A third way on the school funding/accountability debate

The answer isn’t more state rules but greater local oversight

BEACON HILL LEADERS are searching for ways to provide public schools with a significant infusion of new dollars. Taking a page from Massachusetts’s landmark 1993 Education Reform Act, some have proposed attaching higher levels of accountability to any new funding. Others are not so hot on this idea. After all, they reason, the state skirted

What’s next for the T?

Newsmakers event recap

The staff of CommonWealth magazine and MassINC would like to thank those who attended “Newsmakers” on November 27, which provided us with the opportunity to connect headline-makers to headline-readers in discussing the future of the MBTA. We would also like to extend our gratitude to those who gave generously during our fundraising campaign. We are

Gateway Cities discover the power of food

Fresh veggies, koshari turn food deserts into oases

PHOTOGRAPHS BY KEN RICHARDSON FOOD HAS ALWAYS LOOMED LARGE in the life of Dimple Rana. While growing up in Revere, she helped her parents, immigrants from India, work in Indian grocery stores in Somerville. Later, she helped manage convenience stores owned by her family. But working retail wasn’t her ambition. She promptly left Revere after

Restarting the transportation funding debate

With millionaire tax shot down, what else is under consideration?

WITH THE MILLIONAIRE TAX ballot question shot down by the Supreme Judicial Court, the debate over state transportation funding is slowly starting to shift gears on Beacon Hill. Rep. William Straus of Mattapoisett, the House chairman of the Legislature’s Committee on Transportation, said it’s time to start having a debate about alternative revenue measures. He

CommonWealth’s Summer 2018 issue is out!

Our latest - and last - quarterly print magazine comes out today

Our latest – and last – quarterly print magazine comes out today. Yes, that’s right. It will be the last one, as we focus all of our attention and resources on our website. As I said in the editor’s note, I want to thank everyone who shared their thoughts over the last several months about the course

Lauren Louison Grogan named President and CEO of MassINC

Leadership transitions mark a new beginning for the Institute

Dear Friend of MassINC, We have big news! Lauren Louison Grogan has been named the next President of the Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth (MassINC), the publisher of CommonWealth magazine, and a member of The MassINC Polling Group Board of Directors. Ann-Ellen Hornidge, Chair of the MassINC Board of Directors, and outgoing President Greg Torres announced the appointment this

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CommonWealth’s Spring 2018 issue is out!

Read the rundown

Here’s a rundown of what’s in our spring print issue, which is in the mail and available online. You may have heard something about infighting in Fall River between wunderkind Mayor Jasiel Correia and the city’s political establishment. Now get a sense of what’s really going on. Ted Siefer portrays a mayor who isn’t letting

TransitMatters pushes ‘regional rail’

Would transform commuter rail into subway-like system

TRANSITMATTERS, a nonprofit known for delving into the nitty gritty of very specific transportation issues, went in a different direction on Tuesday, releasing a sweeping report calling for a multi-billion-dollar overhaul of the state’s commuter rail system over the course of a decade or more. Dubbed regional rail, the ambitious proposal calls for transforming a rail network

Riley’s collaborative ways

The Codcast

Jeff Riley won the backing last week of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to be the next state education commissioner based in large part on his work over the last six years as the state-appointed receiver for the Lawrence schools. If somebody can show real gains in what was arguably the lowest-performing,

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