Gov. Healey has an opportunity to lead by joining three other governors who have opted out – Gov. Tina Kotek in Oregon, Gov. Tim Walz in Minnesota, and Gov. Tony Evers in Wisconsin – and taking a stand for all students, while the federal government works to publicly subsidize private schools.
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts began the Revolution. We should lead the way in showing how to live up to its ideals.
Time and again this Commonwealth has demonstrated that progress begins when people are willing to challenge the status quo.
Posted inOpinion
All politics is local — even the Declaration of Independence
“What I found to my surprise,” said Maier, “was this mass of local ‘declarations of independence,’ the greater part of which come from Massachusetts.”
Posted inOpinion
Haverhill sewage spill underscores urgent need to fund climate-related infrastructure
Massachusetts has spent decades investing in cleaning up our waterways, but we have not invested enough in maintaining and modernizing the infrastructure that keeps them clean.
Posted inOpinion
Honoring America’s promise by reading Frederick Douglass
In one of the greatest statements on American history ever written, Douglass demands that the country live up to the promises of 1776.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts is failing to keep kids safe online. It can start by criminalizing AI-generated child pornography
THE GREATEST THREATS to children’s safety are no longer confined to dark alleys or strangers cruising in vans. They are embedded in the digital spaces children enter every day — […]
Posted inOpinion
Why generic AI policies won’t protect students from AI sexual exploitation
When technology is used to fabricate sexual images of children, the response cannot be a vague AI policy, a delayed committee review, or a scramble after the images have already spread. It has to be immediate, concrete, and centered on protection: preserve the evidence, support the targeted student, notify families, stop the circulation, and hold those responsible to account.
Posted inOpinion
We are shortchanging rural schools and the students they educate
An overhaul of the state’s approach to funding rural school districts is desperately needed in order to provide their students with the education they deserve.
Posted inOpinion
$1.25 billion available for students. Why would Massachusetts say no?
Massachusetts Democrats do not need to embrace Donald Trump’s education vision to recognize an opportunity when they see one.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts is a leader in public education — but not for students with disabilities
Those navigating the state’s special education complaint process often describe experiences marked by lengthy delays, procedural obstacles, limited remedies, and a growing perception that the system is more responsive to institutional interests than to the needs of children.
Posted inOpinion
DiZoglio’s campaign to audit the Legislature is fueled by misinformation, political ambition, and personal attacks
There has been no better example in Massachusetts politics of the chasm that exists between what is actually true, and what the loudest voices are willing to say for their own personal gain, than the legislative audit spectacle.
Posted inOpinion
Family, friend, and neighbor child care providers are essential for families and the economy. State policy should treat them that way.
FFN caregivers are the reason parents can get to work, keep their jobs, and provide for their families. Yet for years, policies shaping Massachusetts’s childcare system have failed to reflect that reality.
Posted inTechnology
Congress shouldn’t block Massachusetts from protecting workers from AI
AS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE races forward with lightning speed, Congress is scrambling to catch up. Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have proposed various bills to address the […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t ban data centers. Build better rules.
Through policies rooted in transparency, stewardship, and innovation, Massachusetts can open the door to right-sized, smartly sited data centers.
Posted inOpinion
A new high school or housing? Here’s how Boston could have both.
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.
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.
