Battle lines continue to form around a ballot question to change a key component of the education reform law that some say made Massachusetts the best educated state in the country, separating politicians who are used to standing on the same side of most issues, and simultaneously creating strange allies.
The day after U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, declared during a televised debate against Republican John Deaton that she would be voting in favor of Question 2 to eliminate the requirement that students pass the MCAS exam to graduate from a Massachusetts public high school, a triumvirate of constitutional office holders from her party planted their flags firmly in the camp against the measure.
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Gov. Maura Healey, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll and Attorney General Andrea Campbell headlined a press conference hosted by the "No on 2" campaign on Wednesday afternoon in Roxbury.
Campbell had only publicly stated her position on the question for the first time the day before, as a guest on GBH's Boston Public Radio. Healey had previously said she did not believe in removing the requirement when asked, but speaking at Wednesday's rally seems like a shift in tone for the governor to perhaps a more proactive role against the initiative.
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More on Massachusetts' 2024 ballot questions
At Wednesday's press conference, Healey attributed the state's standing as the oft-ranked best public education system in the country to its teachers and to its statewide standards.
"A way to assess performance and how kids are doing, that is through the MCAS exam," she said. "Massachusetts has the best public schools in the country because of our high standards, not in spite of them, and Question 2, in our view, would eliminate a tool that we know works in terms of our ability to assess how our young people are doing."
Question 2 supporters say scrapping the standardized MCAS exam's use as a high school graduation requirement would allow educators to stop "teaching to the test" and instead focus on student needs. Districts would gain more autonomy over establishing graduation requirements that reflect students who have mastered competencies in the state's academic standards, proponents say.
The Massachusetts Teachers Association and other supporters say the measure would bolster equity among students from marginalized communities, and they often point to 700 students each year who are unable to graduate because they failed MCAS but met all other requirements.
Critics warn the measure's passage could lead to a patchwork of education standards and ultimately harm the state's future workforce.
"We'll have different standards in Randolph than we will in Reading, and that's a system that I don't believe sets us up for success," Healey said.
Late Wednesday afternoon, the "Yes on 2" campaign released a statement from MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy calling Healey's comments "disappointing."
"It’s disappointing that Governor Healey has chosen to side with the few corporate donors opposing Question 2 and against Massachusetts educators, parents and students," the statement says.
Wednesday's press conference could be the beginning of a more active opposition effort on behalf of some of the state's top elected officials. In addition to Healey, Driscoll and Campbell, House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka -- the two most powerful people in the Legislature -- have also come out against Question 2.
"I, too, have real concerns about Question 2 because it would not just remove our only statewide graduation standard, it would remove the state standard and offer no replacement," Campbell said. "This would result in over 300 different and unequal standards for high school graduation across the commonwealth and potentially lead to haphazard assessments of student readiness for college and careers, and even wider inequities in student achievement and, of course, opportunities."
As more electeds take official positions as the election inches closer, another line has been drawn -- former Education Chair Rep. Alice Peisch has declared for "No on 2" while current Education Chair Sen. Jason Lewis has declared in favor of the question. Neither campaign has claimed the endorsement of House chair of the Education Committee Rep. Denise Garlick.
The initiative puts some top Democrats at home in Massachusetts at odds with a Bay State Democrat in D.C., and in line with the state's Republican party on the issue. The MassGOP has said they recommend voting against the question, and Tuesday night the GOP challenger for Warren's Senate seat also said he's casting a "no" vote.
"We can't have 351 standards," Deaton said during the debate on Tuesday. "Our school system is still recovering from COVID. There's statistics of fifth graders can't even read. And there's people being graduated, if you don't have the MCAS and you have no standards, you're going to get people graduating from high school that can't fully speak English now in the state. And that puts them at a disadvantage."
English language learners are disproportionately represented in the roughly 1% of students who do not graduate due to the MCAS exam.
In 2019, of 702 students who did not earn a diploma due to the exam, 281 were English language learners, according to data provided to the State House News Service by Board of Elementary and Secondary Education Vice Chair Matt Hills.
However, of those 281 students, fewer than 30 failed the exam just due to a language barrier alone and not other academic challenges, according to Hills' analysis of the data, which considers that the math and science sections of the test are available in Spanish at the high school level.
Warren, leaning on her past experience as a special education teacher, said a single test is not a good measure for every child's ability.
Warren said that the yes campaign is being driven by the state's teachers, and the voters should listen to those who are in classrooms with kids. The campaign is being bankrolled by teachers unions, who also wrote the ballot question and have been knocking doors and collecting signatures for the initiative.
"Our teachers are telling us that the consequence of this test is actually to teach our kids less, because we're teaching them more about test-taking skills, taking them out of the classroom. They want an opportunity to help shape a broader view of which children get a high school diploma, and that's something that we should support our teachers who have helped us build the number one education system in the country," Warren said.
At Wednesday's press conference, Campbell said that voting no on Question 2 does not equate to not supporting educators.
"Parents and students don't have unions, which sadly can leave their voice and perspective out of some of the most important policy discussions and decision making," Campbell said.
During a radio debate Wednesday on GBH's Boston Public Radio, co-host Jim Braude asked MTA Vice President McCarthy why Healey, whom the MTA endorsed for governor, is at odds with the teachers union over the future of MCAS.
McCarthy said Healey is not standing with educators and labor, including the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, the Massachusetts Parent Teacher Association, and Massachusetts AFL-CIO, who have all voiced support for the question.
"This ballot measure is being supported by parents, educators, community activists and students," McCarthy said. "We met for more than seven weeks with Patrick Tutwiler, and we came pretty close to almost having a legislative solution. And there was a lot of alignment and agreement that we are not doing things right."
The special legislative committee tasked with reviewing initiative petitions decided against taking action on any of the ballot questions this spring. In a report, the committee said the MCAS question removes the state's uniform graduation requirement without establishing a "uniform alternative."
"Simply eliminating the uniform graduation requirement, which will allow students to graduate who do not meet basic standards, with no standardized and consistent benchmark in place to ensure those standards are met, will not improve student outcomes and runs the risk of exacerbating inconsistencies and inequities in instruction and learning across districts," the report said
Rattling off the growing list of names of top elected officials who are against Question 2, McCarthy's opponent in the radio debate -- Keri Rodrigues, founder of the National Parents Union -- said those leaders understand the "significant impact" of scrapping MCAS, namely students will be "handed a piece of paper at the end of 12 years of education that is almost meaningless because it's a participation trophy; it is a certificate of attendance."
"Moving forward, the idea that we are going to fly blind and hope, based on vibes, that our kids are going to be ready for the jobs and the economy of the future -- what is going to happen to the workforce?" Rodrigues said.
Healey, who also appeared on GBH Wednesday, told Braude and co-host Margery Eagan that she "actually listened to the debate that you had earlier" but still thinks Question 2 is a bad idea.
"For me, Question 2 is one of these, to me, unfortunate creations of this ballot process," Healey said on the radio Wednesday, before going to the Roxbury press conference. "Sometimes, I don't think that the ballot process is always the best way to make policy here in the state. And the reason that I oppose Question 2 and the elimination of MCAS as a graduation requirement is because, as a matter of education policy, I think ... it's better for us as a state to have a statewide standard graduation requirement."
Healey noted that she is "the daughter of two union teachers, my mom was a longtime school nurse and health educator, and my stepdad was actually president of his teachers' union."
"Without a replacement for a uniform standard statewide, I don't think it makes sense to go this way," the governor said. "And I think that there's a better way to achieve this."
