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. […]
Rewriting the history of public higher education
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
Posted inEnvironment, Politics
Gale force
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 […]
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, […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]
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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 […]