OMB Editorial

Every morning, since very early in my life, I have read the Boston Globe - first in print form for many years, and then exclusively online for the last few years. So despite my many disagreements with the publication over the decades, I do not view the possible demise of the Globe as a good thing. First, because I am concerned about its unionized workforce and what might become of them in these down economic times. Second, because there are fewer and fewer professional journalists out doing city-level reporting of substance anymore.

There was some good news this week for Massachusetts public college students in the form of Gov. Deval Patrick's announcement that the federal government will provide $162 million in stimulus funds to the state's higher education system - about half going to the 5-campus University of Massachusetts, and the rest going to the 24 Mass. state and community colleges. As a result, significant planned fee increases for students will be reduced to roughly pre-crisis levels for the coming year.

It's amazing to watch Massachusetts slide into economic depression. Indicator after indicator goes south, and the state government - like the federal government - continues to do what it knows, rather than what is necessary. What it knows is the neoliberal shell game. A simple game indeed. Pretend "The Market" is the basis for economic prosperity, rather than the font of economic instability. Continue to push policies that nibble away at the edges of vast social problems - virtually always to the benefit of some corporation somewhere rather than to a general principle of social welfare.

Word just came in that the University of Massachusetts Board of Trustees, an unelected and wholly unrepresentative body with sweeping powers over the budget of the 5 campus system, backed a $1500 fee hike for the next school year despite strong protests from student leaders.