We’ve Seen the Success of Universal School Meals. Let’s Make Them Permanent.

Pass School Meals for All

Monday, July 17, 2023

Chair Lewis, Chair Garlick, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.603 and S.261: An Act relative to universal school meals.

Over 1 in 5 households with children in Massachusetts are struggling to put food on the table. School meals take the pressure off family budgets and allow families to put food on the table day-to-day.​

Ensuring that students receive proper nutrition would reduce health care costs, improve student attendance, improve socio-emotional health, and improve student performance. It’s simple: if basic needs are not met, higher-level functions are more difficult. You can’t do well on a test if your number one though is the growl in your stomach.

We have seen the success of universal school meals already, and we are grateful for past extensions of universal school meals by the Legislature in recognition of the success. It’s time to make universal school meals permanent.

California, Colorado, Maine, Minnesota, New Mexico, and Vermont have heeded the data and done so already. Let’s join them.

Please give a favorable report to these bills and urge the Budget Conference Committee to include permanent universal school meals in the FY 2024 budget currently being negotiated.

Thank you for your work on this.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

How A Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Can Accelerate Our Transition to a Green Economy

Energy retrofit

Monday, July 17, 2023

Chair Barrett and Members of the Senate Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities, and Energy:  

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to An Act establishing a zero carbon renovation fund (H.3232), filed by Rep. Andy Vargas.

This summer has been an ongoing series of warning signs of the need to take bold and comprehensive action on climate change. Earlier this month, from July 3 to July 6, we experienced the four hottest days on record globally. We have seen extreme flooding hit neighboring states, and the same for the dystopian impacts of raging wildfires in Canada.

Fortunately, we know what we need to do to mitigate climate change. According to the recent Massachusetts Clean Heat Commission Final Report, achieving our state’s climate goals will require retrofitting an additional 500,000 residential homes and roughly 300 million square feet of commercial buildings to utilize energy-efficient electric heating by 2030, with a pace of 20,000-25,000 home installations a year ahead of 2025, ramping up to 80,000 a year in the latter half of the decade, and over 100,000 residential homes per year thereafter. If we want to meet our goals, we need to start accelerating and scaling our actions.

This bill would allocate $300 million for a Zero Carbon Renovation Fund (ZCRF), administered by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center, to jumpstart the market for zero carbon renovations. Such renovations would include (1) maximizing energy efficiency through building envelope upgrades, (2) electrification of building systems, (3) maximizing usage of on-site renewable energy, wherever possible, and (4) use of building retrofit materials that are low embodied carbon.

Importantly, this bill understands that our sustainability transition must be an equitable one, and that some of the oldest housing stock is that where low-income communities and communities of color live. Accordingly, the ZCRF would prioritize affordable housing, public housing, low- and moderate-income homes, schools, BIPOC- and women-owned businesses, and buildings located in Environmental Justice communities.

We’ve seen positive steps from Gov. Healey about investing in green retrofits, but we must scale up that work.

The Legislature has made an ongoing commitment to passing climate legislation. Last session, you took important steps to expand the wind energy industry and to decarbonize transportation, among other steps. Decarbonizing buildings must be at the center of new climate legislation, as buildings make up a large share of our carbon emissions.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts