Especially for disadvantaged kids who may not have as many family and friends who attended college or who work in leading sectors, we need to build stronger connections between what students are learning and experiencing in high school and the careers that await them when they graduate.
Rethinking the way we do high school
Posted inEnvironment
House eyes MWRA expansion
The MWRA was created by the Legislature in 1984 and currently provides wholesale water and sewer services to 3.1 million people and more than 5,500 businesses in 61 communities in eastern and central Massachusetts.
Posted inCriminal Justice
In remarkable start to 2024, Boston has had only 2 homicides this year
Boston has had just 2 homicides so far in 2024, and shootings are down 64 percent, an extraordinary start to the year in a city that already had low baseline rates of homicide and gun violence.
Posted inHousing
Battle over parking often really about housing and development
A focus on parking and parking minimums have shaped post-war development in the US for the worse, says author Henry Grabar. But he says we’re in the midst of an encouraging “parking science renaissance” that’s rethinking those policies.
Posted inOpinion
Commuter rail’s ridership recovery plan is working
MBTA commuter rail attracts back riders the old-fashioned way, with frequency and reliability.
Posted inCourts
SJC gives life to complaints of Tufts tenured faculty
The Supreme Judicial Court partially overturned a lower court decision that Tufts University did not violate promises of academic freedom and economic security made to tenured professors, concluding that a group of professors whose salary and full-time status were reduced can sue the university.
Posted inBy The Numbers
Massachusetts political parties are fading away
If current trends continue, party registration will be so unusual that a young registered Democrat will be an unusual sight and young Republicans will go on the endangered species list.
Posted inBallot Questions
Little sympathy for app-based tech companies at ballot question hearing
Two ballot campaigns underway would fundamentally redefine the relationship between gig-work drivers, the companies that manage them, and the state.
Posted inPolitics
Healey’s mixed messages on what’s public and what’s private
politicians and politics are like fish and water. It’s what they constantly swim in, a choice they made, and it can sometimes be suffocating for them and their families.
Posted inEducation
State officials seek ‘more coherent financial aid system’
The Department of Higher Education plans to evaluate gaps in financial support as officials consider redesigning the mix of tuition reimbursement, grant, loan forgiveness, and tax programs, said Michael Dannenberg, deputy commissioner of policy.
Posted inOpinion
Congestion pricing is the wrong answer to Boston traffic woes
Some have proposed congestion pricing as a solution to Boston’s traffic problems, but we should be wary of any plan that could harm the fragile post-pandemic downtown economy.
Posted inState Government
Lobbying activity picking up on Beacon Hill
Health care is where the big money gets spent in state government, and that’s where lobbying money is spent as well
Posted inOpinion
Remove the social worker exam requirement
We are facing a massive shortage of behavioral health providers in Massachusetts, and the behavioral health crisis has gotten worse. We need less barriers to entry into the profession, not more.
Posted inEconomy
Healey agenda aims to address 242,000 unfilled jobs
The agenda identifies four key industries where the workforce is particularly lacking: manufacturing, healthcare, life sciences, and clean energy.
Posted inImmigration
Senate bill also backs cap on stays in emergency shelter system
Like the bill that cleared the House earlier this month, the Senate bill could push some people out of the system after nine months, which would mark a shift in a state that by law guarantees access to shelter for eligible families and pregnant women.
Posted inCourts
Full SJC to hear Milton rezoning case
Justice Serge Georges Jr. said the case against Milton, which centers around how to enforce the MBTA Communities Act, “raises novel questions of law which are of public importance and which are time sensitive and likely to recur.”
Posted inHealth Care
On Steward crisis, Massachusetts Nurses Association head says ‘we invited it in’
As pressure ramps up to find a way to shore up the nine Massachusetts hospitals owned by Steward, which employ about 3,000 nurses represented by the nurses association, Pinkham worries that the state may be in the same position that let Steward get a foothold at the core of the state’s health care system more than a decade ago.
Posted inThe Codcast
A labor perspective on the Steward crisis
This week on The Codcast, longtime Massachusetts Nurses Association executive director Julie Pinkham talks to John McDonough and Paul Hattis about the MNA’s relationship to Steward Health Care over the years, the consequences of healthcare deregulation, and how the state can facilitate a positive outcome in the present situation.
Posted inPolitics
House Dem caucus appoints Pressley to key panel
The caucus, with the full backing of New England Democrats, named Pressley to the committee, replacing Rep. Lori Trahan who was elected co-chair of the caucus’s messaging arm in 2023.
Posted inOpinion
Debate over Everett soccer stadium shows flaws of decision-making by municipal boundary
Decisions about a possible professional soccer stadium along the Mystic River are being driven entirely by the City of Everett, though plenty of people in adjacent communities live closer to the site than some Everett residents. Does that make any sense?