October 2023 Archives

Common Start: A Multi-Faceted Solution to Our Child Care Crisis

Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Chair Lewis, Chair Garlick, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the policy director at Progressive Massachusetts. We are a statewide, multi-issue, grassroots membership organization focused on fighting for policy that would make our Commonwealth more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.301 and H.489: An Act providing affordable and accessible high-quality early education and care to promote child development and well-being and support the economy in the Commonwealth (“Common Start”).

Massachusetts comes in #1 in various state rankings, and we have much to be proud of. But one #1 in which we should not take pride is that we have the most expensive child care in the country.

The $20,913 average annual cost of infant care in Massachusetts is more than half of what a full-time minimum wage worker earns in a year, and more expensive than tuition at our public colleges and universities. These costs are prohibitively expensive for low- and middle-income families, who are forced to choose between making ends meet and saving for the future on one hand, or affording child care on the other. With such high costs for just one child, families with multiple children are put in especially dire financial straits.

The system is also not working for early childhood educators, who often don’t receive a living wage, and child care providers, who face high operational costs and unstable funding. And when early childhood educators leave the field or providers close, that makes the system even less affordable and less accessible. We need a multi-faceted solution for a multi-faceted problem.

High-quality early education programs get results. Children benefit with enhanced resiliency and employment opportunities over their lifetimes. Providing children with high-quality early education and child care is one of the most effective ways to further a child’s success in grades K-12 and beyond—and that pays off in the long run.

The Common Start bills would strengthen our commonwealth’s child care and early education infrastructure. They would provide stable funding for providers, ensuring greater access for families and supporting higher pay for educators. They would increase financial assistance to families offset the exorbitant costs of child care and early education. In that regard, we would underscore the importance of a framework as offered in the Senate bill, which fully covers the cost of child care for the lowest-income families and caps the cost of child care at 7% of total income for working- and middle-class families.

These bills also include measures to incentivize the provision of care during nonstandard hours, build cultural competency training into the workforce development system, and better provide accommodations for students with disabilities.

We were glad to hear Governor Healey, Senate President Karen Spilka, and Speaker Ron Mariano all underscore the importance of taking action on these issues in their opening speeches at the start of this legislative session. We urge you to take swift action to report out these bills so that can become a reality.

Common Start

The Fight for the Healthy Youth Act Isn’t Over

Last month, the MA Board of Elementary and Secondary Education did something they hadn’t done since last century: they made long overdue updates to the state’s sex ed curriculum framework.

That’s right: they had last revised it in 1999. For years, people have been calling for updates to the curriculum so that schools offer sex education that is comprehensive, medically accurate, LGBTQ-inclusive, and consent-informed.

Because of the advocacy of people like you, the new curriculum framework is much stronger, but we can and must do better for your young people.

That’s why the Healthy Youth Act (H.544 / S.268) is still so important.

The Healthy Youth Act would provide minimum standards with which school districts that teach sex ed must comply and contains critical provisions around data collection so that we know what districts are doing.

We can’t wait another two decades for the next update to the health education curriculum, and the Healthy Youth Act establishes a process for routine updates.

Earlier this week, the Joint Committee on Education heard testimony about this and other bills about school curricula. And if they haven’t already, they need to hear from you.

Can you write to the Committee about the importance of comprehensive sex ed and urge them to swiftly advance the Healthy Youth Act?

Email the Committee
Write your own testimony

healthy youth

The HERO Bill Can Help Us Tackle Both the Housing Crisis and the Climate Crisis

Testimony in support of H.2894 & S.1799 An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth from Caroline Bays of Progressive Watertown

Chair Moran, Chair Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

Thank you for hearing my testimony.

My name is Caroline Bays and I have been a city councilor in Watertown for 6 years. Over the last few years several things have become clear – we have several existential issues facing us and we cannot address them without your help.

Watertown, like most of eastern Massachusetts, is experiencing a housing crisis that is not going away. It is only getting worse. In just the six years I have been a councilor I have witnessed the city transform from a mixed class city with a wide variety of residents to a relatively rich extension of Cambridge. Our housing crisis extends to both the big A and little a affordable and we are going to have to come up with more innovative ways – and more money – to address the increasingly drastic issues of displacement we are experiencing.

But we have two existential crises facing us. Our city is very concerned about climate change and Watertown has passed a very aggressive climate action plan in our attempt to do our part to address the climate crisis, but in order to get to where we need to be by 2050 we will need money to implement our plan. We have hundreds of action items on our to-do list, and it ranges from comparatively small financial commitments, such as adding more street trees and EV chargers to incredibly expensive commitments such as retrofitting all of our municipal buildings to make them greener and creating a green municipal fleet. We need money for all of it. And it will mean multi-millions of dollars in investment.

The HERO Bill is one low impact mechanism to help generate the money we need to meet our commitments. It is a comparatively small fee but it will generate money that can have a large impact on cities and towns, by helping us to meet our housing and climate goals.

I will be delighted if you pass the enabling act for the transfer fee and I support that bill wholeheartedly, but that will not be enough. We are facing the humanitarian crisis of homelessness and the existential crisis of climate change. Now is the time for action and all of us in Watertown are doing our best to meet these crises, but we need your help. On behalf of my city and others across the Commonwealth, I am asking for your support. I urge you to report H.2894 & S.1799 out favorably so the state can raise the funds which will help our towns and cities do our part to implement the solutions we all know we need.

Thank you for hearing my testimony.

climate housing

Why the UAW Strike Matters

By Enid Eckstein, JP Progressives

On September 14, United Automobile Workers took to the picket lines to begin their “Stand Up Strike.” The first week, workers struck a number of strategic profitable plants at the “Big 3” automakers: Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis. Over the next few weeks, the strike expanded to parts suppliers and other assembly plants. The idea is to increase pressure gradually and keep the companies guessing what is next. On September 21, Massachusetts Stellantis workers at the Mansfield facility joined the strike. Over 30,000 workers are now on the picket lines in 22 states. President Biden made history when he joined the UAW line in suburban Detroit, demonstrating his support to the striking workers.

It is not just our strike, it is a strike for social justice”, Shawn Fain, UAW President

During the 2007-2008 recession, the automakers were in trouble and facing bankruptcy. The Obama administration and the automakers pushed for major concessions. The UAW leadership agreed, and workers were forced to weaken pensions and retiree health benefits, give up cost of living adjustments, cut overtime pay, and agree to a multi-tier pay structure and temporary workers. Those hired after 2007 would be paid significantly less, and not receive the same pensions. As the employers hired more workers and began recovery, there were workers working side by side with radically different pay rates for performing the same work. One worker would receive $ 32/hour and another $19 for the same job. It would take a worker 8 years to reach the top of the scale, and many never make it since they are considered temporary workers, making even less an hour.

In March 2023, UAW members voted in a historic direct election for the officers of their union, following a long fight for a more democratic union. A new leadership, led by Shawn Fain, took charge and immediately began to educate, organize, and mobilize workers in a contract campaign. Key demands for this contract campaign include the end of the temporary workers classification and the end of the multi-tier system. The workers want everything they gave up to be restored and to receive a significant pay increase to make up for the years of concessions. Union members sacrificed and lost income for the last 16 years while the companies made billions.

This is also a strike about the future of the auto industry and its transition to electric vehicles. The union is demanding job security—the right to strike over plant closings and for Electric Vehicle workers to be bought under the union’s three master agreements. As UAW President Shawn Fain says, this is about a “just transition”: ensuring that the transition to a green economy is one that lifts up workers, not leaves them behind. The union has also fought for a reduced work week. It was during the 1930s that the UAW won the five-day work week. Yes, the folks “that brought you the weekend” are once again fighting for a shorter work week.

A recent Gallup poll found that 75% of the public supports the UAW strike. Just as the Writers Guild and AFTRA/SAG strike were about more than wages, this strike is a strike against corporate greed and high CEO pay, and it is an effort to restore the American dream for auto workers. This is a fight for the future of American manufacturing workers.

The companies and CEOs raked in billions while the workers lost out

All three companies have been extremely profitable. In the first 6 months of this year, they took in $21 billion. Estimates are they made $32 billion in profits due to the concessions, yet workers lost 19% of their wages during the same period. Car prices rose by 35% over the last four years, so the companies are doing well as are the CEOs. Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, was paid $28.9 million last year. The CEOs of Stellantis and Ford each $24.8 Million and $21.0 million respectively. According to UAW President Shawn Fain, “a worker would have to work 400 years to equal a year of CEO pay.”

What you can do!

The Mansfield Stellantis Facility (550 Forbes Road) is a small facility, and the 60-some workers need your help and support. They maintain a 24-hour active picket line. So far, many unions have joined the picket line, providing needed bodies and moral support. Senators Warren and Markey have also joined the line. Special shout-out to State Senator Paul Feeney who has walked the line many nights and is working to build other support.

The picket line is lively since the company is moving supplies and trucks in and out.

Organize a group of friends or members of your chapter to take a trip to Mansfield. Talk to the workers on the picket line. They are very friendly and appreciative of support. Make a sign telling them who you are and why you are there. Bring coffee and other refreshments.

A recent Labor Notes story also encourages people to call the Big 3 CEOs at 318-300-1249 and leave a message telling the CEO’s to settle. Let people know you support the members of the UAW in their fight against corporate greed.

inequality workers rights

Say No to Big Tech’s Anti-Labor Agenda

Last year, Big Tech companies like Uber and Lyft were getting millions of dollars together for a ballot initiative that would have undercut the rights of their drivers and set a dangerous precedent for workers nationally.

Fortunately, their 2022 ballot initiative — which would have permanently enshrined the misclassification of their drivers as “independent contractors” and denied them basic workplace protections — was knocked off the ballot by a court case. But Uber and Lyft are back at it, collecting signatures to get on the ballot next year.

Their bill — H.1848: An Act establishing rights and obligations of transportation network drivers and transportation network companies — mirrors their ballot initiative effort.

These companies have been fighting for years against providing fair pay and adequate benefits to their drivers, and this bill would entrench a system of low pay and lack of recourse for workplace mistreatment. Massachusetts has a history of strong labor laws, and it’s one we should continue.

Can you write to the Joint Labor & Workforce Committee to encourage them to reject this dangerous bill?

Email the Committee
Write your own testimony

workers rights

Why the Healthy Youth Act Remains Important

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Chair Lewis, Chair Garlick, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

I am writing today to urge you to give a favorable report to S.268/H.544: An Act relative to healthy youth (the “Healthy Youth Act”), filed by Sen. Sal DiDomenico and Reps. Jim O’Day and Vanna Howard.

The Healthy Youth Act would require that school districts that offer sex education provide a curriculum that is age-appropriate, medically accurate, consent-informed, and LGBTQ-inclusive so that all students have the knowledge and tools they need to form healthy relationships.

The Board of Elementary and Secondary Education recently updated the state’s health and physical education curriculum framework, and I was happy to see that it reflects this bill.

However, although the updated curriculum framework is vital for school districts, it is not enough. The curriculum framework offers guidance, but not requirements. The Healthy Youth Act provides minimum standards with which school districts that teach sex ed must comply and contains critical provisions around data collection.

We can’t wait another two decades for the next update to the health education curriculum, and the Healthy Youth Act establishes a process for routine updates.

Thank you for all your work on today’s hearing, and I again urge you to give a favorable report to S.268/H.544, the Healthy Youth Act.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

healthy youth

Testimony: Tackling Affordability Requires Investment

Wednesday, October 11, 2023

Chair Moran, Chair Cusack, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

We have heard a lot from the Legislature recently about wanting to take action on affordability, as the cost of living in Massachusetts has become increasingly unsustainable for many. However, contrary to recent steps, we cannot tax-cut our way into affordability. We need to invest. And that, of course, requires money.

We urge you to give a favorable report to the following bills:

S.1771 / H.2747: An Act granting a local option for a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing, filed by Sen. Jo Comerford and Rep. Mike Connolly.
S.1799 / H.2894: An Act providing for climate change adaptation infrastructure and affordable housing investments in the Commonwealth, filed by Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Rep. Sam Montaño
S.1834 / H.2824: An Act to support educational opportunity for all, filed by Sen. Adam Gomez, Rep. Natalie Higgins, and Rep. Christine Barber

Transfer Fee (S.1771/H.2747)

Our cities and towns need every tool in the toolbox to address our state’s housing crisis, and this bill would provide a crucial one. By imposing a small fee on high-end real estate transactions, communities will be able to provide much-needed funding to affordable housing trusts so that we can preserve and expand affordable housing stock. These bills recognize that each community’s housing situation is different and thus enable cities and towns to craft the proposal that best fits their community’s needs.

Cities and towns from across the Commonwealth have already filed home rule petitions to do this. When our cities and towns want to become places where people can afford to live at every stage of life, the State Legislature should support them, not be a roadblock.

HERO bill (S.1799/H.2894)

This bill offers another tool for responding to our affordable housing crisis and, moreover, recognizes the need for not just affordable housing but green and healthy communities as well.

Initiated by the Housing and Environment Revenue Opportunities (HERO) Coalition, it would raise the deeds excise fee to a value still lower than comparable fees in Connecticut, New Hampshire, New York, and Vermont to raise dedicated revenue for climate resilience and affordable housing.

The estimated $300 million from this bill could go toward steps like creating or preserving additional housing for 18,000 working-class homeowners and renters over 10 years; financing hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive, flexible grants to localities for climate resilience and mitigation; or assisting between 3,500 and 6,500 additional extremely low-income families per year with housing vouchers or project-based rental assistance.

Educational Opportunity for All (S.1834/H.2824)

Massachusetts is lucky to be home to many world-class universities. But these large institutions, despite often operating indistinguishably from for-profit institutions, do not have to pay taxes. Given their large footprint, that is a fiscal drain for many communities across the Commonwealth, especially given the fact that such private universities will only ever educate a small percentage of the Commonwealth’s residents.

The endowment of Harvard University stood at over $50 billion last year; MIT, over $20 billion.

These bills recognize that such affluent institutions have the ability to contribute more. They would put a small excise fee on the part of a university’s endowment over $1 billion to create dedicated revenue for a fund subsidizing the cost of higher education, early education, and child care for lower-income and middle-class residents of the commonwealth.

Governor Healey and House and Senate leaders have all spoken about wanting to take action on the exorbitant cost of child care, early education, and higher education, and this bill offers a sensible and dependable way of raising the funds to do so.

Thank you for all your work on today’s hearing, and again, we urge you to swiftly advance these bills.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

education housing revenue

Drivers are Workers, and It’s as Easy as A-B-C

Tuesday, October 10, 2023

Chair Jehlen, Chair Cutler, and Members of the Joint Committee on Labor and Workforce Development:

I am writing today in opposition to H.1848, An Act establishing rights and obligations of transportation network drivers and transportation network companies.

Massachusetts has very clear standards for determining independent contractor standards (the “ABC test”), and Big Tech companies like Uber and Lyft have been in flagrant violation of them.

As a reminder, those three parts are (1) that the work is done without the direction and control of the employer, (2) that the work is performed outside the usual course of the employer’s business, and (3) that the work is done by someone who has their own, independent business or trade doing that kind of work. None of these apply to gig economy work. For example, there would be no Uber and Lyft without their drivers; the claim that their companies are merely an app is a clear fallacy intended to evade the law.

Knowing that they are in violation of the law, these companies want to change it, rather than adhere to it. They are planning to spend possibly hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure that the law does not apply to them and that they, themselves, can rewrite it in order to bolster their own profits and power over workers.

This bill would deny app-based gig workers a living wage, benefits, legal rights, and anti-discrimination protections. The impact of these laws extends beyond just the gig economy sector itself. The ability to define away terms like “employee” and “independent contractor” sets a dangerous precedent, enabling companies across sectors to gut labor rights. Will we see restaurants claiming that the “restaurant” is only the physical building and physical infrastructure, relegating all employees to independent contractor status? Or hospitals claiming that the “hospital” is just the brick-and-mortar building, rather than the doctors, nurses, aides, and other health care workers that make it run? The list goes on.

That is not the future we want to live in, and we hope it is not one you want to live in either.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

workers rights

Students Are More Than Just a Test Score

Testimony from Solidarity Lowell member Dee Halzack

Chair Lewis, Chair Garlick, and Members of the Joint Committee on Education:

I am writing today to urge you to give a favorable report to H.495 and S.246: An act empowering students and schools to thrive (“the Thrive Act”).

Local students, parents, educators, and communities are the ones best able to determine what our local schools need, and how to measure student success.

State takeover of public schools and the graduation requirement based on the MCAS standardized test are both failing students and disrupting their education. These top-down, harmful educational policies are increasing racial inequities in our schools, rather than fixing them. We have seen, both through data and through student experiences, that state takeovers and high-stakes testing do not produce the long-term gains in student performance promised, and instead, they limit voice and narrow curricula. In many cases poor performance had more to do with lack of resources than with poor administration or teaching. Educators complain about being forced to teach to the tests without regard for individual student needs or the characteristics of the community. Standardized testing does a disservice to students with special needs, including both the disabled and English language learners.

While I myself am a native speaker of English, with decent writing skills, I have seen the damage done in testing situations to English language learners. The stress of taking a test that determines whether or not you graduate, regardless of what your grades have been and how well you know what you studied, can make even a fluent English language learner freeze up or go so slow that they can’t finish the test in time. It happened to a friend of mine in COLLEGE. How much worse for younger students with less years of experience with the testing AND the language.

I used to work for an educational publisher. I am familiar with the writings on inequity in educational testing and how hard it is to completely avoid. Some students can be smart and yet so test-phobic that it affects their performance on a test negatively. While tests are a tool for assessing students, they are not the only tool and should not be used to make or break a student’s graduation.

The Thrive Act creates a better system that focuses on supporting the whole child by focusing on the tools and resources schools need to thrive and by re-examining our approach to student assessment so that it can be more equitable, more accurate, and more holistic.

Thank you for all your work on the hearing. Again, I urge you to swiftly advance H.495 and S.246: An act empowering students and schools to thrive.

public education

“Getting access to different languages should not be one of the problems to face.”

Testimony in support of the Mass Speaks Bill from Solidarity Lowell member Tara Hong

Dear Chairman Collins, Chairman Cabral, and Members of the Committee,

My name is Tara Hong and I respectfully submits the following letter in support of S.1990/H.3084, An Act Relative to Language Access and Inclusion, and strongly urges the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight to report the bill favorably.  

Nearly one in ten Massachusetts residents is limited English proficient. But as the COVID-19 pandemic made especially clear, many of our state agencies provide essential services and information only in English – effectively denying hundreds of thousands of families access to urgently-needed resources that can help them weather economic emergencies, care for their children, address health problems, stay housed, and much more. The Language Access and Inclusion Act would standardize and enforce language access protocols and practices at public-facing state agencies, ensuring non-English speaking residents can meet their basic needs and fully participate in their communities.

As an immigrant from Cambodia 10 years ago, English is my second language. It was tough for me personally for almost six years of my life learning English just to want to communicate in the community, pass tests, and or ask for support in the community. However, one good thing about my city is its diversity. I was surrounded by many people who spoke my language and were able to help me around. That is why I am writing to you today to ask for your support for this bill. I believe that everyone, no matter where they come from or what they speak, everyone should not be unable to ask for help and support because they don’t speak English. As an immigrant country and an immigrant state with many backgrounds all around, getting access to different languages should not be one of the problems to face.

Everyone must have equal access to our government, no matter what language they speak. As Massachusetts is one of the most linguistically diverse states in the nation, we strongly urge you to issue a favorable report for An Act Relative to Language Access and Inclusion. 

Respectfully Submitted,

Tara Hong