This long-overdue school desegregation lawsuit may provide the push we need to change the conversation from cross-district enrollment to place-based revitalization of urban neighborhoods.

"This program and dozens of others around the state may have to shrink or close — and some are already declining to accept new clients — because of a looming change from the US Department of Housing a...

"This program and dozens of others around the state may have to shrink or close — and some are already declining to accept new clients — because of a looming change from the US Department of Housing a...

Five years after lawmakers scrapped the asset limit attached to the Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled, and Children program, Gov. Maura Healey wants to bring it back at a higher threshold — a mov...

Hoffer set out to put a price tag on the state’s net-zero climate commitment and develop a menu of options for how to pay for it. That price is still not yet known more than a year after the report wa...

The legal and legislative moves set up a clash over rules governing housing development at a time when there’s broad consensus that the state needs to build more units across communities.

In a closely watched upset, City Councilor Robert Van Campen beat DeMaria by 9 percentage points. His promise to restore trust and accountability in City Hall wasn’t hard to sell. But Van Campen has a...

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CommonWealth Beacon Membership https://give.classy.org/campaign/591230/donate

In 2019, Holyoke set out to build two new middle schools. But after months of heated debate, the ballot measure to fund the project was voted down by the community. Some say the outcome is a testament...

The issue threatens to undermine Gov. Maura Healey’s “all-of-the-above” energy strategy as she seeks to thread an increasingly tighter needle to drive down costs, grow power supply, and meet climate c...

For the real bare-knuckle action in mayoral contests these days, you need to look outside the state’s capital city, where incumbents don’t just often face serious challenges, but lose with some regula...

We need fundamentally new models for teaching and learning, new models that need to break the monopoly of “sage on the stage” teaching and lean into an experiential learning revolution – a dramatic in...

Across Massachusetts, more than 300 communities – including Boston – aren’t reaping the benefits of the FEMA program, known as Community Rating System. It’s led to residents in some municipalities col...

Massachusetts’s schools have recruited higher proportions of international students than colleges and universities almost anywhere else because of a demographic decline and the comparatively high cost...

IN POLITICS, timing can be everything. When the Boston Foundation’s Latino Equity Fund released "The ROI of ESOL," documenting the economic returns of

At a time of intense scrutiny on sheriffs’ offices, the Legislature moved to withhold more than $130 million Gov. Maura Healey proposed for the county law enforcement offices, in the process handing a...

It's been two years since Clinton Hospital's maternity unit closed. The fallout of the closure paints a complicated picture in a state without maternity care deserts. But experts and advocates say rec...

New data shows that lobbying remained a lucrative industry in the first half of 2025, especially for firms that count health care companies among their clients.

Despite “fragile progress,” the Commonwealth’s early child care system continues to suffer from a workforce problem, according to a new analysis published by the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation. Th...

New polling for CommonWealth Beacon conducted by the MassINC Polling Group paints a picture of Massachusetts residents mostly happy with their health care coverage, especially when compared with other...

All three cities have made multi-million-dollar efforts in recent years to prevent sewer overflows, but as climate change continues to worsen heavy rain events, inevitable overflow events are working ...

Asked how they thought Healey is doing as governor, 20 percent of residents said they strongly approve of her performance, 36 percent say they somewhat approve, 15 percent somewhat disapprove, 18 perc...

This week on the Codcast, CommonWealth Beacon reporter Jennifer Smith talks with Rich Davey, who just finished his first year as CEO of Massport. They talk about his long history of ground transportat...

When hospitals close, communities reel. Even in well-covered Massachusetts, some regions of the state still struggle to access its nation-leading health care. And after decades of hospital consolidati...

As if the agony of his horrific injury weren't enough, I’ve also been forced to wage another relentless battle—this one against a cold, indifferent private health insurance industry that treats my son...

Americans spend tens of billions of dollars on hidden or surprise “junk fees” that deceptively raise costs beyond advertised prices.

To provide the services we need, want, and expect from our public transit system, the T needs to do more things and hire more people and pay them competitively. There’s nothing controversial or troubl...

Hispanics/Latinos represent more than one in eight workers in Massachusetts, yet persistent gaps in education, workforce access, and wealth threaten to limit both Hispanic/Latino progress and the Comm...

Federal solar tax credits that once covered 30 percent of project costs are being phased out. For farmers, that can mean fewer opportunities to use agrivoltaics to offset rising costs and keep farmlan...

The waterfront is one of Lynn’s major attractions and has been a key part of the city’s ongoing growth and economic revitalization plans. But affordable housing advocates have raised concerns about th...

Line extension allowances – which allow gas companies to charge the cost of hooking up new customers to existing ones – may be on their way out in Massachusetts.

Housing and real estate developers are beginning to feel the effects of President Trump’s taxes on imports – a move the administration claims will boost American-made products, but market experts say ...

“There is just no way to subsidize housing development processes enough” to be affordable to the lowest income residents, said Matt Noyes of CHAPA, “without affordable rental assistance."

The fire that tore through Gabriel House, killing 10 residents and injuring more than 20 others, wasn't just a tragic accident; it was a catastrophic failure of a system that promised safety and deliv...

The city of Chelsea was named a 2025 "All-America" city by the National Civic League. The low-income, majority Hispanic city has faced a disproportionate share of environmental hazards and was recogni...

After a period of unprecedented drought and wildfires in Massachusetts last fall and winter, the urgency around addressing drought seems to have dissipated.

After a period of unprecedented drought and wildfires in Massachusetts last fall and winter, the urgency around addressing drought seems to have dissipated.

The question now is how broadly the class action process could be used to address other issues where the government has taken illegal action against large groups of Americans across state lines.

State takeovers have been employed during the recent era of education reform aimed at closing the achievement gap separating lower-income students and students of color from their better-off, white pe...

As factions in Congress go head to head over the Senate and House versions of the bill, here's what it could mean for people in Massachusetts.

Many potential initiatives have been tried and have failed to close the achievement gap between lower-income students and students of color with their white and more well-off peers. That makes a prove...

We live in a time when institutions with the honesty and integrity to tell difficult historical truths are bullied by those who seek to paper over our past.

When the buses of Greater Boston go fully electric, there is a unique chance to capitalize on this moment of technological transition to meet a variety of environmental and community needs.

The gathering grew out of a meeting Gov. Maura Healey had with Maine Gov. Janet Mills, who traces her ancestry back to Nova Scotia.

Trump is seeking to militarize the approach of the more than half a million sworn police officers charged with protecting and serving communities across the country.

In 2024, it was hard to avoid the barrage of ads making the case for one side or the other of some ballot questions. But it was a very different story when it came to seeing who was funding the campai...

A recent ruling on the MBTA Communities law denied towns' attempts to block its enforcement. Read more about this legal decision.

Our economic competitiveness, our educational excellence, and our role as a beacon of equality require us to protect and preserve our cultural sector. Every resident can play a role in this defining m...