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 […]
Opinion
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.
Posted inOpinion
Amid severe weather, Massachusetts must invest in protecting nature for all
Trees, parks, and green spaces are not just nice to have—they are critical, low-cost infrastructure that provide nature-based solutions to bolster climate resilience.
Posted inOpinion
As AI transforms the economy, Massachusetts needs a plan for its workforce
Technology has always changed work. What makes this moment different is the speed, scale, and breadth of change, and the absence of a coordinated response. If we fail to act, we are not witnessing inevitable progress; we are permitting displacement by design.
Posted inOpinion
The top 5 CommonWealth Beacon commentary topics in 2025
Thoughtful CommonWealth Beacon opinion pieces offered a stark contrast to a year of oxygen-sucking pronouncements by a president whose coarsening of public debate commanded nearly nonstop headlines.
Posted inOpinion
Voters said no to one-size-fits-all tests. The governor’s graduation framework can’t let them go.
Piling multiple layers of new requirements on our students will create new obstacles rather than providing opportunities for them to increase their life skills and pursue their individual goals.
Posted inOpinion
Instead of a war on poverty, we wage war on the poor
EVERY SAFETY NET in this country has been stitched with holes just wide enough for many of us to slip through. We’ve recently had a front row seat to this […]
Posted inOpinion
Beacon Hill’s new rules are good. They should follow them.
Everyday people–and not just advocates deep in the trenches–are seeing that things need to change.
Posted inOpinion
Why are we looking to deport ambition?
These students are tomorrow’s nurses, engineers, teachers, artists, and entrepreneurs. Driving them from classrooms is a moral failure, but also an economic one: It makes the next generation smaller, less educated, and less able to compete in a global economy that depends on talent and drive. We are shooting ourselves in the foot.
Posted inOpinion
New graduation requirement must include rigorous statewide standards
Ensuring a reliable, objective measure of student competency must remain a top priority. Our students deserve rigorous statewide standards, not subjective benchmarks at a district’s discretion.
Posted inOpinion
We can’t sit idle as Washington pulls the plug on the Massachusetts innovation economy
The Commonwealth needs to act boldly and creatively to respond to the threats to its innovation economy. Fighting to reverse these moves in Washington should be a top priority, but we surely can’t count on that happening.
Posted inOpinion
State antisemitism commission report is a strong call to action
The recommendations of the antisemitism commission focus on Jewish students, because that is they who have an unprecedented need for timely, effective intervention.
Posted inOpinion
The state commission on antisemitism doubles down on its mistakes
The report’s concern is not with universal rights but with how anti-Israel speech makes some Jews feel, an approach that can only make antisemitism worse. It distracts from the interests that Jews share with all minorities in vigorous civil rights guarantees.
Posted inOpinion
I’ve seen hate up close. The antisemitism commission’s recommendations can help stop it.
We know from our own lives that antisemitism, if left unchecked, doesn’t stay contained. We must confront it with interventions that work, and the state commission offers reasonable, practical, common-sense safeguards against allowing yesterday’s hate to masquerade as today’s education.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts lawmakers must reject the antisemitism commission’s flawed recommendations
The question isn’t whether to fight antisemitism. It’s how to fight it without sacrificing the democratic rights that actually keep Jewish people—and everyone else—safe.
Posted inOpinion
Massachusetts lagging on implementation of data equity law
Over two years since the law’s passage, we have seen little progress and movement on implementation, and our residents are continuing to suffer the consequences.
Posted inOpinion
Efficient electric equipment, powered by clean sources, is the answer to the energy affordability crunch
Better equipment and cheaper energy sources are critical to achieving an affordable energy future.