Testimony: Investing in Our Commonwealth and Our Shared Prosperity

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Chair Michlewitz, Chair Rodrigues, and Members of the Joint Committee on Ways and Means:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth. Thank you for your work on the FY 2025 budget.

In the following, we outline several key priority areas for the budget to ensure that it builds on recent progress in investing in our commonwealth.

Strengthening Our Commitment to Public Higher Education

Our public colleges and universities are essential vehicles for economic mobility of our commonwealth’s residents and economic vitality of the commonwealth itself. Studies have shown that college graduates are more likely to be healthier, earn significantly more on average, and are less likely to face job loss during an economic recession, and graduates of our public colleges and universities are more likely to stay in Massachusetts to live and work, contributing to our commonwealth and common wealth.

However, our state has been disinvesting from public higher education for the last two decades, with funding for public higher education still below its (inflation-adjusted) value in 2001. When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families.

The published in-state tuition and fees increase at public 4-year institutions in MA increased 135 percent from 2001 to 2021 after adjusting for inflation, and for two-year institutions, 81 percent, but real Median Household Income in Massachusetts only increased by 8 percent. Just between 2009 and 2021, the average student debt rose 52% for four-year graduates and 62% for community college graduates. When we close off opportunities like that for our students, we are all worse off. 

As you craft the FY 2025 budget, we urge you to incorporate key provisions of the Cherish Act and the Debt-Free Future Act, such as

  • Instituting fair and adequate minimum funding levels for public higher education
  • Ensuring that students are able to graduate from our public colleges and universities debt-free
  • Ensuring that adjunct faculty and part-time staff are eligible for state health care and retirement benefits
  • Reducing wage disparities on campuses
  • Increasing funding for student supports
  • Investing in green and healthy buildings on campus

Fully Funding Our Public Schools

The passage of the Student Opportunity Act in 2019 was a major win for education justice in the commonwealth. We are very appreciative of recent comments that the Legislature will fully fund the Student Opportunity Act’s fourth year of implementation, keeping the law on track to be fully funded by the 2026-2027 school year. Importantly, maintaining that commitment includes fixing the Chapter 70 inflation calculation glitch that, if left unsolved, could permanently reduce school aid and prevent the Commonwealth from meeting the real-dollar targets in the Student Opportunity Act.

Full Funding for School Meals for All

We also urge you to support full funding in support of School Meals for All (Line Items 1596-2422 and 7053-1925).

The research on universal school meals is clear: participation in school meals improves academic achievement, attendance, and student behavior at school; decreases childhood food insecurity; leads to children eating more fruits, vegetables, and milk; and reduces visits to the school nurse.

With the implementation of School Meals for All, more than an additional 100,000 students participated in school lunch in October 2023 compared to October 2019 in schools not previously serving universal free meals. This program has been a success all around, and we must ensure it continues to be so.

Advancing the Common Start Vision

As a member of the Common Start coalition, we would also like to amplify the common Start coalition’s asks:

  • $510 million to continue operational grants to child care providers (line item 3000-1045)
  • Increased funding that makes substantial progress towards the Economic Review Commission’s recommendation of raising early education and care financial assistance reimbursement rates (line items 3000-1041 & 3000-1042)
  • $75 million to increase access to child care financial assistance (line item 3000-4060)
  • $20 million for the Head Start Supplemental Grant (line item 3000-5000)

The Governor, Senate Leadership, and House Leadership have all expressed a commitment to strengthening our child care and early education system, and these investments would help to do that.

Access to Counsel

Without legal representation, many tenants risk becoming homeless. Indeed, most tenants are unrepresented and face eviction alone. It doesn’t have to be that way, and an Access to Counsel program is a proven solution.

We urge the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means to include in your respective FY25 budgets $3.5 Million (Line-item 0321-1800) to start a Access to Counsel program in tandem with the full Access to Council bill language in S.864/H.4360, which provides the framework for a statewide program.

Increasing Assistance to Families in Deep Poverty

We also urge you to include a 20% increase in cash assistance grant levels (line items 4403-2000 and 4408-1000.

The maximum grant for a family of 3 with no income is only $783 a month, far below even half the federal poverty level – known as Deep Poverty – which is currently $1,076 for a family of 3.  The maximum grant for an elder or person with a disability is only $401 a month.  In January, Governor Healey cut the 10% grant increase that the Legislature had scheduled to go into effect in April.

Deep poverty hurts kids.  It causes health and emotional damage, toxic stress, impaired school performance, and homeless and housing instability. We must do right by our neediest families.

A budget is a moral document, and we urge you to include such investments to advance a vision of a commonwealth that works for all residents.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

State House News Service: “City Council backs idea of debt-free college bill”

Chris Lisinski, “City Council backs idea of debt-free college bill,” State House News Service, January 31, 2024.

“Councillors posed for a photo with Higher Ed for All advocates and turned over the microphone to Jonathan Cohn, policy director of the Progressive Massachusetts group that’s part of the coalition pushing for higher education reforms.

“The bill that we’re fighting for this session, in particular the CHERISH Act, is something that builds on that vision with debt-free higher education so that students aren’t graduating with thousands and thousands of dollars in debt that makes it hard for them when they start out and is damaging for the economy of Massachusetts as a whole,” Cohn said in the council chambers.”

Op-Ed: A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable

Jonathan Cohn, “A New Year’s resolution: Make Mass. affordable,” CommonWealth, December 28, 2023.

Throughout 2023, we constantly heard elected officials talk about the need for tax cuts to make Massachusetts more “competitive,” pushing a debunked myth that we were about to see an exodus of the well-off due to the Fair Share Amendment and the overall tax landscape. The risk we really face is that our graduates won’t be able to stay here, that young couples won’t be able to make a family here, and that working people will be displaced from one neighborhood to the next before being driven out of the state entirely. All of this is avoidable with good policy.

So let’s hope – and pressure – our elected officials to embrace those policies. And to not give up on a New Year’s Resolution too soon.

It’s Back to School at the MA State House. Here’s How You Can Support Public Education.

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:

  1. 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/.
  2. 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.

Let’s Show that We Cherish Public Higher Ed

Higher Ed for All logo

Monday, September 18, 2023

Chair Comerford, Chair Rogers, and Members of the Joint Committee on Higher Education:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director at Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic commonwealth. 

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1260/S.816: An Act committing to higher education the resources to insure a strong and healthy public higher education system (the “Cherish Act”) and H.1265 / S.823: An Act relative to debt-free public higher education (“Debt-Free Future”).

Our public colleges and universities are essential vehicles for economic mobility of our commonwealth’s residents and economic vitality of the commonwealth itself. Studies have shown that college graduates are more likely to be healthier, earn significantly more on average, and are less likely to face job loss during an economic recession, and graduates of our public colleges and universities are more likely to stay in Massachusetts to live and work, contributing to our commonwealth and common wealth.

However, our state has been disinvesting from public higher education for the last two decades, with funding for public higher education still below its (inflation-adjusted) value in 2001. [1] When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families.

When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families. The published in-state tuition and fees increase at public 4-year institutions in MA increased 135 percent from 2001 to 2021 after adjusting for inflation, and for two-year institutions, 81 percent, but real Median Household Income in Massachusetts only increased by 8 percent. [2] Just between 2009 and 2021, the average student debt rose 52% for four-year graduates and 62% for community college graduates. [3] When we close off opportunities for our students, we are all worse off. 

No student should be saddled with years of debt because of attending one of our state’s public colleges and universities. As our state has so often been a leader in higher education, we should take this opportunity and be a leader in debt-free public higher education with both the Debt-Free Future bill and the Cherish Act.

The Cherish Act takes a comprehensive approach to strengthening our public higher education system. In addition to addressing the barrier that high tuition and fees—as well as living costs—can pose for students, the bill would increase investments in student support services to ensure positive learning environment and improve student retention, and it would institute fair and adequate minimum funding levels for public higher education.

The burden of disinvestment in public higher education has not just been borne by students; it has also been borne by faculty and staff, who have seen weakened job security and workplace benefits as institutions embrace strategies of privatization and “adjunctification.” The Cherish Act would ensure that ensure that adjunct faculty and part-time staff are eligible for state health care and retirement benefits, and it would establish a Commission on Wage Equity and Working Conditions to recommend changes aimed at eliminating pay inequities based on gender, race, and job category.

Finally, the COVID crisis and the climate crisis both show clearly how much the built environment matters to human and environmental health. That’s why the bill creates a commission to evaluate the health, safety, and energy efficiency of public college and university buildings, develop a set of standards, and recommend a plan to bring all buildings into compliance with this standard by 2035. Our colleges and universities have such a key role to play in addressing climate change, and this bill shows how.

Last year, voters showed that they believed it was time for the rich to pay their fair share so that we can invest in our public education systems and public infrastructure. The support is there among the public to recommitting to the ideal of higher education for all. Let’s make it happen.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

[1] https://massbudget.org/2020/08/10/bruised-budgets-a-higher-education-funding-history-lesson-for-an-antiracist-future-2/

[2] https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/

[3] https://www.hildrethinstitute.org/rising-barriers-shrinking-aid

NEXT WEEK: Show Your Support for Public Higher Ed, State House Employee Union

With the summer over, the Legislature is getting back into the swing of things, with a number of hearings coming up soon. Here are two key ones next week — and what you can do to help.

Monday, 9/18: Hearing on the Cherish Act

On Monday, at 10 AM in Gardner Auditorium at the State House, the Joint Committee on Higher Education will be holding a hearing on the Cherish Act.

Our public colleges and universities are essential vehicles for economic mobility and economic stability. However, our state has been underinvesting from public higher education for the last two decades. When the state reduces funding to public colleges and universities, the result is higher tuition and fees, and a growing debt burden faced by students and families.

The Cherish Act (S.816; H.1260) is a comprehensive response to the problems facing public higher ed today and charts a vision for what a higher education system for all would look like. The bill has four key parts:

  1. Debt-Free Public Higher Education
  2. Increased Student Supports
  3. Recruitment and Retention of High-Quality Faculty and Staff
  4. Green, Healthy, and Safe Campus Facilities
Higher Ed for All

Click here to RSVP for Monday’s hearing.

Click here to register to take a free bus to/from the hearing.

Click here to submit written testimony.

Click here to sign up for a virtual written testimony workshop.

Click here to urge your legislators to attend the Cherish Act Hearing.

Click here to learn more about the Higher Ed for All Coalition!

Wednesday, 9/20: Show Your Support for the State House Staff

Last year, State Senate staffers announced that a majority of their colleagues had signed union authorization cards in March of 2022. They requested voluntary recognition from our Senate President, and after delaying for three months, she refused to recognize the union.

Since then, the Senate has maintained a card majority despite major turnover, and organizers are over 2/3 of the way to a majority in the MA House. In order to unionize, however, they need to change state law on public sector unionization.

H.3069/S.2014, An Act relative to collective bargaining rights for legislative employees, will get a hybrid public hearing in front of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight on September 20th at 1pm. These bills would extend to State House staff the same right to unionize, if they choose, that almost all workers in the Commonwealth already enjoy.

  1. Read and sign onto written testimony from MSHEU requesting the SARO Committee support the bills. Please sign the letter from organizations/unions/supportive individuals.
  2. Register to testify in person, or virtually, at the hearing on Sept 20th. You can fill out the linked form by 5:00 PM on Monday, September 18th to register.
  3. Email your state legislators to ask them to co-sponsor H.3069 and S.2014.

PM Joins 80 Other Organizations in Calling for Tuition Equity

June 9, 2023

To: Sen. Michael J. Rodrigues, Chair, Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Rep. Aaron M. Michlewitz, Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means

Sen. Cindy F. Friedman, Vice-Chair, Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Rep. Ann-Margaret Ferrante, Vice-Chair, House Committee on Ways and Means

Sen. Patrick O’Connor, Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Ways and Means

Rep. Todd M. Smola, Ranking Minority Member, House Committee on Ways and Means

CC: The Honorable Senate President Karen E. Spilka

The Honorable Speaker of the House Ronald Mariano

FR: The Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy (MIRA) Coalition, the Massachusetts Tuition Equity Coalition (MTEC) and the Undersigned MIRA Coalition Members, Allies, and Partner Organizations

RE: Access to In-State Tuition Rates at Public Colleges and Universities for Immigrant Graduates of Massachusetts High Schools, Regardless of Immigration Status

We, the 81 undersigned immigrant-serving organizations and allies, are grateful to the leadership of the House and Senate for your generous support for legislation and programs providing critical services and assistance for the Commonwealth’s immigrant and refugee communities in recent years. We are especially grateful for legislative advances that address the needs of the most vulnerable members of our Commonwealth’s diverse immigrant communities, such as last year’s historic passage of the Work and Family Mobility Act.

As you finalize the FY24 budget this year, we respectfully request that the conference committee extend in-state tuition and state-funded education assistance to eligible Massachusetts high school graduates, regardless of their immigration status, as provided in outside section 8 of the Senate budget.

Immigrant advocates and higher education leaders in Massachusetts have long supported broad access to an affordable public college education for immigrant youth, particularly those without status who arrived in the U.S. as children and have been educated in our public schools. Currently these students are required to pay out-of-state or international tuition rates (up to four times the in-state rate). They are overwhelmingly from low-income, hardworking families, often with substantial responsibilities to contribute to family income, but lack access to both federal and state student financial aid. This combination effectively denies some of our most ambitious and talented high school graduates from continuing their education and contributing to the Massachusetts economy.

We support the inclusion of the in-state tuition provision for the following reasons:

Our Commonwealth should continue investing in these students. There are an estimated 15,000 undocumented students currently enrolled in Massachusetts primary schools. Massachusetts should make good on this investment by allowing these students to fulfill their educational potential.

Expanded access to public higher education is an investment in the future Massachusetts workforce. In Massachusetts, immigrants are 80 percent more likely than US-born residents to start their own businesses, ranging from family-owned small businesses to tech startups. Nearly one in four entrepreneurs in Massachusetts is foreign-born.

Our public colleges and universities would benefit from broadening educational access to include these students, given declining Massachusetts enrollment rates. Foreign-born students account for a substantial portion of the public college and university student body. Nationally, 83% of immigrant college students were enrolled in public institutions (as opposed to private ones) in 2018. Meanwhile, college enrollment in Massachusetts has declined by over 10% since 2015.

We believe that Massachusetts has a historic opportunity to join the over 23 states that have expanded public higher educational opportunities to undocumented high school graduates, and continue this legislature’s legacy of support for our immigrant communities. The proposed policy would benefit our public higher education institutions, our labor force, and most importantly, the Massachusetts high school graduates who are educated, work, and pay taxes here in our Commonwealth.

Respectfully,

Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition

Massachusetts Tuition Equity Coalition

32BJ SEIU

ACLU of Massachusetts

Action for Boston Community Development, Inc. (ABCD)

ADL New England

African Bridge Network

Agencia ALPHA

American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts

Amplify Latinx

Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW)

Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence (ATASK)

Berkshire Immigrant Center

Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

Boston City Councilor At-Large Ruthzee Louijeune

Boston Immigrant Justice Accompaniment Network

Boston Teachers Union

Brazilian Women’s Group

Brazilian Worker Center

Brockton Workers Alliance

Cape Cod Coalition for Safe Communities

Central West Justice Center

Centro Presente

Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts

Citizens for Public Schools

Coalition for a Better Acre

Coalition for Safe Communities

Community Action Agency of Somerville, Inc.

Community Economic Development Center New Bedford

Dominican Development Center/ Boston Immigrant Worker Center

East Boston Community Council

East Boston Neighborhood Health Center

Harvard Immigration and Refugee Clinical Program

Harvard Representation Initiative

Health Law Advocates

Hildreth Institute

Housing = Health

Immigrant Family Services Institute (IFSI-USA)

Immigrants’ Assistance Center, Inc. (IAC)

International Institute of New England

Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action

Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston

League of Women Voters of Marblehead

League of Women Voters of Massachusetts

MAPA Translations, Inc.

Massachusetts Action for Justice

Massachusetts Alliance of Portuguese Speakers (MAPS)

Massachusetts Appleseed Center for Law and Justice

Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages (MATSOL)

Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless

Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance

Massachusetts Immigrant Collaborative

Massachusetts Law Reform Institute

Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA)

Maverick Landing Community Services (MLCS)

Mayor Ballantyne, City of Somerville

Mayor’s Office for Immigrant Advancement

Merrimack Valley Project

MetroWest Legal Services

Metrowest Worker Center – Casa

Multicultural Education, Training & Advocacy (META) Inc.

New England Justice for Our Neighbors

Northeast Justice Center

Northeastern University School of Law Immigrant Justice Clinic

Pathway for Immigrant Workers, Inc.

Paulist Center Immigrant Advocacy Group

Progressive Massachusetts

Rian Immigrant Center

Rosie’s Place

Saheli Inc

Sisters of St. Joseph of Boston

Somerville Homeless Coalition, Inc.

Somerville Public Schools

Stories Inspiring Movements (SIM)

Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice

The Welcome Project

TRUE ALLIANCE CENTER INC

uAspire

Unitarian Universalist Mass Action

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1445

YWCA Central MA

A #FlashbackFriday about Disenfranchisement in MA and What You Can Do Today

Although we often think of the history of voting rights in the US as one of ever-forward motion, Massachusetts stands as an outlier. In the late 1990s, after incarcerated individuals in MCI-Norfolk started organizing for better conditions, Republican Governor Bill Cellucci and the MA Legislature responded with retaliation: a multi-step process of disenfranchisement. In 2000, Massachusetts voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit people incarcerated for felonies in state prison from voting in state elections; the subsequent year, Cellucci signed a law to extend this prohibition to federal and municipal elections. Our commonwealth did something rare in recent history: it took away the right to vote from a category of people who were formerly enfranchised.

But the tide is turning. On Wednesday, the Joint Committee on Election Laws took the significant step of giving a favorable report to S.8/H.26, constitutional amendments filed by Sen. Liz Miranda and Adam Gomez and Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven that would ensure that incarceration never leads to a loss of voting rights.

Urge your legislators to support the bill and advocate for its advancement in an upcoming constitutional convention.

And in upcoming events….

Wednesday, May 3: Higher Ed for All Speakout

Celebrate graduates and ensure that debt-free public higher ed is an option for future generations!

The Massachusetts State House will soon be considering the Cherish Act (S.816 / H.1260) and Debt-Free Bill (S.823 / H.1265). Collectively, these bills call for debt-free public higher education, increased student supports, better wages and working conditions, and green/healthy buildings.

Join the Higher Ed for All coalition on the State House steps and share your testimony alongside graduates, students, faculty, librarians, staff, and community from across the commonwealth!

  • 12:00-12:55 PM: Speak Out
  • 12:55 PM: Group Photo
Higher Ed for All

Thursday, May 4: Medicare for All Lobby Day

The Medicare for All Lobby Day will take place on Thursday, May 4, from 10AM to 3PM at the State House. RSVP here to let Mass-Care know you can join!

Show Some Love to These Bills

Today is Valentine’s Day, a great opportunity to give some love to the bills on our 2023-2024 Legislative Agenda.

These bills would…

  • help us invest in our future
  • strengthen our child care infrastructure
  • improve our public education systems
  • make our state more affordable to live in
  • shift our criminal legal system toward rehabilitation and community well-being
  • make our state more welcoming of all residents in their diverse identities and backgrounds
  • accelerate an equity-centered transition to renewable energy
  • increase participation in our democracy

What’s not to LOVE?

Please reach out to your state legislators about our new legislative agenda for the session!

Write to your legislators here!

Read more about all the bills we’re supporting.

Help Communicate About Common Start in Your Local Community

The Common Start Coalition is looking for volunteers to help communicate about the Common Start agenda (affordable, high-quality early education and child care for all Massachusetts families) in local newspapers, cable access TV programs, and radio stations across the state.

Are you interested in writing a letter to the editor about Common Start in your local newspaper and/or going on a local cable access TV or radio program in your community to talk about Common Start? Please fill out this formto express your interest in communicating about Common Start!

Higher Ed for All Advocacy Day: Tuesday, 2/28

Higher Ed for All

Affordable high-quality public higher education is essential to expand opportunity in all of our communities and create a more equitable and prosperous Commonwealth. Higher Ed For All is advocating for fully funded community colleges, state universities, and UMass campuses to knock down the barriers that too many potential college graduates’ encounter.

The Higher Ed for All coalition will be having an Advocacy Day at the State House on Tuesday, February 28. Never been to a lobby day before? There will be trainings in advance.

Follow-up to Last Week’s Prison Moratorium Lobby Day

Have a few minutes for a quick action? Call Governor Healey and leave a message about why it’s time to put a pause on new prisons and jails: bit.ly/massmoratoriumguide.

What’s Coming Up This Month

Last week, we rolled our legislative agenda, and events are already popping up to help fight for the bills in it.

Reminder: Our Legislative Agenda

Please reach out to your state legislators about our new legislative agenda for the session!

Thursday, 2/9: Prison Moratorium State House for a Day of Action

The Healey administration is advancing the new women’s prison project, and now is the time to come together to stop it once and for all. This Thursday at 3 pm, join Families for Justice as Healing at the Massachusetts State House to let Governor Healey and Legislature that we do not need to build new prisons. Meet at the front steps of the State House on Beacon St for a rally with speakers, signs, and music and then we will go inside the building. You will get materials to drop off at legislator’s offices about the urgency to pass the Prison Moratorium NOW and other legislation to reduce the number of people incarcerated in MA. RSVP HERE.

Prison Moratorium Rally on 2/9 at the State House

Have a few minutes today for a quick action? Call Governor Healey and leave a message about why it’s time to put a pause on new prisons and jails: bit.ly/massmoratoriumguide.

Higher Ed for All Advocacy Day: Tuesday, 2/28

Higher Ed for All

Affordable high-quality public higher education is essential to expand opportunity in all of our communities and create a more equitable and prosperous Commonwealth. Higher Ed For All is advocating for fully funded community colleges, state universities, and UMass campuses to knock down the barriers that too many potential college graduates’ encounter.

The Higher Ed for All coalition will be having an Advocacy Day at the State House on Tuesday, February 28. Never been to a lobby day before? There will be trainings in advance.

  • RSVP for the Advocacy Day at the State House on Tuesday, February 28.
  • RSVP for an Advocacy Day Training on February 16 or February 21.