Facing shortages of housing and open land in our densest cities, we should not construct a police station, a fire station, a library, or a school without providing opportunities for housing to be constructed above.
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
An ode to the 71 bus: How ‘familiar strangers’ form a small part of the community we desperately need
The bus will hardly be the solution to the loneliness epidemic. But it can be a small part of it.
Posted inOpinion
Including end-of-course testing in new graduation requirement unlikely to do much good
New test mandates like those in the governor’s proposal are not likely to help our children prepare for satisfying and productive adult lives.
Posted inOpinion
Local wetlands and water resource rules are crucial for affordable housing – not barriers to its construction
While advocating for increased housing supply, we can and must protect our water supplies from pollution and ensure that housing development is accelerated in places and ways that are safe, healthy, and resilient.
Posted inOpinion
I co-authored the Commonwealth’s report on school segregation. Two years later, it’s time for Massachusetts to act.
We need a two-pronged approach: generational investments in urban and Gateway districts to modernize facilities and develop appealing and effective community schools alongside policies and investments designed to make public school district boundaries more porous, including the expansion of inter-district school choice and programs like Metco, as well as the creation of regional magnet schools.
Posted inOpinion
The House’s anti-transparency bill
This bill is not transparency. It is a legislative workaround dressed up as reform.
Posted inOpinion
When it comes to CVS MinuteClinic plan, Massachusetts needs more primary care – but without Mass General Brigham prices
Massachusetts should not have to choose between expanding primary care and protecting affordability.
Posted inOpinion
Ending the requirement that legal ads be published by news outlets would harm democracy and journalism
Legal ads are one leg of a three-legged stool — along with public-records laws and open meetings — ensuring government transparency.
Posted inOpinion
Lack of contested legislative races and overflow of ballot questions reflect democracy in decline
The many ballot questions but few contested legislative races is less a study in contrasts than a snapshot of correlates.
Posted inOpinion
SJC should let tax-cut question stay on the ballot
The court’s role is only to determine whether the ballot summary fairly explains the proposal. Under both common sense and longstanding court precedent, it plainly does.
Posted inOpinion
Congress must act now on AI
No federal agency has clear authority to step in when something goes wrong. While some have argued there is still plenty of time for Congress to act, I would say, look around.
Posted inOpinion
Dual language immersion programs are a huge asset to our schools. The state should stop treating them as an afterthought.
Every spring, the state celebrates high school graduates who receive the Seal of Biliteracy, while failing to build the dual language programs that would make bilingualism truly accessible to far more students.
Posted inOpinion
We banned cellphones in our schools. It’s had a powerful, positive impact on students.
What our kids really need isn’t constant contact, it’s confidence.
Posted inOpinion
The answer to the school desegregation lawsuit? Revive urban communities.
This long-overdue school desegregation lawsuit may provide the push we need to change the conversation from cross-district enrollment to place-based revitalization of urban neighborhoods.
Posted inOpinion
Limits on local cooperation with ICE more urgent than ever
Sanctuary policies like the PROTECT Act have been the subject of public rancor and misunderstanding over the past year. These debates, though, often miss what sanctuary policies do – and what they do not.
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Cranky, perhaps. But Barney Frank’s accessibility and honesty were a breath of fresh air.
Frank was consistently accessible, ever quotable, always on the record, and honest to a fault.
Posted inOpinion
Mass. environmentalists have lost the plot on energy affordability
People can want offshore wind, solar, storage, hydro, geothermal, efficiency, and new technology – while also supporting natural gas as an affordable and reliable bridge to that transition.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts must stop separating siblings in foster care
IN NOVEMBER 2024, when I launched Kicking It Together, a soccer program for kids in foster care, I hoped it would be a fun, recreational outlet for children going through […]
Posted inOpinion
What does $1.7 billion get you in the Boston Public Schools? Abysmal student achievement and declining results.
A majority of Boston students are unable to read or do math at grade level. In a district spending $1.7 billion a year, it should be unconscionable to rest on good intentions without the ability to show real results.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts should join the 43 states that allow psychologists to provide telehealth therapy across state lines
Competing priorities and legislative inertia are the only reasons Massachusetts has not caught up to the other states that have already taken this step to enhance access and continuity of behavioral health care.
Posted inOpinion
Hampshire College, as we know it, is closing. We still think it has a future.
The question is no longer whether Hampshire’s existing financial model is viable—it is not—but whether what remains can be guided through a structured transition rather than resolved through rapid liquidation.
Posted inOpinion
The Health Policy Commission is concerned about health care costs — but powerless to do much about it
It was created in 2012 as part of legislation aimed at containing health care costs, but not vested with much authority.
Posted inOpinion
Voting Rights Act ruling can harm belief in fair representation, even in bluest states like Massachusetts
Civic participation is shaped as much by trust as it is by policy. That’s why leadership at the state level must be proactive, visible, and unequivocal in the face of federal rulings that set us back.
Posted inOpinion
Norwood Hospital was done in by inadequate state regulations. Here is the fix.
Massachusetts has shown it knows how to prevent the next Norwood-like crisis. The question is whether it will build the tools to help the communities already living through one.
