sponsored by The Boston Foundation
CommonWealth Voices aims to be a beacon of robust discourse, offering a platform for analysis and advocacy on the challenges and aspirations of political life in Massachusetts.
The Boston Foundation is deeply committed to civic leadership, and essential to our work is the exchange of informed opinions. We are proud to partner on a platform that engages such a broad range of demographic and ideological viewpoints.
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We welcome informed commentary about local, state and national public policy. Please include the author’s contact information when submitting.
It’s not too late for Ed Markey to pass the torch
As he approaches his 80th birthday, the time has come to put the common good ahead of personal ambition – and for Sen. Markey to step aside and make room for the next generation of leadership.
Next MRWA leader must have vision for tackling regional flooding risks, clean-up of Charles and Mystic rivers
We must hire a new MWRA executive director who is committed to finishing the job of cleaning our major waterways from these polluting combined sewer overflows.
Why Massachusetts needs a climate bank
It is a fiscally responsible path to achieve three critical goals: address affordability challenges, strengthen the economy, and remain a leader in addressing the challenges of a changing climate.
Holding the line on Gateway Cities designation
There should be no hasty changes to the pool of Gateway Cities . Any future consideration of adjustments should be based on good data, a coherent framework, and involve collaboration with Gateway City leaders.
A three-pronged strategy for supporting our immigrant neighbors
Forces opposing justice and equity have always existed, and when they get louder and push harder against what we know is right, history shows we must not only hold our ground, but we must be prepared to do more.
What Norway’s dominance at the Winter Olympics can teach us about youth sports
American sports culture clings to the belief that early competition builds champions—that competition produces toughness, and that lowering the stakes makes kids soft. Norway offers the most compelling counterexample imaginable.
DiZoglio’s right to hire a lawyer to push audit case should be clear-cut
It’s one thing for Campbell to take lawmakers’ position in the matter and for her office to represent them; it’s another for her to take the extreme view that the auditor cannot hire her own attorney.
Massachusetts has an elder care crisis – and it’s about to get a lot worse
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 across the state reading below grade level, the legislation serves as a significant step toward addressing Massachusetts’s literacy crisis. As a special education teacher at the Oliver Hazard Perry School in South Boston, I see every day how crucial evidence-based reading is for students’ success, and how preparing teachers for effective reading instruction is essential. For more than 10 years, I struggled to teach my students how to read. While…
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