CRITICAL EDUCATION FUNDING BLOCKED
Dear Friends,
I am stunned and heartsick to share that critical education funding reforms were blocked from passing this session.
After decades of massive underfunding and inequity in our schools, both the Senate and House passed versions of legislation to address our broken funding system. But??in the final hours of negotiation over a compromise bill, House leadership rejected all our offers, moved the goal posts, and then killed the bill completely???stunningly, by rejecting one of their own proposals.
The Senate did our level best to reach a deal that would meet the needs of all kids. We offered multiple versions of major concessions???on structure, on content, on money. This bill shouldn???t have been difficult to negotiate.
Last night’s result is unfathomable and inexcusable.??
Yet, let’s also remember just how far we’ve come on this legislation.?? We got this bill farther than ever before, thanks to inspiring and unrelenting advocacy from people like you???who never stopped fighting for their schools and their kids, and other people’s kids, even as Beacon Hill insiders believed the bill was dead.
Your advocacy won the support of two-thirds of legislators in the House and 100% of the Senate, Democrats and Republicans alike.
Click here to read more about how we came this far.????
I’m ashamed that our Commonwealth is leaving so many kids behind for another year — and this is a heartbreaking setback.??But this fight isn’t over.
This session has shown that we need to keep organizing and advocating and raising our voices on this critical issue. Together, we can overcome the forces of inaction and??secure a quality education for every single student in Massachusetts next session.
I leave you with the prescient words of Horace Mann :??
Let us not be content to wait and see what will happen,??but give us the determination to make the right things happen.??
Saludos,
Sonia Chang-D??az??
State Senator, Second Suffolk District