Think tanks come in all shapes and sizes, with political philosophies that range left, right, and center.
The new Western Massachusetts Policy Center in Northampton is setting out to be different. Its geographic focus is the four western counties of Massachusetts and its purpose is turning the power structure upside down through research and by training future policy leaders.
“We’re a grassroots, antiracist think tank that educates, trains, and resources public policy designed by and for historically excluded people and communities in our region,” says the policy center’s website.
Lauren Rollins, a 43-year-old White woman, is the CEO, founder, and chief funder of the policy center. She grew up in northern Virginia, spent time at a think tank in Washington, DC, and works as an advisor to a diversity, equity, and inclusion consulting firm in Cambridge.
She says her goal is to build up and stabilize the Western Massachusetts Policy Center and then turn the top job over to a Black woman.
According to the policy center website, the organization will recruit candidates from diverse backgrounds to learn policymaking in the classroom and on the job. The center’s fellows will be paid $50,000 a year and receive health insurance and eventually free housing within walking distance of the center.
“They’ll learn while they earn, build their own portfolios, and emerge as far more capable, responsive, and agile policy engineers than their traditional counterparts,” the website says. “We’re specifically seeking aspiring policy professionals from BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, or economically disadvantaged backgrounds, those with disabilities, and those who are neurodiverse or divergent.”
Rollins said the center will focus its policy efforts in seven broad areas – women, children, and families; infrastructure, transportation, and regional planning; housing accessibility and homelessness; unions and the future of work; conservation, environment, and land use; anti-corruption efforts and the future of policymaking; and supporting the region’s diverse youth.
“My hope is that we will amplify the needs of western Massachusetts and get more traction for the region on Beacon Hill,” Rollins said.
Her other goal is to build a pipeline of policy makers who will help transform the workplace.
“We’ve been privileging the hiring of white men with overinflated or no qualifications forever and without asking for much proof of skill at all – in every job, every position of authority. In other words, the market is saturated with them,” Rollins said in a blog post. “So in this way, the first real step in structural DEI transformation is to saturate the market with everyone else.”
BRUCE MOHL
NEW STORIES FROM COMMONWEALTH MAGAZINE
Bring back police: A new poll finds big safety concerns among parents of students at Boston Public Schools, with three-quarters of those surveyed saying they favor returning police officers to schools.
– Police officers were removed from schools in the summer of 2021, after the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota. They were replaced by school safety specialists, who don’t carry weapons or handcuffs and lack arrest powers. The poll found 68 percent of parents were concerned about the safety of their children at school, with the percentage higher among parents of color. Read more.
Slow zone mystery: The MBTA schedules track repairs on the Red Line for next month as the scope of the slow zone problem becomes clearer but the cause remains a mystery. Read more.
New transportation safety chief: Gov. Maura Healey appointed Patrick Lavin as the state’s new transportation safety czar. Lavin, who worked for a safety review panel that delivered a scathing review of the MBTA in 2019, will oversee safety across all transportation modes, including highways. Read more.
OPINION
Cautionary tale: Yue Huang tried to help a family member price shop for an ultrasound, an effort that backfired because of inaccessible price information, poor care coordination, and a lack of interoperability between hospital data systems. In the end, the family member suffered and will pay far more for emergency room visits. Read more.
STORIES FROM ELSEWHERE AROUND THE WEB
BEACON HILL
The House soundly rejected a Republican amendment to include revenue from the new millionaires surtax in calculating whether state coffers are overflowing to the point that would trigger a 1986 tax rebate law. (Boston Herald)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
Gloucester unveils a $29 million public library renovation/expansion that will eliminate the use of fossil fuels other than those used to produce the electricity the building will run on. (Gloucester Times)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Sen. Ed Markey and Rep. Ayanna Pressley are reintroducing their legislation to provide $25 billion in grants over five years to fund fare-free public transit in US communities. (Boston Herald)
ELECTIONS
As expected, 80-year-old President Biden says he intends to run for reelection. (NPR)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
Home ownership has been sprouting over the past 20 years on the once forlorn site of the long-shuttered Boston State Hospital in Mattapan. (Boston Globe)
EDUCATION
Democrats for Education Reform Massachusetts, the Massachusetts Business Alliance for Education, and Teach for America Massachusetts join forces to defend the MCAS test against attacks by teacher unions that want to abolish it. The groups say the benefits of the testing regime far outweigh its flaws. (State House News Service)
Massachusetts Central University, an online for-profit school shut down by state education department cease and desist orders in 2021 for being “fraudulent,” is back on the internet. The Massachusetts Attorney General’s office is reviewing possible action. (MassLive)
ARTS/CULTURE
The city of Boston signs a three-year, $3.5 million contract with Street Theory to facilitate 10 to 15 public art projects a year. (WBUR)
TRANSPORTATION
Gov. Maura Healey says the T will not continue to allow top managers to live and work from locations far removed from the troubled transit agency’s service area. They will be required to work at least three days in the office.(Boston Globe)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
A man was arrested in Lenox after telling a woman he met on a dating app that he was wanted for murder in Louisiana. (Berkshire Eagle)
The Worcester City Council is considering giving officers who wear body cameras a $1,300 annual stipend for doing so. (Worcester Telegram)