In a passionate speech before a packed house at UMass Boston on Wednesday, Gov. Deval Patrick announced that we must close the achievement gap in our schools if opportunity is […]
Patrick targets the achievement gap
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Journalism cuts are serious business
The never-ending reductions in newsrooms just keep piling up. The latest victims, though, are not reporters on the front lines of journalism or in the support areas in circulation or […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Lisa Wong answers the wake-up call
Fitchburg Mayor Lisa Wong received a Martha Coakley-style shock to the system when City Councilor Joseph Solomito trounced her in the September preliminary election, 60 percent to 37 percent. But […]
Posted inPolitics, The Download
Menino’s power plays
It’s election day in Boston, which means all eyes are on Tom Menino. Political watchers are wondering whether he can tamp down an insurrection in South Boston, whether his political […]
Posted inEducation, State House News Service, The Download
Charter foes try a new tack
Opponents of charters schools, who have long complained about funds being lost to district schools when students enroll in charters, have opened a new front in the war they’ve been […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Murray’s mystery ride
The Boston Herald’s Howie Carr asks the question everyone has been wondering this week: What was Lt. Gov. Tim Murray really doing in the predawn hours on Wednesday when he […]
Posted inEconomy
Dream deferred
for ann jones, the clerk-teller’s position she landed at the Registry of Motor Vehicles in 1984 was her shot at the American Dream. Jones had worked a few jobs, gotten […]
Posted inThe Download, Uncategorized
Judge returns O’Brien “statements”
A correction has been added to the story regarding Judge Carol Ball’s involvement in another case. The judge in the cases against former Probation Commissioner John O’Brien and a one-time […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Politics
A way out of gridlock
with unemployment too high, economic growth too low, and the gap between the rich and poor widening, the American Dream is hurting. Adding to the gloom is the polarization in […]
Posted inEconomy
American Dream: More than a bumper sticker
In 1996, the first issue of CommonWealth magazine featured a cover story on the changing economics of middle-class life in Massachusetts. The story focused on Heritage Road in Billerica, where […]
Posted inEconomy
The great squeeze
Pinched: How the Great Recession Has Narrowed Our Futures and What We Can do About It By Don PeckNew York, Random House, 224 pagesreviewed by Mark Erlichfifteen years ago , […]
Posted inUncategorized
15 years and counting
In 1996, the first issue of CommonWealth magazine featured a cover story on the changing economics of middle-class life in Massachusetts. The story focused on Heritage Road in Billerica, where […]
Posted inEconomy, Education, Health Care
97.4
the bay state economy expanded by more than 10 percent last decade—8 percent growth on a per capita basis after accounting for inflation. It’s not the Massachusetts Miracle, but given […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Pieces of the Dream
The American Dream knows no borders. The often-quoted lines on the Statue of Liberty’s pedestal, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free,” underscore the […]
Posted inEconomy
Out of reach
Jeffrey Goldstein lived the American Dream growing up. His father joined the postwar exodus from the city, and got his own piece of land out in the suburbs. Like many […]
Posted inEconomy, Education
Left behind
EACH SPRING, THE Boston Globe salutes the city’s valedictorians by publishing photographs of the top-achieving student in each of Boston’s 40 public high schools and describing their college plans. Many of […]
Posted inEconomy
A have and have-not world
carol meyrowitz started her climb up the corporate ladder at Framingham-based TJX Corp. in 1983. Today, nearly 30 years later, she runs a $22 billion retailing giant whose off-price strategy […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Politics
What happens when a community loses its newspaper?
Holyoke City Hall, looking up Dwight StreetFor days, hundreds of callers speaking in the hushed tones more commonly reserved for funeral parlors queried switchboard operators inside the Holyoke Transcript-Telegram: […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Silent crisis
Gov. Deval Patrick issued a press release in September announcing seven new appointees to the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees. The release contained all the basics: their names, their […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
Dialing for dollars
training high school journalists wasn’t the first order of business for Joe Bergantino when he launched the New England Center for Investigative Reporting at Boston University. But as it became […]
Posted inPolitics
Court rejects Parente pension claim
A state appeals court has rejected a bid by a former lawmaker who sought to increase the value of her pension by counting her monthly walking-around stipend and per diem […]
Posted inEducation
Learning curve
FOR MOST OF the 20th century, America truly was the land of opportunity. The nation emerged as the world’s dominant economic superpower, and the prosperity that resulted was widely shared. […]
Posted inOpinion, Politics
The good news about news
where there are people, there’s news. And where there’s news, there are journalists. Why? Because we have learned that when professionals make it their business to look at the world […]
Posted inPolitics
A novel idea
tripp jones traces most of his career path, including the founding of MassINC 15 years ago, to a chance meeting in Washington, DC, in 1986. At the time, Jones was […]