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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.
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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.
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.
The House’s anti-transparency bill
This bill is not transparency. It is a legislative workaround dressed up as reform.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Congress must act now on AI
No federal agency has clear authority to step in when something goes wrong. While some have argued there is still plenty of time for Congress to act, I would say, look around.
Dual language immersion programs are a huge asset to our schools. The state should stop treating them as an afterthought.
Every spring, the state celebrates high school graduates who receive the Seal of Biliteracy, while failing to build the dual language programs that would make bilingualism truly accessible to far more students.
We banned cellphones in our schools. It’s had a powerful, positive impact on students.
What our kids really need isn’t constant contact, it’s confidence.
The answer to the school desegregation lawsuit? Revive urban communities.
This long-overdue school desegregation lawsuit may provide the push we need to change the conversation from cross-district enrollment to place-based revitalization of urban neighborhoods.
Limits on local cooperation with ICE more urgent than ever
Sanctuary policies like the PROTECT Act have been the subject of public rancor and misunderstanding over the past year. These debates, though, often miss what sanctuary policies do – and what they do not.
Cranky, perhaps. But Barney Frank’s accessibility and honesty were a breath of fresh air.
Frank was consistently accessible, ever quotable, always on the record, and honest to a fault.
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