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Boston Globe
11-07-2025
- Business
- Boston Globe
Here's what education gets out of Massachusetts' new state spending plan
The spending plan slashed $130 million, including by trimming the Statewide College and Career Readiness Program, which provides online materials for students to reach college readiness, and reducing charter school reimbursements, which districts receive as partial reimbursement for student tuitions costs. Here's how the new Massachusetts state budget will impact education: Advertisement Fair Share funding and rising costs School districts faced rising costs from inflation and the end of COVID relief programs. Current state funds like the Student Opportunity Act, which largely targets schools with underserved communities, have The new state budget increased the opportunity act's minimum per-pupil cost to $150, up from $104. However, advocates like Jessica Tang, of the American Federation of Teachers Massachusetts, said there needs to be a permanent change to the Chapter 70 school funding program to account for inflation. To offset this need, the Fair Share supplementary budget, which is funded by revenue from the millionaies tax, added $1.5 billion for education. Advertisement Tang said that instead of using the money to expand education programs, the surtax funds are being used to fill gaps left by potential cuts in federal funding to programs like Medicaid, which reimburses school districts for important medical services. Tang mentioned Healey vetoed $20 million in charter school reimbursements in the state budget, which help mitigate funding losses from Chapter 70. Viviana Abreu-Hernandez, the president of the MassBudget policy organization, said the federal government is 'I'm afraid that the budget is not going to be enough once the federal cuts materialize, particularly for the children that need more support to be successful,' Abreu-Hernandez said. Vocational and technical schools The new state budget allowed to move forward The new system will allow schools to use student interest, middle school attendance, and lack of serious disciplinary issues as weights in a lottery. Lew Finfer, from the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, said the lottery system will help expand vocational school access to students from marginalized backgrounds. 'They're creating a system where conceivably every student can at least get into the lottery,' Finfer said. The state House budget included a two-year moratorium on the lottery requirement, but that was excluded from the final budget. Advertisement Mary Tamer, the executive director of MassPotential, said admission changes have to account for greater student demand, with more than 6,000 students waitlisted for vocational school seats. 'The question becomes: Will the state provide resources to create more schools?' Tamer said. Finfer said the supplementary budget accounts for at least $100 million to fund comprehensive schools that offer vocational or technical programs, which will renovate and expand existing spaces to provide around 3,000 new seats. Career readiness and higher education Healey vetoed more than $800,000 in college and career readiness programs, because they did not align with her initial budget recommendations, and she cited other programs that support career readiness. However, she added $50 million for the state's early college initiative, which allows high school students to earn college credits. 'This year's funding for early college is well positioned to catalyze growth and impact that we need to see,' said Chessye Moseley from the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College, about the program reaching 11,000 students next year. Tang said the state needs to continue promoting affordable higher education with the free community college program, and at the same time ensure there are options for students who prefer other career pathways. 'We need to focus on how do we continue to have high standards for schools and colleges, and support families and their needs,' Tang said. Literacy and student support Literacy rates in Massachusetts dropped, with four in 10 third- to eighth-graders achieving reading proficiency, Tamer said. The new state budget allocates $15 million to Tang said there is a need to expand funding for current teacher development, instead of just allocating funds to outside organizations. Advertisement Tamer said Massachusetts is following the footsteps of states like Ohio, which invested more than $100 million in literacy programs that showed significant improvements. Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez, said the state will continue to work with districts to ensure they support the rising population of students with special needs, as well as multilingual learners, whose needs are more expensive. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education expects $8.9 billion in funding. 'It is harder today to be a teacher than ever before,' Martinez said. Vatsady Sivongxay, from the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance, said the state needs to be bolder in its funding, given school districts continue to layoff councilors and education specialists. Sivongxay, who is a parent of the Cambridge public schools, said parents should expect fewer specialized educators in kindergarten classrooms next school year. '[My son] benefits from having support staff,' Sivongxay said about her fifth-grader who does not have a specialized education program. 'He appreciates and loves all of the staff equally.' Maria Probert can be reached at
Yahoo
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vocational school admission change quietly dropped from state budget deal
The state's new policy to use a lottery for vocational-technical (voc-tech) school admissions will remain in place for now — as an amendment that would have prevented the policy from going into effect was not included in the legislature's FY26 budget bill. The amendment, filed by Rep. Frank Moran, D-17th Essex, also called for the creation of a task force that would study and make recommendations about vocational school admissions. The amendment was included in the House of Representative's standalone bill for the FY26 budget but was not included in the final bill agreed upon by House and Senate members. Lawmakers from both chambers are expected to vote on the budget agreement Monday afternoon. 'You move forward,' Moran said about his amendment not being included. On May 20, the state's Department of Elementary and Secondary Education approved the new admissions policy, requiring voc-tech schools with more applicants than open seats to use a lottery for their admissions. The lottery system will go into effect for the 2026-2027 school year. Some advocates of voc-tech schools have said in the past that previous criteria for enrollment, such as grades and recommendations, lead to a disproportionate exclusion of special needs students, economically disadvantaged students, students of color and English language learners in schools. A federal discrimination complaint challenging the previous admission processes was filed in 2023 by students and civil rights groups who argued the processes were exclusionary. The complaint was filed on behalf of four students and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, a group of 20 community, union and civil rights groups that have previously advocated for a lottery system, according to the coalition's website. Members of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, including The Massachusetts Teachers Association, the Massachusetts Education Justice Alliance and the Greater Boston Building Trades Unions, did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Monday. Gov. Maura Healey's administration proposed the lottery system to the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, with members of her cabinet, including the governor herself, speaking in favor of the policy. 'While we continue to increase the number of seats in career technical education schools, we know that there are still more applicants than openings at many of the schools,' Healey said in a statement on May 20. 'Today's vote will help give all eighth graders more knowledge of their options and a better chance at being admitted to these schools.' Moran, who represents a part of Lawrence — a city that is 82% Hispanic according to the U.S. census — believes that the lottery system would be detrimental to students of color. He argued that white students are more likely to be randomly selected in the lottery because there are more of them than there are students of color. In Massachusetts, 79% of the population is white, 13.5% are Latino, 9.6% are Black, 7.9% are Asian, 2.8% are a mix of two or more races and 0.6% are American Indian, according to the U.S. census. 'I think the decision that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education made to go forward with this change is going to be detrimental to our communities and across the Commonwealth,' Moran said. 'I think we need to explore other options and thats the reason why we wanted to put (forward) this amendment.' Moran also filed a standalone bill that seeks to establish an admissions task force. The bill is still in committee and has not been brought to the House floor for a full vote, Moran said. Timothy Murray, the CEO and president of the Worcester Chamber of Commerce, was also disappointed that Moran's amendment was not included in the final budget agreement. 'This lottery eliminates criteria like attendance, academic performance, & behavior from admissions decisions,' according to a statement from Murray that was posted on the Chamber of Commerce's X account Monday. 'It's not equity — it's a retreat from standards that help students thrive in hands-on learning environments.' Last week, the Chamber of Commerce hosted a panel that featured school and business leaders from cities including Brockton, Springfield, and Worcester. The members of the panel, which included Murray, all criticized the state's new policy, saying they preferred the previous admissions process based on interviews, grades, and recommendations. 'It is unfortunate and not where we need to be going,' Murray said. Trump admin threatens to cut all Harvard's funding over 'violent violation' As foreign students reconsider coming to Boston, local businesses prepare for fallout Trump admin appeals federal judge's decision rejecting ban of foreign Harvard students Holyoke schools, union at odds over 'exit assurances' during transition to local control A new Boston-area college president is named amid financial strain and a resignation Read the original article on MassLive.
Boston Globe
16-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Career technical schools to get a fairness upgrade with the name change
'These are life-altering opportunities,' said Lewis Finfer of the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, which has been fighting for all of those years for a switch to a lottery system for the schools. Get The Gavel A weekly SCOTUS explainer newsletter by columnist Kimberly Atkins Stohr. Enter Email Sign Up On the other side: school administrators who say they need a way to ensure the students they admit are motivated and disciplined, and that instead of bickering over who gets vocational school spots, the state should be creating more of them. Advertisement Now at last there is a solution coming into view, one that deserves the support of state education officials. After years of wrangling with both the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education and within the Legislature, Governor Maura Healey Another $100 million is included in a broader education And while many of the skills currently taught are the ones perpetually in demand in the real world — auto mechanics, plumbing, carpentry, culinary arts — the state's reputation as a health care mecca means many schools now offer health technology and biotech programs along with computer programming and web design. All of them lead to what a Advertisement So no wonder that the state's 29 regional trade schools — henceforth to be called career technical education schools —which educate some 30,000 students, are in high demand. Last year, of the 20,300 middle-schoolers who applied, some 8,500 were denied admission. There were even more applications this year and the Vocational Education Justice Coalition says wait lists are up to 10,000, with most of those students coming from Gateway Cities. Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical High School in Easton, for example, gets 1,280 applications for 430 seats with two-thirds of Brockton eighth-graders applying. The obvious answer, of course, is to add capacity — something the governor is attempting to do. But vocational schools — with their need for large spaces and specialized facilities, are more expensive than regular classroom structures to build. There is the added difficulty of getting several municipalities that make up a regional vocational school district to agree to pony up building funds. So until supply can catch up with demand, those districts have used grades, interviews, and guidance counselor recommendations along with attendance and disciplinary records to choose their students. The problem is, those policies, advocates have shown and state education officials have come to acknowledge, lead to discriminatory outcomes for low-income students, students of color, English language learners, and students with disabilities. A recent Advertisement State education officials have tried to encourage local districts to use a lottery system since 2021, but only a handful of schools have gone along. That in turn led Healey to jump-start the process of changing the system — after all, as Finfer notes, 'these are public schools, but they've been allowed to use a private school-style admissions policy.' At a special meeting Monday night the ed board voted to tweak Healey's proposal and seems to have come up with a perfectly reasonable compromise. As with all good compromises it will likely leave no one totally satisfied. All student applicants would be entered into a weighted lottery — with extra weight given for those with no more than 27 unexcused absences during the previous 270 school days (about a year and a half) and for those with no serious disciplinary infractions. 'This approach would acknowledge students' positive attendance and discipline records while keeping the pathway to admission open to all who apply,' according to a memo from Acting Commissioner Russell D. Johnston to the board. It got immediate pushback from 'What message does this send about the importance of showing up to school in a form of education that requires one to be present to attain vocational skills?' he added. VEJC continued to insist that a 'weighted lottery' isn't the same as a 'blind lottery,' despite the fact that it had scored a huge victory both in pressing for a mandated lottery and in the way the new regulation now deals with unexcused absences. The group seems to have forgotten the wisdom of not letting the perfect become the enemy of the good. Advertisement All will have the next 60 days to make their case during a public comment period, with a board vote scheduled before the end of the school year. The new regulation would go into effect for the entering class in September 2026. And those kids — the ones fortunate enough to grab the brass ring of a quality education — will be the real winners in this too long and too fractious debate. Editorials represent the views of the Boston Globe Editorial Board. Follow us
