State education aid is up $2 billion from what it was in 1993, the year the state’s education reform law was enacted. While there’s little doubt that school programs are richer in countless ways and that quality education is now at the top of everyone’s radar screen, by any honest reckoning we haven’t got $2 […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Keeping the faithful
If there ever was a separation of church and state in the newsroom–a certain kid-gloves treatment of churchly foibles–the raging controversy over clergy sexual abuse in the Boston Archdiocese has demolished it. Investigative reporters and political columnists who usually uncover State House scandals are now probing pedophile priests, and their tone is anything but reverent. […]
Posted inOpinion
Counterpoint
Rep. Thomas O’Brien claims his charter school bill is being put forward primarily for fiscal reasons, in the belief that a moratorium on the granting of new charters will somehow save money for the Commonwealth and its public schools during this time of budgetary crisis. If this is the intent, the bill fails even on […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
The unfinished business of school improvement
Nine years ago, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts launched an historic initiative to improve the state’s system of public education. The set of strategies embodied in the Education Reform Act of 1993 represented the most dramatic set of state school reforms attempted in the last half century. The proposed investment was enormous, but no greater than […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Weathering the perfect fiscal storm
One year ago, the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation warned of an impending “perfect storm” in the state’s finances that would spell the end of the generous spending growth of recent years. Although the Commonwealth generated revenue surpluses totaling almost $3 billion in the previous three years–while increasing expenditures by almost 20 percent and cutting taxes by […]
Posted inEducation, Opinion
Schools need more funds
Providing adequate resources for public education is not just a public policy goal, it is also the law. The Education Reform Act of 1993 made an unambiguous promise to public school students in the Commonwealth: that it would provide “a consistent commitment of resources sufficient to provide a high quality public education to every child.” […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Reforming School Funding
What is the best way to divide a pie equitably? It’s simple enough when there are only two people involved–one slices, the other chooses. But this is child’s play compared to the division of the $3.2 billion school funding pie in the legislative playground of Massachusetts. We have 328 local and regional school districts operating, […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Time to unclog water permits
Massachusetts municipalities that seek approvals for new water supplies are entering into an intensifying public policy debate and treacherous regulatory terrain (“Tapped Out,” CW, Fall ’00). The permitting process is becoming longer and costlier, more technically complex and politically controversial, with procedures that are often redundant and results that are unpredictable. As a consequence, many […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
State rules shortchange urban waterfronts
Last December, after much wrangling between state officials, city officials, developers–especially my client, Hyatt Development–and environmentalists, state Environmental Affairs Secretary Robert Durand approved a plan for the development of Boston’s Fan Pier. The Fan Pier design, which allows for a mix of housing, hotels, office buildings, shops, restaurants, and a new home for the Institute […]
Posted inOpinion, Uncategorized
Its easier to manage care than expectations
The principal challenge to scientific medicine is no longer discovering new cures but affording new discoveries. Modern medicine represents an awesome, ever-expanding repertoire of life-saving and life-enhancing diagnostic, surgical, and pharmacological inventions. American medicine is quite literally the envy of the world. In the 20th century, it has contributed to a doubling of life expectancy […]