Massachusetts broke new ground in November, when voters authorized a constitutional amendment that will make the tax system fairer, by enacting a 4 percent tax on incomes over $1 million.
Five previous attempts to pass similar measures failed. But on Nov. 8, 2022, Massachusetts voters approved Question 1, and now the next steps begin. For billions of dollars to reach public schools and transportation – as intended – educators and activists who combined forces to campaign for the passage of the Fair Share Amendment will need to make sure the Legislature follows through.
MTA leaders have described that effort as the next step in the Fair Share campaign. And it will become a focus in the coming months, as legislators hone in on the state budget and education bills.
MTA President Max Page said the generational victory of Question 1 will be followed up with a winning campaign to ensure it is spent on the most critical educational priorities. "Some of that money needs to come back to our schools, colleges and universities in a way that we think is best," Page said.
Schools need more educators, counselors and nurses, and supports for students who have come through three years of a life-changing pandemic. In public higher education, the priorities include debt-free public education, and a commitment from the state to resume covering the true cost of building construction and maintenance, which are now pushed on to campuses and students.
Beyond finances, the preK-12 educational system has to be changed to be more just and holistic, including getting rid of the punitive use of the MCAS exams. "We want the money spent on our public schools and colleges, and implementing the Student Opportunity Act, but we want to embrace a whole-child approach to education," Page said. "We need to get rid of what is hampering educators, which is the current set-up of this high-stakes testing system."
Governor Maura Healey, who supported the Fair Share Amendment, has said publicly several times that she understands its funds will be in addition to, not in place of, existing appropriations for education. Similar statements have been made since November by other state leaders, including Senate President Karen Spilka.
Healey, whose first budget is expected to be delivered to the Legislature by March 1, won the recommendation of the MTA in her gubernatorial race.
MTA leaders already have scheduled or held meetings with her cabinet members, including Patrick Tutwiler, the new Secretary of Education, to share the union’s priorities. Unlike his predecessor, Tutwiler has had a long career in public education, including work as a classroom teacher and school and district administrator.
The MTA’s priorities for the Fair Share proceeds are encased in a package of bills newly introduced on Beacon Hill. Each has received the endorsement of the MTA Government Relations Committee, and a grassroots campaign to encourage their passage will unfold soon.
The idea is to put the weight of the 115,000-member union behind each priority, in much the same way that union members have rallied for each other at the local level to fight for better contracts.
In other words, the familiar chant, "when we fight, we win" is going to be applied to statewide educational priorities.
The legislative agenda includes adoption of the Cherish Act for higher education, which would include debt-free public higher education, starting with community college and later including fouryear universities. More than 700,000 people in Massachusetts have some college credits, but no degree, Page noted. "It’s one thing to get access to college, but we have to help students get the best experience in college and get to graduation without crippling debt."
The newly reintroduced Cherish Act also would expand eligibility for state health care and retirement benefits to adjunct and part-time faculty. And it would add more funds for student support services, ensure adequate minimum funding for public higher education and require the state to resume coverage of capital construction and maintenance expenses, which are now passed on to local campuses and students.
The Thrive Act is the anti-high-stakes testing bill and would remove Massachusetts as an outlier among states in tying a standardized test to graduation. Only eight states now do so. The proposal would replace the MCAS graduation requirement with one that allows students’ districts to certify their completion of coursework and mastery of skills. And it would eliminate the use of state "receiverships" and return democratic control to communities and school committees.
The MTA also is making a priority of a fair inflation adjustment, or COLA, for public education retirees. Current law allows a COLA to be applied only to the first $13,000 of a pension. The bill would address this unfairness by immediately increasing that base to $18,000 and over time aligning it with the maximum amount used in Social Security benefits, which is $43,524 in 2023.
To get these priorities made into law, it’s important for MTA members to become versed in the legislative agenda.
"If we can commit ourselves to self-education as a union, when it comes to our legislative agenda, and how we can use policy to really transform what public education looks like in Massachusetts, then we will have a lot of collective power," said Betsy Preval, a member of the Cambridge Education Association and chair of the MTA Government Relations Committee.
For more information about the MTA’s legislative priorities for 2023-24, please visit massteacher.org/legislation.
