sponsored by The Boston Foundation
CommonWealth Voices aims to be a beacon of robust discourse, offering a platform for analysis and advocacy on the challenges and aspirations of political life in Massachusetts.
The Boston Foundation is deeply committed to civic leadership, and essential to our work is the exchange of informed opinions. We are proud to partner on a platform that engages such a broad range of demographic and ideological viewpoints.
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We welcome informed commentary about local, state and national public policy. Please include the author’s contact information when submitting.
Why Boston’s biggest institutions should co-invest in climate protection
If every institution acts independently, Boston risks a patchwork of expensive and inefficient defenses that protect individual buildings but fail to secure the broader systems that keep the city functioning. A better approach would coordinate a portion of those inevitable investments into shared infrastructure solutions that protect entire districts and employment centers.
Massachusetts health care reform met the moral moment
Living out the Brandeis credo to be a laboratory for democracy, we showed a path to providing health care coverage for nearly all residents
We declared that access to health coverage should not be left to chance or circumstance
Two decades after making health care history, Massachusetts must now face unfinished work on affordability, primary care access, and behavioral care
We solved the health care access challenge, but are failing miserably to control costs
The business community backed the 2006 law on the promise that the state would address costs and spending — a promise that has gone largely unfulfilled
Chapter 58 has made health care unaffordable for families and small businesses
We need an honest reckoning with the shortcomings of Massachusetts health care and what it would take to address them
The Massachusetts Health Connector has been a resilient — and flexible — foundation for a bold experiment
Cost and affordability concerns, along with federal retreat on Affordable Care Act funding and policy, present big challenges as we enter our third decade
Our history-making reform extended coverage to immigrants. That is now under threat.
Despite Massachusetts’s inclusive policies, structural racism and legal status discrimination have consistently undermined immigrants’ access to care, creating barriers that persist even for those who have coverage. Â
We’re ready to help craft a 25-year vision for the MBTA
We need a long-term vision and plan for a transit system that enables all of us to fulfill our essential needs — easy and affordable access to jobs, opportunities, and resources. Now is the time to start advocating for this. Â
A new vision for career and technical education in Massachusetts
Rethinking the structure and funding for career and technical education would not only open doors for more young people, but it would also help address the growing challenge the state faces in meeting the high demand for skilled workers.
My all-of-the-above approach will lower energy costs and advance our climate goals
This is not about choosing one source over another. It is a practical approach to building enough energy from different sources to lower costs, improve reliability, and create jobs.
Rent control ballot question won’t solve our housing problems — it will add to them
Although the goal of protecting tenants from sudden spikes is noble, evidence from decades of research and practical experience shows that broad rent caps often deliver the opposite of their intended outcomes.
Invest in the 80 percent: Why Mass. must fund summer and after-school learning
The gross disparity between in-school and out-of-school learning investments represents a singular challenge for the Commonwealth. We need a new mindset regarding when and how learning occurs.
Socially responsible investing still makes sense — and cents
Sustainable investing has never been about sacrificing returns for virtue. It has always been about aligning capital with long-term value creation.
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