Economic factors often influence access to health care. In Massachusetts, adults age 65 and older with less than a high school education are more than 11 times as likely to have teeth extracted than those with a college degree, according to United Health Foundation’s 2024 Senior Report. High housing and transportation costs are preventing some…
Federal regulators are considering the effects modernizing America’s energy grid will have on wildlife. A 2023 NatureServe report showed 40% of animals are at risk of extinction and 41% of ecosystems are at risk of range-wide collapse; photo via Pexels.com. Conservation groups in Massachusetts are backing the Biden Administration’s new plan to update the nation’s power grid….
Parents and educators in Massachusetts are collecting signatures for a possible ballot measure this November to end the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System or MCAS (“M-cass”) graduation requirement. Massachusetts is one of only eight states that still requires students to pass a standardized test to receive their diploma, but data show a disproportionate number of students of color, those with disabilities and English-language learners are failing to make the grade.
Massachusetts residents pay some of the highest grocery prices in the nation. A new report finds families already struggling to meet their needs are increasingly turning to debt to cover their food costs or using up savings they’d set aside for the future.
Medical care, food and clean water remain in short supply throughout much of Haiti, where armed gangs now control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince. As residents flee, Massachusetts lawmakers and Haitian-led groups say the United States must pause all deportations to the island and crack down on the trafficking of American-made weapons fueling the violence.
Massachusetts is the eighth state to establish a K-12 universal meal program, but food insecurity doesn’t disappear with a high school diploma. As community college enrollment increases, student groups are asking state lawmakers to fund campus anti-hunger programs as they further public investment in higher education, to help ensure students make it to graduation.