Summer 2005

Summer 2005

Approaching Re-entry

Criminal Justice

Approaching Re-entry

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As candidate for governor in 1990, Bill Weld put it in the most stark terms – pledging to “reacquaint felons with the joys of busting rocks” – but the general sentiment was widely shared here and across the country: Rampant urban crime in the 1980s and early ’90s called for an approach to criminal justice(...)

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Economy/ Education

Job training initiatives should begin with realistic expectations about employers and employees

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The Commonwealth has an impending workforce crisis on its hands, but it’s one that’s paradoxical. As a percentage of population, Massachusetts has more college-educated residents than any other state in the country. At the same time, with a slow-growing workforce fueled largely by foreign immigrants, a larger and larger share of our adult population is(...)

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Education

Counterpoints

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Yes, charter schools have been controversial, but then again, so has just about everything we’ve done to improve public education. Curriculum frameworks, graduation requirements, teacher testing, you name it, and it’s been controversial. If it disrupts the status quo, someone’s against it. So I am heartened to read in Shelley Berman and Tom Scott’s article(...)

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Statistically Significant

Uncategorized

Statistically Significant

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Illustrations by Travis Foster GREEN CARS MAY HIT GLASS CEILING Hybrid cars, which are partly powered by electric batteries and thus burn less gasoline, are surging in popularity, according to automotive industry analyst R.L. Polk & Co. The number of hybrid cars registered last year was 83,153, an annual increase of 81 percent. Massachusetts ranked(...)

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Education

Argument

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Since Massachusetts launched its experiment with charter schools in 1993, tensions between Commonwealth charter schools and public school districts have steadily intensified. Proposed as laboratories of innovation that, by suspending bureaucratic and union rules, would produce exceptional results for children and provide examples of innovation that could be replicated, charter schools have not met these(...)

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The Community Preservation Act finds its balance

Economy/ Politics

The Community Preservation Act finds its balance

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DESPITE EARLY WORRIES that the Community Preservation Act was funding a land grab by suburban communities eager to lock in open space at the expense of the affordable housing the law was also designed to support, new spending data show that communities are pursuing the balance of uses envisioned five years ago when the measure was(...)

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