Healey and Campbell contradict public opinion on MCAS

Local News

Gov. Maura Healey on Wednesday again spoke out against eliminating MCAS as a highschool graduation requirement, while polls proceed to suggest the general public broadly supports the ballot query.

Some state officials, including Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler, opposed Question 2 from the beginning. They emphasize standardizing education statewide and maintaining the state's high standards.

Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and Attorney General Andrea Campbell attended a press conference for NBC Boston's “No on 2” campaign in Roxbury on Wednesday reported.

“If you eliminate MCAS and there is nothing else that can replace it in terms of a statewide standard, we want to make sure it applies to all of our young people,” Healey said. “That means we will be held to lower standards in our schools than in some states like Alabama and Mississippi.”

However, several polls have made it clear that the population clearly supports the ballot query. Polls from Suffolk University and Suffolk University show a double-digit lead within the “yes” vote: 58 percent support eliminating the graduation requirement, while 37 percent are against it. A University of Massachusetts Opinion poll and a WBUR Surveys show similar results.

The Massachusetts Teachers Union is the driving force behind the ballot initiative, arguing that the test has an excessive amount of at stake, hinders more meaningful learning and unfairly targets students of color, low-income students, students with disabilities and English-speaking students. holds back learners.

Healey appeared on Boston Public Radio Wednesday and commented on her position on Question 2 and Question 5. She said she is “sensitive” to the needs of scholars with disabilities or English language learners, who make up nearly all of students who fail the MCAS and can’t graduate.

“Without a replacement for a uniform statewide standard, I don’t think it makes sense to go down that path, and I think there’s a better way to do it,” the governor said.

If the MCAS is removed as a graduation requirement, students would still take the MCAS, but their graduation would rely on local district standards already set in English, math and other subjects. It is nationwide MassCore curriculum is really useful, but requirements include physical education, U.S. history and civics along with the MCAS, in accordance with the state.

Warren and Pressley support “Yes on 2”

Senator Elizabeth Warren supported the union and expressed support for the ballot measure during her debate on Tuesday. Representative Ayanna Pressley did too approved the MTA position that claims, “Testing is a tool, that’s all.”

State Senator Jason Lewis, the chairman of the Joint Education Committee, supported the ballot query and announced its intention to implement it “an alternative, non-test-based, consistent and rigorous statewide graduation standard.”