Earlier this month was back to school season. The backpacks big and small. The school buses. The returning college students. The proud parents taking photos.
Back-to-school season is always a reminder of how critical a reminder of is how critical our investments in public education are. Schools open doors to students for skills, experiences, and pathways to their future lives. Our public schools are anchors of communities. They are engines of democracy and economic opportunity. And they are essential vehicles for reducing economic and racial disparities.
That’s why we’re fighting for legislation this session to improve the full spectrum of education, from child care and pre-K to K-12 schools to public higher ed. Here’s what’s happening–and how you can help.
This Past Monday: Cherish Act Hearing
On Monday, more than a hundred people were in Gardner Auditorium at the State House to support the Cherish Act.
The Cherish Act lays out a comprehensive blueprint for supporting public higher education:
- debt-free public higher education
- increased student supports
- better wages and working conditions
- green & healthy buildings
Over the course of the hearing, the Joint Committee on Higher Education heard powerful testimony from students struggling to make ends meet, graduates facing mountains of debt, and adjunct faculty lacking basic benefits on the job, underscoring the importance of investing in public higher ed.
If you weren’t able to attend on Monday, here are two things you can still do:
- Action Network: Urge the Higher Education Committee to report the Cherish Act favorably out of committee: https://actionnetwork.org/letters/urge-your-legislators-to-support-the-cherish-act/.
- Follow the Higher Ed for All coalition on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mahigheredforall
Wednesday, October 4: Thrive Act Hearing
Sign up to share that you’re joining us for the Thrive Act hearing on October 4th!
Location: Gardner Auditorium
Time: 2pm – 8pm
The Thrive Act would end the state’s ineffective approach to educational assessment and improvement by:
- Replacing the undemocratic and ineffective state takeover of local public schools with actual improvement plans and processes
- Replacing the (mis)use of MCAS as a graduation requirement with graduation based on successful completion of coursework that meets state standards and frameworks
- Establishing a commission to create an authentic, whole-child system for assessment and accountability.
The state has a responsibility to help all students and schools succeed, but, even by their own measures, the state’s interventions have not worked. It’s time to replace top-down ineffective punitive approaches with approaches that build local capacity, address root causes, and truly help students thrive.
In addition to showing up, here’s how you can help:
- Testify in person or virtually! Share your story about why this is important to you. Sign up to testify here! (deadline: October 3rd at 3 pm)
- Join a Testimony workshop: If you’d like support with your testimony, attend a testimony writing workshop hosted by the Thrive Act Coalition.
- Help us spread the message about the hearing!
Tuesday, October 17: Common Start Hearing
Massachusetts families need affordable and accessible child care and early education. Instead, our state has some of the highest costs in the country, while at the same time many providers are at risk of closure and early educators are not compensated enough for their work. It’s clear: we need a new system.
The Common Start bills would strengthen our commonwealth’s child care and early education infrastructure through a combination of direct-to-provider operational funding and family financial assistance to reduce costs to families while compensating providers for the true cost of providing quality care.
The legislative hearing for the Common Start bills will be on October 17th at 1:00 PM. While the room is yet to be announced, we know that it’s critical for Common Start to show up in full force and pack the hearing room so the Legislature and the Joint Committee on Education know how much support there is for affordable, accessible, early education and care!
The coalition will be organizing buses from various parts of the state and wants to gauge interest. If you can join on October 17 at the State House and would be interested in organized transportation, please fill out this form.
If you would like to write testimony in support of H.489 / S.301, feel free to reference our written testimony guidelines and written testimony template, and if you have any questions about writing testimony, please reach out to James at james@field-first.com.
