AS OUR PRESCHOOL year comes to a close this August, the children are taking turns leading their peer group during project time. One child orchestrated a Beyoncé dance party, another taught their peers about ventriloquism with our fuzzy animal puppets, and yet another opted to lead a walk through our neighborhood. They chose the route, […]
Education
Posted inEducation
After affirmative action blow, legacy preference draws focus
AFTER THE US SUPREME COURT ruled this spring to significantly scale back higher educational institutions’ use of affirmative action, advocacy and civil rights groups wound up for a counter-punch at Harvard. America’s oldest university, and its policy of allowing for legacy admission preference, is in the crosshairs of both a federal investigation and a civil […]
Posted inEducation
Four big mistakes government makes in economic development — and how to avoid them
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT has launched its most ambitious investment in economic development since the Great Depression. With the CHIPS and Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act, not to mention the flexible funds that have been deployed through the American Rescue Plan, there is more than $2 trillion in new money […]
Posted inEducation
UMass Dartmouth arts college exiting downtown New Bedford. Who’s to blame?
THE ABRUPT announcement Monday that the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s College of Visual and Performing Arts would be immediately vacating a downtown New Bedford building, where it’s been housed for 22 years, has sent an unwelcome jolt through the Whaling City and entire South Coast region. Nearly everyone seems to lament the sudden turn of […]
Posted inEducation
For Campbell, case against Malden charter school is also good politics
IT MAY NOT BE at the level of Nixon-goes-to-China, when an inveterate cold warrior became the unlikely US president to establish diplomatic relations with a long-time communist foe. But Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s move earlier this week to take a Malden charter school to court over its refusal to comply with numerous public records requests […]
Posted inEducation
In-state tuition, financial aid in sight for undocumented students
AFTER TWO DECADES of advocacy on Beacon Hill, Massachusetts is set to join about two dozen other states in removing a high-profile barrier to undocumented students in higher education. The final $56.2 billion compromise budget for fiscal year 2024 includes a Senate provision that would allow all students, regardless of immigration status, to qualify for […]
Posted inOpinion
Online lottery is wrong way to go
THERE IS A debate about school funding on Beacon Hill that is getting very little public attention. The annual midsummer rite of the Massachusetts budget negotiation is upon us, as the Commonwealth’s legislators and the governor hash out how we spend approximately $56 billion. The vast majority of the budget will fund programs, services, and […]
Posted inArts and Culture
Drag queen story hours: pulling back the sequined curtain
ON A TOASTY JUNE DAY, the tinkle of a ukulele and cheerful outbursts from children bounced around an unassuming Brookline library building. Just a short stroll from the Chabad Center of Chestnut Hill, visitors entering the library walked past a Star of David composed of interlinked rainbow arms declaring “Together Against Antisemitism;” a bold blue […]
Posted inOpinion
Affirmative action is dead; long live affirmative action
“The big, well-funded, elite research institution is a particularly American phenomenon and represents one of the country’s greatest contributions to the world of knowledge. But…I wonder if America’s success at providing for the top of the pyramid, at creating places for future geniuses to be taught by current geniuses, sometimes blinds us to a more […]
Posted inOpinion
Police, metal detectors wrong answer in Boston Public Schools
RECENT headlines have focused on a survey conducted by the MassINC Polling Group about school safety in Boston Public Schools. Out of the more than 800 families surveyed, 76 percent of parents said they support metal detectors in school and 75 percent said they favor returning police officers to schools. Some have interpreted the survey […]