AS STUDENTS IN BOSTON and across the country continue to reel from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a lot of conversation about the importance of students receiving the education funding they need. By March 2021, the federal government had committed an unprecedented extra $190 billion to public schools, of which Boston […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
The MBTA is in crisis. Let’s treat it that way.
AT A CRITICAL moment in Shakespeare’s King Lear, the raging, aging king bellows into the fury of a great storm, defying nature to “Blow, winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow! . . . spout till you have drenched our steeples.” He goes on a while in this manner, venting his anger against the treachery […]
Posted inEnvironment
For environmental justice communities, tackling climate change can’t wait
IN THE FINAL days of summer, the Commonwealth is looking back at a season of near-record rainfall, multiple heat advisories, and dangerously smoky air. The classic Massachusetts summer filled with bike rides along the Charles and Red Sox games has looked much different this year. Extreme heat events have claimed more lives in the United States over […]
Posted inEnergy, Environment, Opinion
Polluters should fund measures to combat climate change
AUGUST MARKED THE first anniversary of the federal Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the largest investment in clean energy in our nation’s history. Still, climate doomsday stories and hostile weather tragedies drive the news coverage and are irresistible clickbait. Sadly, they lead the public to believe we are on a sinking boat without life preservers. Despite […]
Posted inHealth Care
A path forward for physician portability
MASSACHUSETTS HAS long been recognized as a global leader in health care, hospitals, education, and innovation. We wear this label proudly but must remain committed to continuous improvement and investment in the healthcare infrastructure that makes our Commonwealth remarkable. The reality is that not all communities and residents in Massachusetts can easily access the quality […]
Posted inOpinion
My Jewish faith spurs me to back prison moratorium
JEWISH PEOPLE all over the world recently celebrated Rosh Hashanah, our New Year. As a rabbi, this is a time where I support my community in making teshuvah – a process of repentance and self-transformation that serves as a kind of annual accounting and restoration to the best, holiest versions of ourselves. Judaism teaches that […]
Posted inOpinion
Texas impeachment trial brings back Mass. memories of Daniel Coakley
THE IMPEACHMENT trial of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has ended with his acquittal by the Texas Senate. The months-long ordeal has concluded, but the eyes of Texas—and beyond—will probably not stray from Austin soon. The impeachment of a state officer is a rare bird; only three have occurred in Texas since 1876. Massachusetts […]
Posted inOpinion
Could Supreme Court’s admissions decision affect Mass. climate law?
AT THE END of this past year’s term, the US Supreme Court issued a decision finding that affirmative action programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Reasoning that college admissions are zero-sum and consideration of race necessitates “employ[ing] race in a negative manner” as […]
Posted inOpinion
Today’s UMass students deserve the same opportunities I had
FOUR YEARS AS a student at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst changed my life, and set me on a path for a lifetime of activism in Massachusetts. Every student in our state should have the same opportunity. With the continued investment of our political leadership, they can. In the fall of 1963, I arrived […]
Posted inEnergy, Opinion
It makes no sense to eliminate the competitive electricity market
THIS PAST YEAR has not been kind to Massachusetts electric ratepayers—at least some of them. For customers who do not shop and choose their own energy provider, the average residential rate hike in National Grid’s service area was more than $110 per month this past winter, a 64 percent increase. In Eversource’s service area, rates spiked 42 […]