Editorial Roundup: New England
Barre-Montpelier Times-Argus. January 17, 2024.
Editorial: Making airwaves
We were pleased to learn that two Vermonters — Myers Mermel and Scott Milne — have decided to step in and put on offer on the Radio Vermont Group.
There had always been somewhat of a concern that when a sale came along, it could have been from one of the large conglomerates buying up radio stations nationwide and converting them into cookie-cutter streamed programming with no local flair or personality.
That Ashley Jane Squier held fast to her father’s long tradition of not selling out, and seeking investors who would keep the stations “local” is admirable. Ken would be proud. A Vermont icon being carried forward by Vermonters.
Last week, Squier, General Manager Steve Cormier and Mermel and Milne took to the airwaves to announce the transition, which will take shape over the next few months. Mermel & McLain Management LLC is said to be the name on the contract. Milne maintains he is a financial backer, but will not be overseeing any of the day-to-day operations of the stations, which includes WDEV (AM and FM). He owns Milne Travel.
For decades, “DEV” has come to be known as the go-to station for everything from school cancellations to local sports to local talk radio to niche programs and folksy banter. It’s also where much of Vermont listens to the Boston Red Sox, the New England Patriots and NASCAR. It has built lasting relationships with longtime Green Mountain advertisers, as well as statewide news outlets that are regularly part of the day’s programming and news gathering. Radio Vermont Group created a brand that is very representative of the communities it serves.
Its stations are so iconic, there are voices there we have heard now for generations. Many listeners (and WDEV and the other stations under the Radio Vermont Group umbrella do have a sizable audience) take great comfort when tuning in because of its familiarity, quirkiness and, frankly, its uniqueness. (World-renowned author and environmentalist Bill McKibben even wrote a novel, “Radio Free Vermont,” that is loosely based on WDEV.)
Ken Squier took great pride in Radio Vermont Group. When he passed last year, as our staff was talking to folks who had worked with (and for) Ken, the expressions came up several times that Ken would declare, “What does (your particular on-air contribution) mean for Vermont?” or “If it doesn’t have a Vermont angle, then we don’t need it.”
Radio, like newspapers and other media outlets, has felt the pinch of the internet. Nowadays, you can stream stations from anywhere in the world on your smartphone or computer (that includes WDEV, by the way). When so much information is online, it’s hard to keep an audience interested, and even harder to find local advertisers and sponsors who believe that radio is a worthwhile investment. In Vermont, it still is. Vermonters want local news and information, whether it’s on the radio or in the newspaper.
We have seen it several times, as Vermont-owned radio stations have been gobbled up by corporations, their formats changed and sterilized. The lack of local ownership has driven listeners away, and that grousing often leads to changes in listening habits away from local content.
Let’s hope local continues to matter most. We doubt Ashley Jane Squier would have sold if she did not have assurances from Mermel and Milne that the format and programming of the stations would stay the same, especially WDEV.
Some critics around the state have their doubts. The grumbling has been palpable, especially on social media and platforms for online comments. Mermel and Milne both have deep ties to the Republican Party in the state. Both have sought higher office. Mermel briefly ran the Ethan Allen Institute, a right-wing think tank based in the Northeast Kingdom. Both men are business owners in the state.
As we noted in our coverage of the sale, Mermel unsuccessfully sought the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in 2022. On his website, Mermel describes himself as “a new kind of conservative.”
Milne ran as the Republican nominee for governor in 2014. In 2016, he was the Republican nominee to challenge then-U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy. In 2020, Milne was the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. He was unsuccessful in those bids.
There are those pundits (and listeners) who fear that, over time, this new ownership will do away with the shows that make WDEV unique and pack that airwaves with more syndicated content for a more conservative listenership. (WDEV already has a Vermont-based conservative call-in show, “True North,” that airs weekday mornings. Its “Vermont Voices” show also is regularly hosted by notable Republicans, including — on occasion — former governor Jim Douglas.)
That the iconic station could become the flagship media outlet for Vermont’s Republican Party (and some libertarians) makes some skeptics worry. Yet, such a switch might provide the Radio Vermont Group with an infusion of advertising and sponsorship revenue that it has desperately sought under a mixed bag of programming.
Republicans have long said they have no place in Vermont media. Radio Vermont group potentially gives them access to more than two-thirds of the state. Some Republicans say that could sow the seeds for of new crop of cash flow for sure.
Pardon the pun, but we’ll have to stay tuned. Any changes are likely to be kept close to the vest for a while, and it will take some time to determine — numbers-wise — if any switch in format is worth the loss of another segment of the loyal audience.
In the news release announcing the pending sale, Mermel said, “We look forward to continuing and enhancing community radio at WDEV with the same emphasis on even-handed reporting and commentary — as well as humor — which has been its hallmark.”
We hope that Radio Vermont Group remains successful in what it knows how to do best: Build community. All community.
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Bangor Daily News. January 15, 2024.
Editorial: The dramatic realities of climate change are crashing into Maine
New data released last week on the dire impacts of climate change may not have gotten a lot of attention in Maine because many of the state’s residents were literally busy dealing with the increasingly dire impacts of rising sea levels and rising temperatures.
The data from Copernicus Climate Change Service, the European Union’s climate and weather monitoring agency, confirmed that 2023 was the hottest year on record. More concerning, the agency’s scientists warned that high temperatures put the world perilously close to a tipping point beyond which many parts of the world could become uninhabitable.
While scientists were warning about dangerous consequences of climate change, many Mainers were living it.
A storm last Sunday brought snow across the state. Then, on Wednesday, a wind and rain storm was coupled with an extremely high tide. Homes, restaurants and other buildings were flooded with seawater. Docks were destroyed. Roads were flooded.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much of the waterfront compromised and destroyed,” Stonington Town Manager Kathleen Billings told the Bangor Daily News on Thursday. “That storm was wicked. Worst I’ve ever seen.”
For many coastal residents, a storm on Saturday, again coupled with an astronomical high tide, was even worse. Portland recorded its highest tide ever, breaking a record set in 1978.
The damage was extensive and widespread. Homes were destroyed and badly damaged in communities from York to Washington counties. Docks and piers were damaged and some were washed away, harming the state’s fishing industry. A fishing vessel ran aground forcing a rescue of its crew. Businesses and homes were flooded.
Debris littered streets, yards, parking lots, state parks and beaches. Interstate exits were closed in Portland.
Historic landmarks were damaged, and three iconic fishing shacks in South Portland were washed away around Saturday’s high tide.
“It’s just absolute carnage,” Paul Plummer, the harbormaster in the midcoast town of Harpswell, told the BDN. “It’s going to be devastating to so many: not just residents and their recreational gear, but these commercial folks just took a beating.”
Dustin Delano, a lobsterman and the chief operating officer for the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association, told the BDN on Monday that the damage to some lobstermen’s gear was so severe he doesn’t know if all of them will recover. While boats and some wharfs can be insured, other gear, like traps, typically can’t.
“I don’t really know where we go from here,” Delano said. “But I think the fishing community is a little bit in limbo right now.”
Scientists warn that these types of events will become more commonplace as the world continues to warm, largely due to the burning of fossil fuels.
The unprecedented warming last year was caused by climate change, the scientists said, although it was exacerbated by El Nino, a natural pattern when warmer winds dip south, pushing warm water in the Pacific Ocean toward the west coast of the U.S. and Canada, which can prompt warmer temperatures worldwide.
However, scientists agree that the warming seen in recent years is much more rapid than expected.
“The extremes we have observed over the last few months provide a dramatic testimony of how far we now are from the climate in which our civilization developed,” Carlo Buontempo, director of Copernicus’ Climate Change Service, said in a Jan. 9 press release. “This has profound consequences for … all human endeavors. If we want to successfully manage our climate risk portfolio, we need to urgently decarbonize our economy whilst using climate data and knowledge to prepare for the future.”
For far too many Mainers, that dramatic testimony of the realities of climate change literally hit home last week.
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Boston Globe. January 16, 2024.
Editorial: Karen Spilka wants to make community college free for all. That may not be a great idea.
State shouldn’t nudge students who might otherwise attend four-year colleges to two-year schools.
Removing financial barriers for students to attend college is a laudable goal in an era when higher education offers a step up the economic ladder. But the details matter. As lawmakers consider whether to make community college free, they must ensure that any new program is carefully tailored to benefit students who most need assistance and that state policy doesn’t inadvertently push students into colleges that aren’t right for them.
Which is to say, they should be cautious with the findings of a report that the Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges released on Wednesday, which contained an expansive — and expensive — proposal for making community college universally free, an idea Senate President Karen Spilka has championed.
Community colleges in Massachusetts — and public state universities — are already free for low-income students who are eligible for Pell grants, under a financial aid program announced last year by Governor Maura Healey. That means that wealthier students would see most of the benefit from the association’s proposals.
Under the association’s “preferred” proposal, detailed in an 86-page report, the state would pay for tuition, fees, books, and supplies for all community college students, regardless of income, as long as they took six credits a semester and maintained a 2.0 GPA. The lowest-income students, those who are Pell grant-eligible, would also get a $2,000 annual living stipend. The cost is estimated at $170 million annually to attract an estimated 7,000 new enrollees and 3,000 new graduates per year.
Accommodating those additional students would require adding student support services, hiring more faculty, and potentially paying for non-credit bearing courses. The association estimates this would cost up to $192 million.
The report offers other “non-preferred” options. A less expensive option would cover tuition, fees, and a small stipend for books for everyone, with no living stipend for low-income students. A more expensive option would offer the same benefits but increase the living stipend for Pell grant-eligible students.
Because low-income community college students already pay nothing, MACC’s preferred proposal would benefit wealthier students more than poorer students. A Pell-eligible student whose family earns less than $73,000 annually would get $3,200 in additional aid, while a student whose family earns over $100,000 a year would get $8,100. Just 45 percent of the money — $75 million out of the $170 million — would go to Pell-eligible students, according to the report.
“All this would do is make it free for students who can afford to pay,” said Sandy Baum, a higher education economist and senior fellow at the Urban Institute.
If lawmakers feel the current financial aid system does not give enough to the neediest students, a more efficient use of resources would be to adopt more generous policies targeted at those students, like adding a living stipend for Pell-eligible students or raising the income eligibility for financial aid to assist more middle-income students.
Another concern is avoiding a scenario in which a student choosing between four-year and two-year colleges is incentivized to choose the two-year school, even if it is not the best educational option for them.
At a recent meeting of the Board of Higher Education’s finance and administrative policy advisory council, Oded Gurantz, assistant professor at the University of Colorado’s School of Education, cited a 2017 study of Oregon’s free community college program, which found that while the program got some people to newly consider college, more than half of first-generation students and 43 percent of non-first-generation students said they originally planned to attend a four-year university and the program convinced them to attend community college, then transfer. Gurantz said about 70 percent of the enrollment jump at Oregon’s community colleges came from a decline in four-year college enrollment. Multiple otherstudies found similarly that free community college attracts a mix of students who would not otherwise enroll and those who would have enrolled elsewhere. That’s a problem because national research suggests that shifting students from four- to two-year colleges significantly lowers rates of bachelor’s degree attainment.
Statistically, some students at a two-year institution will transfer to a four-year institution, and the MACC report suggests that four-year colleges will benefit from new enrollments if free community college draws students who would otherwise not go to college or would enroll out of state. But data cited in a 2023 post on the US Department of Education blog finds that only 28 percent of Massachusetts community college students transfer to a four-year degree program and only 13 percent actually obtain a bachelor’s degree.
For many students, community college is the best choice. Community colleges admit all applicants and offer a faster education often tailored toward specific workplace credentials. If free community college draws students who would otherwise not attend college and helps them enter the workforce, that is a good thing for students and the Commonwealth.
But for students choosing between a two- and four-year college, a policy that offers financial incentives to choose the two-year school may harm that student’s chance of obtaining a bachelor’s degree, which is correlated with higher lifetime wages. “The evidence is clear that if you divert students from four-year institutions, on average it’s bad for them,” said Joshua Goodman, associate professor of education and economics at Boston University, who outlined his concerns in a recent Commonwealth Beacon article.
Existing programs avoid this pitfall by giving students aid regardless of which public school they attend or by restricting free community college to specific populations, like students over age 25, who due to personal circumstances are likely to either attend community college or not return to school at all.
Many of the report’s recommendations are about ways to improve community colleges, and lawmakers should consider these improvements regardless of whether they make college free. The SUCCESS grant program, which pays for support services like counseling advising that help retain students to graduation, has been proven to increase student retention, and increasing its budget would be a worthwhile investment. Existing financial aid programs are fragmented and confusing, and streamlining and simplifying those programs makes sense. Making non-credit bearing classes, like English for new immigrants, free would help students stay in school. There is room to improve transfer pathways so students can more easily move from community colleges to state universities.
There is a clear incentive for community colleges to advocate for free community college for all. Their enrollment has been declining for years (though it rose recently ) and an influx of students and state money would help their bottom line.
But policy makers must concern themselves not only with the health of community colleges but with the health of other public universities, with responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and with the quality of education provided to students. Massachusetts should spend its limited resources wisely with policies that remove the financial barriers to college while ensuring students can attend the school that best meets their needs.
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