Issue Position: Education in Massachusetts

Issue Position

In education, Massachusetts must fulfill our constitutional obligation to educating all children adequately and equally. We must fund the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission and bring all schools up to at least the standards we set in 1993. That will require a billion dollars, which in turn will require revisiting all tax credits and loopholes; right now tax expenditures are off the table when we consider the budget and cut education, elder services, and other priorities. And it will require passage of the Fair Share Amendment in 2018, which will raise money for education and transportation from a 4% marginal surtax on incomes over $1 million. In addition, we must commit to providing early education for all (the best way to reduce the achievement gap) and reducing the cost of public higher education.

In education, we also need to return to a focus on the whole child. Education means much more than preparing students to score well on standardized tests in two subjects. Students tell us the one-size-fits-all focus on test prep denies them a chance to pursue interests and show their strengths in art, music, social studies, and more. When you tell schools and teachers and kids that that's how they're going to be judged, that's what they focus on. And they don't learn the skills and attitudes required by the innovation economy, let alone successful and happy living. They learn conformity, figuring out the right answer, not creativity and risk-taking. They learn competition, but not collaboration and teamwork. That's what I've heard at conferences on the innovation economy and on education, that's what young people and college professors tell us, and that's what business leaders say in surveys. So I'm working with superintendents and teachers around state the state to develop broader measures of school quality and student learning. Those measures will allow parents, educators, community leaders and kids to see how they're doing in improving not just English and math scores but the other things we value.

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