Victory

Greetings,

You did it!!!

Today the House and Senate unanimously approved the Student Opportunity Act, the education funding bill that MTA members — via the Fund Our Future campaign — have been fighting for over the past year. It will lead to hundreds of millions more public education dollars from the state next year alone — and $1.5 billion over inflation by 2027.

Governor Charlie Baker can sign the act, send it back with proposed amendments or veto it. Given the overwhelming support for the measure, significant changes are not anticipated.

The MTA was a major force behind the bill and its earlier incarnation, the Promise Act. Through your local associations and statewide through the Fund Our Future coalition, MTA member actions included:

• 79 organizing events, 44 of them community forums and 35 of them in-district legislative meetings.
• 100 school committee resolutions and seven municipal board resolutions.
• 18,124 signatures on petitions.
• 3,844 emailed messages and 1,955 phone calls to legislators.
• Attendance at rallies on May 16 in Boston, Springfield and Pittsfield by more than 4,000 educators and fellow public education advocates.
• About a dozen weekly State House activist events from May through August.
• The distribution of thousands of flyers, stickers, signs and Fund Our Future T-shirts.
• Tens of thousands of social media posts and shares.

Well done! There will be much work ahead to make sure that educators have input into district plans, that the money is spent according to our vision and that the state doesn’t overreach by trying to dictate local priorities. But for now, let’s celebrate our great progress toward creating the schools our students deserve.

In solidarity,

Merrie

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