archambault, Pioneer’s director of health care policy, said about a legal brief that the think tank submitted in the landmark case. It is an argument similar to the one GOP candidate Mitt Romney has made on the campaign trail as he advocates repealing Obamacare while defending the plan he passed here in 2005. Attorneys general from 26 states have challenged the mandatory insurance provisions in Obama’s law, which was modeled after Massachusetts’ 2006 law. [read more...]

Jim Stergios Pioneer Institute
Jeff Katz Show

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2012-03-27
Category: Better Government
Description: ObamaCare, Supreme Court Day 2, Pioneer's new book The Great Experiment "Massachusetts is only 2 percent of the population. To take that and apply it to the rest of the country is frankly pretty close to crazy. I don't see how the Supreme Court can mandate that you have to purchase something." [read more...]

Mary Z Connaughton -Pioneer Institute
Jeff Katz Show

Author(s): Mary Connaughton — Press date: 2012-03-27
Category: Better Government
Description: "The more that we know about what's happening on beacon Hill, the better, because they're held accoutnable... The federal government has made states adopt national standards for education...Pioneer recently published a paper that said the federal government, in making states comply by holding back funding if they don't, violates three federal laws. This is another example of the federal government overestepping its bounds." [read more...]

Through Amicus Briefs, Local ‘Friends’ Weigh In On Affordable Care Act
The Emily Rooney Show

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2012-03-27
Category: Better Government
Description: As the high court weighs health care this week, the stakes are high and the political wrangling is great. A record number of outside groups – including many from Massachusetts – have filed “friend of the court” briefs urging the court to uphold or strike down the law. Guests: Brian Rosman, research director at Boston nonprofit Health Care For All, which signed an amicus brief in support of the law Jim Stergios, executive director at the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research in Boston, which signed onto a brief written by economists opposing the law [read more...]

Trust us, we're not nationalizing curriculum
Washington Examiner

Author(s): Lindsey Burke — Press date: 2012-03-26
Category: Education
Description: Duncan is correct in reiterating that "states have the sole right to set learning standards." But he is incorrect in asserting that nothing in proposed policy "in any way contradicts" state control of curriculum. As the Pioneer Institute recently reported, the U.S. Department of Education is running afoul of three laws prohibiting the federal government from being involved in curriculum. By funding the assessments and incentivizing states to adopt the Common Core with federal grants, Pioneer argues, the Department of Education "has simply paid others to do that which it is forbidden to do." ...Secretary Duncan's robust involvement shows just how much control the Department of Education will gain if states surrender standards-setting control to Washington. Governors, state legislators, parents and taxpayers would be wise to resist those efforts. [read more...]

Romney's Health-Care Duck
Wall Street Journal

Author(s): KIMBERLEY A. STRASSEL — Press date: 2012-03-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute—a free-market think tank in Boston that has published a book on ObamaCare and RomneyCare titled "The Great Experiment: The States, the Feds, and Your Health Care"—argued in a recent conversation that the fundamental mistake of ObamaCare was in imposing a giant, untested law on an unwilling nation. He contrasts this to the 1990s welfare reform, which came only after 20 years of state experimentation. By the time the federal law was passed, politicians on both sides of the aisle, he says, had come to a sort of "settlement" as to what generally worked. "The Great Experiment" argues that the GOP "alternative" to ObamaCare needs to be federal steps that give states the maximum flexibility to innovate and experiment with free-market health care. [read more...]

Book: ‘Great Experiment’ Of Mass. Reform Should Not Go National
WBUR

Author(s): Carey Goldberg — Press date: 2012-03-21
Category: Better Government
Description: I spoke today with Josh Archambault, the Pioneer Institute’s director of health care policy and one of the book’s co-authors, and shamelessly pressed him to simplify the book’s arguments — which are already well simplified in the text — into even smaller soundbites. He kindly obliges here — and also allowed us to share graphics worth a thousand words. Our conversation, lightly edited: So how would you sum up the central argument of the book? Josh Archambault There are two: The first one stems from a frustration with the national dialogue on health reform and how little state perspectives have been part of that discourse. So we have laid out a blueprint of how we believe we should move forward in resetting the state and federal relationship on health reform. From our perspective, we would like to see states have a lot more flexibility. [read more...]

The Main Event
Chicago Tribune

Author(s): Cal Thomas — Press date: 2012-03-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Many wonder what will happen to needed reforms in health care should the individual mandate -- the heart of Obamacare -- be struck down. That question is answered in a timely new book published by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy research organization, titled "The Great Experiment: The States, the Feds and Your Healthcare." In a series of essays compiled by Joshua Archambault, director of Health Care Policy at the Pioneer Institute, and with a forward by Jeffrey S. Flier, M.D., the dean of Harvard Medical School, experts propose the states take the lead in reforming health care, as Massachusetts did, rather than dictate a one-size-fits-all system from dysfunctional Washington. The authors propose what they call "Competitive Federalism" that would allow for a federal partnership, but permit states to fashion their own approach to health care based on their individual circumstances. Refundable tax credits, high-risk pools and Medicaid reform are among the specific recommendations for maintaining the high quality of health care America now enjoys while providing coverage and reducing costs for people whose access to care is now limited and for those now paying the bills. Along with the bipartisan Medicare reform plan developed last year by Rep. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Paul Ryan (R-Wis), which was dismissed by supporters of the status quo who prefer the issue to a solution, these are serious and doable proposals that deserve congressional consideration. As Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios writes, "Despite years of effort and mountains of regulations, the federal government has proven incapable of screening for quality (health care), and acting on that information. It is time for states and the federal government to hit the reset button." [read more...]

Unemployment rate rises in state
Milford Daily News

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2012-03-14
Category: Better Government
Description: State labor officials originally said Massachusetts added about 40,000 jobs in 2011, but a revised count released this month pegged the number at about 12,200. ...The state does seem to be making slow progress on unemployment, said Steve Poftak, research director for the conservative Pioneer Institute. But after the yearend revision on jobs, it is less clear how many jobless people are finding work and how many are leaving the work force altogether, he said. “We need to be creating a lot more jobs overall, and I think that should be everybody’s goal regardless of your ideological perspective,” Poftak said. [read more...]

Enrique Zuniga signs on as casino overseer
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2012-03-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Enrique Zuniga was named to the Massachusetts Gaming Commission yesterday less than a year after assuming a top post at another state agency — a sign that the search for gambling regulators is proving a tough task, one Beacon Hill observer said. “Seems like an awful quick transition,” said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute. “But it seems getting people to the gaming commission is turning out harder than expected. ... I do think they’re having a struggle not only because they’d have to give up their outside employment, but they also have to give up working in the industry” after they’re term expires. [read more...]

Don't Ignore Pesky Things Called Laws
The Charlotte Observer

Author(s): George Will — Press date: 2012-03-09
Category: Education
Description: Meanwhile, the Department of Education is pretending that three laws do not mean what they clearly say. This is documented in the Pioneer Institute's report "The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers" by Robert S. Eitel, Kent D. Talbert and Williamson M. Evers, all former senior Education Department officials. The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act - No Child Left Behind is its ninth iteration - said "nothing in this act" shall authorize any federal official to "mandate, direct, or control" a state's, local educational agency's or school's curriculum. The General Education Provisions Act of 1970 stipulates that "no provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize" any federal agency or official "to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction" or selection of "instructional materials" by "any educational institution or school system." The 1979 law establishing the Education Department forbids it from exercising "any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum" or "program of instruction" of any school or school system. The ESEA as amended goes further: No funds provided to the Education Department "may be used...to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in" grades K-12. However... What authors Eitel, Talbert and Evers call the Education Department's "incremental march down the road to a national curriculum" begins with the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSS). It is not an initiative of any state legislature, but of a governors' association, state school officials and some private foundations. The 11 states and the District of Columbia that won Race to the Top funding had adopted or indicated an intention to adopt the CCSS, which will require changes in curricula. An Education Department synopsis of discussions with members of the public about priorities in competition for RTTT money says "the goal of common K-12 standards is to replace the existing patchwork of state standards." Progressives celebrate diversity in everything but thought. The Obama administration is granting conditional waivers to states chafing under No Child Left Behind's unrealistic accountability requirements. The waivers are contingent on each state adopting certain standards "that are common to a significant number of states," or the state may adopt standards endorsed by its institutions of higher education - if those standards are consistent with the Education Department's guidelines. [read more...]

Those pesky things called laws
The Washington Post

Author(s): George Will — Press date: 2012-03-09
Category: Education
Description: Meanwhile, the Education Department is pretending that three laws do not mean what they clearly say. This is documented in the Pioneer Institute’s report “The Road to a National Curriculum: The Legal Aspects of the Common Core Standards, Race to the Top, and Conditional Waivers” by Robert S. Eitel, Kent D. Talbert and Williamson M. Evers, all former senior officials in the Education Department. The 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) — No Child Left Behind is its ninth iteration — intruded the federal government into this traditionally state and local responsibility. It said that “nothing in this act” shall authorize any federal official to “mandate, direct, or control” a state’s, local educational agency’s or school’s curriculum. The General Education Provisions Act of 1970, which supposedly controls federal education programs, stipulates that “no provision of any applicable program shall be construed to authorize” any federal agency or official “to exercise any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum, program of instruction” or selection of “instructional materials” by “any educational institution or school system.” The 1979 law establishing the Education Department forbids it from exercising “any direction, supervision, or control over the curriculum” or “program of instruction” of any school or school system. The ESEA as amended goes further: No funds provided to the Education Department “may be used . . . to endorse, approve, or sanction any curriculum designed to be used in” kindergarten through 12th grade. However . . . What authors Eitel, Talbert and Evers call the Education Department’s “incremental march down the road to a national curriculum” begins with the Common Core State Standards Initiative (CCSS). It is an initiative not of any state legislature but of a governors association, state school officials and private foundations. This push advanced when the Race to the Top Fund (RTTT, part of the 2009 stimulus) said that peer reviewers of applications for money should favor those states that join a majority of states in developing and adopting common standards. The 11 states and the District of Columbia that won Race to the Top funding had adopted or indicated an intention to adopt the CCSS, which will require changes in curricula. An Education Department synopsis of discussions with members of the public about priorities in competition for RTTT money says “the goal of common K-12 standards is to replace the existing patchwork of state standards.” Progressives celebrate diversity in everything but thought. The Obama administration is granting conditional waivers to states chafing under No Child Left Behind’s unrealistic accountability requirements. The waivers are contingent on each state adopting certain standards “that are common to a significant number of states,” or the state may adopt standards endorsed by its institutions of higher education — if those standards are consistent with the Education Department’s guidelines. We have been warned. Joseph Califano, secretary of health, education and welfare in the Carter administration, noted that “in its most extreme form, national control of curriculum is a form of national control of ideas.” Here again laws are cobwebs. As government becomes bigger, it becomes more lawless. As the regulatory state’s micromanagement of society metastasizes, inconvenient laws are construed — by those the laws are supposed to restrain — as porous and permissive, enabling the executive branch to render them nullities. [read more...]

Community college costs and salaries highest ever
Boston Herald

Author(s): Erin Smith — Press date: 2012-02-23
Category: Better Government
Description: From the Oval Office to the State House, community colleges are primed to receive millions in taxpayer funds and praised as the future for job seekers, but the two-year institutions are increasingly hitting students with high fees while padding presidents’ salaries. “You can’t keep increasing tuition and you can’t keep increasing salaries when the performance is not deserved,” said the Pioneer Institute’s Jim Stergios. “At some point students perceive a lack of value and drop out.” [read more...]

Trial Courts’ 9% pay hike sparking cry of injustice
Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2012-02-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Pay soared by an average of 9 percent last year at the Massachusetts Trial Courts — home of the patronage-plagued Probation Department — raising objections from Beacon Hill watchdogs looking for fiscal justice. “It doesn’t surprise me that payroll’s going up,” said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute. “I do think it’s problematic that we’ve built this perpetual motion machine that continues to load costs onto a budget where resources are very scarce.” [read more...]

State-Based Education Reform Needs Tough Common Standards: View
Bloomberg View

Author(s): Editors — Press date: 2012-02-20
Category: Education
Description: A study by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, a Massachusetts-based group that promotes free-market solutions, found that switching to Common Core would water down language benchmarks in Massachusetts and California, and that for algebra I and II and geometry, the content “shows low academic expectations for its definition of ‘college readiness.’ " [read more...]

War Against the Core
Cato at Liberty

Author(s): Neal McCluskey — Press date: 2012-02-16
Category: Education
Description: The second report comes from a coalition of the Pioneer Institute, Pacific Research Institute, Federalist Society, and American Principles Project. The Road to a National Curriculum focuses on all the legal violations perpetrated by the federal government to “incentivize” state adoption of the Common Core and connected tests. Much is ground we at Cato have periodically covered, but this report goes into much greater depth on specific statutory violations. It also does nice work debunking standards supporters’ plea that they don’t want to touch curriculum, only standards, as if the whole point of setting standards weren’t to shape curricula. The report goes beyond pointing out just this logical silliness by identifying numerous instances of Education Department officials, or developers of federally funded tests, stating explicitly that their goal is to shape curricula. [read more...]

The Common Core Math Standards
Education Next

Author(s): Ze`ev Wurman and W. Stephen Wilson — Press date: 2012-02-16
Category: Education
Description: More than 40 states have now signed onto the Common Core standards in English language arts and math, which have been both celebrated as a tremendous advance and criticized as misguided and for bearing the heavy thumbprint of the federal government. Assessing the merits of the Common Core math standards are Ze’ev Wurman and W. Stephen Wilson. Wurman, who was a U.S. Department of Education official under George W. Bush, is coauthor with Sandra Stotsky of “Common Core’s Standards Still Don’t Make the Grade” (Pioneer Institute, 2010). Wilson is a professor of mathematics at Johns Hopkins University, served on the National Governors Association-Council of Chief State School Officers “feedback group” for the Common Core standards, and was mathematics author of Stars by which to Navigate? Scanning National and International Education Standards in 2009: An Interim Report on Common Core, NAEP, TIMSS, and PISA. [read more...]

The Road to a National Curriculum
Education News

Author(s): — Press date: 2012-02-13
Category: Education
Description: The Obama administration has used the Race to the Top Fund, the Race to the Top Assessment Program, and the NCLB conditional waiver program to push states to adopt the same standards and assessments, despite three federal laws barring federal departments or agencies from directing, supervising or controlling K-12 curricula and instruction. [read more...]

Take stock of METCO tonight
YourArlington.com

Author(s): Sean Fitzgerald — Press date: 2012-02-02
Category: Education
Description: Representative Jay Kaufman's award-winning public-policy forum, Open House, takes an in-depth look at the METCO program in the fifth event of the 17th season on Thursday, Feb. 2, from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Historic Depot, 13 Depot Square, Lexington Center. A recent report by the Pioneer Institute and Harvard Law School's Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice concludes that the program is a clear success. We'll hear about that report and hear directly from METCO students and alums as well as their Lexington classmates. What's working? What challenges remain? As always, you are invited to bring your questions and ideas. [read more...]

Federal Overhaul Will Require Mass to Adjust its Health Reform Law
California Healthline

Author(s): — Press date: 2012-01-31
Category: Better Government
Description: Josh Archambault, health policy director at the conservative Pioneer Institute, said, "My view is that the [federal law] kills the Commonwealth Care program." He said health stakeholders in the state believe "the Connector should be scared about future power and market share" under the federal overhaul. Archambault noted that the Connector "will look very, very different once all is said and done." [read more...]

'Romneycare,' meet 'Obamacare'
Politico

Author(s): Kate Nocera — Press date: 2012-01-30
Category: Better Government
Description: “My view is that the Affordable Care Act kills the Commonwealth Care program,” said Josh Archambault, health policy director at the Pioneer Institute, a right-leaning think tank in the liberal state. Archambault attended a stakeholder meeting about the future of the exchange and wrote that “what became clear from board members was that the Connector should be scared about future power and market share. Numerous board members wanted to discuss how the Connector could best position itself to keep the reins of power in the health care market.” “Do I think they’ll be ready for 2014? Sure I do,” Archambault said. “Gov. Patrick isn’t resetting the whole law, but I do believe the Connector will look very, very different once all is said and done, and I think people in the state are just starting to come to that realization.” [read more...]

Children's, Blue Cross Deal Curbs Payments
Boston Globe

Author(s): Robert Weisman — Press date: 2012-01-24
Category: Better Government
Description: But it may be too soon to say whether the gains from global payments and more modest increases in the recent contracts can save money for the health care system long term, said Josh Archambault, director of health care policy for the Pioneer Institute in Boston, a public policy research group. “It’s really hard to know because of all the factors in play,’’ Archambault said. “You have a slow economy, so folks are a little reluctant to get medical care. You also have all these organizations looking over their shoulders. They’re fearful that the state is going to be very aggressive in setting prices, so they want to look like they’re doing something.’’ [read more...]

Wong and Fitchburg Charter Official Ready to Defend School
Fitchburg Sentinel and Enterprise

Author(s): Marisa Donelan — Press date: 2012-01-24
Category: Education
Description: The strict evaluation and accountability standards are by design, said Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute. Since charter schools are more autonomous, they must show they're performing. But, Gass added, when state officials so publicly praised the school, and 90 percent of its graduates go on to higher education, it's "really quite troubling" that the school would receive such a recommendation. It's also perplexing, Gass said, that Chester's memo relies heavily on AYP reporting, considering that Chester and state education officials are seeking waivers from the federal government on meeting AYP targets. The politics of charter approval and renewal in Massachusetts came under fire in 2009, when an email from Education Secretary Paul Reville to Chester revealed Reville's encouragement to approve the charter for the Gloucester Community Arts Charter School -- despite recommendations to the contrary from Chester's own office -- because he did not want to give the impression of a "hostile" charter environment. Gass said the Gloucester issue created doubt as to whether Chester is basing decisions on the best academic practices. "It really created a crisis of confidence in the commissioner's ability to handle charter-school evaluations fairly," Gass said. [read more...]

Pundit Review with Garrett Quinn
WRKO

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2012-01-15
Category: Better Government
Description: Tax increases are on the way. Garett Quinn interviews Steve Poftak. [read more...]

Health Reform May Lessen Sting of Charity Care for NJ Hospitals
NJ Spotlight

Author(s): Beth Fitzgerald — Press date: 2012-01-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts may provide some indication of how New Jersey's charity care landscape might shift under the Affordable Care Act. In 2007, Massachusetts health reform's individual mandate went into effect, and it's estimated that only between 2 percent and 5 percent of the state's population is currently uninsured. Josh Archambault, director of health care for the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy research organization, said health reform has not reduced charity care as much as anticipated. The state was providing hospitals with about $700 million in charity care a year before health reform, and that last year that figure was about $405 million. "We have hit a wall here and nobody quite understands why," Archambault said. The continued need for charity care may in part reflect care provided to undocumented immigrants, as well as the decisions of some Massachusetts residents not to get health coverage and instead pay a penalty imposed by the state. "In the down economy you may have more folks using [health care] services who don't have insurance," he said. [read more...]

Better Government Competition Announced
Lynnfield Patch

Author(s): William Laforme — Press date: 2012-01-09
Category: Better Government
Description: House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) today announced an exciting opportunity for Massachusetts residents to get involved in improving the way state government works. Pioneer Institute, a non-profit policy research group, is sponsoring the annual Better Government Competition (BGC), which seeks ideas from individuals about how best to improve government efficiency and effectiveness. The BGC provides an unrivaled opportunity for citizen involvement in the development of government policy. Implementation of winning ideas from previous competitions has saved taxpayers more than $500 million. [read more...]

MBTA nixes commuter rail takeover
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): Bob Salsberg — Press date: 2012-01-07
Category: Better Government
Description: MBTA management has ruled out the possibility of taking over direct operation of the state's commuter rail network. Instead, it may seek a longer-term contract with a private operator to spur investment in an aging system that has become increasingly prone to breakdowns. A long-term contract would give a private operator the time needed to leverage capital for new equipment, said Steve Poftak, director of the Center for Better Government at the Pioneer Institute, unlike the original five-year deal with MBCR. "That's just too short a time to expect anyone to do capital investment. You kind of get these 'neither here nor there' contracts of that duration," said Poftak. [read more...]

MBTA nixes takeover of commuter rail operation, eyes possible long-term deal with private firm
Star Tribune

Author(s): Bob Salsberg — Press date: 2012-01-07
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - MBTA management has ruled out the possibility of taking over direct operation of the state's commuter rail network. Instead, it may seek a longer-term contract with a private operator to spur investment in an aging system that has become increasingly prone to breakdowns. A long-term contract would give a private operator the time needed to leverage capital for new equipment, said Steve Poftak, director of the Center for Better Government at the Pioneer Institute, unlike the original five-year deal with MBCR. "That's just too short a time to expect anyone to do capital investment. You kind of get these `neither here nor there' contracts of that duration," said Poftak. [read more...]

MBTA nixes takeover, ponders next rail contract
Idaho Statesman

Author(s): Bob Salsberg — Press date: 2012-01-07
Category: Better Government
Description: MBTA management has ruled out the possibility of taking over direct operation of the state's commuter rail network. Instead, it may seek a longer-term contract with a private operator to spur investment in an aging system that has become increasingly prone to breakdowns. A long-term contract would give a private operator the time needed to leverage capital for new equipment, said Steve Poftak, director of the Center for Better Government at the Pioneer Institute, unlike the original five-year deal with MBCR. "That's just too short a time to expect anyone to do capital investment. You kind of get these 'neither here nor there' contracts of that duration," said Poftak. [read more...]

Jones Encourages Residents to Participate in Better Government Competition
North Reading Patch

Author(s): Ashley Troutman — Press date: 2012-01-06
Category: Better Government
Description: House Minority Leader Bradley H. Jones, Jr. (R-North Reading) today announced an exciting opportunity for Massachusetts residents to get involved in improving the way state government works. Pioneer Institute, a non-profit policy research group, is sponsoring the annual Better Government Competition (BGC), which seeks ideas from individuals about how best to improve government efficiency and effectiveness. The BGC provides an unrivaled opportunity for citizen involvement in the development of government policy. Implementation of winning ideas from previous competitions has saved taxpayers more than $500 million. [read more...]

'The Mass Factor' takes on state politics from Danvers studio
Salem News

Author(s): Ethan Forman — Press date: 2012-01-03
Category: Better Government
Description: The show has hosted a variety of guests, including Barbara Anderson of Citizens of Limited Taxation and a columnist for The Salem News; Senate Minority Leader Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester; former state Sen. and U.S. congressional candidate Richard Tisei; Christen Varley of the Greater Boston Tea Party; Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute; former Republican gubernatorial candidate and Swampscott resident Charlie Baker; state Rep. Ted Speliotis, D-Danvers; Democratic state Treasurer Steve Grossman; Chris McKeown of Fairtax.org; and former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey, a Beverly resident. [read more...]

Beware of Mitt, say Bay State conservatives
Salon

Author(s): Ed Mason and Tom Mashberg — Press date: 2011-12-31
Category: Better Government
Description: But James Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a market-based think tank, said conservative critics are wrong to focus on loophole closings and Romneycare. He saw Romney’s reforms up close as chief of staff and undersecretary for policy in state Office of Environmental Affairs. “The cuts in 2003-2004 were real – there were people marching in the street saying, ‘What about my programs,’” Stergios said, recalling emergency budget cuts Romney made to slash spending. Romney did shrink some agencies, including a pair in Stergios’ department — merging the patronage haven Boston-based Metropolitan District Commission and state parks offices to form the Department of Conservation and Recreation. “That says something about his ability to streamline government,” Stergios said. [read more...]

Open Checkbook: State vendors in Arlington
Arlington Advocate

Author(s): Staff — Press date: 2011-12-29
Category: Better Government
Description: Website developers reached out to statewide advocacy groups for advice. MassPirg, Common Cause, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Pioneer Institute and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation were consulted, Grossman said, adding he expects the organizations to stay involved. “As well defined as we thought this project was, we knew we needed help,” he said. “And when we are not doing as well as we should be, they will tell us.” [read more...]

Report lists steps to make Mass. more competitive
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2011-12-28
Category: Better Government
Description: The Patrick administration released a 34-page economic development plan yesterday that proposes dozens of steps to help make the state more competitive, from reducing the cost of energy to beefing up training programs for workers. The report, by the state Economic Development Planning Council, contains 55 recommendations organized around a few goals: advancing education and workforce development for middle-skill jobs; supporting innovation and entrepreneurship; bolstering regional development through investments in transportation projects and other infrastructure; and making it easier and less costly to do business here. “There are some good ideas there, but it’s a question of implementation,’’ said Steve Poftak, director of research for the Pioneer Institute, a Boston nonprofit public policy research group. “Is there a firm timetable and a firm commitment to the hard work that is necessary to get it done?’’ [read more...]

TEXAS COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION ROBERT SCOTT EXPLAINS THE NATIONAL, INTRUSIVE DATABASE
Education News

Author(s): Donna Garner — Press date: 2011-12-28
Category: Education
Description: Robert Scott is the Chief Deputy Commissioner of Education in Texas. Not only is he an innovative education expert, but he is also an attorney who knows education law backwards and forwards. Because of his legal background and because he is a specialist in education law, he was a key speaker at the Heritage Foundation/Pioneer Institute Conference (7.27.11) and explained the overreach of the federal government through national standards, curriculum, assessments, and a national and intrusive database. [read more...]

From Consumer Anger To The Supreme Court, 2012 In Health Care
WBUR

Author(s): Carey Goldberg — Press date: 2011-12-26
Category: Better Government
Description: What will 2012 bring in health care? Some of these predictions are decidedly tongue-in-cheek. Others could certainly be labeled wishful thinking. All are interesting to contemplate — and when they’re taken together, a picture of public expectations begins to emerge, from the Supreme Court ruling on health reform to cost trends... Josh Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute: • Continued provider consolidation, both locally and nationally. • Greater cost-shifting from Medicare and Medicaid, as both federal and state government continue to cut reimbursement levels. On a related side note, I think over the next few years you will see cash-based pre-paid practices opening in Boston. • Gains in the use of high-deductible and health savings account plans nationally. [read more...]

Payroll tax cut means thousands in savings for Mass. workers
Brookline Tab

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2011-12-23
Category: Better Government
Description: "There’s some evidence that suggests it’s one of those pieces of stimulus that quickly becomes consumption,” the desired effect, said Stephen Poftak, research director for the conservative Pioneer Institute. However, Poftak said reducing funding to Social Security over the long term without addressing the loss would be fiscally irresponsible. Read more: Payroll tax cut means thousands in savings for Mass. workers - Brookline, Massachusetts - Brookline TAB [read more...]

Medfield residents get around $2K if House GOP OKs payroll tax cut
Medfield Press

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2011-12-23
Category: Better Government
Description: “There’s some evidence that suggests it’s one of those pieces of stimulus that quickly becomes consumption,” the desired effect, said Stephen Poftak, research director for the conservative Pioneer Institute. However, Poftak said reducing funding to Social Security over the long term without addressing the loss would be fiscally irresponsible. [read more...]

Brown files bill that would allow entrepreneurs to solicit small investors
Worcester TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2011-12-21
Category: Better Government
Description: “The Boston-based Pioneer Institute released a report this year that found Massachusetts is not creating new companies fast enough, and the companies that are being created are hiring fewer people. Steve Poftak, research director of the Pioneer Institute, said crowdfunding legislation could help small businesses and startups. “As long as there are consumer protections,” he said. “You don’t want to see this as a marketplace for bad actors.” “ [read more...]

Romneycare faces financial meltdown
World Net Daily

Author(s): Michael Carl — Press date: 2011-12-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer Institute health-care and insurance analyst Amy Lischko's March 2011 report, called "Fixing the Massachusetts Health Exchange," verifies the cost increases. Lischko documents a nearly $1 million increase in administrative costs in both Commonwealth Care and Commonwealth Choice programs in the five months from December 2009 to May 2010. During the same five-month period, investment income for the two programs declined. The changes were for only two of the state's insurance programs and were for only a five-month period. Brase said she's not surprised because she's already seen reports that the system is broken and losing ground. [read more...]

Single payer a no-go
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-12-19
Category: Better Government
Description: A bill calling for a government-controlled, single-payer health insurance system had a hearing at the State House last week, and from what we can gather it amounted to the usual harangue against private insurers and an insistence that government can do a better job of administering health coverage. But in addition to the flaws generally associated with a single-payer system, there are particular flaws with the pending proposal in Massachusetts, as the Pioneer Institute pointed out in testimony presented to the Joint Committee on Health Care. To help make up for the loss of privately-subsidized care, the proposal could require enormous new investments of federal dollars. That sure feels like a long shot, doesn’t it? [read more...]

State Education department spokesman: Barresi anticipates low costs for implementing “Common Core”
Tulsa Today

Author(s): Patrick McGuigan — Press date: 2011-12-18
Category: Education
Description: Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute in Massachusetts, writing recently on the Boston Globe blog, estimated implementation of the Common Core in California will run $3.3 million per public school district. Some estimates for the Bear State range from $750 million to more than $800 million to implement the Common Core. Stergios is investigating implementation costs nationwide. [read more...]

SEC rules limiting startups
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2011-12-18
Category: Better Government
Description: The Boston-based Pioneer Institute released a report this year that found Massachusetts is not creating new companies fast enough, and the companies that are being created are hiring fewer people. Steve Poftak, research director of the Pioneer Institute, said crowdfunding legislation could help small businesses and startups. “As long as there are consumer protections,” he said. “You don’t want to see this as a marketplace for bad actors.” [read more...]

Garrett Quinn Radio Circus
WRKO

Author(s): Garrett Quinn Interviews Jim Stergios — Press date: 2011-12-17
Category: Better Government
Description: This Week at Pioneer - Jim Stergios discusses transparency. [read more...]

Payroll tax stalls means thousands in savings for Mass. workers
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2011-12-17
Category: Better Government
Description: "There’s some evidence that suggests it’s one of those pieces of stimulus that quickly becomes consumption,” the desired effect, said Stephen Poftak, research director for the conservative Pioneer Institute. However, Poftak said reducing funding to Social Security over the long term without addressing the loss would be fiscally irresponsible. [read more...]

Romney’s Jobs Record As Governor Is Up For Debate
WBUR

Author(s): Deborah Becker — Press date: 2011-12-15
Category: Better Government
Description: At the end of his term in 2006, Romney also spent a lot of time outside of Massachusetts, preparing for his first attempt at the GOP presidential nomination in 2008. Romney was said to be out of Massachusetts for more than half of his last year in office. Even so, his supporters, like Jim Stergios, president of The Pioneer Institute, say Romney’s effect was more subtle and he helped make deep changes that Massachusetts still benefits from today. “Businesses will not come to Massachusetts because of one individual,” Stergios said. “Businesses always look at long term — what’s their investment? The next election could bring someone very different. They’re looking for structural changes. That’s why I say Gov. Romney did some very important work to make this state much competitive.” [read more...]

State puts the 'us' in trust
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): Sean Gonsalves — Press date: 2011-12-13
Category: Better Government
Description: In response to the public's rightful clamoring for more transparency, the governor's office and state legislators worked with several public-advocacy groups — MassPIRG, Common Cause, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center, the Pioneer Institute, and the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation — to create and design the website. [read more...]

ALEC Pushes Back on National Standards Education Overreach
Education News

Author(s): Lindsey Burke — Press date: 2011-12-10
Category: Education
Description: [read more...]

Brownsberger for Senate
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-12-09
Category: Better Government
Description: And the third-term rep recently won the praise of the free market-oriented Pioneer Institute for his pitch to reform the state’s pension system, by consolidating the various and sundry retirement boards — local, county, state etc. — into one system, saving taxpayers on overhead costs. [read more...]

Group Pushes Back on National Standards Education Overreach
The Foundry

Author(s): Lindsey Burke — Press date: 2011-12-09
Category: Education
Description: For the past two years, the Obama Education Department has been supporting an effort to implement national education standards and tests. The national standards push, which will affect all public schools, has been underway outside the normal legislative process. At least (to quote Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute) Obamacare went through Congress. [read more...]

State officials rolling out site with government spending details
Danvers Herald

Author(s): Colleen Quinn — Press date: 2011-12-08
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Boston May Face Competition From Wynn, Kraft
CBS Boston Keller @ Large

Author(s): Carl Stevens — Press date: 2011-12-06
Category: Better Government
Description: Convention industry analyst Steve Poftak says if Boston doesn’t feel threatened by the prospect of a Wynn-backed convention complex here, they should be. “You’re gonna have people who want to come to Boston because it’s Boston always, but for those people who are shopping on price or don’t mind being a little further away from the city, clearly this could be a potentially very attractive option for them,” says Poftak. Poftak adds the Foxboro convention competition potentially undermines arguments that we have to pour more public money into the Boston Convention Center to bring in more visitors, yet another in what’s sure to be a string of unintended — and unexpected — consequences of opening the state up to casinos. [read more...]

State officials rolling out site with government spending details
Tri-Town Transcript

Author(s): Colleen Quinn — Press date: 2011-12-06
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Is a good job hard to find?
The Callie Crossley Show WGBH 89.7

Author(s): Steve Poftak, Russ Davis, Paul Osterman — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Is a good job hard to find? Last Friday the U.S. Department of Labor announced that unemployment dropped to 8.6 percent, and job growth over the last three months has averaged 143,000 a month. But, what kinds of jobs are being created? Today, four million Americans are working at minimum wage or lower. Many think these jobs can be a stepping stone to something better. Not so says economist Paul Osterman. In his new book, Good Jobs America, he argues that most workers get trapped in these low paying jobs. It doesn’t have to be this way- if employers adopt the right policies they can turn these low-wage jobs into good ones, he says. Today we examine what it means to have a good job and what needs to be done to create more of them. Guests: Paul Osterman: professor of human resources and management at MIT’s Sloan School of Management. Co-author of Good Jobs America: Making Work Better for Everyone Russ Davis: executive director of Massachusetts Jobs with Justice Steve Poftak: director of research and director of the Shamie Center for Better Government at The Pioneer Institute [read more...]

State officials rolling out government spending site
Dedham Transcript

Author(s): Colleen Quinn for SHNS — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute launched a similar website three years ago, and recently updated it, according to Jim Stergios, executive director of the privately-funded research organization. Pioneer’s site, massopenbooks.org, details state employee and contractor payments. During development of the state site, Stergios offered advice about where the “hiccups” were in their own process. Stergios said he did not have any criticisms of the site. More transparency will be necessary, he said. “The fact of the matter is this is a great first step,” he said. “I think Massachusetts as a whole has really been behind a lot of states in terms of providing this information. We as a state are just starting out in this path.” Read more: State officials rolling out government spending site - Dedham, Massachusetts - The Dedham Transcript http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/archive/x1712041705/State-officials-rolling-out-government-spending-site#ixzz1fsB0RbYx [read more...]

State rolling out 'open checkbook' site
Bedford Minuteman

Author(s): Colleen Quinn — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

State officials rolling out government spending site
Needham Times

Author(s): Colleen Quinn — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Special report: The legacy of Romney's healthcare Rx
Hartford Courant

Author(s): Ros Krasny and Toni Clarke — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: The pool of uninsured was always relatively small, says Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank. "Massachusetts has a strong history of employer commitment to health insurance." [read more...]

State rolling out 'open checkbook' site
Belmont-Citizen Herald

Author(s): Colleen Quinn — Press date: 2011-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Biz keeps an eye on med costs
Boston Herald

Author(s): Donna Goodison — Press date: 2011-12-04
Category: Better Government
Description: “With increasing health care costs, employees are being asked to pay a greater percentage of their insurance and also of their medical bills, so a service like (CoPatient) could be great,” said Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute in Boston. “As consumers become more engaged, I think this could certainly be a very valuable tool ... to get better deals on their health care.” [read more...]

Special report: The legacy of Romney's healthcare Rx
Reuters

Author(s): Ros Krasny and Toni Clarke — Press date: 2011-12-02
Category: Better Government
Description: MASS APPEAL This claim of Massachusetts exceptionalism is politically convenient but also true in some regards. Massachusetts is rich in medical schools, teaching hospitals and policy researchers, which has fostered a tradition of healthcare innovation and experimentation. The state has a higher than average median income and, outside of Washington, DC, the country's highest percentage of college graduates. The pool of uninsured was always relatively small, says Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank. "Massachusetts has a strong history of employer commitment to health insurance." SMALL BUSINESS SQUEEZED One sector that feels aggrieved by the Massachusetts law is small business. "The price for individuals went down after the reforms, but those for small businesses went up," said Pioneer's Archambault. "They haven't been helped by the reforms." Amy Lishko, associate professor of Tufts School of Medicine and a Pioneer fellow, places the blame mostly with the Health Connector, which limited the number and type of plans private insurers could offer so that few bothered to design products for small business. [read more...]

The historian who came to dinner
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): Cynthia Stead — Press date: 2011-12-01
Category: Better Government
Description: It was pretty obvious they booked the room before they snagged the speaker. The 144th annual Lincoln Dinner of the Middlesex Club was held in the two-level, gold-and-white boutique function room of the Sheraton Commander Hotel in Cambridge. The small room was beautiful, the food was exceptionally good, and the event uncommonly crowded. When I bought my ticket, the main speaker was director of Harvard University's Institute of Politics, Trey Grayson. When I squeezed into my seat at a crowded table with radio host Avi Nelson, Mary Connaughton of the Pioneer Institute, and Voter ID activist Ralph Zazula, the main speaker was former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, presidential candidate, historian and gadfly. [read more...]

The Download
CommonWealth

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-12-01
Category: Better Government
Description: TRANSPORTATION MBTA officials say they have taken a number of steps to prepare for snow this winter on commuter lines coming into Boston, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette reports. The Pioneer Institute’s Steve Poftak calls the proposal to bring commuter rail operations in-house “a bad idea.” Motorcycle riders are lobbying once again for an end to the helmet law. Supporters of the law say a brain injury caused by riding with out a helmet costs about $9 million. [read more...]

Dukakis Debates Taxation, Occupy Movement
Norton Patch

Author(s): Kelly Mello — Press date: 2011-11-30
Category: Better Government
Description: The Roosevelt Institute at Wheaton College welcomed former Governor Michael Dukakis Monday night to join a panel discussion with Professor Jay Goodman and Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute. They debated the merits of various forms of taxation, the emerging role of the Occupy movement in the national debate, and their views on what role taxation will play in the discourse of the 2012 national elections. [read more...]

Common Core Standards Drive Schools Off a Cliff
Tucson Sentinel

Author(s): Jonathan Butcher — Press date: 2011-11-30
Category: Education
Description: This hodgepodge of adjustments and push towards homogenization creates a "race to the middle," according to Pioneer Institute experts Sandra Stotsky and Ze'ev Wurman. Ms. Stotsky served on the Common Core Validation Committee, but did not sign off on the standards; and Mr. Wurman served on the commission that evaluated the standards for implementation in California. The standards also won't prepare our students for competitive colleges and universities. In 2010, Common Core authors admitted before the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education that the focus on college readiness when they were developing the standards was "minimal and focuses on non-selective colleges." [read more...]

As federal funds dry up, Beacon Power still has reason for hope
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Erin Ailworth — Press date: 2011-11-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak, research director at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank, said the federal government probably should not have risked taxpayer money on Beacon and other alternative energy firms in the first place. Picking winning technologies and companies is best left to the private sector, he said. In addition to Solyndra and Beacon Power, he also cited Evergreen Solar, the bankrupt Marlborough solar panel manufacturer that received millions in incentives and other aid from Massachusetts. “One of the big challenges is simply the government’s capacity to make good choices with the money’’ it invests in companies, Poftak said. “Judging from the current run, the government doesn’t seem to be very good at it.’’ [read more...]

Make history part of MCAS requirement
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Jamie Gass — Press date: 2011-11-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Passing a basic U.S. history MCAS test had long been scheduled to become a high school graduation requirement for the class of 2012. But in 2009, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education ditched it. [read more...]

Dukakis to join panel discussion at Wheaton College, Nov. 28
Norton Mirror

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-11-22
Category: Better Government
Description: On Monday, Nov. 28 at 8 p.m., the Roosevelt Institute at Wheaton College will welcome Former Governor Michael Dukakis to join a panel discussion with Professor Jay Goodman and Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute in the May Room of Mary Lyon Hall. They will discuss the merits of various forms of taxation, the emerging role the Occupy movement in the national debate, and their views on the role taxation will play in the discourse of the 2012 national elections. With the onset of the Great Recession, and the rise of the Tea Party and Occupy movements, the conversation on tax policy has once again risen to the fore of political debate. These groups have played and will play a significant role in influencing legislators in their decisions on taxes. Already the debates surrounding the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts, and corporate welfare are being shaped by the public climate. It is in this context that the Roosevelt Institute at Wheaton College has the privilege of welcoming such distinguished guests. With 12 years of experience as the Governor of Massachusetts, Dukakis understands the role and weight that tax policy holds in decision-making on the state level as en executive. Dukakis has been a professor of political science at Northeastern since 1991. Poftak represents the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank based in Massachusetts, and has experience in public policy debates on Beacon Hill included tax policy debate. [read more...]

Dukakis to Join Panel Discussion at Wheaton College Nov 28
Norton Mirror

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-11-22
Category: Better Government
Description: On Monday, Nov. 28 at 8 p.m., the Roosevelt Institute at Wheaton College will welcome Former Governor Michael Dukakis to join a panel discussion with Professor Jay Goodman and Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute in the May Room of Mary Lyon Hall. They will discuss the merits of various forms of taxation, the emerging role the Occupy movement in the national debate, and their views on the role taxation will play in the discourse of the 2012 national elections. [read more...]

Beacon Power Follows Solyndra into Bankruptcy
Heartlander

Author(s): Cheryl K. Chumley — Press date: 2011-11-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Beacon Power, a Massachusetts-based company that won praise from renewable power activists and loan guarantees from the federal government, has filed for bankruptcy, potentially leaving taxpayers on the hook for $43 million. “We take a pretty dim view of government getting too deeply involved in private companies and picking winners and losers,” said Steve Poftak, research director for the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute. “When they start to rend away from support at the early stage of development—at the science and research stage—and get into the balance sheets of companies, that’s [crossing the line].” “The public sector is ill-suited to make judgments on technology,” he said. “Frankly, the people who are smart enough to make those kinds of investments just don’t work for the state. They don’t work in government.” [read more...]

Beacon Power follows Solyndra into bankruptcy
Hot Air

Author(s): Ed Morrissey — Press date: 2011-11-18
Category: Better Government
Description: “We take a pretty dim view of government getting too deeply involved in private companies and picking winners and losers,” said Steve Poftak, research director for the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute. “When they start to rend away from support at the early stage of development—at the science and research stage—and get into the balance sheets of companies, that’s [crossing the line].” [read more...]

Casino bill change hurts the ponies, helps local aid
The Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-11-17
Category: Better Government
Description: "It just seems odd to me. Why are we using tax dollars to subsidize the retirement of employees in private industry?" said Steve Poftak of the conservative Pioneer Institute. "To me it's a continuation of what I consider to be a failed economic development approach to benefit selected industries." [read more...]

In Hackville, the poor dears are so sickly
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Dianne Williamson — Press date: 2011-11-17
Category: Better Government
Description: In Worcester, 301 of the city’s 813 retired cops and firefighters are on accidental disability retirement, or ADR. For non-public safety retirees, only 117 of 1,985 are classified as ADR. Get this. At least two firefighters receive ADR as a result of prostate cancer, even though their prostates were removed, because they claim to be incontinent as a result and can no longer perform the duties of a firefighter. Have these people never heard of Depends? What’s next — erectile dysfunction? “When someone is legitimately injured, we should recognize that,” said Steve Poftak, research director of Pioneer Institute, a public policy research group in Boston. “At the same time, when you create a presumption that one of the illnesses that occur in a large number of the population had to be job-related, it might be a step too far.” More like a giant leap. I don’t mean to pick on individual public safety employees who retire on these ludicrous disabilities, because it’s human nature to take advantage of available job perks. The policy is the problem, not the people. And the politicians are too cowardly to stand up to the powerful unions. It’s enough to raise anyone’s blood pressure. When private pensions are uncertain and 401(k)s are tanking, what an insulting farce. [read more...]

UMass staffer used dean's card for self
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2011-11-16
Category: Better Government
Description: f Massachusetts at Dartmouth employee charged hundreds of dollars in unauthorized movies and other personal expenses on the state-issued credit card of former law school dean Robert V. Ward Jr., who resigned last month amid a credit-card flap in which he allegedly charged more than $2,000 in family travel to taxpayer-funded plastic. “This kind of reinforces the sense that this is not a professional operation,” said Charles Chieppo, a senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

State files No Child waiver with US
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Peter Schworm — Press date: 2011-11-15
Category: Education
Description: But critics said the relaxed standards would reduce the urgency around bringing all students up to speed. “This looks like it pushes back the date and halves the expectations,’’ said Jamie Gass, who directs the Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

When it comes to jobs, SouthCoast among the have-nots
Fall River Herald-News

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2011-11-14
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: On its face, recent news that the Massachusetts unemployment rate fell to 7.3 percent is encouraging, especially when compared to the 9.1 percent national rate. But upon closer inspection, the state picture looks anything but rosy. [read more...]

Reforms pivotal for struggling schools
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Peter Schworm — Press date: 2011-11-10
Category: Education
Description: The report also found that the state’s 63 charter schools performed well on this year’s MCAS, with nearly three out of four outpacing the state average in English, and well over half in math. “The evidence continues to be clear that charter schools are the gold standard, especially for low-income and minority students,’’ said Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, which supports lifting the cap on charter school enrollment. [read more...]

Consumer Driven Health Care Remains Popular Despite Obamacare Assault
Heartlander

Author(s): Loren Heal — Press date: 2011-11-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Consumer driven health plans, which allow individuals to discover the best health services at the lowest cost through health savings accounts and flexible spending accounts, are increasingly popular even though President Obama’s health care law creates disincentives for their use... Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research in Boston, Massachusetts, says the popularity of the plans stems from consumers wanting more control over their health care dollars. “[O]nce an employee understands that their health insurance is just another form of compensation, they want more control how their health care dollars are spent, so they can save money if they are wise consumers,” Archambault said. [read more...]

Redistricting won't bring flood of GOP challengers
MetroWest Daily

Author(s): Krista Kano — Press date: 2011-11-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Although the shakeup brought by the downsizing of Massachusetts congressional districts might be seen as a window of opportunity, many potential Republican candidates have decided to sit out the 2012 election, while another says it is too early to say. Dan Haley, who ran against state Rep. Carolyn Dykema, D-Holliston, in 2008, will be staying at the McDermott Will and Emery LLP law firm, while Mary Z. Connaughton of Framingham, who ran unsuccessfully against Democrat Suzanne Bump for the state auditor's office, will continue at the Pioneer Institute, a public policy research firm, as a certified public auditor. "I saw that the new maps came out and saw that it certainly mixes the pot a bit," Connaughton said yesterday. "When the pot is mixed there are more opportunities, but no, I won't be running. I haven't even thought about it." [read more...]

Teachers "double-dipping"
FOX 25 Morning News

Author(s): Gene Lavanchy — Press date: 2011-11-08
Category: Better Government
Description: (FOX 25 / MyFoxBoston.com) - Mike Beaudet discovered retired teachers are able to collect their pension, and then return to work--keeping the pension while also earning a salary. Its the very definition of a double dip. From the non-partisan, independent public policy research organization the Pioneer Institute is it's Director of Research Steve Poftak, who stopped by FOX 25 this morning to talk more on the subject. [read more...]

Double-dipping educators
WFXT 25 Boston

Author(s): Mike Beaudet — Press date: 2011-11-07
Category: Better Government
Description: "What you have here is people taking advantage of a flaw or a loop hole in the system which allows them to continue doing the type of work they have been doing their entire career and collect retirement, which doesn’t make sense to most folks," said Steve Poftak with the Pioneer Institute. But it does make sense to the state, which can waive the cap on what a public retiree can normally earn in public sector work. The Mass. Department of Elementary and Secondary Education grants "critical need waiver" when they agree with school districts that a retiree is the only person they can find to fill a position. A FOX Undercover investigation has found those waivers can be highly lucrative, especially for retirees like superintendents whose high salaries led to six-figure pensions. Being rehired at another six-figure job like interim superintendents can give these working retirees taxpayer-based incomes of nearly $300,000 in some cases. "When you have superintendents retiring who are making anywhere from $150,000 to $200,000, you are talking much larger pensions. Therefore when they get hired back, if there’s a critical shortage declared, they are making a tremendous amount of money," Poftak said. [read more...]

New Yorkers get taste of property tax cap
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-11-06
Category: Better Government
Description: The cap "forces you to confront spending problems rather than taxing your way out of them," said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank in Boston. [read more...]

METCO
Nightside with Dan Rea - WBZ

Author(s): Jamiue Gass, Susan Eaton, Katani Sumner — Press date: 2011-11-02
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON (CBS) – Closing the achievement gaps in our schools has been a challenge for decades, but a task that most would call well worth the effort. METCO is one of the programs that focuses on promoting diversity and educational opportunity via school choice. Jamie Gass, of Pioneer Institute; Katani Sumner, a METCO Counselor in Newton; and Susan Eaton, Research Director at Harvard Law School’s Houston Institute on Race, join Dan to talk about the METCO program. They say METCO should expand and receive even more state resources, despite the tough fiscal times. [read more...]

Pol Gets Action!
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Gary J. Remal — Press date: 2011-10-29
Category: Better Government
Description: “It is sad that Rep. Lyons was forced to hold up business on Beacon Hill to get basic information that should be part of the yearly budget process,” said Joshua Archambault, director of health-care policy at the conservative Pioneer Institute in Boston. “This issue deserves further investigation. Simply put, the administration has failed to set up robust program integrity features, many of which were part of the health-care reform law passed five years ago,” Archambault said. [read more...]

Northboro Tea Party to analyze health care
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-10-29
Category: Better Government
Description: Mr. Archambault will present the Pioneer Institute’s research findings of the Massachusetts health care reform law, and will also examine the impact of the reform on small businesses, and the limits of extrapolating lessons from the Massachusetts experiment to the national scene. [read more...]

Lesson in tax relief
Albany Times-Union

Author(s): RICK KARLIN — Press date: 2011-10-29
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts localities have also innovated in order to save costs, according to Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank in Massachusetts. The cap "forces you to confront spending problems rather than taxing your way out of them," he said. [read more...]

Charter wins won’t end war
Boston Herlad

Author(s): Jim Stergios and Charlie Chieppo — Press date: 2011-10-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Compared to the school districts they come from, between 11 and 13 percent more charter students scored proficient or advanced on English, math and science MCAS tests. Fifteen charter schools, including four in Boston, ranked first in the entire state on one or more tests. The differences are especially stark among poorer students. Low-income charter school students outscored their district counterparts by more than 15 points on all three tests. With MCAS graded on a 200 to 280 scale, that 15-point difference is significant. Still, the Massachusetts Association of School Committees (MASC), which purports to represent school committees across the state, continues to organize opposition to the charter schools that are serving students so well [read more...]

Ward 4 has lone School Committee race
Salem News

Author(s): Paul Leighton — Press date: 2011-10-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Gendre pointed to ratings by the Pioneer Institute's MassReportCards that give Beverly an A-minus for the high school but B-minuses for the elementary schools and the middle school. He said the schools should consider an administrative reorganization to provide more leadership in each of the core disciplines. [read more...]

Grossman plugs small banks into state deposits - Meetinghouse Bank taps in
Dorchester Reporter

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2011-10-27
Category: Better Government
Description: The individual loans’ terms and conditions are set by banks and not subject to a Treasury review, according to the treasurer’s office. Grossman said he is also working to get a checkbook outlining state spending online by early December. He acknowledged that information of where taxpayer dollars go is already available on the websites of the Boston Herald and the Pioneer Institute, a local think tank. “This is a far more comprehensive approach to getting that information and getting it to people in a way that they could use it,” Grossman said. “Sometimes you put information out there and it is so complicated, so turgid, so user-unfriendly that people can’t use it. And our goal… is to put it up in a way that is very much user-friendly.” His office looked at other states, including Florida, Texas and Alabama, he said. What will go up, likely on the first week in December, will be a “solid first effort,” with updates to come later. [read more...]

Radio Boston Digs Into Health Reform As Public Says ‘Let’s Give It A Shot’
Commonhealth WBUR

Author(s): Carey Goldberg — Press date: 2011-10-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Radio Boston performed a courageous civic service yesterday: It ventured into the numerical weeds of health reform — discussing the new Massachusetts public opinion poll that Martha Bebinger covered here on CommonHealth — and it actually turned a discussion of health policy into riveting radio. The segment included pollster and Harvard professor Bob Blendon; Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute; and Brian Rosman, director of research at Health Care For All. It’s a meaty debate that carefully avoids descending into what Brian calls “Wonkland,” and worth a listen. Already, it prompted this striking comment to host Meghna Chakrabarti from “KatyinQuincy” on Radio Boston’s Webpage: [read more...]

Romney Didn’t OK New Benefits for Illegal Immigrants
FactCheck.org

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-10-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Amy Lischko, an associate professor of public health and community medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, was commissioner of the DHCFP during the Romney administration. She also confirmed, via email, that there’s no difference between the Uncompensated Care Pool and the Health Safety Net concerning illegal immigrants. “Several changes were made to the Health Safety Net beginning in 2008,” she says. But not as it relates to immigrants. Changes were made to the payment system — the new one is “based on Medicare principles” and does away with the old “block grant” payments to hospitals — and, as Iselin mentioned, “new program integrity features were added to ensure that people were enrolled into the coverage they were eligible for before they were permitted to use the Health Safety Net,” says Lischko, who is also a senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, a think tank in Massachusetts. [read more...]

More accountability needed for educational collaboratives
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Stephen J. Theall and Joanne Haley Sulli — Press date: 2011-10-25
Category: Better Government
Description: The potential for additional savings is even greater. According to a 2005 Pioneer Institute study, if additional Chapter 70 appropriations were leveraged through collaboratives for cost-sharing activities, the potential savings could top $200 million per year. [read more...]

Poll: 75 Percent Of Public Wants Gov’t Action On Health Costs
WBUR RadioBoston

Author(s): Jessica Alpert , Meghna Chakrabarti and — Press date: 2011-10-25
Category: Better Government
Description: In our weekly CommonHealth segment, we look at a new study which shows most Massachusetts residents, regardless of party affiliation, advocate for state government intervention to help bring skyrocketing health care costs down. Guests: Bob Blendon, Professor of Health Policy and Political Analysis, Harvard School of Public Health; director of poll Joshua Archambault, Director of Health Care Policy, Pioneer Institute Brian Rosman, Director of Research, Health Care For All [read more...]

Money for ‘nothing’
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2011-10-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute said the state should consider a pro-rated system instead of current regulations that determine the classification of an employee’s pension based on the job they held upon retirement. A Group 4 pension, for example — typically reserved for public-safety officials and others performing high-risk jobs — is considered more advantageous than a Group 1, reserved largely for administrative jobs. “Within the kinds of topsy-turvy rules we have right now in the pension system, he may be technically in compliance, so it doesn’t surprise me they ruled in his favor,” Poftak said. [read more...]

Economists, Business Leaders Don’t Expect Recovery Soon
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Brandon Butler — Press date: 2011-10-24
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based think tank, has written in the past about how a 1993 law referred to as the Pacheco Law makes such privatization partnerships difficult, however. Specifically, the law requires cost comparisons between the public and private projects, mandated wage and benefit levels for the private bidder, and they open the projects up for review by the state auditor’s office. These factors, the institute argues, have limited privatization of public services in Massachusetts. [read more...]

Curb federal overreach
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Joseph M. Giglio — Press date: 2011-10-21
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts offers an example of the dangers of federal overreach. Bay State students are the best-performing in the nation and the commonwealth is thought to have the country’s best academic standards. When each subsequent draft of the national standards was released, Pioneer Institute (on whose board I serve) commissioned peer reviewed comparative studies by eminent national scholars. Each found that the national standards didn’t measure up to what Massachusetts has. Nonetheless, the state Board of Education still voted unanimously to adopt them last year without any legislative consideration of the proposal. [read more...]

Brownsberger Launches State Senate Campaign
Belmont Patch

Author(s): Franklin Tucker — Press date: 2011-10-21
Category: Better Government
Description: "I want you to vote for me because I'm going to work for you," said the candidate, adding that "I'm someone who gets things done," including work such as state-wide pension reform which he was recognized with a national award this year by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

A cloudy economic forecast at South Shore Chamber forum
Brockton Enterprise

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-10-14
Category: Better Government
Description: At the South Shore Chamber of Commerce members meeting Thursday morning October 13, 2011, economists Michael Goodman of Umass Dartmouth and Steve Poftak of Pioneer Institute talked about the economic outlook for the state. [read more...]

Local experts look to future of economy, find uncertainty
The Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Alex Spanko — Press date: 2011-10-13
Category: Better Government
Description: RANDOLPH — Speaking at an event organized by the South Shore Chamber of Commerce, local experts looked into the future of the Massachusetts economy on Thursday – and found that a lot of uncertainty still remains. Steve Poftak, director of research at the Pioneer Institute, used his time at the podium to present economic research compiled by the conservative Boston think tank, including statistics indicating that Massachusetts has frequently lagged behind other states in creating jobs after recessions. He also questioned the state’s decision to reward certain industries, including film and the life sciences, with tax credits, even though they only make up a small percentage of the total Massachusetts economy. [read more...]

Unions issue for rep
Attleboro Sun Chronicle

Author(s): ADAM TAMBURIN — Press date: 2011-10-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Winslow presented the bill to the Committee on Public Service last Tuesday. No one else spoke on the bill, but Winslow did submit a supportive written testimony from the Pioneer Institute. Winslow asked the committee to "let the people decide" if limiting collective bargaining is appropriate. After the hearing, Winslow said it could take months for a ruling from the committee. Local union officials take issue with Winslow's bill, which they say is anti-union. [read more...]

Horse Bigs Jockeying for Benefits
Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2011-10-08
Category: Better Government
Description: The gaming bill has been slammed as a giveaway to the politically wired horse race industry, which would get 9 percent of slot parlor revenue, with most of it paying for thoroughbred-breeding programs and fatter purses for races. But overlooked in the same bill are provisions siphoning off an estimated $400,000 in slot money for pension and health-care benefits for horse owners, trainers and jockeys. “To me, it seems a little bit illogical,” said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank. “Not that they aren’t good people, but why do they deserve a government subsidy when other industries don’t qualify? ... It’s highly unusual.” [read more...]

Recession A Major Factor In Shift To Public Health Insurance
WBUR

Author(s): Martha Bebinger — Press date: 2011-10-03
Category: Better Government
Description: “The trend is certainly alarming and one state policy makers should take a closer look at,” said Josh Archambault, the director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute. “We need to have a serious conversation about how we deliver our public insurance, because it means less money for education and less money for public safety. It’s going all into MassHealth at this point.” [read more...]

Recession A Major Factor In Shift To Public Health Insurance
90.9 WBUR

Author(s): Martha Bebinger — Press date: 2011-10-03
Category: Better Government
Description: “The trend is certainly alarming and one state policymakers should take a closer look at,” said Josh Archambault, the director of health care policy at the Pioneer Institute. “We need to have a serious conversation about how we deliver our public insurance, because it means less money for education and less money for public safety. It’s going all into MassHealth at this point.” [read more...]

Can the state rein in MassHealth?
Milford Daily News

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2011-10-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Joshua Archambault, health care policy director at the conservative Pioneer Institute, said the state should try more creative ideas, such as looking to Rhode Island's 2009 overhaul of its Medicaid system for pointers. "There will probably be some savings," Archambault said of the state's current plans. "But the amount they are projecting, I think, is unrealistic." [read more...]

Gov’s $1B biotech initiative yields good results so far
Boston Herald

Author(s): Donna Goodison — Press date: 2011-10-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Almost three years into Gov. Deval Patrick’s 10-year, $1 billion life sciences initiative, the quasi-public agency administering the program says the state has seen a 3-to-1 investment return in addition to nearly 2,000 new permanent and building trade jobs. But the Pioneer Institute in Boston, also an early critic of the program for its narrow focus on life sciences, acknowledged that if it’s to succeed, it needs funding predictability. “People shy away from making decisions to expand here because they don’t know if what they were promised last year is going to be around this year,” research director Steve Poftak said. [read more...]

Mass. to seek ‘No Child’ waiver
The Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2011-09-27
Category: Education
Description: But some education advocates, particularly those with ties to the business community, warned that a waiver would represent a step backward from the state’s long tradition of rigorous academic standards and holding schools accountable for student achievement. “There’s a general feeling that Massachusetts is backsliding,’’ said Jamie Gass, director for the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research, a conservative-leaning think tank in Boston. “I think one of the noble aspirations of No Child Left Behind was setting an ambitious goal for 2014. . . . Whether it’s children or adults, people tend to try to meet the level of expectation put before them.’’ [read more...]

Mass. Welfare Money Spent on Resorts, Nail Salons
WCVB TV Boston

Author(s): Sean Kelly/Team 5 Investigates — Press date: 2011-09-21
Category: Better Government
Description: A Team 5 Investigation found more than $2.3 million in Massachusetts welfare money, meant to help the needy buy food, pay their rent and clothe their children, has been spent in locations outside the state in a three-month period, including pricey vacation destinations like Hawaii, Las Vegas, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. In July, lawmakers signed off on a plan to stop welfare recipients from buying alcohol, tobacco and lottery tickets with cash assistance. But critics told Team 5 the state’s so-called crackdown doesn’t go far enough. “People want to help people who are in need; that’s the way we’re built in Massachusetts. But by the same token you don’t want to be taken to the cleaners,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute. Other eyebrow- raising expenses include hundreds of dollars at a time dropped at doughnut shops, and trips to the amusement arcade Dave and Busters. “That’s absolutely wrong. That’s not a necessity. I mean, these programs are to give a hand up. A hand up means food, clothing, staples of life,” said Stergios. “They have to start auditing this in a very serious way because these are our tax dollars,” said Stergios. [read more...]

Healthy Reform Needed
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial Board — Press date: 2011-09-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts may soon adopt some medical malpractice reforms in an effort to rein in health care costs, but will they be anything close to what we need? A new report by the Pioneer Institute suggests that what’s on the table at the moment falls short. A proposal by Gov. Deval Patrick, filed last February, would make an apology from a physician or hospital after a medical error is disclosed inadmissible in a malpractice lawsuit. And studies do indeed suggest that disclosure and an apology prevent many a lawsuit from being filed, which would hold down some costs to the health care system. [read more...]

An Entrepreneurship Problem
MetroWest Daily

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2011-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Today, Massachusetts is doing better than many other states as the nation struggles to emerge from the Great Recession. But the longer-term trend paints a more troubling picture. From 1990 to 2007, the number of jobs increased by about one-quarter nationally. But Massachusetts had the same number of jobs in 2007 - about 3.2 million - as in 1990. Had we grown like the rest of the country, we would currently have nearly 4 million jobs. [read more...]

School choice conference tomorrow in Marlboro
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Jacqueline Reis — Press date: 2011-09-16
Category: Education
Description: Presentations will run from 5:45-9 p.m. and will include speakers Jamie Gass of the Pioneer Institute's Center for School Reform; Kara Brown, director of operations for the Massachusetts Charter Public School Association; Bonnie Ricci, assistant director of Independent Schools in New England; Bill Heuer, director of the Massachusetts Home Learning Association; and Jerry Mintz, director of the New York-based Alternative Education Resource Organization. [read more...]

How much shifting must they do?
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Joan Vennochi — Press date: 2011-09-15
Category: Better Government
Description: n a speech to the conservative Pioneer Institute, delivered in Boston on Romney turf, Perry stuck to his Social Security guns. Every Republican candidate, he said, “knows that the current system is unsustainable, with an unfunded liability in the trillions of dollars.’’ Without naming Romney, he told the crowd “Other candidates. . . have used words like ‘fraud’ and compared it to a ‘criminal enterprise.’ But under the media spotlight, they change their tune and they start sounding like liberals.’’ [read more...]

New Focus on Choice in Schools
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Lisa Kocian — Press date: 2011-09-15
Category: Education
Description: One of the conference’s speakers is Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based education think tank. “School choice has always been something near and dear to our hearts,’’ said Gass. “My main message is that Massachusetts still needs a wide variety of high-quality education options for schoolchildren of all backgrounds,’’ he said. Gass said he will touch on charter schools, the Metco program, and vocational-technical schools, as well as school choice and education tax credits. The state has eased up on its cap on charter schools, but only for areas in the lowest 10 percent in terms of performance. [read more...]

Perry in Hub
WCVB-TV

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON -- A day after they clashed at a GOP presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told conservatives in rival Mitt Romney's home state that their former governor sounds like a liberal. And without naming him directly, Perry said Romney has changed his position on Social Security. [read more...]

Rick Perry's Visit to Massachusetts
The Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Photo gallery [read more...]

People Speaks to 300 People in Boston
WHDH-TV 7 News

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON -- Texas Governor Rick Perry was the guest speaker at an event in Boston on Tuesday night, but did his message win over voters? Early polls show Perry with a 12-point lead over Mitt Romney. Perry says he’s the guy who can fix the economy and create jobs. [read more...]

Perry Hits Romney in Massachusetts
MSNBC

Author(s): Jo Ling Kent — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: In what one of the event hosts jokingly called "campaigning in enemy territory," a jocular Rick Perry took the stage in Mitt Romney's home state of Massachusetts last night with plenty of quips and pushed his Social Security position. The Texas governor also sustained attacks on Romney and President Obama, specifically on his trip to Columbus, Ohio, yesterday. He even had a compliment for former Democratic governor of Texas, Ann Richards. At an awards dinner sponsored by a think tank dedicated to rewarding government innovation, Perry offered an aggressive post-debate rebuttal to Romney on Social Security. [read more...]

Perry Wants Focus Back on Jobs
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hilary Chabot — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Perry was in Boston to speak at a Pioneer Institute event last night celebrating better government. He tried to make amends after several knocks on the deep blue state, calling it the “cradle of liberty.” Perry said, “It’s kind of interesting that someone would take from the book that I don’t like Massachusetts, I do. I try to draw differences and contrasts, and Massachusetts happens to be a very bright contrast between the state of Texas,” said Perry. [read more...]

Perry vs. Obamacare
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the belly of the beast last night. After all, no Republican presidential candidate has won Massachusetts since Ronald Reagan in 1984, so it’s kind of nice he stopped by to keynote the Pioneer Institute dinner anyway. [read more...]

In Bay State, Perry Takes Aim at Romney
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Perry spoke last night at a dinner sponsored by the conservative Pioneer Institute at the Hyatt Regency. [read more...]

Perry Jabs Romney on Social Security
National Review

Author(s): Katrina Trinko — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. — Rick Perry didn’t mention Mitt Romney by name, but in a speech tonight in Romney’s backyard, he took a jab at the former Massachusetts governor for his recent remarks on Social Security. [read more...]

In Boston, Perry Accuses Opponents of “Sounding Like Liberals”
KUT Austin

Author(s): Ben Philpott — Press date: 2011-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Rick Perry fired back at former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, his top GOP opponent, on Romney’s home turf on Tuesday night, speaking at a banquet for the conservative think-tank The Pioneer Institute. Without naming names, Perry — clearly speaking about Romney — said other candidates were flip-flopping on Social Security and “sounding like liberals,” according to audio of the event provided by WBUR Public Radio in Boston. [read more...]

In Romney’s backyard, Perry suggests that the former Mass. governor sounds like a liberal
The Washington Post

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — A day after they clashed at a GOP presidential debate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry told conservatives in rival Mitt Romney’s home state that their former governor sounds like a liberal. And without naming him directly, Perry said Romney has changed his position on Social Security. [read more...]

Perry slams Washington's spending "addiction"
Reuters

Author(s): Ros Krasny — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry said on Tuesday Washington lawmakers need the equivalent of a 12-step addiction-fighting program to break their overspending habit. "Admit you are powerless over your spending addiction and that your budget has become unmanageable. Just admit it," Perry said in a speech to a conservative public policy group in Boston. [read more...]

Perry still smiling after rough-and-tumble debate
CNN

Author(s): Rachel Streitfeld — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Perry was the keynote speaker at the Better Government Competition awards dinner in downtown Boston. The event was hosted by the Pioneer Institute think tank and honored award winners for submitting "budget busting" ideas to make government more efficient. [read more...]

Perry Suggests Romney Sounds Like a Liberal
Salon

Author(s): Steve Peoples, Associated Press — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivers the keynote address at the Pioneer Institute Better Government Competition Awards dinner in Boston, Tuesday night, Sept. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) [read more...]

Perry Suggests Romney Sounds Like a Liberal
Atlanta Journal Constitution

Author(s): STEVE PEOPLES Associated Press — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry delivers the keynote address at the Pioneer Institute Better Government Competition Awards dinner in Boston, Tuesday night, Sept. 13, 2011. (AP Photo/Stephan Savoia) [read more...]

GOP Frontrunner Rick Perry in Boston as Keynote Speaker
NECN

Author(s): Alison King — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: (NECN: Alison King, Boston) - One of the Republican front runners was in Boston Tuesday night. Texas Governor Rick Perry was the keynote speaker at the Pioneer Institute's awards dinner. Political reporter Alison King has more on what the Texas Governor had to say. [read more...]

GOP War Continues
Baylor Lariat

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks Tuesday night at the Pioneer Institute Better Government Competition Awards dinner in Boston. [read more...]

Perry suggests Romney sounds like a liberal
Albany Times Union

Author(s): STEVE PEOPLES, Associated Press — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican presidential candidate Texas Gov. Rick Perry speaks at the Pioneer Institute Better Government Competition Awards dinner in Boston, Tuesday night, Sept. 13, 2011. [read more...]

Perry Speaks in Boston
Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Fresh off a tough debate in which he was pressed on his views on Social Security and a controversial vaccination program of schoolgirls, Governor Rick Perry of Texas arrives tonight in hostile territory: Massachusetts. The tough-talking Texan, who has gleefully skewered the Bay State as a bastion of gay marriage, mandated health care, and liberal politics, will be delivering a speech to the Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Awards dinner at the Hyatt Regency in Boston. The audience of 350 will include supporters of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think thank. But they won’t necessarily be allies of Perry: many are are firmly backing Perry’s rival, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, for the Republican presidential nomination. [read more...]

Question of the Day: What Should Will Brownsberger ask Gov. Rick Perry?
Belmont Patch

Author(s): Franklin Tucker — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Tonight, State Rep. Will Brownsberger will be receiving the prestigious Better Government Competition Award from the Pioneer Institute in Boston for his proposal to simplify Massachusetts’ public pension system. [read more...]

Welcome to Massachusetts, Governor Perry
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Scot Lehigh — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: But enough of the jokes at Texas’s expense. Governor Perry is actually visiting Boston on Tuesday, to speak to the Pioneer Institute’s 20th annual Better Government Competition Awards Dinner. So welcome to Massachusetts, governor. You’ll like your hosts. These guys are conservative enough to be Texans. And they are very smart and do some very good work to boot. My bet is that, if you’re elected, you’ll take some of their ideas to the White House. And who knows, maybe some of them as well. Just don’t forget where they came from, governor. We want ‘em back, old son. [read more...]

Mass. voters are ripe for the picking
Boston Herald

Author(s): Holly Robichaud — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: It should be an interesting showdown when Perry faces off against ex-Bay State Gov. Bill Weld, a deputized member of ex-Gov. Romney’s posse, at the Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Dinner. Do you think Weld will croon about the virtues of Romneycare? Probably not. But I’m sure Perry won’t miss the opportunity to shoot the fish in that barrel, as Minnesota’s former Gov. Tim Pawlenty did during a GOP presidential debate. [read more...]

Texas tough welcome here
Boston Herald

Author(s): Michael Graham — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Welcome to Massachusetts, Rick Perry! You’ll be speaking to the Pioneer Institute in Boston tonight, and I’m looking forward to hearing what you’ll say next. After all, a pol who’ll admit Social Security is a Ponzi scheme while sober will say just about anything. [read more...]

Texas pol storming into town as Democrats go on the offensive
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Awards Dinner has sold out all 350 seats, and media attention has skyrocketed in the past week, said the institute’s director Jim Stergios. [read more...]

Welcome to the Bay State, Governor Rick Perry
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Battenfeld — Press date: 2011-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: I know you hate Massachusetts, Gov. Perry, but now that you’re here, I want to officially welcome you to our awful state. When you’re in Boston, keep in mind this is not Houston or Dallas with its beautiful, vacant office towers, illegal immigrants and downtowns that empty out after 5 p.m. All we have in Boston is really old buildings, confusing streets and thousands of young people who have no jobs. [read more...]

Think tank thinks doctors need help
The Docket: Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly

Author(s): Noah Schaffer — Press date: 2011-09-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Noting that doctors’ insurance premiums have gone up more than 63 percent in the last decade, and that Massachusetts ranks seventh highest in the nation in medical-malpractice claim payments, the Pioneer Institute wants to send Beacon Hill a message: It’s time for tort reform. [read more...]

Rick Perry, no fan of Mass., to visit state on Tuesday
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2011-09-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, the institute’s executive director, and a former undersecretary for environmental policy in the Romney administration, said the invitation to Perry was not intended as a slight to Romney. Indeed, Stergios said, Perry was invited to the event back in February, before he had launched his presidential campaign, and accepted the invitation three weeks later. [read more...]

Pioneer Institute: New study calls for comprehensive tort reform
Cape & Plymouth Business

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-09-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts has seen a rise in the number and average cost of malpractice payouts; and an increase in insurance premiums, up by 63 percent in 2009 since 2001 [read more...]

Mitt Romney’s Job-Creation Record
National Review Online

Author(s): Katrina Trinko — Press date: 2011-09-08
Category: Better Government
Description: “Romney in one term couldn’t turn around that ship here with that kind of legislature,” observes Jim Stergois, who worked in the Romney administration and is now president of a Massachusetts think tank, the Pioneer Institute. Romney made that argument during the debate, pointing out that Texas was a right-to-work state with a Republican legislature and supreme court. “Those are wonderful things, but Governor Perry doesn’t believe that he created those things,” Romney said. “If he tried to say that, well, it would be like Al Gore saying he invented the Internet.” [read more...]

EduJax: Comparisons difficult with FCAT's moving target; Florida's social promotion policy praised
Florida Times-Union

Author(s): Jeff Reece — Press date: 2011-09-06
Category: Education
Description: Meanwhile, Jim Stergios, the director of the Massachusetts think tank Pioneer Institute, see's Florida's social promotion policy as one of the key factors in the state's closing the Hispanic achievement gap over the past six years. ... And Michele Bachmann again states her preference to do away with U.S. Department of Education. [read more...]

State of the unions
New York Post

Author(s): Maureen Callahan — Press date: 2011-09-03
Category: Better Government
Description: “At a certain historical moment, they had a real role to play, but they haven’t added to that,” says Jim Stergios, executive director of nonpartisan think tank the Pioneer Institute. “[They’re more concerned] that they meet their members’ needs at a time when the country is in a really rough spot.” [read more...]

Daily check up: Handwashing, a sympathetic act
Boston Globe

Author(s): Chelsea Conaboy — Press date: 2011-09-02
Category: Better Government
Description: The way of the waiver: Joshua Archambault writes on his blog for the Pioneer Institute that the state’s Medicaid waiver, which allowed Massachusetts to overhaul its health system in 2006, was up for renegotiation in June. That deadline has been pushed back twice, he said, leaving him to wonder what’s happening behind closed doors. [read more...]

What’s Up With The Federal Waiver?
WBUR CommonHealth

Author(s): Rachel Zimmerman — Press date: 2011-09-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Joshua Archambault, Director of Health Care Policy at the local Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research (and a devoted CommonHealth reader) posts an intriguing question on the Institute’s blog today: What’s going on with the federal waiver that allowed Massachusetts to move forward with health reform in 2006? It’s been extended several times, he writes, but is there something happening behind the scenes that we should know about? [read more...]

The only K-12 test results you’ll need
Grand Forks (ND) Herald

Author(s): Tom Dennis — Press date: 2011-08-20
Category: Education
Description: In a recent column, education reformers James Stergios and Lindsay Burke made the case. “In 1993, Massachusetts enacted landmark education reform legislation,” they wrote. “The new law included high academic standards, high-stakes testing for students and teachers, charter public schools and accountability for everyone in the system.” As a result, “in 2005, Bay State students became the first students to finish first in all four categories measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress,” the authors continued. “These tests were administered again in 2007 and 2009. Again, Massachusetts swept every category. “On the whole, American students have fallen behind their international peers. In 2008, however, testing by the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study demonstrated that Massachusetts students were globally competitive, tying for first in the world in eighth-grade science.” Last but not least, “the state?s reforms also narrowed race- and poverty-based achievement gaps,” the authors wrote. “NAEP data show that between 2002 and 2009, scores for African-Americans and Hispanics on both fourth- and eighth-grade English language arts testing improved more rapidly than those of white students.” [read more...]

Two for the (political) Road
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-08-15
Category: Better Government
Description: On the Republican presidential front Texas Gov. Rick Perry let it be known (on the eve of an important Iowa debate) that he’s in. And doesn’t that shake things up a bit! Perry’s state boasts one of the best job creation rates and that allows him to go nicely one-on-one with putative front-runner Mitt Romney. (Locals can get an up close and personal look at Perry, who is scheduled to be the keynoter at a Pioneer Institute dinner Sept. 13.) [read more...]

Mayor takes dim view of open lighthouse
Boston Herald

Author(s): Katy Jordan — Press date: 2011-08-15
Category: Better Government
Description: “The services that they are providing are important to the public and should be maintained, but the city should make every effort to make sure that citizens have some access as well,” said Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute. “Closing it off to the public entirely seems unreasonable.” Bruce Berman of Save the Harbor/Save the Bay also said he’d “absolutely” like to see public access. Stergios added that since the island is owned by the city — and supported by city taxpayers — keeping it private is off the mark. [read more...]

Taking a Risk: ‘We're not creating new companies fast enough'
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2011-08-14
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The Pioneer Institute in Boston released a report recently that arrived at a troubling conclusion: Massachusetts has an entrepreneurship problem. “We're not creating new companies at a fast enough clip,” said Steve Poftak, the institute's research director. That's bad news because the report also found that startup companies are key to job creation. In the years following a recession, young firms are more likely than older ones to hire employees. [read more...]

Overruns add millions to cost of state road projects
Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Beverly Ford, NE Center for Investigativ — Press date: 2011-08-14
Category: Better Government
Description: "It's always a challenge to foresee all the potential circumstances and get it in the bid document," said Steven Poftak, research director at the Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts-based public policy research center. "But I think we can be more innovative in the way we contract to encourage contractors to be more innovative in the way they work. We also just need to be more demanding." Nearly half of all road and bridge projects in the state are over budget and more than one-third are not completed on time, an investigation by the New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) has found. The completion delays result in contract extensions that put thousands of extra work days on the state's construction calendar and millions of dollars in contractors' pockets. [read more...]

Testing Times
The Economist

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-08-13
Category: Education
Description: The White House sees the waivers as merely being a bridge to congressional action. But John Kline, the chairman of the House education committee, is worried that they may instead undermine his committee’s efforts to rewrite the original bill. Jamie Gass of the Centre for School Reform at Boston’s Pioneer Institute concedes that Mr Duncan has the power to grant waivers from NCLB, but reckons that he cannot tie the waivers to conditions that have not yet been sanctioned by Congress. [read more...]

Towns eye outsourcing to save cash
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): David Riley — Press date: 2011-08-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer intended the report as a practical guide for municipal officials who are interested in outsourcing, but unsure where to start, said Josh Archambault, program manager for the research group's Middle Cities Initiative. “There's an appetite for it, given the economy,” he said. Many towns and cities already outsource or share certain services, but tight fiscal times are prompting some to take a closer look at their options, said Geoff Beckwith, executive director of the Massachusetts Municipal Association. “I think the report provides a good overview of the issues at play and opportunities, but recognizing that the opportunities will differ from community to community,” he said. [read more...]

Mass. start-up creation slows
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Priyanka Dayal — Press date: 2011-08-04
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Start-up companies are one of the keys to job creation after a recession, according to a new report from the Boston-based Pioneer Institute. But in Massachusetts, the rate of start-up creation has declined, the report found. And the startup firms that have formed after the last two recessions tended to employ fewer people than in the past. “Over the last 20 years, young firms have been the engines for economic recovery in Massachusetts,” the report’s author, Northeastern University professor John Friar, said in a news release. “The fact that fewer young firms have been founded and those that have started tend to be smaller could slow recovery from the most recent recession.” [read more...]

Start-ip firms played key role in Massachusetts' previous economic recoveries
Mass. Market

Author(s): Jon Chesto — Press date: 2011-08-04
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: We’ve always known that small businesses tend to drive economic growth out of a recession. But a new report out of The Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank in Boston, shows just how important smaller companies can be to an economic recovery. [read more...]

Six Ways To Look At How NH Does — And Doesn’t — Attract Economic Development
New Hampshire NPR StateImpact

Author(s): Amanda Loder — Press date: 2011-08-04
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Yes, Massachusetts is losing more businesses to New Hampshire than to any other state, but it’s not as bad as you might think. A study by the Massachusetts-based Pioneer Institute think tank found that over 17 years, nearly 1,500 of the state’s businesses moved to New Hampshire. And when you count all the businesses leaving Massachusetts for other states, it averages out to more than one business leaving the state every day…for 17 years. But Pioneer Research Director Steve Poftak says in reality, those numbers are very small, “When you look at the overall numbers, in any given year in Massachusetts, 600 thousand jobs, 17 percent of the total jobs in the state, are created or destroyed. In the worst year firms [leaving] the state only accounted for 2 percent of that.” In other words, New Hampshire’s competitive economic policies aren’t triggering a Mass migration of businesses to the Granite State. [read more...]

Education to Produce Technology Consumers Instead of Technology Creators
Monolith IC3D

Author(s): Ze'ev Wurman — Press date: 2011-08-04
Category: Education
Description: Picture We have a guest contribution today from Ze'ev Wurman, the Chief Software Architect of MonolithIC 3D Inc. In this blog-post, Ze'ev discusses some industry implications of recent events relating to science education. Ze'ev has participated in developing California’s education standards and assessments in mathematics since the mid-1990s. Between 2007 and 2009, he served as a senior policy adviser at the U.S. Department of Education. Throughout their development Wurman analyzed the Common Core mathematics standards drafts for the Pioneer Institute. In the summer of 2010 he served on the California Academic Content Standards Commission that reviewed the adoption of Common Core for California. Wurman earned his BSEE and MSEE degrees from the Technion in Israel, and he is a recipient of the Eliyahu Golomb Israel Security Award. [read more...]

Presidential Hopefuls: Mitt Romney
National Catholic Register

Author(s): CHARLOTTE HAYS — Press date: 2011-08-03
Category: Better Government
Description: “Facing what was projected to be a near impossible budget deficit when he came into office,” Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a public-policy research organization in Massachusetts, said, “Romney never raised taxes. Everybody gives him kudos for that.” [read more...]

Public education - gov't not keen on flexibility
One News Now

Author(s): Bob Kellogg — Press date: 2011-08-02
Category: Education
Description: The Heritage Foundation recently hosted a forum to examine the federal government's overreach into the public school system with its "Common Core State Standards" initiative. Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott, a keynote speaker at the event, says Washington has no authority to control state education programs. "There is a statutory prohibition against the Department of Ed. developing, adopting, endorsing, or scrutinizing state curricula or local curricula," he reports. "How do they do this, then? Well, they're doing it under the stimulus act; they're not doing it under 'No Child Left Behind.'" Scott and others at the forum said state education leaders need flexibility to spend funds and adopt policies that best meet their individual needs. But as Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research points out, that is not the case. "Somehow, the federal government thinks that all the energy, all the smarts reside in Washington. And I think that the proof is in the pudding that that's actually not the case," he notes. "We certainly can do better at the state level, but [there has] been enormous progress over the past two decades." Scott adds that for Texas to adopt the Common Core Values that Washington is pushing, it would have cost $3 billion dollars to revamp the current program. [read more...]

Letter: Schools are for students, not employers
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Robert Holland, Heartland Institute — Press date: 2011-07-31
Category: Education
Description: Your guest columnists from the Pioneer Institute make a point that relatively few parents may realize — namely, that the drive by the Obama administration and allies like the Gates Foundation to bring all states under one-size-fits-all nationalized education standards and tests isn't something that just sprang from a recent state-level coalition or the federal incentive fund called Race to the Top. ("Education as work force development falls short," July 28.) Indeed, it is all a revival of failed efforts during the Clinton administration to institute national K-12 standards and testing geared to yoking all schools to the cause of work force preparation. The movement had a name — School-to-Work — and a well-funded operation by that name within the U.S. Department of Education. The battle comes down to whether the primary purpose of education should be to develop well-rounded individuals able to think for themselves or well-socialized worker bees proficient at functioning in groups. And it is also about choices. Who should decide the model of schooling most appropriate for an individual child — the family or an education-industrial complex funded by the feds and foundation swells? [read more...]

Massachusetts Uncompensated Care Pool Abused by Hospitals
Heartland Health Care News

Author(s): Loren Heal — Press date: 2011-07-29
Category: Better Government
Description: According to Joshua Archambault, program manager for health care at the Pioneer Institute, a Massachusetts-based think tank, the uncompensated care pool was ripe for abuse. “When the 2006 Massachusetts health care reform law was being debated, the Romney administration looked at the situation and said of the uncompensated care pool that it is not only an ineffective and not a transparent way of providing health care to folks who are uninsured, but there are all sorts of questions about how you go about getting reimbursed,” Archambault said. The problem was that Massachusetts, Archambault claims, fell down on oversight of the pool. “Part of the legislation was a requirement for a state agency to set up a way to verify people that were getting care under the uncompensated care pool, to verify whether they were insured or not, to verify whether they deserved to get free care,” Archambault said. Tracking the status of patients proved too difficult and costly, Archambault said. “The state agency started that process, said it was too hard, and stopped,” said Archambault. “So there is no verification process right now, and as a result it is an easy way for some hospitals to take advantage of it. They don’t ask any questions, they basically just say, ‘We’re getting under-reimbursed by Medicaid, we don’t have as many folks on private insurance to cost-shift onto like other hospitals, so this is one way for us to get some money back.’” Archambault says the temptation to cheat is still in place. “The uncompensated care pool is about $400 million annually still. It was never supposed to be that high, at this level, five years out. It was supposed to be much, much smaller,” Archambault said. “It was only supposed to be for folks that didn’t have insurance. Maybe they were here visiting from out of state and they didn’t have insurance and there was no way to collect from them, so the hospital would have access to the uncompensated care pool.” [read more...]

A Pink Flamingo on Every Lawn
Campus Progress

Author(s): Kelley Antoniazzi — Press date: 2011-07-29
Category: Education
Description: Wednesday, the conservative Heritage Foundation co-hosted an event with the pro-market Pioneer Institute called, “National Standards and Tests: An Unprecedented Federal Overreach.” Moderator Jim Stergios, executive director of The Pioneer Institute, noted that, in 2006-2007, Connecticut, District of Columbia and three other states came to Massachusetts to study its standards. [read more...]

National Standards and Tests: An Unprecedented Federal Overreach
Educationviews.org

Author(s): Staff Reporter — Press date: 2011-07-28
Category: Education
Description: Co-hosted by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research For nearly five decades, Washington’s role in education has been growing at a tremendous pace, wresting educational authority away from states and local school districts. At the same time, educational achievement has remained flat. Now, the Obama Administration wants to double-down on this failed strategy and is pushing states to adopt national standards and tests to define and measure what every public school child in American should know. [read more...]

Governor Branstad, Don’t Repeat The Bay State’s Mistake
DeMoines Register

Author(s): Shane Vander Hart — Press date: 2011-07-28
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts took a model of educational reform and success and chucked it to adopt the common core state standards. No legislative vote. Jim Stergios of The Pioneer Institute and Lindsey Burke at The Heritage Foundation write a cautionary tale in an op/ed at The Daily Caller. [read more...]

Lesson in Pensions
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-07-26
Category: Education
Description: And that makes the latest account of outsized pensions all the more troubling. As yesterday’s Herald reported, the number of retired public school employees collecting six-figure pensions has more than doubled in just four years. Records indicate 140 educators — most of them administrators — are living on pensions of $100,000 or more, up from 93 in 2009 and 55 in 2007. “They need to act fast,” said Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute, which has studied the pension funding problem. “This is something that’s not going away, and it’s going to eat up other services we’re trying to afford. [read more...]

Educators' Pensions Skyrocket
Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2011-07-25
Category: Better Government
Description: The June 30 figures from the Massachusetts Teachers Retirement System also showed educators’ pensions last fiscal year totaled $2.1 billion, up $300 million in two years. Critics point to the state’s generous formula that gives public retirees 80 percent of their three highest consecutive earning years. They warn the state is putting off the day of reckoning. “They need to act fast,” said Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute. “This is something that’s not going away, and it’s going to eat up other services we’re trying to afford” [read more...]

Treasurer says patronage hires at liquor agency to get ‘fair shot’
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2011-07-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Despite the patronage defense, the MCAD ruled against the liquor agency, which ended up settling the case in 2009 for $324,000, including legal fees. It was one of three major employment cases the liquor control agency has resolved over the past two years at a cost of $1.7 million, nearly equal to the agency’s $2 million annual budget. State government watchdogs and employment attorneys said they couldn’t think of other examples in which a government agency in Massachusetts admitted to patronage hiring to fight a discrimination complaint or lawsuit. “That is an extraordinary admission,’’ said Steve Poftak, research director at the Pioneer Institute, a Boston nonprofit research institute that tracks state government. “It feels like the Probation Department on a smaller scale.’’ [read more...]

Keep MCAS out of history class
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Bill Schechter — Press date: 2011-07-14
Category: Education
Description: Some of the most vociferous proponents of yet another MCAS test have an underlying agenda and motive, which was subtly expressed in their opinion pieces. They favor an MCAS solution to the “history crisis” because they hope test-enforced state frameworks will give them an opportunity to shape and even determine what students will learn about the past. Among these advocates are the Pioneer Institute and other conservatives who don’t much like how they claim history is taught. They prefer to look at the past through their ideological lens. [read more...]

Tough Calculus as Technical Schools Face Deep Cuts
New York Times

Author(s): MOTOKO RICH — Press date: 2011-07-10
Category: Education
Description: In an analysis of testing data from Massachusetts, Alison L. Fraser, author of the Pioneer Institute study of 27 regional vocational and technical education high schools in the state, found that vocational students vastly improved their passing rates on English and math standardized tests between 2001 and 2007, a period in which the schools focused on integrating academic instruction into technical classes. In fact, by 2007, the vocational students were actually passing at higher rates than students in the rest of the state. This article appeared in print on July 10, 2011, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Tough Budget Calculus as Technical Schools Face Deep Cuts. [read more...]

Romney's jobs record a little shaky
Los Angeles Times

Author(s): Tom Hamburger — Press date: 2011-07-10
Category: Better Government
Description: "I give him very high grades for budget leadership and for [bureaucratic] reform," said Jim Stergios, who worked in the Romney administration and now directs the Pioneer Institute, a free-market think tank in Boston. "But I give him lower grades for job creation and for changing the state's overall business climate, a problem that would take two consecutive gubernatorial terms to accomplish." [read more...]

A clear success, Metco deserves more support from Beacon Hill
Boston Globe

Author(s): Boston Globe Editorial — Press date: 2011-07-07
Category: Education
Description: Studies have long proven the educational benefits of Metco to the students it serves, including the new report by the Pioneer Institute and Harvard Law School’s Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice. It found that 93 percent of Metco students graduated on time, compared with 81.5 percent of students statewide and 61 percent in Boston and Springfield. Earlier reports found that nine of 10 Metco graduates go on to higher education, compared to two-thirds of Boston Public Schools graduates. [read more...]

Clothing For State Workers Costs Taxpayers $44M
WCVB-TV

Author(s): NewsCenter 5 — Press date: 2011-07-07
Category: Better Government
Description: “In many cases, individuals, just as in the private sector could be expected to provide proper clothing for their workplace,” said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Transparency missing from government
CommonWealth magazine

Author(s): Michael Morisy — Press date: 2011-07-06
Category: Better Government
Description: The information being sought by MuckRock isn’t part of a fishing expedition, nor is it likely to turn up any “smoking guns” that result in a string of public firings, reforms, or political grandstanding. It is, generally speaking, simply asking to see the details of how taxpayer money is spent, particularly when there is an indication that the money is being wasted with little oversight (in the case of Evergreen Solar) or of very broad public importance (in the case of health care reform). It’s exactly the kind of necessary, wonky material that is receiving less scrutiny in the media as news organizations work to untangle their own revenue issues. But rather than embracing the idea of an eager volunteer pool of citizen auditors, overseers, and strategists, the state of Massa­­chu­setts seems determined to keep the doors of policy and power as closed as possible, despite the repeated costs incurred to both the state’s coffers and the electorate’s trust. Both are in perilously short supply these days. [read more...]

The dumbing down effect
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Robert Z. Nemeth — Press date: 2011-07-04
Category: Education
Description: “We believe the Department of Education is following a national pattern by diminishing the importance of America’s governmental workings and rich civic legacy in order to prepare students for vague skills like global awareness that get more suspect by the day,” Jamie Gass, director of the Pioneer Institute’s Center for School Reform, wrote in a recent newspaper article. [read more...]

The Many Mitts
World Magazine

Author(s): Jamie Dean — Press date: 2011-07-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, who directed Romney's office of environmental affairs, now leads the conservative Pioneer Institute in Boston. Stergios says the private research organization applauded Romney's narrowing the state's budget shortfall while preventing a broad-based tax increase. [read more...]

INSTITUTE OFFICIAL CLAIMS BUDGET BUILT ON MEDICAID SAVINGS “MIRAGE”
State House News Service

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-07-01
Category: Better Government
Description: One of the key assumptions underlying the $30.6 billion fiscal 2012 budget hurtling towards Gov. Deval Patrick’s desk Friday is coming under fire from a public policy think tank. Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the right‐leaning Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research, on Friday called plans to realize big savings in the MassHealth or Medicaid program this fiscal year “unrealistic” given past spending trends. [read more...]

Legislature sends $30.6 billion budget to Governor Patrick
Brockton Enterprise

Author(s): Michael Norton and Matt Murphy (SHNS) — Press date: 2011-07-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Saying the budget was built on a Medicaid savings “mirage,” Joshua Archambault, director of health care policy at the right-leaning Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research, called plans to realize big savings in the MassHealth or Medicaid program this fiscal year “unrealistic” given past spending trends. “If the state is unable to achieve these “savings” and instead follows historic spending trends, it could be looking at a $900 million gap, just for MassHealth,” Archambault said in a web post. “For years, Medicaid costs have advanced robustly, at roughly 7% per year which is a big number given that it’s building on a base of billions.” Archambault said the Legislature is pinning its budget-balancing hopes on reducing per-enrollee Medicaid costs by 3.5 percent in fiscal 2012. “How have we done at that recently? On average, per enroll costs have gone up by 5% per year and it has never been negative over the past seven years,” he said. He added that provider reimbursement rate reductions would likely make it more difficult for Medicaid enrollees to find doctors willing to take their insurance. [read more...]

Operation empire: Quincy hospital latest on for-profit Steward’s shopping list
Boston Herald

Author(s): Donna Goodison — Press date: 2011-06-30
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Joshua Archambault, director of health-care policy at the Pioneer Institute, , sees no reason for concern about Steward’s rapid buying spree to date. “They’ve been through the full legal vetting process to get approval,” he said. “They certainly are shaking up the market.” [read more...]

MCAS becomes test for teachers
CommonWealth magazine

Author(s): Michael Jonas — Press date: 2011-06-28
Category: Better Government
Description: Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, said he would have favored making 75 or 80 percent of the evaluation based on MCAS results. “It’s wandered pretty far afield from a laser-like focus on academics,” he said of the evaluation regulations. [read more...]

Mass observation
The Economist

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-06-23
Category: Better Government
Description: Costs, meanwhile, are unsustainable. Spending on MassHealth, the programme for the poor, rose 40% between 2006 and 2010. The subsidised health programme for adults was more expensive than expected—$628m in 2008 and $805m in 2009, 32% and 11% above projections respectively. This was offset in part by falling costs for a smaller cohort of uninsured, who tend to turn up for treatment at emergency rooms from which they cannot, by law, be turned away: the figure dropped from $652 billion in 2006 to $414m in 2009. But the decline was less dramatic than many hoped, says Amy Lischko, a professor at Tufts University who helped write the law. And demand from the uninsured now seems to be rising. Last year the number of uninsured hospital visits reached 800,000, 14% above the level in 2009. [read more...]

Metco students on 'positive track'
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Laura Nelson — Press date: 2011-06-16
Category: Education
Description: Public school students who commute from urban areas to the suburbs through the state’s Metco program outperform their peers at the schools they left behind and frequently, the state average, according to a new study. The study, released yesterday by the Pioneer Institute of Public Policy Research and the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice, details a “positive track record’’ of students enrolled in the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity, a state-funded voluntary program that buses more than 3,300 K-12 students from Boston and Springfield to 40 suburban school districts. [read more...]

Maryland should go slow on establishing a health insurance exchange
Baltimore Sun

Author(s): Marc Kilmer — Press date: 2011-06-13
Category: Better Government
Description: A March 2011 report from the Pioneer Institute concluded that "… small employers continue to feel the burden of rising premiums while the Connector has not provided a good alternative for them." [read more...]

Study: Mass. Firms Shrinking, Costing The State Jobs
WBZ TV CBS Boston

Author(s): Galen Moore/Lisa van der Pool — Press date: 2011-06-08
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts is creating fewer businesses, and those businesses that are being created here are dramatically shrinking in size, according to a study, titled “The Big Shrink,” published by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy think tank. [read more...]

State still struggling to retain good jobs
Newburyport News

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-06-07
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Lest we get too smug about our relatively low jobless rate relative to that of the rest of the nation (7.8 percent here in May vs. a national rate of 9.1 percent), there was sobering news regarding long-term employment trends from the Pioneer Institute last week. According to the announcement from the Boston-based think tank on the release of its new report, "The Big Shrink: Declining Establishment Size in Massachusetts": "While the rest of the country experienced 27 percent net job growth from 1990-2007, Massachusetts lost jobs. Over the last decade, the state's failure to encourage new business formation and the precipitous drop in firm size combined to stymie job creation efforts. [read more...]

In Massachusetts, sobering news on jobs front
Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-06-07
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Lest we get too smug about the relatively low jobless rate in Massachusetts relative to that of the rest of the nation (7.8 percent in May, vs. a national rate of 9.1 percent), there was sobering news regarding long-term employment trends from the Pioneer Institute last week. According to the announcement from the Boston-based think tank on the release of its new report, "The Big Shrink: Declining Establishment Size in Massachusetts"... [read more...]

METCO's Merits
The Callie Crossley Show - WGBH

Author(s): Callie Crossley — Press date: 2011-06-07
Category: Education
Description: Will budget cuts threaten the future of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity? Better known as METCO, it's a voluntary school desegregation program intended to expand educational opportunities for minorities, and reduce racial isolation in Boston, Springfield, and the surrounding suburbs. What's your experience in the program? Should it be kept, cut, or expanded? Guests: Katani Sumner - METCO counselor at Newton South High School, one of the first participants in the METCO program when it started in the late 1960s. Susan Eaton - reasearch director at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School, author of "The Other Boston Busing Story", co-author of an upcoming joint publication of the Houston Institute for Race and Justice and the Pioneer Institute on the history ad effectiveness of the METCO program [read more...]

Shares drop amid US economic jitters
BBC

Author(s): Mark Mardell — Press date: 2011-06-03
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-13650527 US stock markets suffered on Friday as figures emerged showing employment growth slowed sharply in May, with only 54,000 net new jobs added during the month. President Obama acknowledged that even though the economy was growing, the US still faced some tough times. The Pioneer Institute's Jim Stergios, who is well plugged into the local economy, tells me that from big financial institutions to old-style manufacturing, no-one quite knows what the future holds. And while they remain uncertain, they won't hire people, he says. But Mr Stergios says they are "much more than a hiccough on the road to recovery, they are a sign of deep and abiding uncertainty". [read more...]

Study: Mass. firms are shrinking, costing the state jobs
Boston Business Journal

Author(s): Galen Moore — Press date: 2011-06-02
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts is creating fewer businesses, and those businesses that are being created here are dramatically shrinking in size, according to a study, titled "The Big Shrink," published by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy thinktank. Mass. is among a handful of states that saw no new net job growth from 1990 through 2007, the report stated - before the great recession hit, a period in which the rest of the country experienced significant job growth. Moreover, from 2003 to 2007, while the rest of the country saw a 26.6 percent job gain, Massachusetts lost 0.3 percent of its jobs. The researchers laid responsibility for that counter-trend at the shrinking size of Mass. firms, noting the average company size is down in all industries except manufacturing during the 17-year period. In 1990, the average firm in Massachusetts employed 16 people. As of 2007, the average company here had just 9.7 workers, a 39-percent reduction Pioneer researchers called "staggering." The number of firms was growing - but a “significant portion” of new firms were in the single / non-employer category, the study reported, tracking 174-percent growth in that category. Meanwhile, the number of large firms (companies with more than 100 employees) has remained stagnant, retreating to 1990 levels by 2007. Massachusetts is creating fewer businesses, and those businesses that are being created here are dramatically shrinking in size, according to a study, titled "The Big Shrink," published by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy thinktank. Mass. is among a handful of states that saw no new net job growth from 1990 through 2007, the report stated - before the great recession hit, a period in which the rest of the country experienced significant job growth. Moreover, from 2003 to 2007, while the rest of the country saw a 26.6 percent job gain, Massachusetts lost 0.3 percent of its jobs. The researchers laid responsibility for that counter-trend at the shrinking size of Mass. firms, noting the average company size is down in all industries except manufacturing during the 17-year period. In 1990, the average firm in Massachusetts employed 16 people. As of 2007, the average company here had just 9.7 workers, a 39-percent reduction Pioneer researchers called "staggering." The number of firms was growing - but a “significant portion” of new firms were in the single / non-employer category, the study reported, tracking 174-percent growth in that category. Meanwhile, the number of large firms (companies with more than 100 employees) has remained stagnant, retreating to 1990 levels by 2007. [read more...]

Charter process shows cracks
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Jim Stergios and Charlie Chieppo — Press date: 2011-06-01
Category: Education
Description: After a 2010 law raised Massachusetts’ cap on charter public schools, the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in February approved an unprecedented 16 new charters. Those schools will provide opportunity to thousands, but the process by which they were selected should concern anyone interested in school reform and good government... Urban families across Massachusetts welcome the 16 new charter schools approved this past February. But the ability to offer similar opportunities in future years will require fixing a once objective and transparent authorization process that is now compromised. [read more...]

Common Core Standards coming under increased scrutiny
Dothan Eagle

Author(s): Jim Cook — Press date: 2011-05-28
Category: Education
Description: With regard to the rigor of the standards, critics of Common Core Standards argue that they are of lower quality than those of the highest performing states. “The concern is that uniform standards will lead to a race to the middle,” said Jamie Gass, a spokesperson for the Pioneer Institute, which supports conservative school reforms such as school choice and free market principles. [read more...]

Thousands Of State Workers Paid To Volunteer, Give Blood
WCVB-TV News Center 5

Author(s): Sean Kelly — Press date: 2011-05-23
Category: Better Government
Description: “Right now, in an era where the state is struggling to provide core services, it’s a real question whether we should be engaged in these outside activities at taxpayer expense,” said Steve Poftak, research director for the Pioneer Institute. In 2007, Gov. Deval Patrick expanded the State Employees Serving as Volunteers program (SERV), which allows 40,000 state workers to take up to a dozen taxpayer-funded days off a year to “volunteer” at a variety of nonprofit organizations. A review of state records from the executive office of Administration and Finance found 1,046 employees participating in the program last year. In all, taxpayers paid at least $476,480.51 for almost 20,000 hours worth of work. Forty-five percent of the time, their volunteering took place on Fridays and Mondays. [read more...]

An Education in Bigotry
The Lowell Sun

Author(s): Patrick Wolf — Press date: 2011-05-22
Category: Education
Description: Evidence continues to mount of the benefits poor and minority students in particular gain from choice programs that give them access to options like charter public and Catholic schools. But Massachusetts is one of just two states with strict constitutional provisions that prevent families from taking advantage of many of these opportunities. The Massachusetts Constitution includes two so-called anti-aid amendments -- rooted in 19th-century bigotry against the Irish Catholic immigrants who were then coming to Massachusetts in large numbers -- that prevent public funds from being disbursed to parents to pay for private- or parochial-school tuition. [read more...]

PATRICK HEALTH PAY BILL DRAWS CONCEPTUAL SUPPORT, HOST OF CONCERNS
State House News Service

Author(s): Matt Murphy and Michael Norton — Press date: 2011-05-16
Category: Better Government
Description: The Pioneer Institute, a right-leaning Boston think tank, weighed in with concerns that Patrick's proposal left too much power in the hands of government regulators, who he estimated would have more than 26 "major policy decisions" to make should the bill pass. According to Pioneer, the establishment of "accountable care organizations" - a centerpiece of the proposal to streamline and coordinate patient care - is premature given "mixed" and in some cases "nonexistent" data to support claims of associated cost savings. The group also said the proposal fails to seriously engage consumers in the development phase of accountable care organizations, and said small businesses won't see reductions in premium growth in the near term. "There is near universal agreement that the upward trend in health care spending is unsustainable and the current system provides perverse incentives," Josh Archambault, Pioneer's director of health care policy, said in his testimony. "However, I think it is important to emphasize that payment reform is a means to an end, not the end in itself. The goal of any bill should not be to establish a majority of accountable care organizations (ACOs) or to have lots of different payment methodologies in place, it should be to provide the best quality care while simultaneously reducing the increases in health care spending." Archambault argued against the proposal to enhance the Division of Insurance's authority to set insurance premium rates, calling it an "unwise" measure that could hamper the insurance market. [read more...]

First Hearing On MA Health Reform, 2011: Where Does Everybody Stand?
WBUR

Author(s): Carey Goldberg — Press date: 2011-05-16
Category: Better Government
Description: oday’s State House hearing was the season opener, time for the players in Massachusetts health reform — from huge hospital systems to individual consumers — to stake out their opening positions. How do they see Gov. Patrick’s proposal for the next, cost-cutting phase of health care reform? What are their concerns? [read more...]

Former T chief refused to keep exit pay secret
Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2011-05-11
Category: Better Government
Description: Former MBTA general manager Daniel Grabauskas said the transit authority tried to keep his $327,487 severance secret when he agreed to resign two years ago, but he refused to sign an agreement keeping it confidential. As the Globe reported last month, the MBTA and other state agencies have sworn dozens of workers to secrecy as part of lucrative severance and settlement agreements since 2005, according to documents the agencies provided to the Globe. The Globe initially cited Grabauskas’s severance agreement as one of the confidential pacts signed by the MBTA, based on a copy of the document the agency provided to the Globe. But the MBTA later acknowledged it sent the Globe an early draft of the document by mistake and that the confidentiality clause was removed from the final version at Grabauskas’s insistence. “I wasn’t going to sell my soul for any amount of money,’’ Grabauskas said. “You can’t legally keep public dollars secret.’’ He recalled telling the MBTA’s lawyer that “any attempt to keep the use of public funds secret is at best silly, injuring public confidence, and at worst simply illegal.’’ Grabauskas was forced to resign in August 2009 after the Patrick administration publicly questioned his leadership. He said he thought the MBTA was trying to avoid the embarrassment of paying him so much to leave before his contract ended. Grabauskas’s attorney in the negotiations, Mark Ventola, confirmed his client’s account and added that agency officials did not say why they wanted the secrecy clause. But MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said “such language is standard in all separation/settlement agreements’’ the authority uses. He said the MBTA typically tries to keep payments confidential to prevent them from being used as precedents for future settlements. Former transportation secretary James A. Aloisi Jr., who was involved in the negotiations, declined to comment. Government watchdogs questioned why the MBTA would try to keep Grabauskas’s six-figure payment secret, especially when the Patrick administration and other officials have vowed to be open about public spending. “I don’t understand what public good is served by suppressing the information,’’ said Steve Poftak, research director for the Pioneer Institute, a public policy research group in Boston. “I think it is very inconsistent with public statements of openness.’’ Others said it seems hard to fathom how the MBTA could hope to keep Grabauskas’s payment confidential, given his high-profile position. Paul Regan, executive director of the MBTA advisory board, said that at the time the Patrick administration signaled it might fire him, many involved in the transit system were already calculating how much money Grabauskas would receive. “I don’t think there was any realistic chance that his severance was ever going to remain a secret,’’ Regan said. The state attorney general’s office has advised agencies for years to avoid confidentiality clauses in settlement pacts, except in special circumstances. And state Comptroller Martin Benison recently vowed to do the same, noting such clauses might not hold up in court. Shortly after Grabauskas signed the revised pact — without the confidentiality clause — transit officials said that the MBTA board of directors voted 5 to 3 to pay Grabauskas $327,487 to settle the remaining nine months of his contract, including salary, vacation, and sick days. Patrick officials had criticized Grabauskas’s management after two crashes on the Green Line and the MBTA’s continuing financial problems. His backers said Grabauskas was pushed out for political reasons. He was originally appointed by a Republican governor, Mitt Romney. Since then, the Patrick administration has replaced a number of heads at quasi-public agencies — at least one of whom agreed to sign a confidentiality clause. For instance, after forcing Massachusetts Development Finance Agency chief executive Robert Culver to step down in March, the state agreed to pay him $169,159, which included six months’ salary and the amount of money the agency would have spent on disability insurance and retirement benefits. The government also agreed to pay his health insurance premiums for six months. The March 23 pact bars Culver from criticizing MassDevelopment or disclosing “any of the terms, the facts or the negotiations leading to this agreement.’’ The agreement did not bar MassDevelopment from disclosing the details of the agreement, which the Globe obtained under the state public records law. But Poftak of the Pioneer Institute said the secrecy clause could potentially keep Culver from saying anything to reporters that could be embarrassing for the administration. By contrast, a $264,000 separation agreement with the former head of the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative, Mitchell Adams, signed last month contained no such restrictions. Culver declined to comment. MassDevelopment spokesman Mark Sternman said the provisions “are standard contract language in separation agreements’’ and noted the agency has used them in other pacts. [read more...]

Time for State to Adopt private Sector's Best Practices
The Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2011-05-05
Category: Better Government
Description: EDITORIAL — When MBTA general manager Richard Davey told us last year that he wanted to begin using performance metrics to evaluate the 260 executives in his department we were surprised such a system, common in the private sector, wasn’t already in place. When Mary Connaughton, GOP candidate for state auditor, last year told us she wanted to begin auditing state programs to ensure tax money was being used efficiently, it seemed like a no-brainer. Unfortunately, ideas based on common-sense business practices have not always resonated in a state government where budget maintenance is often based on the premise that more money will be needed next year than last. The latest person to take a stab at changing this deeply ingrained mentality is Senate President Therese Murray. The Plymouth legislator has proposed the state ditch its “outdated” finance laws and overhaul the budget process. On Tuesday she gave voice to a sentiment that in these trying economic times is gaining increasing favor: Government should behave more like a private sector company. “This is the 21st century,” she said in testimony before a Senate panel. “Every business does performance reviews, and there’s no reason government shouldn’t.” Murray’s bill would require executive branch offices to conduct performance reviews of the way state services are delivered and would force the Legislature to move away from “maintenance budgeting” to “performance budgeting,” where funding is based on annual evaluations that would cast light on whether money is being spent efficiently and achieving desired results. It’s an idea that has been floated before but the support lining up behind Murray’s plan, in these trying economic times, gives us hope it may actually find traction this time. It has been endorsed by a bipartisan cast of lawmakers, business-backed organizations and the Pioneer Institute, which praised the comprehensive bill as a common-sense reform that would safeguard taxpayer dollars. The legislation also proposes establishment of sunset clauses for most programs that would trigger review by an independent commission to see if continued funding makes sense. Murray said she would eventually like to see the state move toward a “zero-based budget” where departments build their budgets from scratch each year, but suggested achieving that goal could be three to four years away. GOP Sen. Bruce Tarr, the Senate minority leader, also weighed in with his support for performance-based budgeting and an annual debt analysis, calling the state’s long-term debt a “a phantom that sits in the shadows of state government.” The effort needed to see this bill through to fruition is daunting, but in crisis there is opportunity. We hope this is one the state seizes. [read more...]

Senate President Murray Pushes for More Businesslike Government
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Matt Murphy, SHNS — Press date: 2011-05-03
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — Testifying on behalf of her own proposal that would reform the state’s “outdated” finance laws and overhaul the legislative budget process, Senate President Therese Murray on Tuesday said the time has come for government to behave more like a private sector company. “This is the 2st Century. Every business does performance reviews and there’s no reason government shouldn’t,” Murray told reporters after testifying before the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight. Filed last Thursday, Murray’s bill received a quickly scheduled hearing before lawmakers, drawing mostly plaudits from a bipartisan cast of lawmakers, business-backed organizations and the Pioneer Institute, which praised the comprehensive reform bill as a common-sense reform that would safeguard taxpayer dollars. “We need to assure that every dollar taxpayers are sending to Boston is being well spent,” said Sen. Richard Moore (D-Uxbridge), adding that as the economy rebounds and state revenue streams grow, this is “a good time to impose those kinds of restraints on the growth of state government.” Murray’s bill would require executive branch offices to conduct performance reviews of the way state services are delivered and would force the Legislature to move away from “maintenance budgeting” to “performance budgeting.” It would also call on the State Lottery Commission to evaluate its operations. Current statutes call for a maintenance model of budgeting, which assumes level funding for state agencies and programs each year and then usually builds from there to determine what resources are needed to provide the same level of service. Under performance budgeting, lawmakers envision funds being allocated based on annual evaluations that would cash light on whether monies are being spent efficiently and achieving desired results. Murray said she would eventually like to see the state move toward “zero-based budget” where departments build their budgets from scratch each year, but suggested achieving that goal could be three to four years away. By distributing unrestricted local aid monthly instead of quarterly, Murray said, the state could improve the cash flow for cities and towns and reduce the state’s reliance on short-term borrowing to make local aid payments. The bill would also codify some of the practices being used by the Patrick administration to conduct annual debt affordability studies by resetting the state’s debt limit to $17.07 billion in fiscal 2012 and tying increases to the lesser of the rate of inflation or 5 percent, rather than an automatic 5 percent increase. The debt affordability study would be done by an independent commission chaired by the secretary of administration and finance and including two independent finance experts not employed by the state. The legislation also proposes a “sunset review commission” that would assign periodic sunset dates for all state agencies and authorities subject to a review by the commission to gauge the need to continue funding those activities. “Although I’m wary of commissions at times, I’m hopeful this is something that could rise above the political process,” said Steve Poftak, research director for the Pioneer Institute. Joseph Dorant, president of the Massachusetts Organization of State Engineers and Scientists, said he had had “deep concerns” about the sunset commission included in the legislation, which calls for several private organizations like the Pioneer Institute and Associated Industries of Massachusetts to have a dedicated seat. “It could sunset entire state agencies that are less popular than others,” Dorant said, singling out environmental protection agencies that might be vulnerable because they are “at odds with private enterprise.” Dorant said if the Legislature insists on a sunset commission, it should be restricted to members of the Legislature and not include private entities. Sen. Kenneth Donnelly and Rep. Peter Kocot, the co-chairmen of the Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight, said they needed have a discussion before committing to a timeline for advancing Murray’s proposal. Kocot also said he wanted to talk with Murray about her thoughts about what sort of staffing increases would be required to implement the performance reviews required under the legislation. The bill calls for a new office to be created within a year at the Executive Office of Administration and Finance to oversee performance evaluations. Asked whether her bill would require a substantial build-up of staff, Murray said, “I don’t believe so,” adding, “If it does, it will eventually save us money.” Kocot also raised the question of whether the time required to do performance-based budgeting warrants consideration of moving toward a two-year budget cycle, a long-discussed idea at odds with recent activity on the budget front that has featured passage of annual budgets followed by numerous midyear spending bills. Sen. Bruce Tarr, the Senate Minority Leader from Gloucester, called attention to his particular support for performance-based budgeting and an annual debt analysis, calling the state’s long-term debt a “a phantom that sits in the shadows of state government.” “I do think it’s important to underscore the importance of having this kind of fiscal transparency and accountability infrastructure in place,” Tarr said, joining Murray in voicing support for “zero-based” budgeting. John Regan, executive vice president for government affairs at A.I.M., called the transition to performance budgets “a herculean task,” but detailed his strong support for the various provisions in the bill. “While this is not the most captivating legislative issue likely to be dealt with this session, it is among the most important,” Regan said. Richard Marlin, of the Massachusetts Building Trades, said the labor organization supports Murray’s legislation, but recommended adding a labor representative to the sunset commission. [read more...]

Pensions put Massport bigs on easy street
Boston Herald

Author(s): Chris Cassidy — Press date: 2011-04-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Outgoing Massport boss Thomas Kinton, whose golden parachute includes a stunning $195,000 annual pension, will join an elite club of other former agency honchos enjoying comfortable payouts for life. Twenty Massport retirees collected pensions surpassing $70,000 last year, including one 37-year veteran who made just more than $110,000 — not including lucrative sick and vacation time buybacks, according to a Herald review. “It seems extraordinary,” said Steve Poftak of the fiscally conservative Pioneer Institute. “It just seems like we’ve had lax oversight at these quasi-public agencies, and it continues to go on.” [read more...]

Sibligns and the Boston Public Schools Lottery
Boston Magazine

Author(s): Steve Poftak — Press date: 2011-04-13
Category: Education
Description: If you’ve got young kids in the city, the Boston Public Schools lottery is on your mind. Boston‘s Amy Traverso recently prescribed strategies for dealing with it, while the Globe has chronicled the school assignment process, too. This year’s first round of assignments went out a few weeks ago and participants have been mulling their options ever since. It’s a damnably complex process as is the range of outcomes — a dizzying mix of acceptance at desired schools, acceptance at marginally acceptable schools, outright rejection, and varying levels of wait-list purgatory. (How many other lotteries have extensive econometric literature on them?) For some, it’s the final straw before they move out of town. And for many of us who have been through it before, it’s agonizing to watch newcomers grapple with the process and their outcomes. [read more...]

Team 5 Investigates Unschooled MBTA Workers
WCVB TV NewsCenter 5

Author(s): Sean Kelly — Press date: 2011-04-13
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak interviewed by reporter Sean Kelly of WCVB-TV Channel 5 on MBTA employee disclosure issues. [read more...]

Mass. dangles carrots too quickly
Boston Globe

Author(s): Renee Loth — Press date: 2011-04-09
Category: Better Government
Description: “We don’t really know what’s working,’’ said Steve Poftak of the conservative Pioneer Institute. “It’s almost impossible to know’’ whether the benefits exceed the costs, said Noah Berger of the liberal Massachusetts Budget and Policy Institute. [read more...]

Official Defends US Core
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Craig S. Semon — Press date: 2011-04-07
Category: Education
Description: Jamie Gass, director, Center for School Reform at Pioneer Institute, Boston, said his institute measured Common Core against the current standards in four states including Massachusetts and, in every case, Common Core had “lower quality” standards. Furthermore, Mr. Gass said, all three of the evaluations Mr. Chester used to make his decision were paid for by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the same group that paid for the standards. “What are you teaching students about objectivity, about independence, when the people who paid for the development of the standards are also paying for the evaluation of the standards?” Mr. Gass asked. “Doesn’t really sound like a question,” Mr. Chester responded. “So Jamie, who paid the teachers in Massachusetts who did the assessment for us? They weren’t paid? They volunteered?” [read more...]

Health care's evil twins — cost and coverage
Worcester Telgram & Gazette

Author(s): John J. Monahan — Press date: 2011-04-06
Category: Better Government
Description: One group critical of the attempt to target rate hikes, the Pioneer Institute, argued yesterday that it is “a short sighted approach.” “Most insurers are nonprofit,” said that think tank's health care program director, Joshua Archambault. “The governor has been going after insurers while in most markets, it is providers that dictate the level of care.” [read more...]

Massachusetts Moves Toward More Health Care Regulation
Heartland Institute Health Care News

Author(s): Sarah McIntosh — Press date: 2011-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: According to Joshua Archambault, program manager for health care at the Boston-based Pioneer Institute, Patrick’s proposed steps to control costs involve further expansion of the bureaucracy and remain light on details of implementation. [read more...]

Where the Grass is Greener
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Brandon Butler — Press date: 2011-03-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: News that Fidelity Investments is closing its 1,100-person Marlborough campus and moving jobs mostly to New Hampshire and Rhode Island did not come as a surprise to Steve Poftak, director of research for the Boston-based Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Commonwealth Connector needs repairs, study says
Stateline

Author(s): Christine Vestal — Press date: 2011-03-25
Category: Better Government
Description: NOT CONNECTING: The Commonwealth Connector, Massachusetts’ version of a health insurance exchange, has failed to attract many small business purchasers and individuals who are not eligible for subsidies. That's the assessment of a new report from a nonpartisan, privately funded research group in the state, the Pioneer Institute. Small businesses and individuals who do not qualify for subsidies make up only 1.5 percent of the Connector’s membership. And less than 1 percent of small group insurance purchases in the state are made through the exchange, the report found. Although Massachusetts’ groundbreaking health care overhaul became the model for the federal health law, the report’s author said the Connector needs repairs before it can comply. [read more...]

Boston forum discusses need for school choice
The Pilot

Author(s): Jim Lockwood — Press date: 2011-03-25
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- It is time to lift state restrictions on aid to students in private schools, including Catholic schools, former Boston mayor and Vatican ambassador Raymond Flynn told a forum on school choice March 16. Flynn keynoted a breakfast forum at the Omni Parker House Hotel hosted by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy research organization, to discuss the merits of families receiving state aid to send their children to private schools. [read more...]

RomneyCare Facts and Falsehoods
FactCheck.org

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-03-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Murphy, meanwhile, calls the lack of opportunity for small businesses "a big failure." He and others, such as Joshua Archambault at the Pioneer Institute — a think tank that says it espouses "policy solutions based on free market principles" and "limited and accountable government" — say the Connector hasn’t focused enough on small businesses. "It is the group that we and a few others have identified as really being left out of reform as it’s been implemented," Archambault, program manager for the Institute’s health care initiative, says. The Pioneer Institute, which did not take a position on the law, has published a report suggesting ways to make the small business market better. "We view our role again as somewhat of a mirror as saying … here’s why our choice model didn’t work. And in other states, as you implement the federal law, then you should be very aware of where, you know, our policymakers got it wrong," he says. [read more...]

Obama-care still faces challenges
Fitchburgh Sentinel & Enterprise

Author(s): Chris Camire — Press date: 2011-03-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Josh Archambault, the Pioneer Institute's director of health care, said yesterday he believes state leaders have not given this issue enough attention. "The Legislature needs to ask what is the plan," he said. "Let's hold some hearings." [read more...]

State needs a new transportation strategy
The MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Joseph Giglio — Press date: 2011-03-18
Category: Better Government
Description: If the commonwealth is to get a handle on its finances, policy makers must address equally daunting transportation needs. In 2007, a state commission (on which I served but resigned before they issued their reports) identified a $15-$19 billion gap between the cost of maintaining existing assets and available resources over the next 20 years. The commission recommended raising the state fuel tax by 11.5 cents and indexing it to inflation. [read more...]

Massachusetts should retool its health insurance overhaul, report says
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Kay Lazar — Press date: 2011-03-18
Category: Education
Description: Regulators who oversee Massachusetts' 2006 health law have failed to provide affordable insurance options for small employers, despite spending millions of dollars in marketing, according to a new report written by a Tufts University School of Medicine associate professor who was an author of the law under the Romney administration. [read more...]

Tax Credits For Private Schools
Jim & Margery

Author(s): Jim Braude and Margery Eagan — Press date: 2011-03-15
Category: Education
Description: Tax Credits For Private Schools Posted 3/15/2011 8:18:00 AM From The Boston Herald: Citing a new report that shows the Bay State’s 209 Catholic schools score better on SATs, graduate more students and cost less per student than their public counterparts, a coalition of religious and education groups is going to push for tax credits for parents who pay for private schooling. The report, to be released this week by the think tank the Pioneer Institute, argues that despite declining enrollment, there is a huge demand for Catholic school education, but it’s too expensive for many working and minority families. They will also push for tax credits for corporations that donate to those schools. “They deserve a little support from our political leaders,” said former Boston Mayor Ray Flynn, who is part of the group supporting the proposal and a keynote speaker at a Pioneer education forum Wednesday. “Government tax breaks and multi-million dollar bonuses for the wealthy, but no help for needy parents who choose to educate their children in non-public schools?” [read more...]

Tax credits pushed for private-school families
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2011-03-13
Category: Education
Description: Citing a new report that shows the Bay State’s 209 Catholic schools score better on SATs, graduate more students and cost less per student than their public counterparts, a coalition of religious and education groups is going to push for tax credits for parents who pay for private schooling. The report, to be released this week by the think tank the Pioneer Institute, argues that despite declining enrollment, there is a huge demand for Catholic school education, but it’s too expensive for many working and minority families. They will also push for tax credits for corporations that donate to those schools. [read more...]

Experts spar on costs of Obama health-care law
The Lowell Sun

Author(s): Chris Camire — Press date: 2011-03-11
Category: Education
Description: Set aside the moral questions surrounding the national health-care debate. Throw the so-called "death panels" out the window. Forget about the public option. Instead, ask yourself this: Will President Barack Obama's national health-care law save us money or cost us more in the long run? If you're left scratching your head, you're not alone. Some of the leading experts on the landmark legislation are still vigorously debating that very question. This was driven home Wednesday night at the 2011 Hewitt Health Care Lecture hosted by The Pioneer Institute and moderated by 2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Baker. The forum, held at Harvard Medical School, pitted an opponent of the bill, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, against one of its most enthusiastic supporters, Jonathan Gruber. The debate largely hinged on a plan to tax employer-insurance plans that cost more than $27,500 a year for family coverage, beginning in 2018. Under this so-called "Cadillac plan," insurers would be forced to pay a 40 percent tax for every dollar spent above that limit. [read more...]

Labor chief slammed for pro-union ‘war’ comment
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2011-03-01
Category: Better Government
Description: “It tells you who’s going to win those negotiations,” said Jim Stergios of the Pioneer Institute. “As the executive branch, they should be focused on delivering high services as their primary focus ... they should not be going out and standing at a rally and promoting one side or the other.” [read more...]

Snow-weary Boston commuter-rail riders slowed by agency’s debt
Providence Business News

Author(s): Tom Moroney and Brian K. Sullivan — Press date: 2011-02-28
Category: Better Government
Description: The authority had $5.3 billion in bonds outstanding as of June, according to a regulatory filing this month. By 2014, annual debt service will increase to more than $500 million, said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit research group in Boston. At current ticket prices, that cost will consume more than the revenue the T gets from fares, he said. [read more...]

Editorial: Straightening Out Unemployment In The Bay State
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Editor — Press date: 2011-02-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A study by the Boston-based Pioneer Institute for Public Policy in conjunction with the Massachusetts High Technology Council makes several common-sense recommendations of ways to reform the state’s unemployment insurance system that would not only save money and reduce headaches for business owners, but also create jobs. [read more...]

Exceeding expectations: UMass Law School already proving critics wrong
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Brian Boyd — Press date: 2011-02-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Charles Chieppo, a senior fellow at the Pioneer Institute, a public policy think tank based in Boston, argued in the past that the law school plan would end up costing taxpayers, and he remains skeptical about the financing. He said the school has to increase the rate of students passing the bar exam in order to win accreditation, and he does not see how it will be able to afford the necessary improvements, such as boosting library resources. "If you're going to fix all of that spending (with) less than half of what other states spend on a per-student basis and improve to point you get accreditation, that's kind of Harry Potter stuff," he said. He expects the accreditation process could take at least six years and, if the law school fails to persuade the ABA, it would be a major setback. "If you're dealing with a state law school that can't get accredited, that's an embarrassment you can't overstate," Chieppo said. [read more...]

Ever more woes found in approval
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2011-02-25
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: a Herald review of internal documents shows that one state agency did little investigation into the doomed company before signing off on a $10 million grant. “There’s no evidence that they did any kind of due diligence that would pass muster in the private sector for an investment of this scale,” said Steve Poftak, public policy director at the conservative think tank the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Watchdogs: Reform could save MA millions
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot and Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2011-02-24
Category: Better Government
Description: A similar move in Massachusetts would save “hundreds of millions,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, by decreasing the nearly $2 billion the state pays for pensions, retiree health benefits and other benefits. “There are many, many impacts of this in terms of savings, but above all it would allow for far greater management rights,” Stergios said. “The potential savings on pensions, (local) health-care benefits and retiree health-care benefits are in the hundreds of millions.” [read more...]

Black History - Blacked Out
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Kevin P. Chavous and Kenneth L. Campbell — Press date: 2011-02-24
Category: Education
Description: [U]ntil state education leaders reinstate the MCAS history requirement, students won’t know these important chapters in black — and Massachusetts — history. [read more...]

Protestst Continue in Wisconsin
NECN

Author(s): Alison King — Press date: 2011-02-23
Category: Better Government
Description: PI's Charlie Chieppo talks with Alison King about the cost of collective bargaining here in Massachusetts. [read more...]

Tech agency’s head is forced out
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2011-02-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston think tank that supports free-market policies, said Patrick is trying to gain more control over the agencies and cut salaries of their top officials — salaries that sometimes exceed the governor’s. For example, the administration recently replaced the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s general manager, Daniel Grabauskas, who earned $255,000 a year, with Richard Davey, who is paid $110,000 a year less. Stergios said it is too early to say whether the changes will help create more jobs in Massachusetts and reduce spending at the agencies. “The governor has over the past four years often said: ‘Give me more power and I will fix it,’ ’’ Stergios said. “Now the governor owns it.’’ [read more...]

Today’s lesson?
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2011-02-20
Category: Education
Description: Jamie Gass, director of the Center for School Reform at the Pioneer Institute, said the departures raise eyebrows. “These developments continue to raise ethical concerns about the process by which the commonwealth adopted weaker-quality national standards,” he said. Jonathan Palumbo, an education spokesman, called that allegation “complete and utter nonsense.” “This was a totally open and transparent process,” he said. “Massachusetts has a proven track record of educational excellence. Under the Patrick-Murray administration’s leadership we have led the nation in student achievement for over six years. We are fortunate to have a talented pool of education leaders here in the commonwealth who have helped us reach those goals, and we look forward to continuing this work to ensure that every child in Massachusetts receives a quality education.” [read more...]

Patrick Looks To Curb Health Care Costs
News Center 5

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-02-17
Category: Better Government
Description: PI's Josh Archambault responds to health care legislation filed by Governor Patrick. [read more...]

Former governor candidate Baker to moderate health care discussion
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-02-16
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

MBTA doles out big bucks with OT spike
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2011-02-15
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak, director of research at the Pioneer Institute, said Davey — who earned $109,000 last year — is a bargain as head of the T, but overtime is an albatross. “There’s a lot of people making a lot of money,” Poftak said. “But I have a lot of sympathy for his plight.” [read more...]

Freezing climate: State’s UI system hurts jobs
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Editorial board — Press date: 2011-02-15
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Changing that reality will require legislative reform of the UI system, which is long overdue. A recent report by the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Pioneer Institute outlines a series of steps that could be taken to bring the Bay State into line with the rest of the nation, including places like Texas and North Carolina that are our direct competitors for high-tech and life science jobs. [read more...]

A bigger job ahead
The Boston Herald

Author(s): Bill Brotherton — Press date: 2011-02-14
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: In a well-timed analysis, the Pioneer Institute and the Massachusetts High Technology Council on Thursday cited the need to bring those standards in line with the rest of the country, quoting a research firm’s estimate that doing so would lead to the creation of 10,000 additional jobs, $3.8 billion in additional wages and $30 million in additional tax revenues. [read more...]

Unemployment insurance rate 'freeze' clears senate, heads to house
Brookline Tab

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2011-02-13
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: [read more...]

Ready for Work
Attleboro Sun Cronicle

Author(s): Rick Foster — Press date: 2011-02-13
Category: Education
Description: The system received a ringing endorsement in the Pioneer Institute report. "Those who are admitted find themselves on the path to a more "job-ready" future," the report said. "Often praised as more prepared and capable by industry professionals, VTE graduates leave high school better equipped than most college-preparatory students," the report said. "They are set to enter a workforce where their skills and talents can be utilized to the fullest." The Pioneer report cites several factors in vocational schools' success: high expectations by educators, challenging and rigorous coursework and the integration of classroom study with hands-on, practical applications in which students readily see the relationship between theory and practice. [read more...]

Graduation rates rise in state, Boston
Boston Herald

Author(s): Natalie Sherman — Press date: 2011-02-12
Category: Education
Description: Bay State and Boston graduation rates rose for the fourth consecutive year, officials announced this week, but the Hub’s dropout rate remained above 5 percent. “BPS is making progress in the right direction toward preventing dropouts, and that’s good news,” said Jamie Gass, director of the Pioneer Institute’s Center for School Reform. “The bad news is that there are still a significant number of students in Boston and other urban districts that are dropping out.” [read more...]

Mass. Senate backs unemployment insurance freeze
Charleston Daily Mail

Author(s): AP — Press date: 2011-02-12
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The council, working with the Pioneer Institute, a conservative-leaning Boston-based think tank, released a report Thursday recommending changes to what they called the state's unusually generous unemployment benefits. [read more...]

Unemployment Insurance Reform Could Create Jobs
WBUR

Author(s): Monica Brady-Myerov — Press date: 2011-02-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A new report from the Mass. High Tech Council and the Pioneer Institute predicts that reforms to the Massachusetts unemployment insurance would create jobs. [read more...]

Unemployment insurance rate "freeze" clears Massachusetts Senate, heads to House
State House News House

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2011-02-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: While business groups praised the move in the Senate to limit the impact of the tax increase, the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Pioneer Institute published a policy paper on Thursday in advance of the Senate’s vote calling for systemic reforms that the groups said would bring Massachusetts in line with the rest of the country and improve the state’s ability to attract business. [read more...]

The dirty little secret of MCAS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Clive McFarlane — Press date: 2011-02-11
Category: Education
Description: "Instead, we went to bed with the Pioneer Institute, whose mission is to push for the privatization of government services." [read more...]

Insurance fee freeze is backed
Worcester Telgram & Gazette

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2011-02-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The council, working with the Pioneer Institute, released a report Thursday recommending changes to what they called the state’s unusually generous unemployment benefits. [read more...]

Mass. Senate backs unemployment insurance freeze
MSN Money

Author(s): Associated Press — Press date: 2011-02-10
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The council, working with the Pioneer Institute, a conservative-leaning Boston-based think tank, released a report Thursday recommending changes to what they called the state's unusually generous unemployment benefits. Those changes include shrinking the duration of the benefits from 30 weeks to 26 weeks, which they said was the standard for the vast majority of states, and tightening what they called the state's "lax eligibility requirements." [read more...]

Unemployment insurance rate 'freeze' clears senate, heads to house
Cape and Plymouth Business

Author(s): SHNS — Press date: 2011-02-10
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: While business groups praised the move in the Senate to limit the impact of the tax increase, the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Pioneer Institute published a policy paper on Thursday in advance of the Senate’s vote calling for systemic reforms that the groups said would bring Massachusetts in line with the rest of the country and improve the state’s ability to attract business. An analysis conducted by IHS Global Insight Projections suggested the reforms outlined in the plan could lead to the creation of 10,000 new jobs and $7.5 billion in economic growth over the next decade. [read more...]

Detailing State Budgets: Massachussetts
Barry Ritholtz' Blog

Author(s): Barry Ritholtz — Press date: 2011-02-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Jess Bachman (of Bailout Nation and Death & Taxes fame) does the most largest, most detailed visualization of a state budget ever. It is an 864 sq in poster comparing hundreds of programs and expenditures from the billions down to the thousands of dollars. If you really want to see how a state (like Massachusetts) spends it’s tax payers money, this is it. [read more...]

The Download
Commonwealth Magazine

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-02-09
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Radio Boston hosts a discussion about the state’s economic development initiatives with Eric Nakajima, the Patrick administration’s senior innovation policy advisor, and Jim Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Legislators file bevy of trivial bills in face of budget gap
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2011-02-06
Category: Better Government
Description: “We’ve lost hundreds of thousands of jobs over the last decade, and we are talking about these things,” said Jim Stergios, director of the Pioneer Institute, a conservative Boston think tank. “Many of them are so low on the scale of priorities as to be laughable.” [read more...]

Some Toll Takers Raking in $100G
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2011-02-04
Category: Better Government
Description: “The biggest challenge is controlling the salary expansion. It’s built into the system now,” said Steve Poftak, director of research at the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Mass pay at Massport
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell and Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2011-02-03
Category: Better Government
Description: “In times like these when we’re trying to save every last penny, it’s outrageous,” said Jim Stergios, executive director of the fiscally conservative Pioneer Institute. “This is just another example where the taxpayers are taking one for the Teamsters.” [read more...]

VIDEO: National Academic Standards Pose Threat to Local Control of Education
The Foundry

Author(s): Tina Korbe — Press date: 2011-02-02
Category: Education
Description: Prior to the school board’s action in Massachusetts, the Boston-based Pioneer Institute warned about the move to adopt the Common Core, arguing the state’s existing standards and tests were superior to the national model. [read more...]

The Download: Contract lessons
CommonWealth blog

Author(s): Michael Jonas — Press date: 2011-01-31
Category: Education
Description: A new report from the Pioneer Institute makes a crucial contribution to ongoing policy debates by drilling into the details of teacher contracts in 25 Massachusetts districts. The study seeks to identify districts with contracts that follow the “factory model” and those that embrace a more “professional model” that gives districts and teachers autonomy in shaping the workday and that has more robust teacher evaluation systems. The bottom line finding: higher performing school districts more often have provisions in teacher contracts that follow the “professional” model, granting teachers more flexibility over their workday and holding them more accountable for student performance in their classrooms. [read more...]

Palmer Rep. Todd Smola brings legislative focus back to MCAS, Common Core with new bill
MassLive

Author(s): SP Sullivan — Press date: 2011-01-26
Category: Education
Description: Jim Stergios quoted on the Common Core standards. [read more...]

2011 Better Government Competition theme announced
Milford Daily News

Author(s): — Press date: 2011-01-25
Category: Better Government
Description: The annual competition that looks for ways to improve the effectiveness of government from ordinary citizens, wants Massachusetts residents to come up with an innovative idea to help ease the financial strain on state and local budgets. [read more...]

Bill would override state Ed Board's vote on standards
Cape Ann Beacon

Author(s): Matt Murphy/SHNS — Press date: 2011-01-25
Category: Education
Description: Critics, including Baker, former gubernatorial candidate and state Treasurer Tim Cahill, and officials from the Pioneer Institute question why state education leaders would move away from the gains made under MCAS and the 1993 education reform law that propelled Massachusetts students to the top ranking on many national scorecards. [read more...]

Factory-type teacher contracts criticized
WORCESTER TELEGRAM & GAZETTE

Author(s): Jacqueline Reis — Press date: 2011-01-23
Category: Education
Description: A new report from the Boston-based Pioneer Institute looks at whether teachers’ contracts tend to mimic factory or professional models and concludes that underperforming districts are more likely to have factory-style contracts that limit teachers’ flexibility. [read more...]

States Rattle Cups
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial Board — Press date: 2011-01-09
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

MA Students Aren't Learning History--US History MCAS Dumped
Tom & Todd Show WRKO

Author(s): Jamie Gass — Press date: 2011-01-07
Category: Education
Description: [read more...]

MBTA nixes takeover, ponders next rail contract
Huffington Post

Author(s): Bob Salsberg — Press date: 2011-01-07
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — MBTA management has ruled out the possibility of taking over direct operation of the state's commuter rail network. Instead, it may seek a longer-term contract with a private operator to spur investment in an aging system that has become increasingly prone to breakdowns. A long-term contract would give a private operator the time needed to leverage capital for new equipment, said Steve Poftak, director of the Center for Better Government at the Pioneer Institute, unlike the original five-year deal with MBCR. "That's just too short a time to expect anyone to do capital investment. You kind of get these `neither here nor there' contracts of that duration," said Poftak. [read more...]

Two-state economic rivalry rages on
The Providence Journal

Author(s): Paul Grimaldi — Press date: 2010-12-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Excerpt: “If Massachusetts perceives an advantage over Rhode Island in a particular area it’s typically loath to give that up and vice versa,” said Steve Poftak of the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based public policy research institute. [read more...]

Letter: Latest health reform measures do little for small business
The Salem News

Author(s): Joshua Archambault — Press date: 2010-12-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: [read more...]

To the end, championing others
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Brian C. Mooney — Press date: 2010-12-27
Category: Better Government
Description: Excerpt: “He’s a great guy, a warm guy, but he didn’t exploit the full potential of the office,’’ said James Stergios, executive director of the Pioneer Institute, a fiscally conservative think tank. “He never took the opportunities for savings very seriously and took the side of the unions.’’ [read more...]

State revokes credits for delayed biotech start-up
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Todd Wallack — Press date: 2010-12-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Excerpt: But Jim Stergios, president of the nonprofit research organization Pioneer Institute in Boston, questioned why government agencies promised so much help to an unproven start-up founded by executives with no biotechnology experience, who run a company without any full-time employees or enough money to build the plant. “Think of all the energy that has gone into trying to lure an unfunded, untested entity to the city [of Worcester],’’ Stergios said. “Think of how that energy could have been better used.’ [read more...]

With carrots and sticks, state can improve cities’ governance
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Editorial board — Press date: 2010-12-19
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Housing plans for pricy Boston don’t fit gateway cities’ needs
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Editorial Board — Press date: 2010-12-12
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: [read more...]

Pioneer visual breaks down state spending
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-12-11
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

MCAS tied to college success for Hub grads
The Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-12-07
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer's Jamie Gass quoted, arguing that the report shows that abandoning the MCAS would be a mistake. “It debunks the myth that MCAS is not a college-prep test,’’ Gass said. “This very encouraging research makes it more perplexing that Massachusetts would discard MCAS standards and testing, which have been such a demonstrable success for our students.’’ [read more...]

South Shore pols defend helping constituents find jobs on public payroll
The Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Nancy Reardon Stewart — Press date: 2010-12-06
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer's Jim Stergios quoted, reported as supporting an immediate moratorium on job recommendations from lawmakers until a process with more transparency is in place. “That should be a no-brainer,” he said. [read more...]

‘EZ’ go: Pike to lose $500G
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2010-12-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Steve Poftak, Pioneer's Director of Research, quoted. [read more...]

Mass. is wrong to slight social studies
Providence Journal

Author(s): Robert Koska — Press date: 2010-11-30
Category: Education
Description: [read more...]

School program cited as success
Boston Herald

Author(s): Ira Kantor — Press date: 2010-11-23
Category: Education
Description: Jamie Gass comments on a school program that has led to achievement gains in the Boston Public Schools. [read more...]

Retired judge: Cronyism and patronage allegations nothing new for Montigny
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): Dan McDonald — Press date: 2010-11-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer's Steve Poftak quoted regarding Probation Dept. hiring scandal. [read more...]

Peters: Creating a market for education
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Editorial — Press date: 2010-11-20
Category: Education
Description: Tribute to Pete Peters. [read more...]

Lovett ‘Pete’ Peters, founder of Pioneer Institute; at 97
The Boston Globe

Author(s): J.M. Lawrence — Press date: 2010-11-19
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Shake-Up Of Mass. Probation Dept. Ordered
CBS Boston

Author(s): Karen Anderson — Press date: 2010-11-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer's Steve Poftak quoted in CBS report on Probation Dept. hiring [read more...]

Pioneer pioneer’s legacy
Boston Herald

Author(s): Editorial Board — Press date: 2010-11-16
Category: Better Government
Description: [read more...]

Biotech aid falls flat
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Van Sack — Press date: 2010-11-09
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Pioneer's Steve Poftak weighs in on the state's practice of assisting specific industries. [read more...]

Despite fiscal ills, towns are saving up
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Peter Schworm and Matt Carroll — Press date: 2010-11-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer's Jim Stergios quoted on municipalities' concerns about budget cuts [read more...]

Education turns away from study of democracy
Metro West Daily News

Author(s): Robert Kostka — Press date: 2010-11-07
Category: Education
Description: The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education should make passage of a U.S. history MCAS test a high school graduation requirement. [read more...]

Biotech conference says it is too big for Hub to host
The Boston Globe

Author(s): Casey Ross — Press date: 2010-10-30
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Pioneer's Jim Stergios quotes in The Boston Globe, on the convention authority's track record in generating economic activity. [read more...]

Health Reform Should Protect Small Business
Taunton Gazette

Author(s): Joshua — Press date: 2010-10-23
Category: Better Government
Description: Pioneer's Josh Archambault, Program Manager for Health Care, on how the latest health care law does little to help small businesses control costs. [read more...]

Listen to Former DC Mayor Anthony Williams discuss school reform on WRKO’s Finneran & Feinberg
WRKO

Author(s): Former District fo Columbia Mayor Anthon — Press date: 2010-10-20
Category: Education
Description: Former District of Columbia Mayor Anthony Williams, a nationally recognized leader in education reform, visited Boston in October 2010 to address a forum on “School Choice Models and Public School Reform.” The event was sponsored by Pioneer Institute, the Black Alliance for Educational Options, Democrats for Education Reform, and Harvard’s Program on Education Policy and Governance. [read more...]

TWIB: Mass. gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein talks job creation


Author(s): — Press date: 2010-09-19
Category: Better Government
Description: This Week In Business) - In the Briefing Room, Massachusetts Green-Rainbow gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein talks about creating jobs by focusing on businesses that are already inside the state. Stein believes that giving away tax breaks to bring in big corporations hasn't worked. [read more...]

Can Big City Superintendents Fix Troubled Schools?


Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2010-09-19
Category: Education
Description: When Adrian Fenty was elected as the mayor of Washington DC, he worked relentlessly to gain control of the DC school board. After all, the DC public schools cost so much more than your average public school and they were among the nation’s worst performers. In 2007 he appointed Michelle Rhee as the Public School Chancellor, who immediately took some of the toughest actions one could imagine to turn around the schools, including mass principal and teacher firings, numerous school closures, strict accountability measures, and strong outreach to recruit new energetic teachers and lots more foundation funding for her school (and really district) “turnaround” efforts. [read more...]

Executives focus on states' tax rates
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-09-16
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A majority of Massachusetts business and technology leaders surveyed said taxes are the most important factor in determining if a state has a competitive business climate, and 40 percent said the state's business climate is worsening, according to the Massachusetts High Technology Council and the Pioneer Institute, a think tank. [read more...]

MHTC report shows negative effect of changing tax code
MHT

Author(s): Rodney Brown — Press date: 2010-09-16
Category: Education
Description: The Massachusetts High Technology Council has released the first of two reports on the business climate in Massachusetts that it is doing with the Pioneer Institute. The conclusion: Changes in tax policy over the past few years have led to confusion and uncertainty among CEOS, stifling growth and job creation. [read more...]

Massachusetts Savors $250M ‘Race’ Win
WBUR

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-08-25
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts learned on Tuesday it will receive $250 million as one of the winners in a U.S. Department of Education contest known as “Race to the Top.” Education, business and elected leaders who worked to win the money say it gives schools across the state the chance to transform teaching and learning. According to Gov. Deval Patrick, too many talented students have been left behind because schools couldn’t meet their needs. [read more...]

Mass. wins $250m for schools
Boston Globe

Author(s): Mass. wins $250m for schools — Press date: 2010-08-25
Category: Education
Description: The Obama administration yesterday awarded Massachusetts $250 million in a national education competition, a victory for the state that reaffirms its reputation as a national education leader and injects desperately needed money into struggling school systems. [read more...]

Many flaws in critique of Pioneer Institute
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-08-01
Category: Education
Description: ADRIAN WALKER’S column on academic standards (“Standards deviation,’’ Metro, July 24) was wrong on several fronts. [read more...]

Tuition Tax Credits in Massachusetts?
IPA

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-07-29
Category: Better Government
Description: Yup, you read that right. There’s a proposal to take the tax out of "Taxachusetts," at least as far as donations to education are concerned. Jim Stergios of Boston’s Pioneer Institute blogs for the Boston Globe that there is in fact a way to enact scholarship tax credits in Massachusetts that would withstand the state’s pretty tough constitutional bar. [read more...]

Standards deviation
Boston Globe

Author(s): Adrian Walker — Press date: 2010-07-24
Category: Education
Description: The phrase "think tank" conjures up certain adjectives: quiet, scholarly, low-key, perhaps apolitical. Almost none of those fit the Pioneer Institute, the fiery, conservative Beacon Hill group that has practically declared a jihad against the Patrick administration over the decision this week to adopt federal education standards. [read more...]

Will National School Standards Dumb Down Mass.?
BU Today

Author(s): Rich Barlow — Press date: 2010-07-22
Category: Education
Description: Today's test is multiple choice: Was yesterday’s decision to replace Massachusetts's state school standards with federal ones (a) taking something good and making it even better, or (b) a no-brainer bungle, violating the wisdom that "if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it"? [read more...]

Critics: Education test standards too Common
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2010-07-22
Category: Education
Description: The MCAS tests will be rewritten and the state’s highly touted education standards will be recast to conform to national guidelines under a plan passed yesterday that could reap the Bay State $250 million in federal funds, but lead to the dumbing-down of the state’s curricula, critics charge. [read more...]

Gatekeeper: Coverage of standards debate lacked examples
Boston Globe

Author(s): Mark Leccese — Press date: 2010-07-22
Category: Education
Description: Depending on who's giving an opinion, replacing the state’s K-12 academic standards with national standards – as the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to do yesterday – is either an important step forward or a huge mistake. [read more...]

Will National School Standards Dumb Down Mass.?


Author(s): Rich Barlow — Press date: 2010-07-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Today’s test is multiple choice: Was yesterday’s decision to replace Massachusetts’s state school standards with federal ones (a) taking something good and making it even better, or (b) a no-brainer bungle, violating the wisdom that “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”? [read more...]

States Embrace National Standards for Schools
New York Times

Author(s): Tamar Lewin — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: Less than two months after the nation’s governors and state school chiefs released their final recommendations for national education standards, 27 states have adopted them and about a dozen more are expected to do so in the next two weeks. [read more...]

Ed chief defends 'core'
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: The state’s education czar is defending his decision to back national education standards for Massachusetts, saying they are just as good and sometimes better than the current guidelines for Bay State kids [read more...]

Bianca Vazquez Toness
WBUR

Author(s): Mass. Prepares To Vote On Education Over — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education is scheduled to vote Wednesday morning on a proposal to replace state standards with national ones. If Massachusetts adopts national standards — called the Common Core — for teaching math and English, it will have a better chance of winning federal dollars for school reform. [read more...]

State board votes to adopt national academic standards
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jamie Vaznis — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: The state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted this morning to replace the state’s highly regarded academic standards with national guidelines. State education officials have been exploring the possibility of adopting the national standards for more than a year, a controversial proposition for a state known to have some of the most rigorous academic standards in the nation. [read more...]

Massachusetts Raises Concerns by Swapping State Curriculum for National Standards
Fox News

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts approved a plan Wednesday to scrap its state curriculum standards for national ones amid fierce opposition from critics who say the new guidelines will "erode" student achievement in a state that already churns out some of nation’s highest test scores. [read more...]

Mass. Adopts Common Standards Amid Fiery Debate
Education Week

Author(s): Stephen Sawchuk — Press date: 2010-07-21
Category: Education
Description: Following months of lively debate among education, civic, and political leaders, the Massachusetts board of education approved plans Tuesday to replace the state’s own English/language arts and mathematics standards with a common set of teaching guidelines now being approved in states across the nation. [read more...]

With help from Mass., feds devise sound school standards
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-07-20
Category: Education
Description: Federal academic standards have the potential to improve schools not just in low-achieving states, but also in Massachusetts. While some education reformers here are reluctant to stray from successful made-in-Massachusetts standards, the state Board of Education has good reason tomorrow to approve the so-called Common Core standards. [read more...]

Slipping standards
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-07-20
Category: Education
Description: Mitchell Chester, commissioner of elementary and secondary education, has broken his promise not to recommend inferior national curriculum standards in English and math. [read more...]

Weld: School standards plan is 'a retrograde step'
Boston Globe

Author(s): Glen Johnson — Press date: 2010-07-20
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON—Former Massachusetts Gov. William F. Weld, who signed the state's landmark 1993 education overhaul into law, is criticizing proposed changes in the public school math and English curriculum. [read more...]

Ex-commissioners endorse national education standards
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-07-20
Category: Education
Description: The two former education commissioners who guided Massachusetts through recent overhauls of its public schools endorsed a move yesterday to replace the state's highly regarded academic standards with a new set of national benchmarks. [read more...]

Boston doc's Rx for health-care woes
Boston Herald

Author(s): Christine McConville — Press date: 2010-07-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Imagine having your own health-care team. Throughout your life, whenever there's a medical concern, you would turn to the same primary-care physicians, nurse practitioners and physician's assistants. [read more...]

Standardizing Mass. Education Standards
WBUR

Author(s): Dan Mauzy — Press date: 2010-07-19
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts has long prided itself on strong academic standards. That's why many educators were surprised last week when Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester approved of the idea of adopting a "common core" of national standards. [read more...]

Last Stand in Massachusetts?
Cato@Liberty

Author(s): Neal McCluskey — Press date: 2010-07-19
Category: Education
Description: As national education standards continue their hushed and rushed adoption process, there may be only one chance left to significantly slow them down: Massachusetts. [read more...]

Literary divisiveness
Boston Herald

Author(s): Herald Staff — Press date: 2010-07-18
Category: Education
Description: A new report by Boston's Pioneer Institute think tank outlines areas where proposed national education standards are believed to be weaker than existing state standards, vague or likely to leave teachers unprepared. [read more...]

Lower education? Fed plan said to lower bar for Mass. kids
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Fargen — Press date: 2010-07-18
Category: Education
Description: An educational watchdog's report blasts new national guidelines backed Friday by Massachusetts' education czar, warning they will lead to the dumbing-down of Bay State students, according to a copy obtained exclusively by the Herald. [read more...]

Education commissioner backs adoption of single academic standard
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-07-16
Category: Education
Description: The state's commissioner of elementary and secondary education will recommend that Massachusetts replace its highly regarded academic standards for English and math with a uniform set of national standards that could ultimately lead to replacing the MCAS exams in those subjects. [read more...]

Mass. Education Commissioner Backs National Standards
WBUR

Author(s): Kathleen McNerney — Press date: 2010-07-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — State officials are signing on to national education standards in math and English — a move that some say could signal the end of the MCAS achievement tests in those subjects. [read more...]

Charles Baker plans to cap spending, boost rainy day fund
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jessica Van Sack — Press date: 2010-07-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles D. Baker says he would impose new caps on Beacon Hill spending and rebuild the state's rainy day fund. [read more...]

Bay State taxes chill business climate
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2010-06-22
Category: Better Government
Description: In the global competition for jobs and investment, costs will never be Massachusetts' strength. Instead, our advantage has always been an unparalleled concentration of colleges and universities that provide a highly skilled work force. [read more...]

Housing, homeless, health
Boston Herald

Author(s): Boston Herald — Press date: 2010-06-21
Category: Better Government
Description: While everyone is searching for a way to reduce health care costs, especially the state's growing Medicaid burden, one program has been able to do just that. Housing First, as being practiced on a pilot basis here, takes some of the chronically homeless -- those with underlying mental health and substance abuse issues -- and finds them permanent shelter, a place to call their own. And, not surprisingly, their health care costs plummet. [read more...]

Critics: Patrick's support for MCAS runs counter to bid for federal grants
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2010-06-18
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- Gov. Deval Patrick's insistence that he is not "walking away" from the state's hallmark MCAS exam had some backers of the exam scratching their heads this week. [read more...]

The real lesson in Obama's education policies
The Daily Caller

Author(s): Lance Izumi — Press date: 2010-06-17
Category: Education
Description: In a recent column, David Brooks, who fills the center-right slot on the New York Times opinion page, asserts that the Obama administration's education agenda adheres to a "measured vision of a limited but energetic government." Citing the president’s $4.5 billion Race to the Top (RTTT) education-funding program, Mr. Brooks argues that the administration "has used federal power to incite reform, without dictating it from the top." [read more...]

Business relocations aren't jackpot
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): Martin Luttrell — Press date: 2010-06-16
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: WORCESTER — As businesses relocate from one state to another, Massachusetts has had a net loss of businesses over an 18-year period, mostly to states that have a more favorable tax climate and lower business costs, according to a study released today by Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research. [read more...]

MCAS advocates weary of Patrick's tack on test
Sharon Advocate

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2010-06-16
Category: Education
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick's insistence that he is not "walking away" from the state’s hallmark MCAS exam had some backers of the exam scratching their heads Tuesday. Officials at the Pioneer Institute, a right-leaning public policy group, say the governor's statement, made during a Tuesday morning gubernatorial debate, runs counter to the state’s application for a round of federal education grants. [read more...]

How should government be more transparent? Pioneer Institute offers $1,000 for best answer
iStockAnalyst

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-06-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Want to change your government -- and make $1,000 doing it? Then the Pioneer Institute wants to hear from you. The Massachusetts think tank has launched its ultimate citizen award, a competition to hear citizens' ideas about how transparency and accountability issues in government could be solved through technology. [read more...]

How should government be more transparent? Pioneer Institute offers $1,000 for best answer
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Rita Savard — Press date: 2010-06-14
Category: Better Government
Description: LOWELL -- Want to change your government -- and make $1,000 doing it? Then the Pioneer Institute wants to hear from you. The Massachusetts think tank has launched its ultimate citizen award, a competition to hear citizens' ideas about how transparency and accountability issues in government could be solved through technology. "There's a gazillion ways you can use government data to make a decision," said Maria Ortiz Perez, a spokeswoman for the Pioneer Institute. "Whether it's identifying crime rates or gaining access to property values, we want to hear what the public wants so we can develop applications that best meet their needs." [read more...]

Plowing through the Defenses of National Education Standards
Cato@Liberty

Author(s): Neal McCluskey — Press date: 2010-06-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Arguably the most troubling aspect of the push for national education standards has been the failure — maybe intentional, maybe not — of standards supporters to be up front about what they want and openly debate the pros and cons of their plans. Unfortunately, as Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios laments today, supporters are using the same stealthy approach to implement their plans on an unsuspecting public. [read more...]

Bad news din drowns out good news
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): Clive McFarlane — Press date: 2010-06-09
Category: Education
Description: Enter the Worcester Arts Magnet School at the end of the school day and the hallway outside the school's office is likely to be occupied by several students seated at a table. It is the school's homework club hard at work. [read more...]

Making the 'middle cities' grade
Taunton Daily Gazette

Author(s): Gerry Tuoti — Press date: 2010-06-09
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: When it comes to raising test scores and lowering the dropout rate, Taunton has been near the head of the class among the other so-called "middle cities," but still has ground to make up against some more affluent school districts. [read more...]

Do you like me? Will you follow me? Social media in Mass. Gov. race
Boston Globe

Author(s): Mark Leccese — Press date: 2010-06-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Update on the Massachusetts governor’s race: Democrat Gov. Deval Patrick holds a solid lead over challengers Republican Charlie Baker and Independent Tim Cahill in Facebook likes. [read more...]

The (blunt) force behind state's education standards
Boston Globe

Author(s): Lawrence Harmon — Press date: 2010-06-06
Category: Education
Description: Board of Education member Sandra Stotsky can be abrasive, blunt, and overbearing. She’s also the best defense Massachusetts has against a decline in educational quality as state officials contemplate adopting national academic standards in place of the strong state frameworks now in place. Stotsky's term ends June 30. If Governor Deval Patrick reappoints her, it will signal his commitment to no-nonsense education. If he doesn't, the welcome mat is out for educational faddists. [read more...]

Obama and the Social Entrepreneurs: Boon, Bane or a Wash for the Nonprofit Sector?
The Nonprofit Quarterly

Author(s): Rick Cohen — Press date: 2010-06-04
Category: Better Government
Description: Every administration has its own distinctive policy fix on the nonprofit sector. With the Bush Administration, it was faith-based organizations. With the Obama Administration, the nonprofit credo centers on nonprofit social entrepreneurs. [read more...]

Holyoke 10th-graders reportedly improving in English, math at higher rate than students in similar cities
Springfield Republican

Author(s): Jeanette DeForge — Press date: 2010-06-02
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A Boston-based think tank which studied four years of state test data, showed local 10th graders are improving at a higher rate here than most of their peers in similar cities. The study by the Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research compared 14 school systems in what they called the "middle cities," or smaller cities outside Boston. Chicopee and Springfield were the only other Western Massachusetts communities included. [read more...]

Obama's 'Race to the Top' Education Fund Draws Fewer States
Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Author(s): Moira Herbst — Press date: 2010-06-02
Category: Education
Description: President Obama's Race to the Top program, designed to transform U.S. education with $4.35 billion in federal grants, attracted three fewer states to the competition's second round amid resistance to changes in teacher pay and tenure rules and states' fears that the federal government may exert too much influence over its schools. [read more...]

Area cities in ‘middle’ on MCAS
Worcester Telegram & Gazette

Author(s): Jacqueline Reis — Press date: 2010-06-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A recent report from the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based research group with conservative leanings, shows Worcester has made solid progress in increasing standardized test scores and reducing the dropout rate when compared to similar cities, but it also notes that much remains to be done. [read more...]

Obama's 'Race to the Top' Education Fund Draws Fewer States
San Francisco Chronicle

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-06-01
Category: Education
Description: President Obama's Race to the Top program, designed to transform U.S. education with $4.35 billion in federal grants, attracted three fewer states to the competition's second round amid resistance to changes in teacher pay and tenure rules and states' fears that the federal government may exert too much influence over its schools. [read more...]

Mass. wonders if race to top is worth it
Providence Journal

Author(s): Ricki Morell — Press date: 2010-05-28
Category: Education
Description: By most measures of student achievement, Massachusetts ranks first in the nation. But in the Obama administration's Race to the Top competition for $4.35 billion in federal education money, the state failed to make the grade. [read more...]

Improve government transparency
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-05-26
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: If you're a Pittsfield resident, what could you do with $1,000? Try solving the transparency and accountability issues in government. [read more...]

The End of MCAS?
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-05-24
Category: Education
Description: Last week, The Boston Globe reported that state officials are preparing a proposal to scrap the state's high stakes MCAS test. Massachusetts would join with other states to develop a unified test, which would reduce testing costs and bring the country closer to a system of national standards promoted by the Obama administration. [read more...]

Education officials may scrap MCAS test
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-05-20
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts education officials are quietly putting together a proposal to scrap the controversial MCAS exams in English and math and replace them with new tests they are developing with about two dozen other states. The proposal, described in a state memorandum obtained by the Globe, would represent a dramatic departure for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Officials have long regarded the 12-year-old MCAS exams and the academic standards on which they are based to be superior to other states. [read more...]

Enrolled, then disenrolled
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-05-18
Category: Better Government
Description: In their May 12 op-ed "Health care fails small businesses," Jim Stergios and Amy Lischko accurately identify that the Commonwealth Connector has backed away from trying to help small businesses who are already providing benefits. It seems it's not the authority’s mission anymore. [read more...]

State's approach is working
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-05-18
Category: Better Government
Description: The health insurance companies that have been fighting the decision by the Patrick administration to stand up for small businesses apparently have new allies in Jim Stergios and Amy Lischko ("Health care fails small businesses," Op-ed May 12). [read more...]

Mass. tries to get back in Race
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2010-05-16
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- President Barack Obama's competitive Race to the Top program, designed to challenge states to come up with innovative solutions to address achievement gaps among students, is living up to its name. [read more...]

Policy Fight
Worcester Business Journal

Author(s): Brandon Butler — Press date: 2010-05-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Talk about a rough first couple of weeks on the job. On Feb. 10, Worcester-based Fallon Community Health Plan’s Board of Directors named W. Patrick Hughes, a former National Football League linebacker and then vice president at the organization, as the plan’s interim president and CEO. [read more...]

Pacheco law drives up costs; Baker alone declares war on it
Boston Globe

Author(s): Scot Lehigh — Press date: 2010-05-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Welcome to round two of the Great Spring Reform Joust. Last week, readers may recall, Republican gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Baker saddled a high horse and vowed to lead a charge to revamp state government. Things took a turn toward the unconvincing, however, when the self-styled taxpayers’ champion proved less resolute than the Democratic incumbent on several difficult police reforms. [read more...]

Test case for 'reform'-minded legislators
Salem News

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-05-04
Category: Better Government
Description: Area legislators are promising swift and effective action on several bills that have been filed to reform the way agencies like the Essex Regional Retirement Board operate. But just as important to restoring voter confidence in the public pension system is ending the practice of enhancing individual benefits by legislative fiat. A 2006 Pioneer Institute report was sharply critical of this practice, noting that "loopholes and special legislation targeting specific employees or classes of employees added at least $3 billion to our unfunded pension liability." [read more...]

Probation Dept. called 'dysfunctional'
Boston Globe

Author(s): Frank Phillips — Press date: 2010-04-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Management of the state Probation Department is "dysfunctional" and lawmakers should give back to judges the power to hire and supervise key court personnel, including probation officers and assistant clerks, according to a report by a special state commission. [read more...]

Connecting immigration dots
Daily News Tribune

Author(s): Jeffery K. Schaffer — Press date: 2010-04-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Question: When will anyone connect these dots? February, 2008 the Boston City Council declares Boston a Sanctuary City claiming 1) every illegal immigrant has the unalienable right to come and live in Massachusetts, and 2) enforcing federal immigration laws violates the civil and human rights of immigrants. See Immigration Reform Law Institute (IRLI) State and Local Legislation Bulletin dated February/March, 2008, wherein the IRLI claims such declarations promote illegal immigration and lawlessness in violation of federal law. [read more...]

Diverging Views on Common Standards
Education Week: Curriculum Matters

Author(s): Catherine Gewertz — Press date: 2010-04-19
Category: Education
Description: A sample of the divergent views on common standards for you this morning. Ed Miller of the Alliance for Childhood notes the split in two pieces that ran recently in The Boston Globe and The Washington Post. In the Globe op-ed, Nancy Carlsson-Paige and Diane Levin argue that the standards won't close the achievement gap because they will do nothing to address the inequities in the education system that cause it. They say the standards will impose more rote learning on young children and drive play further from school curricula. (Carlsson-Paige, a professor of early childhood education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass., was also quoted in our story about the early childhood community's views of the common standards.) [read more...]

First ObamaCare, now ObamaEd
The Daily Caller

Author(s): Lance Izumi — Press date: 2010-04-12
Category: Better Government
Description: President Obama has extended federal control over health care and is now trying to centralize education policy by imposing Washington’s dictates on states and local jurisdictions. Though aimed at improvement, the president's agenda will weaken strong state standards, set in motion a domino effect of education nationalization, and marginalize ordinary Americans. [read more...]

Lowell 10th-graders on par with economic peers
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Aviva Gat — Press date: 2010-04-12
Category: Education
Description: The Lowell public schools are performing on par with the city's socioeconomic peers, according to a new study released by the Pioneer Institute. The study looked at 14 midsize, urban cities outside of Boston, with populations of 40,000 or higher, an average family income of $20,000 or lower and property values at about $80,000. [read more...]

Too shiny an apple
Worcester Telegram

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-04-11
Category: Education
Description: With Massachusetts and a dozen other states scrambling to regain their footing for the second round of the "Race to the Top" for federal education dollars, we couldn’t help but take note of a recent passage in John Derbyshire’s new book "We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism." [read more...]

Do we need national education standards?
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Author(s): Sandra Stotsky — Press date: 2010-04-11
Category: Education
Description: Many Americans support the idea of common, or national, standards. They believe national K-12 standards would ensure that all students, no matter where they live and what school they attend, are taught a body of common national and world knowledge, acquire a mature understanding and use of the English language, and gain enough mathematical knowledge and skill to participate competitively in the 21st Century global economy. However, we have good reason to be skeptical about this rosy expectation. There is no evidence that national standards by themselves lead to or guarantee high levels of academic achievement. And, the Common Core initiative, a joint project of the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, has yet to come up with first-class standards in mathematics or English/language arts that would make this country competitive. [read more...]

Sandy and Jay on National Standards
Jay P. Greene's Blog

Author(s): Jay P. Greene and Sandra Stotsky — Press date: 2010-04-11
Category: Education
Description: Sandra Stotsky and I have pieces in today’s Arkansas Democrat Gazette on the current national standards push. We take slightly different approaches — Sandy thinks national standards are a good idea in general but the current draft has bad standards, while I think national standards are a bad idea altogether. But we end up with the same policy recommendation — the current national standards push should be stopped. [read more...]

Lynn study finds free lunch helps MCAS focus
The Daily Item

Author(s): David Liscio — Press date: 2010-04-07
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: A study released Tuesday attributes improved academic performance among Lynn's public school students to the fact that 64 percent receive free lunch. "The percentage of students eligible for free lunch correlates highly with MCAS scores," said Dr. Robert D. Gaudet, author of "Benchmarks for Massachusetts Middle Cities: A Look at Educational Achievement," published by the independent Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

The Federal Government taking over MA state standards and assessments
WRKO Radio

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2010-04-07
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer Institute's Jim Stergios and Charlie Chieppo talk with Tom & Todd. [read more...]

Education Policy Studies
InsiderOnline

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-04-06
Category: Education
Description: Municipal Benchmarks for Massachusetts Middle Cities: A Look at Educational Achievement By Robert D. Gaudet, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research White Paper, 04/06/2010 This analysis evaluates the educational performance of the 14 school systems that comprise the Pioneer Institute’s Middle Cities Initiative. These communities, which are outside of the Boston metropolitan area, struggle to attract businesses, maintain a viable tax base, control crime, and educate their children to the level needed to succeed in today’s world. Fair to Middling: A National Standards Progress Report By R. James Milgram, Sandra Stotsky, Pioneer Institute for Public Policy Research White Paper, 04/06/2010 Many Americans support the idea of common, or national, standards. They believe that if they are properly designed and appropriately implemented, national standards would ensure that all students, no matter where they live and what school they attend, are taught a body of common national and world knowledge, acquire a mature understanding and use of the English language, and gain enough mathematical knowledge and skill to participate competitively in the 21st Century global economy. [read more...]

Ratatat, Sissy, Bay State Boom: Obama Whacks K-12 Standards
National Association of Scholars

Author(s): Peter Wood — Press date: 2010-04-05
Category: Education
Description: Last week Secretary of Education Arne Duncan announced that Delaware and Tennessee are the winners of the first grants in President Obama’s Race to the Top. That’s the initiative that will hand out billions of dollars to the states for joining a federal program to improve education. Delaware scored a cool $100 million, and Tennessee (the Volunteer state, after all) took home $500 million. Other contestants need not despair. Round two has a piñata stuffed with $3.4 billion more. [read more...]

Race to the middle?
Economist

Author(s): R.W. — Press date: 2010-04-02
Category: Better Government
Description: THIS is the last day of public comments on the draft national education-standards, which the White House is pushing hard. Most states have signed on, though Texas has rejected them outright, and some (Massachusetts, for instance) have reservations. Many who care about schools are worried the standards, intended to help guide struggling states, will end up harming successful ones. Massachusetts ranks at or near the top of most national education measures. It is a model in early-childhood education and even has top-notch vocational, technical and agriculture schools. The state’s 1993 Education Reform Act ushered in these high standards, notably mandating that students had to pass an exam in order to graduate. [read more...]

What's the future of vocational education
GateHouse News Service

Author(s): Jesse A. Floyd and Chloe Gotsis — Press date: 2010-04-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Chelmsford — In pure numbers, not many students take advantage of the vocational education offered at Nashoba Valley Technical High School. All told, about 650 students from seven towns make their way to the Westford-based school each day. [read more...]

Plan for Carney under new deal: Up to $20m in capital investment
Dorchester Reporter

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-04-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Caritas Carney Hospital will expand services and grow with up to $20 million in capital investments, and could eventually become part of a national network of hospitals, the head of the Caritas Christi system told the Reporter this week. [read more...]

What does the future hols
Bedford Minuteman

Author(s): Andy Metzger — Press date: 2010-03-31
Category: Education
Description: About 2 miles down the road from an historic park where heirloom cows munch on grass, Minuteman Career & Technical High School rises out of the nearby swampland like a Mars space hub on the cover of some 1960s science fiction story. [read more...]

Massachusetts passed over, ranks 13th in list of Race to Top finalists
Dedham Transcript

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2010-03-30
Category: Education
Description: SHARON — Massachusetts's new education law suffered a setback Monday when federal officials rejected the Patrick administration's efforts to score more than $250 million in additional federal aid and put the state near the bottom of their list of finalists. [read more...]

Bay State loses in first round of US grants for education
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-03-30
Category: Education
Description: The Obama administration bypassed Massachusetts yesterday in awarding the first grants for school innovation, a loss of $250 million for a state widely viewed as a national leader in education excellence. [read more...]

Obama’s Health Beast Squashes State Experiments
Business Week

Author(s): Amity Shlaes — Press date: 2010-03-30
Category: Better Government
Description: State attorneys general are filing lawsuits seeking to prove President Barack Obama’s health-care plan is unconstitutional. The litigation takes the spotlight away from something else about the states that matters. [read more...]

Briefly: March 26
Halifax-Plympton Reporter

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-03-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, encourages constituents to participate in the 19th annual Better Government Competition, sponsored by the nonprofit public policy research group Pioneer Institute. This yearly competition seeks to encourage ideas from the public for improving government. The theme for the 2010 competition is Governing in Times of Crisis, with a focus on budget management and savings. [read more...]

Rep. Lewis announces chance to compete for $10,000 prize
Winchester Star

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-03-26
Category: Better Government
Description: State Rep. Jason Lewis, D-Winchester, announced an opportunity for residents of Stoneham and Winchester to get involved in improving the way government works in Massachusetts. Pioneer Institute, a non-profit research group, is sponsoring the 19th Annual Better Government Competition, which seeks ideas from individuals about ways to improve the quality of government services and deliver them more efficiently. Implementation of winning ideas from previous competitions has saved the state more than $500 million. [read more...]

Pie in the Sky?
Old Colony Memorial

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-03-24
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Keep your eye on Senate bill 2331. It is intended to streamline and make more efficient and effective our state economic development bureaucracy and to take other steps to improve our economy through job creation resulting from incentives to start and grow business here in Massachusetts. The bill was presented to the Senate recently by Senate President Therese Murray, who represents the Plymouth and Barnstable District, and fellow Democratic state Sen. Karen Spilka, who represents the Second Middlesex and Norfolk District. [read more...]

Don’t let national ed reform push down standards in Mass.
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-03-18
Category: Education
Description: MASSACHUSETTS JUMPED wholeheartedly into the fight to raise academic standards when other states were content to maintain a low profile and low expectations. Now, the Obama administration and the National Governors' Association are trying to prod those other states into action by setting national standards for achievement in English and math. If the federal government starts awarding grants for adopting those standards, Massachusetts could stand to gain — but not if it is required to lower its own curriculum standards in the process. [read more...]

Hub pols take stand on graffiti
Boston Herald

Author(s): Richard Weir — Press date: 2010-03-16
Category: Better Government
Description: Jim Stergios, head of the Pioneer Institute, the conservative watchdog group, panned the plan, saying, "It’s very difficult to ask stores to do anything but keep their doors open and their folks employed. It's absolutely not the time to do this sort of thing." [read more...]

State firm on school quality
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-03-15
Category: Education
Description: The Patrick administration will not adopt national academic standards if they are lower than those established in Massachusetts, long championed as having among the most rigorous expectations, according to the state’s education secretary. [read more...]

Laboy just the latest Lawrence school leader to leave in disgrace
The Eagle-Tribune

Author(s): Mark E. Vogler — Press date: 2010-03-14
Category: Education
Description: LAWRENCE — Allegations of questionable spending practices and financial mismanagement have led to the demise of the city's last three school superintendents. First James Scully, then Mae Gaskins, and now Wilfredo Laboy have all departed in disgrace in the past 13 years. [read more...]

Therese Murray backs business tax cuts to spur jobs
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-03-13
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Senate President Therese Murray yesterday signaled her support for up to $140 million in corporate tax breaks and changes as a way to produce more jobs in Massachusetts. Speaking at an Associated Industries of Massachusetts event in Waltham, Murray pushed the overall economic package that she previously introduced - and then took her measures one step further by saying she's willing to consider specific tax measures that would help businesses. [read more...]

Murray: Senate will consider tax changes to improve business climate
Boston Herald

Author(s): Michael Norton — Press date: 2010-03-12
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — The state Senate will consider a series of corporate tax policy changes aimed at helping grow small businesses in Massachusetts and spawning new companies, Senate President Therese Murray plans to announce Friday morning. [read more...]

Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools
Whitney Tilson's School Reform Blog

Author(s): Whitney Tilson — Press date: 2010-03-12
Category: Education
Description: STOP THE PRESSES! I had no idea that we were so close to one of the most important steps we can take to improve our educational system: national standards. [read more...]

Tucker sets final agenda, Will leave office in January
Andover Townsman

Author(s): Neil Fater — Press date: 2010-03-11
Category: Better Government
Description: One of the state's most passionate opponents of gambling, Andover state Sen. Sue Tucker, will leave office in January 2011. Counter intuitively, that could be terrible news for those hoping to bring casinos to Massachusetts. [read more...]

Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Author(s): Sam Dillon — Press date: 2010-03-11
Category: Education
Description: A panel of educators convened by the nation's governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation's public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. [read more...]

Draft Common Standards Elicit Kudos and Criticism
Education Week

Author(s): Catherine Gewertz — Press date: 2010-03-10
Category: Education
Description: The first public draft of grade-by-grade common standards, released this morning, is being greeted with a mix of praise and skepticism, illustrating both the mounting consensus that the country needs to set higher expectations for all students and the many problems that complicate their adoption. [read more...]

Panel Proposes Single Standard for All Schools
New York Times

Author(s): Sam Dillon — Press date: 2010-03-10
Category: Education
Description: A panel of educators convened by the nation’s governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards on Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation’s public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. [read more...]

Nationwide school standards drafted
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Author(s): Sam Dillon — Press date: 2010-03-10
Category: Education
Description: A panel of educators convened by the nation's governors and state school superintendents proposed a uniform set of academic standards Wednesday, laying out their vision for what all the nation's public school children should learn in math and English, year by year, from kindergarten to high school graduation. [read more...]

State workers splurge on $41M buyback binge
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell and Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2010-03-09
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick's tough talk on vacation pay perks in state government has landed with a thud in the Corner Office where his top strategist and 21 other exiting staffers cashed in more than $90,500 in unused vacation days last year. Three of Patrick's ex-staffers, including former chief of staff Doug Rubin, got $11,000-plus in vacation pay upon leaving. Rubin, who made $128,000 as his top dog, now acts as the governor's re-election campaign guru, refused to comment. [read more...]

Obama wants to lower the bar at schools
Orange County Register

Author(s): Lance Izumi — Press date: 2010-03-09
Category: Education
Description: Despite the recent news that California wasn't chosen by the Obama administration as a finalist state for the $4 billion Race to the Top education-funding program, with its required adherence to new national standards in English and math, the state will still be forced to dance to the president's nationalizing tune. President Barack Obama is using a double hammer against the states to adopt the common, i.e. national, standards being developed by the National Governors Association and the nation's chief state school officers. First, under RTTT, states had to agree to adopt the national standards if they wanted to compete for these funds. While only a handful of states were chosen as RTTT finalists, states that applied to compete, including California and most others, had to commit to the national standards. [read more...]

Off with their headquarters
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-03-07
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts has labor-market pains because it's not giving enough births to companies with headquarters in the Bay State, a new study says. The report by the Pioneer Institute of Boston shows a dramatic decline over the decades in the number of firms headquartered in Massachusetts, reducing the potential total labor market here by more than 250,000 jobs. [read more...]

OT workers line pockets with stimulus dollars
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2010-03-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Highly touted Bay State job creation programs have stimulated a pile of pocket-padding overtime for state workers and detail pay for cops even as the unemployment rate continues to climb, a Herald payroll analysis shows. [read more...]

The biggest disadvantage
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steven Syre — Press date: 2010-03-05
Category: Better Government
Description: The impact of disappearing corporate headquarters has been talked to death in Boston. Turn the subject upside down and you'll see something new and disturbing. Economic research being published today by the Pioneer Institute, a conservative Boston think tank, suggests weak growth of new headquarters employment in Massachusetts is the single biggest factor behind the state’s overall jobs dilemma. [read more...]

Study links Mass. job losses to HQ decline
Boston Business Journal

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-03-05
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts lost 250,000 jobs from 1990 through 2007 due to closures and job losses affecting local businesses with headquarters in the Bay State, according to a new study from Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Rotten to the Core
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-28
Category: Education
Description: The Common Core project for national education standards is even worse than it appeared from earlier reports. Federal Education Secretary Arne Duncan should stop this fraud immediately - and then see if there is anything in the plan worth saving. [read more...]

Will Education Standards Really Help Failing Schools?
The Heritage Foundation

Author(s): Lindsey Burke — Press date: 2010-02-26
Category: Education
Description: President Obama's proposal Monday to link Title I funding to adoption of education standards has the education world abuzz. During a speech to the National Governor's Association, President Obama stated: [read more...]

Dumbing down?
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-25
Category: Education
Description: A new report by the Pioneer Institute, "Why Race to the Middle?," offers a disturbing look at the effort to establish national education standards that states will be required to adopt if they want to share in federal Race to the Top funds. The report details how a lack of public input, poor writing, misconceptions and outright errors have plagued the work of the Common Core State Standards Initiative. [read more...]

Improving business climate key to growth
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): Therese Murray — Press date: 2010-02-25
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Creating jobs. That is the key to turning our economy around and reinforcing it against future recessions. However, in order to do that we have to make a better effort to encourage business development in Massachusetts. By improving the business climate for small businesses, we are focusing on the right component of the Massachusetts economy. A recent report by the Pioneer Institute, "Failure to Thrive," makes startling and provocative findings about business size in Massachusetts. Between 1990 and 2007, the number of firms in Massachusetts increased 67 percent. But the average size of those firms has shrunk almost 40 percent. [read more...]

Stimulus signings of the times
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-02-21
Category: Better Government
Description: The new American president sat down to dramatically sign an emergency economic-recovery bill, before a multitude of media members recording every word and gesture of the historic moment. The president vowed the bill would bring prosperity for beleaguered Americans - who then watched in shock as the unemployment rate proceeded to rise in later months until it crossed the 10 percent mark. [read more...]

Pioneer Institute Launches New Resource: MassCityStats.Org
Berkshire Creative

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-15
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: How does a city stack up to others in terms of the quality of its core services? Is the city's economy growing? Is a school district doing a good job at educating your kids? Since 2008, Pioneer Institute has worked with 14 cities from across Massachusetts by asking over 160 community members and municipal leaders those same questions. They also asked them just how they could measure performance in these critical core service areas. They came up with over 600 suggestions! [read more...]

Massport salaries soar on buybacks
Boston Herald

Author(s): Joe Dwinell — Press date: 2010-02-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Nearly one-third of Massport employees jumped on the agency’s vacation buyback express last year, rolling home with more than $1 million in bonus pay - a deluxe perk doled out amid painful state cutbacks and layoffs. [read more...]

Controversy swirls around state’s acceptance of President Obama’s waiver
CapitolBeatOK

Author(s): Patrick B. McGuigan and Stacy Martin — Press date: 2010-02-10
Category: Education
Description: A former general counsel and former deputy general counsel of the U.S. Department of Education believe the agency is putting the United States on the road to a national curriculum. A new report says the agency has no legal authority for some of recent actions, including the waiver process Oklahoma education officials celebrated yesterday. The two national scholars believe the federal agency where they once worked is, in several steps (including the No Child Left Behind waivers) acting in defiance of federal laws that forbid federal direction, supervision or control of curricula, instruction or instructional materials. In a new report for the Pioneer Institute, Robert S. Eitel and Kent D. Talbert concluded (in Eitel’s words), “The Department has designed a system of discretionary grants and conditional waivers that effectively herds states into accepting specific standards and assessments favored by the Department.” [read more...]

UMass public law school approved
Daily Free Press

Author(s): Meaghan Beatley — Press date: 2010-02-08
Category: Better Government
Description: The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved a long-anticipated plan on Tuesday to merge the Southern New England School of Law with the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, thereby creating the state’s first public law school. The school is set to open in September. The University of Massachusetts School of law, expected to open in September, will offer affordable education option to law students without burdening taxpayers, officials said. "UMass feels it’s important for citizens of the commonwealth to have an affordable education," said spokesman Robert Connolly. [read more...]

The price of UMass law school
Boston Globe

Author(s): Jeff Jacoby — Press date: 2010-02-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Last week's vote by the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education to establish a state-run law school didn’t come close to passing the smell test. The vote authorized the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth to acquire the Southern New England School of Law, a small private institution that had offered to donate itself to the state. Massachusetts Education Secretary Paul Reville called the offer "an extraordinary gift" that for the first time would enable UMass to provide "an affordable, high-quality legal education," all without costing the taxpayers a dime. [read more...]

Critics: Standards push threatens ed gains
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2010-02-06
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- The effort to write a set of national academic standards for public schools has put Massachusetts in a delicate position. The state has considerably less to gain than other states around the country, but potentially a lot to lose. Caught between wanting to participate in the process while protecting the high benchmarks already set for Massachusetts students, education officials insist they will settle for nothing less than the rigorous curriculum already in place. [read more...]

Today's Show: Feds Invade Commonwealth
WRKO

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2010-02-05
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer Institute's Jamie Gass talks with Tom & Todd. [read more...]

Yippee, more lawyers!
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-03
Category: Better Government
Description: Last week Quinnipiac University in Connecticut announced plans for a new medical school, citing the pressing national need for more doctors and health care professionals. Yesterday the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education approved the acquisition of an unaccredited law school to become part of the University of Massachusetts, because . . . well, just because. The region’s best and brightest law grads who find themselves “deferred” by the firms who hired them must be amused. [read more...]

Stimulus saves hacks
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick’s economic-stimulus program is looking more like a Save-A-Hack telethon with a federal cash infusion going mostly to save jobs on the government payroll. With pink slips flying in the private sector and the state unemployment rate at 9.4 percent, a Herald review has found that more than 70 percent of jobs “created or retained” by state stimulus spending last quarter were government jobs. [read more...]

'Funny numbers' yield total headcount
Boston Herald

Author(s): Jay Fitzgerald — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Just because the Patrick administration is bragging about creating or saving 4,722 full-time equivalent jobs last quarter with stimulus dollars doesn’t mean there are 4,722 people with jobs who wouldn’t have them without government help. In the confusing world of stimulus-program accounting, the 4,722 full-time equivalent jobs actually represent the total number of hours worked by 13,882 people last quarter - whether they were part-time employees, full-time workers, contractors or just those who already had a job and had part of their salaries paid for by stimulus funds. [read more...]

Mass. Board Of Higher Ed Plans Vote On Law School
WBZ

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON (AP) ― The Massachusetts Board of Higher Education is poised to vote on a plan to create the state's first public law school. Members of the board a scheduled to meet in Bridgewater on Tuesday to vote on the proposal in which the Southern New England School of Law would donate its campus to UMass-Dartmouth. Supporters, including Gov. Deval Patrick, say the new law school will expand opportunities for students and be an economic boon to the university system. [read more...]

Obama education overhaul well received
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts school officials and education advocates welcomed yesterday President Obama’s proposal for sweeping changes in the way schools are judged on meeting federal standards, hopeful that it will focus attention on schools that need the most help while decreasing the likelihood of labeling good schools as bad. [read more...]

Citizens' ideas for better government sought
Pembroke Express

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-02-02
Category: Better Government
Description: Senate President Therese Murray encourages constituents to participate in the 19th Annual Better Government Competition, sponsored by the nonprofit public policy research group Pioneer Institute. This yearly competition looks to encourage ideas from the public for improving government. The theme for the 2010 competition is Governing in Times of Crisis, with a focus on budget management and savings. "Getting the citizens of the Commonwealth more involved in thinking about the work of government and public service is a core piece of what Pioneer is about," said Jim Stergios, Executive Director of Pioneer Institute. Entries can describe proven programs that have recently been implemented or innovations not yet undertaken. The proposal deadline is March 29. [read more...]

Study: Help homegrown firms to add jobs
Providence Business News

Author(s): Chris Barrett — Press date: 2010-02-01
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: BOSTON – Startups and companies expanding in Massachusetts create more employment than companies relocating to the Bay State from elsewhere, according to a report released last week by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

School districts having trouble finding qualified business chiefs
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Chris Camire — Press date: 2010-02-01
Category: Education
Description: Wanted: A financial whiz to manage the business end of a school district. Position comes with a salary around $120,000, great benefits and a pension. Surely, such a want ad would draw dozens of stellar applicants in this job-starved economy, right? Not necessarily. In recent years, the state has been faced with a dearth of qualified school business managers, education leaders say. The problem hit home this month when officials in Billerica and Chelmsford said only several of the candidates who applied for positions of school business manager were suitable. [read more...]

Home-grown firms key to growth, study says
Boston Globe

Author(s): Robert Gavin — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Massachusetts should focus its economic policies on nurturing home-grown entrepreneurs and companies, rather than working to entice out-of-state firms to relocate here, a study concludes. The study, from the Pioneer Institute, a conservative think tank, found job growth in Massachusetts has stagnated over the past 18 years largely because the state’s economy has not created enough new companies. Moreover, the study found, Massachusetts start-ups are employing far fewer workers than in the past. [read more...]

It’s About Creation, Not Just Relocation
National Review Online

Author(s): John Hood — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: The Pioneer Institute in Boston has issued a new report about economic-development failures in Massachusetts that, with modest changes, could have been written about the failed policies of many other states. [read more...]

OPINION: Tuition by any other name ...
Brockton Enterprise

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-29
Category: Better Government
Description: BROCKTON — We and others have repeatedly expressed our concerns about plans for the University of Massachusetts to take over the beleaguered Southern New England School of Law. Now former state Attorney General Thomas Reilly has added his opinion, saying the proposed financing plan for the school is unconstitutional. [read more...]

Cages of Their Own Design
American Enterprise Institute: Education

Author(s): Frederick M. Hess — Press date: 2010-01-27
Category: Education
Description: The education profession is notorious for its resistance to change. School leaders often claim that collective bargaining agreements, state and federal regulations, and budget concerns prevent them from pursuing effective school reform. The culture of the K-12 leadership environment is one that often seeks consensus over progress and collegiality over accountability. But breakthrough leadership is possible in schools. This Outlook offers five strategies to help reform-minded educators step boldly out of self-defeating mind-sets into the turbulence of change. [read more...]

Pain management
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick plans to release his budget proposal for fiscal 2011 tomorrow and we suspect the word of the day will be "pain" - as in, the pain of budget cuts will have to be shared across every area of state government, and he understands the taxpayers are in pain. It will take a good deal of effort, then, for the administration to explain with any credibility why it continues to support a plan for the University of Massachusetts to acquire an unaccredited law school - a plan that, it is becoming increasingly clear, will add to the taxpayers’ already considerable pain. The Board of Higher Education is expected to vote on the law school plan next week, but the folks at the Pioneer Institute this week are offering more evidence of the financial folly in a plan for UMass to accept the "gift" of the Southern New England School of Law. [read more...]

State probes Brockton charter school denial
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Education
Description: The state's inspector general is investigating a controversial charter school decision in Brockton only weeks after ripping state education officials for ramming through a Gloucester charter school under a political and "defective" process, the Herald has learned. Inspector General Gregory Sullivan’s Office is questioning whether then-Board of Education officials were "impartial (and) objective" when they denied the International Charter School of Southeastern Massachusetts in Brockton nearly two years ago. "Our review of the Gloucester matter had made us acutely interested in trying to determine whether (the decision) was done by impartial, objective criteria," said Jack McCarthy, spokesman for Sullivan. [read more...]

Patrick targets pension loopholes
Boston Globe

Author(s): Donovan Slack — Press date: 2010-01-26
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick is taking another whack at a pension overhaul in Massachusetts with new legislation designed to prevent sweetheart retirement deals and cut the overall cost of the state’s public pension system. Patrick plans to introduce a bill today that includes roughly a dozen changes to state pension law, including requiring anyone seeking special, enhanced benefits to provide an actuarial analysis of the cost before the request can be approved, according to two state officials briefed on the plan. [read more...]

Former Mass. AG: Law school finance plan unlawful
Boston Globe

Author(s): Steve LeBlanc — Press date: 2010-01-25
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON—Former Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly said Monday that the proposed financing plan for the state's first public law school is unconstitutional. Reilly said that under the Massachusetts constitution, all tuition collected at state colleges and universities must be funneled back to the state's general fund. [read more...]

Brown's Mass. Victory: The New Calculus
SmartMoney

Author(s): Lisa Scherzer — Press date: 2010-01-20
Category: Better Government
Description: The victory of Republican Scott Brown in the Massachusetts Senate race instantly alters the balance of power in Washington. Health care stocks rose Tuesday, even as voters went to the polls, on speculation that Brown would win and create an obstacle to President Obama’s health-care agenda. But it isn’t just health care: The new calculus in Senate voting could send ripples through a variety of sectors. For environmental companies, for instance, the election could represent a setback, as cap-and-trade legislation could lose support in a Senate less tightly under the Democrats’ control. And then there’s the banking industry, which could benefit from any change in a Senate bent on stricter regulation. [read more...]

State Standards Loom Large in Mass. Classrooms
Education Week

Author(s): Erik W. Robelen — Press date: 2010-01-14
Category: Education
Description: Susan E. Szachowicz still recalls the dismay she felt when the school where she is now principal got word of its first results on Massachusetts’ new statewide tests more than a decade ago. Three-quarters of the 10th graders at Brockton High School failed the mathematics exam that year, 1998. Nearly half didn’t pass the English/language arts test. [read more...]

Lawmakers pass education bill, Gov. Patrick plans to sign it
Swampscott Reporter

Author(s): Kyle Cheney and Michael Norton — Press date: 2010-01-14
Category: Education
Description: Swampscott - Swampscott's last-minute participation in the "Race to the Top" program was joined by the Massachusetts Legislature late Thursday as Massachusetts lawmakers put the finishing touches on a bill to expand charter school access in Massachusetts and to turn around failing schools Thursday, positioning the state to apply for up to $250 million in federal education funds. [read more...]

Pioneer's Jamie Gass talks with Tom & Todd
WRKO

Author(s): — Press date: 2010-01-06
Category: Education
Description: Pioneer Institute's Director of the Center for School Reform, Jamie Gass, chats with Tom and Todd about Charter Schools. [read more...]

Report: State focus on low-income uninsured left businesses wanting
State House News Service

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2009-12-22
Category: Better Government
Description: Chelmsford — A disproportionate focus on subsidized health plans for low-income state residents by state health insurance authorities has come at the expense of small business interests, a new report concluded. [read more...]

Management group should run school
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-12-16
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts' charter school model allows for increased autonomy but in return demands greater accountability. Unlike conventional public schools, if a charter school fails to measure up, the state can -- and will -- shut it down. The Lowell Community Charter Public School is learning the hard way that the state means business in its demands for progress. Yesterday, state Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester recommended the school's charter not be renewed due to its "consistent" failure to meet student achievement goals. [read more...]

Opposition to education reform was expected
Lowell Sun

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-12-14
Category: Education
Description: It comes as no surprise that Massachusetts school committees, teachers' associations and superintendents are arguing against the education-reform bill that was approved by the Senate and is awaiting House action. Unfortunately, it is standard procedure for those groups to strive to protect their fiefdoms and sources of revenue instead of fighting to improve education for all children. [read more...]

State Salvations: Local Consolidation
Milford Daily News

Author(s): Matthew Kaplan — Press date: 2009-11-27
Category: Better Government
Description: The idea of Hamilton and Wenham combining services was nothing new. After all, the two towns have shared a school district, an emergency dispatch center, library and facilities manager since the 1960s. But in 2004, town officials had another idea: Why not consolidate the towns? It might save more money and make services more efficient. [read more...]

Broadside: Healey's push for charter schools
NECN

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-24
Category: Education
Description: (NECN) - Former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey is pushing Beacon Hill to lift the cap on charter schools. She is now on the board of directors of pro-charter Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Charles Baker cooks up plan to cut pension abuse
Boston Herald

Author(s): Laura Crimaldi — Press date: 2009-11-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Job-hopping to inflate state pensions and out-the-door parachutes higher than $90,000 will be banned under a new proposal by Republican gubernatorial candidate Charles Baker, as a Herald review shows the number of retirees raking in that much or more shot up 30 percent this year. [read more...]

Democrat scandals boost Revolution 2010
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): Cynthia Stead — Press date: 2009-11-19
Category: Better Government
Description: I knew it was different when there was a line to get to the sign-in table last Sunday. In the past, when attending the Citizens for Limited Taxation annual lunches, the check-in was pretty sparse. This year, in response to the enormous outpouring of support, CLT had to book a bigger room at the last minute. Thanks to the CLT Web site, we could check and see if the lunch had any additional local tax, and Lombardo's in Randolph was surtax free! [read more...]

Union blocks teacher bonuses
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-11-18
Category: Education
Description: Grinchlike union bosses are blocking at least 200 of Boston’s best teachers from pocketing bonuses for their classroom heroics in a puzzling move that gets a failing grade from education experts. [read more...]

Charter Bill Under Attack
Boston Herald

Author(s): Hillary Chabot — Press date: 2009-11-18
Category: Education
Description: School unions swarmed the State House yesterday, leaning on lawmakers to snuff key aspects of an education reform plan that would allow more charter schools - a move that could cost the cash-strapped state $250 million in federal funding. [read more...]

Today's Show: Charter Schools
WRKO

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-16
Category: Education
Description: Some Massachusetts lawmakers, who want to keep education policy sold out to the teachers’ unions, are trying to ruin charter public school reform legislation being considered today on Beacon Hill. Pioneer Institute's Executive Director, Jim Stergios talks with Tom & Todd. [read more...]

Mayor Cory Booker to speak at Pioneer Institute dinner
Boston Herald

Author(s): Laura Crimaldi — Press date: 2009-11-12
Category: Education
Description: The Newark, N.J. mayor who carried on a facetious feud with “Tonight Show” host and Brookline native Conan O’Brien is in Boston tonight to discuss the more sober topic of urban school choice and reform. Mayor Cory Booker is the keynote speaker at the Lovett C. Peters Lecture and Dinner sponsored by the Pioneer Institute. [read more...]

Bill to boost Mass. charter schools is on fast track
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-11-12
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- The next wave of education reform in Massachusetts will seek to close achievement gaps in mainly urban school districts by doubling the number of charter schools and giving local officials wider latitude to customize education for their students. [read more...]

Former Lt. Gov. Healey Speaks For Charter Schools
WBZ

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-11-06
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON (AP) ― Former Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey is stepping back into the public spotlight. The Republican's 2006 gubernatorial candidate sent out an e-mail on Friday urging Massachusetts to lift its cap on charter schools. She is now director of the pro-charter Pioneer Institute. Healey says that with President Barack Obama setting aside $4 billion for charter school expansion, Massachusetts should try to get as much of the funding as possible. [read more...]

Enrollment decline leveling off
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Dick Lindsay — Press date: 2009-10-26
Category: Education
Description: PITTSFIELD -- While Pittsfield Public Schools continue to see a decline in student population, the percentage decrease is leveling off and far less compared to other Berkshire County communities, city school officials said. The city's eight schools as of Oct. 1 have a total enrollment of 6,181 compared to 6,291 the same time a year ago. The overall drop in enrollment of 113 students -- the same as the decrease the previous year -- indicates the rate of decline has stabilized, according to Deputy Superintendent Barbara Malkas. [read more...]

Who’s bluffing?
Worcester Telegram and Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-20
Category: Better Government
Description: Almost as soon as Gov. Deval Patrick announced further belt-tightening last week — and vowed that he was not bluffing about plans to cut some 2,000 state employees — the Pioneer Institute was out with a list of suggestions for saving the state money, from greater transparency in the compensation of employees to more expeditious disposal of surplus property. [read more...]

If Not Now, When?
iStockAnalyst

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick has the unenviable task of trying to navigate through yet another budget tsunami. But how many more times do we have to go through this exercise before Democrats on Beacon Hill realize the same old "solutions" just DON'T WORK? [read more...]

If Not Now, When?
Boston Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-19
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick has the unenviable task of trying to navigate through yet another budget tsunami. But how many more times do we have to go through this exercise before Democrats on Beacon Hill realize the same old “solutions” just don’t work? [read more...]

Our view: Growing deficit shows state must enact long-overdue reforms
Lawrence Eagle Tribune

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick and state legislative leaders promised last winter that they would enact "reform before revenue," to deal with the severity of the state's fiscal crisis. More than eight months later, they have done the opposite. And the results ought to enrage Massachusetts residents who look to their elected leaders to make tough but necessary decisions during times of crisis. [read more...]

Gov sees more cuts necessary to close $600 million gap
Martha's Vineyard Times

Author(s): Patrick O'Sullivan and Michael Norton — Press date: 2009-10-16
Category: Better Government
Description: STATE HOUSE, BOSTON, OCT. 15, 2009 - Gov. Deval Patrick called Thursday for $600 million in emergency spending cuts over the final eight months of the fiscal year, measures he said could result in the elimination of 2,000 state jobs, unilateral budget cuts, consolidation of state agencies, collaboration on energy purchases, and broader reductions across government. [read more...]

Patrick's education-reform plans are hot-button issue
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-10-14
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON -- Education reform can encompass many different ideas, but getting those involved in the decision-making process to agree on one presents a difficult, and at times contentious, challenge. A panel of stakeholders in the debate about the future of education in Massachusetts gathered at Suffolk University Law School last night to debate the merits of Gov. Deval Patrick's two main proposals to overhaul education, including a lifting of the cap on charter-school spending. [read more...]

The Republican Way to Urban Renewal
New Majority

Author(s): Charles W. Brackett — Press date: 2009-10-08
Category: Better Government
Description: An article in October 7th’s Washington Post detailed the Obama Administration’s new effort to revitalize America’s urban centers. While the rehabilitation of New York, Pittsburgh, Los Angeles and Chicago over the last two decades have led many to declare a national urban renaissance, most American cities, from Detroit to Schenectady, remain locked in a dead-end of crime, debt and deteriorating public services. To succeed, a national urban renaissance should be based on sound urban management, not just federal spending. [read more...]

State reduces five-year capital spending plan
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): Jim O'Sullivan — Press date: 2009-10-07
Category: Better Government
Description: Massachusetts will spend $1.1 billion less in borrowed money on capital improvements through the next five years under a blueprint Gov. Deval Patrick released Wednesday, as sinking revenues continue to undercut efforts to bolster the state’s physical assets. [read more...]

Costs questioned amid fiscal crisis
Metro

Author(s): Tony Lee — Press date: 2009-10-04
Category: Better Government
Description: In an economic climate that has made every penny vital to some Massachusetts residents, a handful of initiatives, tax-funded programs and whimsical payouts continue to draw the ire of those watching over wasteful government spending. [read more...]

Huzzahs for school-based management
Barnstable Patriot

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-10-02
Category: Education
Description: The Pioneer Institute has singled out Barnstable as “the only community in the Commonwealth to fully implement the concept of school-based management into its education reforms.” “Not only has Barnstable fully honored the school-based management intent of the 1993 Ed Reform law,” the Institute’s Jamie Gas declared in a press statement, “but it serves as a model for how local officials can take control over their destinies and use school innovation, administrative efficiencies, and data to drive student achievement. They should be a reform model for school districts across the Commonwealth.” [read more...]

Pension politics
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-10-01
Category: Better Government
Description: Gov. Deval Patrick and Treasurer Timothy Cahill, self-styled reformers of Beacon Hill’s political culture, both were silent yesterday on the covert pension grab by a lawmaker who voted for a landmark pension bill while quietly seeking to double his payout before the rules changed. [read more...]

Pol OK’d pension reform, but then tried to cash in
Boston Herald

Author(s): Edward Mason — Press date: 2009-09-30
Category: Better Government
Description: Scandal-plagued state Rep. Paul Kujawski voted for a landmark pension reform law only to quietly make a bid to double his pension by exploiting a loophole days before it was closed, the Herald has learned. [read more...]

No place like home:
Cape Ann Beacon

Author(s): Maura O'Connor — Press date: 2009-09-28
Category: Better Government
Description: Gloucester - Marilyn Curcuru’s parents raised her in their home on Perkins Street in Gloucester and in turn, Marilyn raised her own three children there. But when her multiple sclerosis confined her to a wheelchair and her daughter, Lynanne, began caring for her in addition to working full time, the risk that she would need to leave the house for assisted living care increased dramatically. [read more...]

E-mail flap clouds charter reform plan
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Matt Murphy — Press date: 2009-09-27
Category: Education
Description: BOSTON - The Patrick administration's efforts to push education reform, including an expansion of charter schools, took a major knock this week after e-mails surfaced exposing what looked to be the politicization of the charter-approval process. By week's end, the administration was looking to move forward from the simmering scandal, while others wondered whether the governor's agenda had suffered a fatal blow. [read more...]

Governor threatens a Hyatt boycott
Boston Globe

Author(s): Katie Johnston Chase and Megan Woolhouse — Press date: 2009-09-24
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick said yesterday that he plans to direct Massachusetts employees to boycott Hyatt hotels when conducting state business unless the chain rehires the nearly 100 housekeepers it fired last month. [read more...]

Pioneer makes being a watchdog easier
Andover Townsman

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-24
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: Most of us say we want to be informed citizens. But most of us also say we just don't have the time to do the homework required to understand and follow the labyrinthine workings of state government. Well, now somebody has done a big part of the homework for you. [read more...]

Caregiver Homes of MA Wins Pioneer Institute Award
PR.com

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, MA, September 21, 2009 --(PR.com)-- Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts, Inc., a subsidiary of Seniorlink, Inc. and an allied member of the Home Care Alliance has won the Pioneer Institute’s 2009 Better Government Competition meant to showcase innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency of government. [read more...]

Question for mayoral hopefuls: overseeing development
Fenway News

Author(s): Stephen Brophy — Press date: 2009-09-19
Category: Better Government
Description: The Boston Municipal Research Bureau and the Pioneer Institute have teamed up to identify key challenges the city faces and to ask the candidates how they would respond to them. Each day this week, MetroDesk, the Globe's local-news blog, is highlighting an issue and posting the answers from Mayor Thomas M. Menino, City Councilors Sam Yoon and Michael F. Flaherty Jr., and South End developer Kevin McCrea. [read more...]

Our view: New Web site promotes government transparency
The Eagle Tribune

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Most of us say we want to be informed citizens. But most of us also say we just don't have the time to do the homework required to understand and follow the labyrinthine workings of state government. Well, now somebody has done a big part of the homework for you. [read more...]

Dissect state spending line items
Belmont Citizen-Herald

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-18
Category: Better Government
Description: Boston, Mass. - Using data from the state comptroller, the Pioneer Institute has launched a new site, MassOpenBooks.org, intended to enable review and analysis of state payroll, spending and retiree pension data. [read more...]

MCAS scores fall shy of target
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-09-17
Category: Education
Description: BROCKTON - For the first time since testing began, more than half of Massachusetts schools are out of compliance with federal achievement standards, education officials said yesterday, a finding that raises warning flags for local educators but also sparks questions about whether the national benchmarks are too high. [read more...]

Massachusetts Think Tank Picks Up the Slack On State Spending Transparency
Center for Fiscal Accountability

Author(s): Mattie Dupler — Press date: 2009-09-17
Category: Better Government
Description: While no efforts have been made at the state level to increase spending accountability, our friends at the Pioneer Institute are not waiting around to let the light shine in on state finances. They have launched their own spending portal, MassOpenBooks, that tracks state employees' salaries and disbursements by the state. The site allows taxpayers to compare expenditures by vendor or fund or sort through expenses by category, appropriation, vendor, fund or department. Information is currently only available for the first two months of 2009, but the Pioneer Institute expects to update the portal soon. [read more...]

Think tank creates free database of state salaries and spending
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): John P. Kelly — Press date: 2009-09-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON — Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit policy think tank, has organized reams of data on state spending into a free online database that includes state worker salaries, public pensions and vendor contracts. The database, MassOpenBooks, is part of an institute mission to promote transparency in government. [read more...]

Think tank creates free database of state salaries and spending
Taunton Gazette

Author(s): John P. Kelly — Press date: 2009-09-16
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - Pioneer Institute, a nonprofit policy think tank, has organized reams of data on state spending into a free online database that includes state worker salaries, public pensions and vendor contracts. [read more...]

Mayoral hopefuls weigh in on key issues facing city
Boston Globe

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-09-14
Category: Better Government
Description: Whether the four-term incumbent keeps his job or is replaced by one of his three rivals, Boston’s mayor faces a host of challenges the next four years. To assess them, the Boston Municipal Research Bureau and Pioneer Institute have teamed up to identify key issues for the city and ask the candidates how they would respond. [read more...]

Regionalization efforts move ahead
Fall River Herald News

Author(s): Jeffrey D. Wagner — Press date: 2009-09-13
Category: Better Government
Description: DIGHTON — Subcommittees will soon form to study regionalizing certain services and there is discussion about making Fall River and New Bedford regionalization hubs, officials say. [read more...]

Advice at regionalization summit is to start small
SouthCoast Today

Author(s): Kim Ledoux — Press date: 2009-09-11
Category: Better Government
Description: DARTMOUTH — Regionalizing services is more likely to work if communities start with small goals and put a big effort into communicating, Steve Poftak, research director for Pioneer Institute, recommended during Thursday's regionalization summit at Dartmouth Town Hall. [read more...]

Institute to foster Pittsfield progress
Berkshire Eagle

Author(s): Tony Dobrowolski — Press date: 2009-09-11
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: PITTSFIELD -- Pittsfield is among 14 cities in Massachusetts that have been studied by a research institute as part of an effort to to help forge improvements in those communities. [read more...]

Union hopes to show and tell
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-09-10
Category: Education
Description: Like a Hollywood studio promoting what it hopes will be a blockbuster hit, the Boston Teachers Union has plastered large signs at subway stops and along the sides of buses trumpeting today’s opening of its own elementary school. [read more...]

What's your school's grade?
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Hiroki Sato — Press date: 2009-09-10
Category: Education
Description: During the academic year that ended June 30, 2008, Ayer High School had one teacher for every 12 students, while North Middlesex Regional High School had one teacher for nearly every 18 students. [read more...]

Lit Drop Linkage
Dorchester Reporter

Author(s): Gintautas Dumcius — Press date: 2009-09-03
Category: Better Government
Description: A brief round-up of links you might have missed. Feel free to send suggestions to gin.dumcius (at) gmail.com or mwdeehan (at) gmail.com. 1. Mayor Thomas Menino tells the Phoenix's David Bernstein that the 300 jobs figure used in the WBZ-TV debate is inaccurate. (The figure came from the Pioneer Institute and Boston Municipal Research Bureau saying Boston has 300 more jobs in 2009 than it did in 1990.) [read more...]

Institute updates progress of 'Middle Cities Initiative'
Lowell Sun

Author(s): Jennifer Myers — Press date: 2009-08-28
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: LOWELL -- Knowledge is power. That is the message representatives from the Pioneer Institute, a public-policy think tank, brought to Lowell yesterday in updating the progress of their "Middle Cities Initiative." [read more...]

Today's Topics: Charter Public Schools in Massachusetts
WRKO

Author(s): Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg — Press date: 2009-08-24
Category: Education
Description: Mayor Michael Sullivan, Lawrence mayor, joins Todd Feinburg for frank discussions on issues that effect all cities...Jim Stergios, executive director, Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based, non-partisan think tank. They’re discussing charter public schools in Massachusetts. [read more...]

Casino jobs aren’t enough
Boston Globe

Author(s): Rick Lord and Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-08-16
Category: Better Government
Description: LAST YEAR, House opposition stopped Governor Patrick’s proposal to build three resort casinos in Massachusetts. With a worsening fiscal crisis and Speaker Robert DeLeo taking a more casino-friendly stance than his predecessor, the issue is sure to reemerge this fall. [read more...]

Teacher Compensation
YouTube

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-08-06
Category: Education
Description: During a public forum led by State Representative Will Brownsberger (D-Belmont) discussing public employee compensation issues in the state on January 13, 2009, Jim Stergios, the executive director of the Pioneer Institute (a public policy think tank) explains how compensation for teachers needs to be changed to attract better teachers to public schools. [read more...]

State aided Baker's business triumph
Boston Globe

Author(s): Megan Woolhouse — Press date: 2009-08-05
Category: Better Government
Description: Former Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly and Charles D. Baker Jr. were not natural allies. Reilly, a lifelong Democrat, and Baker, a devout Republican, met in January 2000 as Harvard Pilgrim Health Care teetered on the edge of financial ruin. Baker, the company’s new chief executive, had just told the state of a $58.5 million accounting error that pushed the company’s losses to a dangerous $227 million. [read more...]

The Race Is on for School Reform
U.S. News and World Report

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-30
Category: Education
Description: President Barack Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently held a conference with some of the country's leading education stakeholders and decision makers to announce a new federally subsidized school grant competition for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. They called it Race to the Top. [read more...]

Test scores drove charter decision
Boston Globe

Author(s): James Vaznis — Press date: 2009-07-17
Category: Education
Description: For years, Governor Deval Patrick had expressed skepticism, if not downright opposition, to expanding the number of charter schools allowed in Massachusetts. As recently as January, he went so far as calling the issue a “total red herring’’ because there was still room to launch more of the schools under state law. [read more...]

Charter Schools Gain in Stimulus Scramble
The Wall Street Journal

Author(s): Rob Tomsho — Press date: 2009-07-17
Category: Education
Description: Some cash-strapped states and school districts are signaling a major expansion of charter schools to tap $5 billion in federal stimulus funds, despite strong opposition from some teachers unions. Charter schools are typically non-unionized, publicly funded alternative schools that have been widely promoted by conservatives as a needed dose of competition in public education. [read more...]

Education reform in Massachusetts: A chance for charters
The Economist

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-16
Category: Education
Description: Massachusetts ranks at or near the top of national measures of how well schoolchildren do at reading and mathematics. A leader in early-years education, it is also applauded for its vocational, technical and agriculture schools. Still, there are problems. The disparity between students in affluent districts and those in low-income urban ones is shocking. In the Concord/Carlisle school district, for instance, 92% of students graduated from high-school on time and planned to attend a four-year college or university in 2007, compared with just 12.8% in Holyoke, one of the poorest cities in the state. [read more...]

Our view: Share regional agreements
New Bedford Standard-Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-15
Category: Better Government
Description: In a report last fall, limited-government advocates at the Pioneer Institute urged the state to advance the cause of regionalized local services by, among other things, creating models for regional agreements. The idea was to give cities and towns paths they could follow. Now, in the absence of state action, Pioneer's new clearinghouse of real-life regional agreements gets the ball rolling on a smart idea. [read more...]

Cheers and Jeers
Cape Cod Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-10
Category: Better Government
Description: Treasures that washed ashore this week; flotsam we hope the next tide carries away: A natural consolidation? Following the arrest last weekend of an intoxicated boater, Karl von Hone, director of natural resources in Yarmouth, said the town tries to patrol as much water as possible but it has become more difficult in recent years because of budget cuts [read more...]

Seniorlink, Inc. Named Better Government Award Winner in Pioneer Institute Competition
Earth Times

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON - (Business Wire) Seniorlink, Inc. subsidiary Caregiver Homes™ of Massachusetts won first place in Pioneer Institute’s Better Government Competition – announced on June 22, 2009. The competition provides a forum to highlight “innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government.” [read more...]

Seniorlink, Inc. Named Better Government Award Winner in Pioneer Institute Competition
Ad-Hoc-News

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Seniorlink, Inc. subsidiary Caregiver Homes of Massachusetts won first place in Pioneer Institute's Better Government Competition announced on June 22, 2009. The competition provides a forum to highlight ?innovative ideas and programs to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of government. [read more...]

For GOP's Baker, a long resume at a relatively young age
Boston Globe

Author(s): Eric Moskowitz — Press date: 2009-07-08
Category: Better Government
Description: Not yet 50, Charles D. Baker Jr. had built a considerable resume when he first ran for public office in 2004 — the Harvard basketball player who became a think-tank dynamo, served as trusted adviser to two Republican governors, and orchestrated the turnaround of a struggling health plan. [read more...]

Ohio charter schools focus on dropouts
Lancaster Eagle Gazette

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-07-05
Category: Education
Description: Growing up poor in a violent Harlem environment, Ann Higdon took her troubles and chip-on-the-shoulder attitude with her to high school, where she was a D student who often skipped class and homework. [read more...]

Restore charters' funding
Providence Journal

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-06-23
Category: Education
Description: It is disheartening to see the Rhode Island House Finance Committee turn its back on potential federal funding and the future of kids in Rhode Island by cutting $1.5 million in proposed aid for two new charter schools (“$1.5 million in aid for charter schools cut by House panel,” June 19). [read more...]

Towns may have to make up for pension losses
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Aaron Wasserman — Press date: 2009-06-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Last year's losses in the state's pension funds raise the possibility towns might have to contribute more to their retirement systems in the coming years to compensate. There isn't necessarily a direct correlation, as many factors influence how much money a town spends annually to fund its pension obligations, and funds have more than 20 years to make up for their losses. [read more...]

Towns may have to make up for pension losses
Milford Daily News

Author(s): Aaron Wasserman — Press date: 2009-06-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Last year's losses in the state's pension funds raise the possibility towns might have to contribute more to their retirement systems in the coming years to compensate. There isn't necessarily a direct correlation, as many factors influence how much money a town spends annually to fund its pension obligations, and funds have more than 20 years to make up for their losses. [read more...]

Laws stand in the way of reforming disability retirements
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): Elizabeth Crowley — Press date: 2009-06-20
Category: Better Government
Description: It was a knee injury that Bruce Pollitt said kept him out of work for months as he collected his full pay as a Carver police officer. But after town officials accused him of faking it and voted to fire him, they let him resign instead. He then applied for, and got, a lifetime disability pension for being injured on the job. [read more...]

OUR OPINION: Pension rules for police, firefighters invite abuse
Patriot Ledger

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-06-20
Category: Better Government
Description: It is indefensible that a police officer or firefighter can smoke, drink or eat to excess and then cash in on the resulting health problems with a tax-free pension. Presumption laws, passed 49 years ago, deem any heart problem or high blood pressure experienced by a firefighter or police officer as job related and therefore it automatically qualifies them for a disability pension. Among firefighters, lung disease and many cancers also mean automatic qualification for such benefits. [read more...]

Pension panel wants to lay out issues
Burlington Union

Author(s): Kyle Cheney — Press date: 2009-06-19
Category: Better Government
Description: After tensions flared during the group’s monthly meeting, members of a special commission studying complexities of the state pension system agreed Monday to scrap a planned July 1 interim report in favor of a "background document" that lays out issues without drawing conclusions. [read more...]

Ed reform's a start, but miles left to go
Fall River Herald News

Author(s): Charlie Chieppo and Jamie Gass — Press date: 2009-06-19
Category: Education
Description: A new study confirms what most observers suspected: Massachusetts’ education reform has been an historic success, but much still needs to be done to narrow stubborn achievement gaps between high- and low-income students. [read more...]

Boston Independence Day Tea Party Rally
pr.com

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-06-11
Category: Better Government
Description: On Saturday, July 4th, citizens from around New England, concerned about the unrestrained growth in the size and scope of government will rally to promote individual liberty, free market ideals and Constitutional principles. The rally, to be held on the Boston Commons from 12 pm to 2 pm and at Christopher Columbus Park on Boston Harbor from 3 pm to 6 pm, will feature speakers from grassroots, business and conservative policy leaders. [read more...]

Mass. Legislature Closes Pension Loopholes
WBUR

Author(s): MARTHA BEBINGER — Press date: 2009-06-11
Category: Better Government
Description: The House and Senate plan to pass a consolidated pension reform bill Thursday that they hope will help restore public confidence in the battered chambers. The legislation proposes to close loopholes that a modest number of state employees have used to pad pensions and trigger early retirements. But it is, in the eyes of supporters and analysts, a first step. [read more...]

Menino promotes charter schools
Boston Globe

Author(s): Michael Levenson — Press date: 2009-06-10
Category: Education
Description: Mayor Thomas M. Menino, who for years has expressed deep reservations about one of the most fundamental innovations in public education, abruptly shifted course yesterday and said he wants to turn the city's poorly performing schools into new charter schools. [read more...]

Minnesota must recover school-reform lead
Grand Forks Herald

Author(s): Tom Dennis — Press date: 2009-06-02
Category: Education
Description: Amazing reforms are roiling the surface of American K-12 education. At long last, visionary educators may have cracked the code underlying the black-white achievement gap, for example. Meanwhile, Massachusetts has shown how to ratchet up statewide achievement-test scores to rival the world’s best. [read more...]

Hold onto your wallets, it's going to be an expensive ride
The Salem News

Author(s): Barbara Anderson — Press date: 2009-05-21
Category: Better Government
Description: Governor Deval Patrick, in an effort to let us know how serious the budget crisis is, says that "if we fired every single state employee, we'd still have a billion-dollar hole." Of course we would. Many of those employees would go out on instant pensions. Others would collect unemployment, have state-subsidized health insurance, or get a job at one of the independent authorities where they would start to accrue bigger pensions like those available at the MBTA after 23 years. [read more...]

Stergios: Hearing the truth
MetroWest Daily News

Author(s): Jim Stergios — Press date: 2009-05-17
Category: Better Government
Description: The season of commencement speeches has begun. Expect good cheer from the podium, but, dear graduates, you, and we, would benefit from the truth. In normal times, graduation ceremonies are pageants of possibility, when we celebrate new additions to the ranks of adults. These are not normal times. It is an uncertain and troubling time to exit the confines of academia. [read more...]

It’s a crisis when . . .
Boston Herald

Author(s): Michael Graham — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Better Government
Description: You call this a “crisis”? While Senate President Therese Murray and her fellow legislators use phrases like “doom and gloom” and “disaster” to describe the state budget, I notice two other words that keep popping up: Quinn bill. [read more...]

Police Chiefs Threaten To Quit Over Quinn Bill
WBZ TV

Author(s): Beth Germano — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Better Government
Description: It's one of the most controversial topics on Beacon Hill, the Quinn Bill that provides salary hikes for police officers with college educations. [read more...]

Perry on Sales Tax Increase
Cape Cod Today

Author(s): — Press date: 2009-05-15
Category: Economic Opportunity
Description: If taxes are the answer to our slow economy, it should be to lower them and let the American people stimulate the economy. Government does not need or deserve any additional tax revenue. The well publicized ethical and patronage problems within state government need to be corrected rather than additional taxation of the hard working people of Massachusetts. Sadly, it once again appears the solution to this year's budget crisis will be to continue the earmarking and pork spending with additional taxes to fund them. The battle continues! [read more...]