On behalf of the MassINC Board of Directors, it is our pleasure to introduce readers to Ian Bowles, the new executive director of MassINC and publisher of CommonWealth. As MassINC […]
Letter of introduction
Posted inEducation
Public higher ed deserves attentionand some respect
As viewed from the peanut gallery, the struggle over Gov. Mitt Romney’s government-reorganization plan has been a fascinating, if at times horrifying, spectacle. When the plan was outlined in the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
A devastating picture of the teacher crisis
Who’s Teaching Your Children?Why the Teacher Crisis Is Worse Than You Think and What Can Be Done About ItBy Vivian Troen and Katherine C. BolesNew Haven, Yale University Press, 224 […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
A celebration of doing nothing
The Importance of Being Lazy: In Praise of Play, Leisure, and VacationsBy Al GiniRoutledge, New York, 176 pages. Al Gini is a guy I’d like to have by my side […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Politics
Romneys public safety chief calls for a targeted approach to fighting terrorism
It’s been a grueling half-year for Gov. Mitt Romney, who has taken his lumps from Beacon Hill Democrats over the state budget and his government reorganization plan, which was summarily […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Marblehead hikes property taxes and avoids a sticky trash situation
MARBLEHEAD–Mayors and managers in cash-strapped communities may eye Marblehead with a certain amount of envy this summer, and not just because of the North Shore town’s rocky beaches. Last month, […]
Posted inUncategorized
The babyname hit parade newest census standings carcrash trends toting up cancer risks
What’s in a name?Here’s one more way that Massachusetts is out of step with the rest of the nation, courtesy of the Social Security Administration’s annual roll call of the […]
Posted inEconomy, Education
Spending on public higher education
Even before recent budget cuts, Massachusetts was considered a skinflint in the area of public higher education. According to the Center for the Study of Educational Policy, we ranked 48th […]
Posted inPolitics, State House News Service
The Boston iMetroi is a tabloid on the fast track
Joe Pesaturo gets paid to know what’s going on at the MBTA. So you’d better believe that when Pesaturo, the transit authority’s chief spokesman, is waiting for his trolley, he’s […]
Posted inUncategorized
The Legislature splits the difference between Dr Seuss and the ducklings
From Mayzie to Mrs. Mallard, our official children’s tales are telling Last December, a sundered Massachusetts was united by a compromise worthy of the greatest statesmen. Robert McCloskey’s classic children’s […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
The commonly used measures of state and local tax burden – revenues per capita and in proportion to personal income – are both apples-and-oranges comparisons, primarily because the revenues are […]
Posted inUncategorized
Historian Jackson Lears reconciles the American work ethic with our attraction to every gambling scheme under the sun
It’s often said, better to be lucky than good, but in truth, most of us want to be both. Virtue may be its own reward, but who among the virtuous […]
Posted inEducation
Rewriting the history of public higher education
For sheer political drama, it would be hard to top the current face-off between Gov. Mitt Romney and former Senate president William Bulger over the University of Massachusetts president’s office. […]
Posted inUncategorized
Counterpoint
No one knows better than teachers how bad things were in some of our school districts during the recession of the early 1990s. Holyoke had classrooms crammed with more than […]
Posted inUncategorized
Argument
In the often treacherous cauldron of education politics in this state, it is especially critical to remember how we got to where we are today. Such memories will help us […]
Posted inEnvironment
Teacher bonuses that are no windfall
INTRO TEXT Cathie Clement is trained as a lawyer, and she’s worked in industry, state government, and private practice. But the hardest job she’s ever done is the one she’s […]
Posted inUncategorized
New New Democrats and old
INTRO TEXT When a group of state lawmakers and business leaders called a press conference in January to announce a new effort to reinvigorate the Democratic Leadership Council in Massachusetts, […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
iCommonWealthi Forum capitalizes on nonprofits
INTRO TEXT Nonprofit organizations and the government agencies and funders that finance them need to think more creatively in the face of lean budgets and a sagging economy. That was […]
Posted inUncategorized
A teen journalist grills Colin Powell
INTRO TEXT When Olga Tsyganova entered a conference room in the US State Department to interview Secretary of State Colin Powell for TeenInk magazine, she didn’t clutch her note cards […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
A housing firm with all the answers
WHEN FALL RIVERÂ officials pushed for state approval to raze the 100-unit Watuppa Heights public housing development last summer, they bolstered their case with a consulting firm’s study that said the […]
Posted inUncategorized
The NOT-so-Accidental Treasurer
Timothy P. Cahill’s second-floor suite in the State House is next to the Great Hall and across the corridor from the House Ways and Means Committee. The governor’s office is […]
Posted inUncategorized
Second Chances
Carlos X. Garcia wants to be a radiologist. “At first I wanted to be a nurse, but you have to stick needles into people,” the 18-year-old explains as he presents […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
Fiscally strapped Hopkinton puts its own citizens on the hot seat
HOPKINTON–On a sunny Saturday morning in March, nearly 110 Hopkinton residents sit down to solve a problem that their elected officials would prefer not to touch: the town’s budget crisis. […]
Posted inEconomy, Politics
The way we tax
With revenue diminishing due to the stock market downturn and rising unemployment rates, the Bay State is experiencing the same fiscal squeeze being felt nationwide. As states across the country […]