At the end of January, the MTA — along with the NEA, State Revenue Alliance, other NEA affiliates and the AFT — organized a convening to help unions and community groups from other states strategize on how to be more like Massachusetts. That is, we shared how our members won the Fair Share Amendment in 2022, and what it has done since for our Commonwealth.
We were able to share how the MTA played a pivotal role in the victory — from the tens of thousands of signatures gathered by all of you, to the campaigning you did, door to door and phone to phone, not to mention the millions of dollars we and the NEA contributed to make sure voters heard our message. And we shared what it has meant to the state — free community college for all, universal school meals in preK-12, free regional transit, better roads and bridges, an improving (truly!) T, significant new funds for vocational school construction, early education and child care, and an increase to school aid. While none of this is enough, Fair Share has allowed for life-changing investments and insulated us, to a degree, from federal government cuts.
And because we are the MTA and this is Massachusetts, everything we do related to public education is watched and emulated around the country. Washington state may pass a "millionaire’s tax" this spring, very similar to ours. Zohran Mamdani, the new mayor of New York City, pointed to Massachusetts as an example of how New York can and must tax the very rich to fund public education and transportation. Maryland has raised taxes on the very rich. California is contemplating two ballot initiatives to fund public education and health care by taxing the billionaire class. Overall, 18 NEA state affiliates attended our gathering — not to mention NEA President Becky Pringle — all hungry for strategies to bring home.
The day after the tax convening, Taylor Rehmet, a moderate Democrat, won a state Senate seat in a Texas district that President Trump won by nearly 20 percent 18 months ago. What was the most popular plank on Rehmet’s platform? Protecting public education, including investing in vocational education. As we were reminded in our 2016 Question 2 fight against the billionaires who wanted to privatize public education with an unlimited number of charter schools, we could turn what looked to be a loss into a nearly 2-to-1 victory over the Walton Foundation, Koch Brothers and charter industry.
It is worth remembering these salient facts:
- In Kentucky, a state that voted for Trump by 20 points, voters also voted by the same margin to kill a proposal to create a private school voucher system. Voters knew the proposal would decimate funding for the public schools that 90 percent of their students attend.
- Across the country, ballot initiatives to increase the minimum wage have won almost every time. Of 30 minimum-wage ballots from 2000 to 2024, only four have lost. Victorious measures passed in conservative states such as Florida, Montana, Arkansas, South Dakota, Alaska and Arizona.
- Poll after poll shows a majority of Americans — including almost half of Republicans — believe that taxes should be raised on very wealthy Americans and corporations. "Tax the Rich" is not a lefty slogan. It is commonsense to most Americans.
We live in terrifying times. But they also are clarifying times. What is as clear as a sunny winter day in New England is that the way forward starts with educators and their unions — you and your locals and our statewide MTA — defending public education and arguing for the right of all of our students and their families to lead dignified lives as members of our communities.
