A dangerous demographic cliff lies just ahead: There’s been a lot of chatter about the vast demographic bulge that we call “baby boomers” passing 65; but the real news is that the oldest baby boomers will begin celebrating their 85th birthdays in 2031.
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Behind closed doors, big decisions loom on health care affordability
The rationale for closed-door talks is that it allows participants to take real risks. Without that courage, privacy becomes insulation rather than incubation.
Posted inOpinion
DiZoglio strikes back, but is she firing blanks?
Absent extraordinary circumstances, it is not for unelected judges to decide whenand how litigation should be pursued in the name of the Commonwealth’s citizens.
Posted inOpinion
In Wellesley, a determined effort to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
What’s unfolding in the wealthy Boston suburb is not that different from other situations across the state when communities and leaders with the best of intentions lose their resolve.
Posted inOpinion
Reviving the MBTA’s Fiscal and Management Control Board would set the agency back
Much of today’s investment is a direct response to years of deferred maintenance and staffing shortages—conditions that worsened under the austerity-driven approach of the T’s control board.
Posted inOpinion
The ‘Right to Read’ bill must include teacher preparation
The state Legislature appears poised to pass the “Right to Read Act” — legislation that would require school districts to adopt evidence-based literacy curricula. With more than half of students […]
Posted inOpinion
In the face of efforts to erase parts of US history, Massachusetts must take a stand
As the federal government creates gaps in the record, we can support organizations filling the voids with voices from the past and present who speak to the core values of the Declaration of Independence — and its complicated legacy.
Posted inOpinion
Applying for financial aid should be a Massachusetts high school graduation requirement
Making FAFSA completion a graduation requirement in Massachusetts isn’t about mandating college. It’s about removing barriers and expanding opportunities.
Posted inOpinion
How Boston – of all places – offers lessons for the NFL on hiring diversity
Boston has learned, slowly and imperfectly, that inclusion doesn’t happen at the finish line. It comes from institutions and leaders who invest in pipelines and relationships long before that point.
Posted inOpinion
Gov. Healey’s budget plan is spending Massachusetts into a corner
Tax revenues are slowing, costs are rising, and the Healey administration continues to grow state government as if the bill will never come due.
Posted inOpinion
As Super Bowl fever — and betting — surge, Kayshon Boutte’s story highlights a growing risk for young people
WITH THE PATRIOTS heading back to the Super Bowl this Sunday after an improbable turnaround following two straight losing seasons, excitement across New England is reaching fever pitch. But the […]
Posted inOpinion
Transparency in procurement can help close the racial wealth gap
Procurement transparency may sound technical. In reality, it goes to the heart of how wealth is built—or excluded—in the Commonwealth.
Posted inOpinion
Canceling citizenship ceremonies at Faneuil Hall was an affront to its history
This wasn’t just a canceled ceremony; it was the quiet erasure of a tradition that once made American citizenship visible, contested, and public.
Posted inOpinion
The MBTA Communities law was a good start. But it won’t deliver transit-oriented development – or solve our housing shortage.
The MBTA Communities law is better understood as a leveling up exercise, or a fair-share zoning law.
Posted inOpinion
Proposals to remove dams unleash debate over which history to honor
Across Massachusetts, communities are confronting a centuries-old legacy that is now doing more harm than good. The preservation of an obsolete dam implicitly privileges colonial and industrial history over a river’s deeper history as living infrastructure.
Posted inOpinion
Here’s how modernizing the licensing of physician assistants will help Mass. compete for federal dollars
MASSACHUSETTS HAS LONG benefited from its reputation as a national leader in health care policy and delivery. That leadership, however, also brings fiscal exposure. Because the Commonwealth expanded Medicaid earlier […]
Posted inOpinion
The Massachusetts data privacy bill is a threat to small business
The legislation’s aims are laudable. But several of its proposed restrictions on data collection and use are likely to hurt small businesses — which employ nearly 45 percent of the state’s workers and are critical to our economy.
Posted inOpinion
What we’re doing to treat ADHD isn’t working. Here’s what would.
There needs to be a wholesale rethinking of our approach to ADHD, one that is guided by evidence and a better understanding of the dynamic nature of attention problems.
Posted inOpinion
Can Healey’s health care affordability push actually move the needle?
For now, the announcement of the new working group offers promise, not proof. Whether it delivers real affordability will depend less on process and far more on what happens if meaingful recommendations hit the Legislature.
Posted inOpinion
Why Massachusetts must get serious about state spending
Massachusetts is firmly in a parochial phase, reflected in policy choices over the past decade that have led to job losses, rising living costs, and outmigration of talent and investment.
Posted inOpinion
What ICE is doing is abhorrent. But here’s why canceling the state contract to house its detainees might not be the right thing to do.
As with all policies, it is important not to make decisions from afar. We must listen to people who are actually impacted.
Posted inOpinion
The state can accelerate the move away from natural gas with one step
The Department of Public Utilities faces a choice: proactively lead the next transition, as it did before, or let gas utilities trap customers in a failing system.
Posted inOpinion
Sensible reforms can make solar a bigger part of the answer to the energy affordability crisis
Breaking this cycle requires unleashing local solar and storage so we can generate affordable electricity right here in Massachusetts. Solar and batteries keep getting cheaper, while the cost to supply and deliver gas is only rising.
Posted inHousing
Boston’s broken land use system blocks the homes we desperately need
Rather than reflecting some sort of democratic ideal of local control, Boston’s process empowers those who already have housing to block housing for those who do not.