For there is a health along this golden shore,Climbing the dunes and hearing sea birds cry,Braving the winds and stormy ocean’s roarUnder an endless blue or cloudy sky;Then, freed at […]
Gale force
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Two books explore the achievement gap between white and minority students
Bridging the Achievement GapEdited by John E. Chubb and Tom LovelessBrookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 236 pages.Young, Gifted, and Black: Promoting High Achievement Among African-American StudentsBy Theresa Perry, Claude Steele, […]
Posted inUncategorized
Everyone wants to write the definitive definition of the American Dream
In the beginning, there was land ownership. American colonists understood the concept, American Indians didn’t, and the result was a nation that stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Now […]
Posted inPolitics
Mitt sends his missionaries to Capitol Hill
The Congressional Pig Book, published annually by the Washington, DC-based Citizens Against Government Waste, is supposed to shame the states that are the biggest recipients of pork-barrel spending–and the members […]
Posted inUncategorized
Tutoring sessions for Peyser
NO ONE WASÂ more disappointed than Ricardo Moreta when he learned that he had fallen short on the math portion of the MCAS exam, for the third time, and would not […]
Posted inHousing, State Government
The Sprawl Doctor
When incoming Gov. Mitt Romney named Doug Foy to be the state’s first chief of Commonwealth Development, one of two new “super cabinet” positions Romney created in December as part […]
Posted inUncategorized
Handing over the keys
Dear Mitt: By now, I’m sure you’ve grown accustomed to the joys of being governor. You know what I’m talking about: The invitations to forums and events. The endless meeting […]
Posted inPolitics
Our own set of experts gives the new governor advice on making good policy and good first impressions
With a transition team of nearly 100 of the biggest movers and shakers in Massachusetts politics and business, Mitt Romney had no shortage of input as he took the helm […]
Posted inUncategorized
Letters
Your article “On-the-job training” (Fall 2002) highlighted the CALL initiative of the Jewish Vocational Service of Greater Boston as providing essential post-employment follow-up services that are so critical to the […]
Posted inPolitics
The public never forgets a governors first year
For a newly elected governor, the transition to office is a heady time, but it’s also politically perilous. Buoyed by victory at the polls and stocked up with advice from […]
Posted inUncategorized
Counterpoints
The more people are informed about the impact of legalizing casino gambling– better described as the tax-by-casino plan– the more they will see it’s a bad idea for Massachusetts. Casinos […]
Posted inUncategorized
Argument
Acknowledged or not, casino gambling has become a perennial question for the Massachusetts Legislature, spanning all of my tenure in the General Court from 1969– when, as a member of […]
Posted inUncategorized
Volpe makes an encore appearance in the corner office
INTRO TEXT The transition has been made on Beacon Hill. One governor has left the corner office, another moved in. And it’s not just Mitt Romney who replaced Jane Swift. […]
Posted inEducation
Top colleges come up short on community service
INTRO TEXT Like all freshmen involved in work-study programs at the College of the Holy Cross, Philip Colvin got his first assignment in Dining Services. Four times a week, he […]
Posted inUncategorized
The feds crackdown on undocumented workers creates headaches for local employers
INTRO TEXT Organizers of the Boston janitors’ strike last fall thought they had a great slogan (“Justice for Janitors”) and compelling arguments, but they wondered whether a work force composed […]
Posted inState House News Service, Uncategorized
Commonwealth Forum panelists give Romney a taste of the future
INTRO TEXT “We do want Mitt Romney to succeed. If he succeeds, we succeed,” said House Speaker Thomas Finneran at the first of two Commonwealth Forums entitled “No Ordinary Time: […]
Posted inUncategorized
A revolutionary way to teach math in the age of MCAS
INTRO TEXT When people ask Mahesh Sharma what he does for a living, he knows what their reaction is going to be. Hearing that he’s a math educator, many people […]
Posted inCriminal Justice
Scene of the crime
IN THE LATE 1980s and early 1990s, when the city was teeming with crack cocaine and drive-by shootings, Boston police sergeant Robert Merner watched the life drain out of more […]
Posted inUncategorized
Multiple Choice
It is a blustery autumn afternoon and the Framingham Community Charter School is in lockdown mode. Just moments before, the school’s 96 sixth-graders were on the playground after lunch when […]
Posted inUncategorized
A question of commitment
Barbara Schwartz wears big glasses and uses a trained dog named Thomas to help her get around. She is small, funny, sarcastic, and sometimes dismissive of those she deems unworthy. […]
Posted inPolitics
A transition of our own
There comes a time in the life of every young organization, firm, or company when the founder moves on. It is a time of anxiety, but also a milestone of […]
Posted inPolitics
The budget and reform challenge ahead
If there were similarities between the gubernatorial campaigns of 1990 and 2002, the parallel between 1991 and 2003–new Republican governor facing fiscal crisis–is even closer. There are a handful of […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
Unions look for relevance in job training
Workforce Development and the New UnionismEdited by Penn Kemble; introduction by Morton BahrNew Economy Information Service, Washington, DC, 210 pages. The second half of 2002 showcased, in rapid sequence, the […]
Posted inArts and Culture, Uncategorized
The glory days of cub reporting
First Job: A Memoir of Growing Up at WorkBy Rinker BuckPublic Affairs, New York, 396 pages. Several years ago I was at a reunion of journalism alumni at the University […]