Advantage Schools, Inc. & Gabrieli
Long before Gabrieli was a candidate for governor, the Boston Globe’s Scott S. Greenberger wrote a fascinating article about Advantage Schools, Inc. In the May 13, 2001 article, readers are told:...
View Article“Another market on the edge of change.”– Gabrieli
Flashback to my August 19 post connecting the dots of Gabrieli’s investments in Advantage Schools, and the Lexington Institute quote: While still a long way from achieving profitability, leading...
View ArticleChapter 40T, Special Development Districts, is back
Chapter 40T, left in limbo last year, is back (S146/H159) and moving through the legislature quickly; it's already out of the Community Development and Small Business committee and before the Bonding...
View ArticleThe ongoing canard about Fernald
In the years I worked for COFAR, I was never able to get the Globe or the media in general to understand that using a per-person cost figure at an institution like Fernald, without making an...
View ArticleThe Continuing Attack on Bureaucracy
I focused on Chapter 3 of Kamarck's book, titled “Democratic Accountability,” in which she lays out the basis of her argument that traditional bureaucracies have depended on adherence to rules and...
View ArticleWhy aren’t the candidates talking about our hollow government?
[Cross-posted from the Accountable Strategies blog] The book details how Halliburton has used $20 billion in public reconstruction funds to build “city-states” for the thousands of contractors that...
View ArticleFernald and the folly of unchecked privatization
By way of disclosure, I have been working as a consultant to The Fernald League for the Mentally Retarded, Inc., a nonprofit, family-run organization seeking to keep Fernald open. However, I’ve...
View ArticleDMR moving elderly Fernald resident against her wish
Meagher maintained that despite U.S. District Court Judge Joseph Tauro's ruling last year that Fernald must remain open to its current residents, the Patrick administration “is trying to subvert that...
View ArticleDMR community staffing data raises question on ‘equal-or-better’ care for A.T.
You may recall that we reported here that A.T. was transferred out of Fernald in February, apparently against her will, and moved to a newly constructed group home in Bedford. The circumstances...
View ArticlePrivatization and Public Structures
Alliance of Boston Neighborhoods organizer Shirley Kressel says in a Boston Globe op-ed that the group has filed a bill that would tap the state budget to the tune of $5.5 million a year to run the...
View ArticleThe Patrick administration’s community care plan doesn’t connect the dots
But let's get back to the overall skimpiness of the plan. It has broad goals, but in key respects, it doesn't say how those goals will be achieved. It's first two goals, for instance, are 1) Help...
View ArticleState human services vendors starting their victory dance
…the era of Dickensian, deservedly maligned institutions housing those who are least able to voice their objections to them must come to an end, beginning this June 30 at Fernald. “Dickensian,” Leo?...
View ArticleHow government can regain its capacity to manage the oil spill
Why is this? Have we, in fact, become a “hollow state” in which public agencies have little ability left to do anything other than rubber stamp corporate activities, many of which seem irresponsible...
View ArticleA case for keeping the Pacheco Law
GOP gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Baker has listed repealing the Pacheco Law as one of his “Baker’s Dozen” proposals for reducing public sector costs. The Boston Globe has editorialzed against the law...
View ArticleA case for keeping the Pacheco Law — an update
(Posted on behalf of The Fernald League, Inc.) Last week, I posted a (lonely) defense of the Pacheco Law here in the face of a continuing onslaught of calls for its repeal. I noted that GOP...
View ArticleTV interview re Managing Public Sector Projects
I was interviewed recently on Danvers cable access TV about my new book, Managing Public Sector Projects: A Strategic Framework for Success in an Era of Downsized Government. The book has been moving...
View ArticleOur circular state policy game
The foundations warned that we mustn't falter in this reform effort, according to the Globe, because that would be a sign of “bureaucratic inertia, union resistance, or political malaise.” It's...
View ArticleThe politicized presidency
The question the authors leave unanswered is how far the Obama administration intends to go, or has gone, to de-politicize the office of the presidency. They point out that Barack Obama made an early...
View ArticleGuardians’ rights upheld…in other states
Both court decisions reject anti-institutional biases of groups and organizations ranging from state vendors to the U.S. Department of Justice. In the Tennesse case (People First of Tennessee vs....
View ArticleConference Oct. 16 of interest to BMG-ers (and others) concerned about public...
CITIZENS FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS ISSUES CONFERENCE: “Taking Back Our Schools: Promoting Equity and Excellence in Public Education.” Rep. Carl Sciortino, Melissa Colon, (Gaston Institute), Jose Lopez...
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