An Inclusive Education is a Quality Education

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

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

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.371/H.655: An Act to promote comprehensive and inclusive curriculum in schools and S.340/H.656: An Act relative to healthy youth. 

In recent years, we have seen an attack from organized conservative forces on the teaching of US history, fueled by a desire to whitewash history and erase the contributions of women, people of color, and LGBTQ communities. The Trump administration has been doubling down on this with a multi-front attack on public education and civil rights with the Orwellian term of “patriotic education.” 

Students benefit from learning the entirety of history, not sanitized versions of it, and they benefit from seeing themselves represented in the materials taught in the classroom. We should be ensuring that students receive an inclusive, comprehensive, anti-racist curriculum that will set them up for success. 

S.371/H.655 would require that the state’s academic standards include the achievements, contributions, and other works in the humanities, science, math, literature, arts, and other disciplines by people from underrepresented groups; and the accurate heritage, customs, and identities of underrepresented groups, including the histories of slavery, colonial settlement, land appropriation, territorial expansion, tribal reservations, and present-day effects of such pasts. All our students benefit from such a fuller understanding of history and culture. 


S.340/H.656 (“The Healthy Youth Act”) would expand the reach and positive impact of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Framework, which includes updated standards for sex education and was unanimously approved by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education in 2023. This new Framework is a significant step forward, but the Healthy Youth Act is still needed to ensure that the sex education students receive in school is medically accurate, age appropriate, and LGBTQ-inclusive. It is disappointing and shocking that MA is behind many other states in this regard. We should be leading, not playing catch up, when it comes to basic education.  

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

We Can Mitigate Voter Confusion with Good Policy.

Chair Keenan, Chair Hunt, and Members of the Joint Committee on Election Laws:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

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

  • H.834 / S.505: An Act establishing same day registration of voters
  • H.799 / S.503: An Act decoupling the municipal census from voter registration
  • H.820 / S.504: An Act enforcing accessibility for voters with disabilities
  • H.874 / S.524: An Act relative to voting rights restoration

Critical to improving voting access is reducing opportunities for voter confusion. Voters have so much to think about as they decide whom to vote for. But there are ample opportunities to be confused about such questions as “Am I able to vote?” “Where?” “When?” “If I go there, will my vote be counted?”—to name a few—given the many questions and problems that plague people every day of their lives. We can mitigate all of these sources of confusion with good policy.

Same Day Registration (H.834/S.505)

Tenants moving to a new apartment after getting priced out or evicted by an unscrupulous landlord. Senior citizens looking to downsize and move into a retirement community. Under MA’s current law, if these moves happen too close to an election date, these people—and countless others like them—could lose their right to vote.

That’s because we have an arbitrary and unjust 10-day voter registration cutoff. And shockingly, we’re an outlier in New England for having a cutoff at all. In Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Connecticut, eligible voters can register to vote or update their registration at the polls. It’s a simple reform (indeed, NH and ME have done it for decades), and it can boost engagement and improve the efficiency of election administration.

The need for Same Day Registration will be especially acute next year, as the state primary is currently scheduled for September 1, a major move-in day across the state. And, indeed, as you all know from running for office, most voters start paying attention in those final weeks, and they shouldn’t be shut out of the process for doing so.

Decoupling the Municipal Census from Voter Registration (H.799/S.503)

Our municipal censuses serve valuable roles for data collection and jury selection, but MA is an outlier in making them a tool for voter disenfranchisement. Voters can be rendered inactive for failing to complete a form that many can easily miss, creating confusion at the polls and increasing barriers to participation.

Disability Access (H.820/S.504)

Voting must be accessible to all eligible citizens, including voters with disabilities. In reality, too many polling places still have barriers to full inclusion: malfunctioning accessible machines, poor signage, broken automatic doors, and more. These bills provide meaningful oversight by requiring polling place inspections every four years, compliance plans for sites that fall short, and enforcement authority for the Attorney General.

Voting Rights Restoration (H.874 / S.524)

Felony disenfranchisement in Massachusetts is a recent phenomenon. Indeed, although we often think of the history of voting rights in the US as one of ever-forward motion, Massachusetts stands as an outlier. In the late 1990s, after incarcerated individuals in MCI-Norfolk started organizing for better conditions, Republican Governor Bill Cellucci and the MA Legislature responded with retaliation: a multi-step process of disenfranchisement. In 2000, Massachusetts voters approved a constitutional amendment to prohibit people incarcerated for felonies in state prison from voting in state elections; the subsequent year, Cellucci signed a law to extend this prohibition to federal and municipal elections. Our commonwealth did something rare in recent history: it took away the right to vote from a category of people who were formerly enfranchised.

In 2022, the Massachusetts Legislature took an important step forward when passing the VOTES Act by including language creating protections for jail-based voting for those who still maintain the right to vote, but we must build on that momentum by ending remaining disenfranchisement, as these bills would.

To go back to the point about voter confusion, this connection between incarceration and voting rights can often lead people to think they have lost their right to vote permanently, even when they return home. Again, voter confusion leads to disenfranchisement, and it is preventable with good policy.

In Conclusion, at a time when democracy is under attack, MA should be taking every step we can to strengthen our democracy. Let’s show our commitment to democracy and improve the voting experience for everyone.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Real Estate Transfer Fees Are a Critical Tool for Addressing Our Housing Crisis

Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Chair Eldridge, Chair Madaro, and Members of the Joint Committee on Revenue:

I am writing on behalf of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1937/H.3056: An Act granting a local option for a real estate transfer fee to fund affordable housing, filed by Sen. Jo Comerford and Reps. Mike Connolly and Carmine Gentile.

Massachusetts has a housing crisis. We see it in every survey of top issues among residents. We see it in the rising home prices and the number of communities where the median home sale has passed $1 million. We see it in the way that growth in rents has outpaced growth in wages. And we see it in the number of young families or long-term residents who decide to move out of state because they simply can’t afford the high cost of housing in Massachusetts.

Our cities and towns need every tool in the toolbox to address our state’s housing crisis, and a real estate transfer fee 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 get in the way.

Thank you for your work on the hearing, and again we urge a favorable report on S.1937 and H.3056.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

It’s Time to Make Polluters Pay

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Chair Rausch, Chair Barber, and Members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I’m the policy director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide, member-based grassroots advocacy organization fighting for a more equitable, just, sustainable, and democratic Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1014 / S.588: An Act establishing a climate change superfund (“Make Polluters Pay”), filed by Sen. Jamie Eldridge and Reps. Steve Owens and Jack Lewis.

Massachusetts is already facing the impacts of climate change, and it will only get worse. The increased incidence of storms will damage coastlines and increase inland flooding: the state has projected that inland property damage due to climate change will increase by almost 50% by mid-century, with a disproportionate impact on low-income communities. Additional rail repair costs from extreme temperatures could reach $6 million per year by 2050 and a striking $35 million by the end of the century, and repair costs for electric transmission and utility distribution infrastructure alone are projected to increase by almost $100 million by 2050, with power outages disproportionately impacting low-income communities again. Not to mention the impact on human health and lives.  [1]

Meanwhile, major fossil fuel companies are seeing record profits. The very companies who lied to the public for decades about climate change are benefiting while all of us, especially the most vulnerable, bear the cost.

We already have a successful model for addressing these situations of public damages, private profits: the “polluter pays” principle. This principle is employed in all of the major US pollution control laws: Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (solid waste and hazardous waste management), and Superfund (cleanup of abandoned waste sites).

This bill would extend that proven principle to the climate crisis by establishing a climate change adaptation cost recovery program. It would require companies that have contributed significantly to the buildup of climate-warming greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to bear a share of the costs of needed infrastructure investment, based on their historic emissions.

This bill would raise significant revenue from the 20 largest polluting companies to provide funding for climate resiliency efforts such as restoring coastal wetlands; upgrading roads, bridges, subways, and transit systems; preparing for and recovering from hurricanes and other extreme weather events; installing energy efficient cooling systems; upgrading the electrical grid; and expanding green spaces and urban forestry. This revenue is especially critical as we see the federal government pull back from any action on climate change and indeed try to sabotage the action that is happening.

This year has been chaotic for our commonwealth and for our municipalities. Federal grants for climate action and environmental justice are being cut unilaterally by the Trump administration, with the Republicans in Congress serving backup where needed. We have a lot of work to do, and that work outstrips existing resource. Many cities and towns want to advance bold action but are constrained by limitations on raising revenue.

Your constituents want to see what MA is going to do to respond to this chaos and regression from the Trump administration. This bill is one such example of what we can do.

This bill doesn’t just raise needed revenue. It also understands that our sustainability transition must be a just one, with key provisions to ensure that sufficient funds go to environmental justice populations and that the funding goes to the creation of good-paying jobs.

Massachusetts has taken important steps toward climate mitigation in recent sessions and we must continue to do so to meet our state’s climate goals, but we also need to address the climate crisis that is already hitting communities. This bill shows a way forward.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

[1]  Gloninger, Chris and Asher Klein. “When a Major Hurricane Hits New England, the Costs Will Be Huge.” NBC News. July 25, 2019. https://www.nbcboston.com/news/local/catastrophic-hurricane-new-england-modeling/92234/; Zhao, Bo. The Effects of Weather on Massachusetts Municipal Expenditures: Implications of Climate Change for Local Governments in New England. Boston: Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, 2023; 2022 Massachusetts Climate Change Assessment. Boston: Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 2022. https://www.mass.gov/doc/2022-massachusetts-climate-change-assessment-december-2022-volume-i-executive-summary/download.

“Why should renters not have the same predictability? “

Chair Lewis, Chair Rausch, and Members of the Joint Committee: 

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge a favorable report for S.1447: An Act enabling cities and towns to stabilize rents and protect tenants.

Massachusetts has a lot to offer, but that does little if people can’t afford to live here. The US News & World Report’s annual state rankings put Massachusetts at #47 in affordability. A worker earning minimum wage in Massachusetts would have to work 101 hours a week to afford a modest one-bedroom rental home at market rate. [2] 

Clearly, Massachusetts has an affordable housing crisis. This is unsustainable. It has led to expanding economic inequality, increased homelessness, and damage to our economy, as talented workers often leave the state for less expensive regions. Too many of us know stories of friends, family members, or neighbors being priced out of neighborhood then city then state. 

The crisis in outmigration we face is not billionaires moving to Florida. It is of working people not able to afford the cost of living here. 

Solving this affordable housing crisis will require us to use every tool in the toolbox. That requires zoning reform that encourages the creation of walkable, sustainable, and inclusive communities. It requires public investment. And it requires strengthening tenant protections that ensure that communities can remain affordable, inclusive, and stable.

However, municipalities across Massachusetts are blocked from taking the necessary steps to address the housing crisis. The misguided statewide ban on rent stabilization policies and a stringent home rule system that prevents municipalities from passing their own laws to govern the basic aspects of civil affairs hamstring municipalities.

By enabling our cities and towns to pass rent control ordinances tailored to their local needs, we can stem the displacement that is hitting so many communities.

We cannot build our way out of the crisis alone because the people at the highest risk for displacement will already be pushed out before they can benefit from any medium to long-term reduction in rents.

Rent control is about offering price stability to renters. We know what price stability looks like. It’s what homeowners with mortgages are given. Why should renters not have the same predictability? 

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Collective Testimony: Zero Carbon Renovation Funding in the Environmental Bond Bill

Link to testimony here

July 29, 2025
Senator Becca Rausch, Co-Chair
Representative Christine Barber, Co-Chair
Joint Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
State House Room 215
Boston, MA 02133
Re: Zero Carbon Renovation Funding in the Environmental Bond Bill


Dear Chair Rausch, Chair Barber, and Members of the Joint Committee on Environment and Natural
Resources:

Thank you for the opportunity to submit this testimony concerning the Mass Ready Act. Our Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition is supportive of this bill and believes it can be strengthened by including additional decarbonization funding for frontline communities. Luckily, H.3577/S.2286, An Act establishing a Zero Carbon Renovation Fund, sponsored by Senator Gomez and Representatives Vargas and Cruz, would do just that.

The Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition has over 200 member organizations representing 80,000 units of affordable housing, and working at the intersection of housing, health, community, and climate. We are united in the idea that equitable building decarbonization is critical for the health, wealth, and safety of our communities long-term.

Decarbonization involves improving a building’s envelope, transitioning it to clean energy sources, adding on-site power generation, and using less energy-intensive building materials. These practices make buildings more resilient in the face of floods, heat waves, and other extreme weather events, while mitigating climate change.

The state has started to invest in decarbonization for affordable housing and other priority sectors through programs at DOER, HLC, and Mass Save. Current and expected decarbonization sources for MA’s affordable housing sector total approximately $500M. But this is not enough.

The cost to decarbonize affordable housing units is currently tracking between $50K-$150K more per unit than a business-as-usual retrofit. Scaled up to over 200,000 units of multifamily affordable housing in MA translates to at least $10B-$30B of investment that will be needed for the affordable housing sector alone to meet our state’s climate goals by 2050.

The inclusion of H.3577/S.2286 will provide funding to catalyze an equitable transition to a clean energy future that simultaneously advances climate resiliency and improves physical and financial security for frontline communities. It will prioritize Environmental Justice communities, Gateway Cities, low-and moderate-income housing, municipal buildings, and minority-and women-owned businesses. As existing buildings in Massachusetts contribute nearly one third of all carbon emissions, a focus on making this clean energy transition is essential if we are to create a sustainable and resilient future for
our children. While H.3577/S.2286 allocates $300 million in funding for these retrofits, we believe that $50 million would be an adequate investment to start this crucial work.

We encourage you to include this language in the version of the Environmental Bond Bill that this Committee reports, so we can move a step closer to the clean and resilient energy future our communities and neighbors deserve. If you have questions, feel free to reach out to ZCRF Committee Chair Emily Jones at ejones@lisc.org. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.


Sincerely,
The Zero Carbon Renovation Fund Coalition Members:
● 2Life Communities
● 350 Mass Berkshires
● 350 Central Mass
● 350 Mass
● Abacus Architects
● Abode Energy Management
● Acadia Center
● ACEDONE
● Action for Equity
● Acton Climate Coalition
● AIA Massachusetts
● Alliance of Cambridge Tenants (ACT)
● Allston Brighton Community
Development Corporation
● Allume Energy
● Alternatives for Community and
Environment (ACE)
● Andover Working to Educate Climate
Action Now (WECAN)
● Anti-Racism & Earth Ministry Teams of
First Church Amherst, UCC
● Asian American Civic Association
● Asian Community Development
Corporation (ACDC)
● AURORA Architects + Builders Co.
● B’nai B’rith Housing
● Beacon Climate Innovations
● Beacon Communities
● Berkshire Environmental Action Team
● Birchwood Sustainable Development
● BlocPower
● BlueHub Capital
Page 3 of 5
● Boston Catholic Climate Movement
● Boston Center for Independent Living
● Boston Climate Action Network (BCAN)
● Boston Housing Authority
● Boston Impact Initiative
● Boston Metal
● Breathe Clean North Shore
● Bright Power
● Brookhaven Residents Climate Change
Committee
● Brookline Community Development
Corporation
● Browning the Green Space (BGS)
● Building A Better Wellesley
● Building Electrification Accelerator
(BEA)
● Building Evolution Corporation
● Built Environment Plus (BE+)
● Byggmeister Design Build
● Cambridge Housing Authority (CHA)
● Capstone Communities LLC
● Cascap Inc.
● Castle Square Tenants Organization
● Center for EcoTechnology
● Chatham Climate Action Network
● Citizens’ Climate Lobby – Boston Metro
West
● Citizens’ Housing and Planning
Association (CHAPA)
● Clean Energy Group (CEG)
● Clean Water Action
● Climate Action Now, Western Mass
(CAN)
● Climate Code Blue
● Coalition for a Better Acre
● Codman Square NDC
● Commonwealth Community
Developers, LLC
● Community Action Agency of
Somerville, Inc. (CAAS)
● Community Action Works Campaigns
● Community Economic Development
Center of Southeastern Massachusetts
(CEDC)
● Community Square Associates
● Conservation Law Foundation (CLF)
● Construct
● Dorchester Bay Economic Development
Corporation
● East Boston CDC (EBCDC)
● Eisenberg Consulting LLC
● Elders Climate Action Mass.
● Embue
● Emerald Cities Collaborative
● Energy Allies
● enviENERGY Studio
● Environmental League of
Massachusetts (ELM)
● Fairmount Indigo CDC Collaborative
● Fenway CDC
● Franklin County CDC
● Grand Banks Building Products
● Greater Boston Physicians for Social
Responsibility
● Greater Springfield Habitat for
Humanity
● GreenerU
● Greening Greenfield
● Green Energy Consumers Alliance
● Green Newton
● GreenRoots
● Greenvest
● HallKeen Management
● Harborlight Homes
● Hargidon Architecture + Design
● Hebrew SeniorLife
● Health Resources in Action (HRiA)
● Hilltown CDC
● Home City Development, Inc.
● Housing Corporation of Arlington
● Housing Assistance Corporation (HAC)
● Housing Greenfield
● Housing Nantucket
Page 4 of 5
● Homeowner’s Rehab, Inc. (HRI)
● ICON Architecture
● Indivisible Acton Area
● Inquilinos Boricuas en Acción (IBA
Boston)
● Island Housing Trust
● Jamaica Plain Neighborhood
Development Corporation
● Jewish Alliance for Law and Social
Action
● Jewish Climate Action Network
● Jonathan Rose Companies
● Jones Whitsett Architects (JWA)
● Just A Start
● Kim Lundgren Associates, Inc.
● Latino Support Network (LSN)
● Lawrence CommunityWorks
● League of Conservation Voters
● LEAN Green Building, Inc.
● Lexington Climate Action Network
● LivableStreets Alliance (LSA)
● Local Initiatives Support Corporation
(LISC) Massachusetts
● Longmeadow Pipeline Awareness
Group
● Madison Park Development
Corporation (MPDC)
● Main South CDC
● Maloney Properties, Inc.
● Massachusetts Affordable
Homeownership Alliance (MAHA)
● Massachusetts Association of
Community Development Corporations
(MACDC)
● Massachusetts Association of Housing
Cooperatives
● Massachusetts Climate Action Network
(MCAN)
● Massachusetts Interfaith Power & Light
● Mass Power Forward Coalition (MPF)
● Mass Renews Alliance
● Massachusetts Sierra Club
● Metropolitan Area Planning Council
(MAPC)
● Metro West Collaborative Development
● Montague Housing Authority
● Mothers Out Front Massachusetts
● Munkenbeck Consulting
● Mystic River Watershed Association
● Nectar Community Investments
● Neighborhood of Affordable Housing
(NOAH)
● Neighbor to Neighbor Massachusetts
(N2N)
● NeighborWorks Housing Solutions
● New Ecology, Inc.
● NewVue Communities
● No Fracked Gas in Mass
● No Pipeline Westborough
● North Shore CDC (NSCDC)
● Northeast Clean Energy Council (NECEC)
● Northeast Sustainable Energy
Association
● Nuestra Comunidad Development
Corporation
● Onion Flats Architecture
● Our Climate
● Passive House Massachusetts
● The Property & Casualty Initiative (PCI)
● Peabody Properties
● Petersen Engineering, Inc.
● Pine Street Inn
● Placetailor Co-op LLC
● Planning Office for Urban Affairs
(POUA)
● PowerOptions
● Preservation of Affordable Housing
(POAH)
● Progressive Democrats of
Massachusetts
● Progressive Mass
● Public Health Institute of Western
Massachusetts
● Quincy Geneva New Vision CDC (QGNV)
Page 5 of 5
● R.W. Kern Center at Hampshire College
● RCC Center for Smart Building
Technology
● Rethinking Power Management (RPM)
● Resonant Energy
● Revitalize Community Development
Corporation
● RMI
● Slipstream
● Somerville Community Corporation
● South Boston Neighborhood
Development Corporation (SBNDC)
● Southwest Boston CDC
● Sparhawk Group
● St. Francis House
● Stanton Home
● Steven Winter Associates, Inc. (SWA)
● Steveworks LLC
● Sustainable Comfort, Inc
● Sustainable Wellesley
● The Caleb Group
● The Community Builders (TCB)
● The Green Engineer, Inc.
● The Neighborhood Developers (TND)
● The Passive House Network
● The Schochet Companies
● Town of Hudson Conservation
Commission
● TSK Energy Solutions LLC
● UHM Properties
● UU Mass Action
● U.S. Green Building Council
● UndauntedK12
● Urban Edge
● Valley CDC
● Vermont Energy Investment
Corporation (VEIC)
● Veterans Benefits Clearinghouse
Development Corporation (VBCDC)
● Vietnamese American Initiative for
Development, Inc. (VietAID)
● Vote Solar
● Waterfront Historic Area League
(WHALE)
● Way Finders
● Western Massachusetts Dayenu Circle
● WinnCompanies
● Worcester Common Ground (WCG)
● Worcester Congregations for Climate
and Environmental Justice
● Worcester HEART Partnership
● Worcester Housing Authority
● ZeroCarbonMA

Protecting the Freedom to Read

Chair Garballey, Chair Mark, and Members of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, and the Arts: 

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.2328 and H.3594: An Act Regarding Free Expression, filed by Senator Julian Cyr and Representative John Moran.

Over the past few years, we have seen attacks on schools and libraries across the country aimed at removing books by and about LGBTQ people, communities of color, and other marginalized groups. Much of this has been driven by well-funded, well-organized national conservative groups, now unfortunately urged on by the White House. 

Many people would like to think that Massachusetts is different, but we are not. According to the American Library Association, in 2022 there were at least 45 attempts to restrict access to books in Massachusetts school and public libraries, with 57 titles challenged. This puts us among the top 5 states with the highest book ban attempts.

Students learn best when they see themselves and the issues that impact them reflected in their education. Education should be about opening up students to the world and to themselves, and that requires a focus on inclusivity and equity. And it means not seeking to exclude parts of history or identity.

Beyond being simply a moral issue, this is a constitutional issue. The First Amendment protects the right to share ideas, including educators’ and students’ right to receive and exchange information and knowledge. These bills would ensure that selection of age-appropriate library materials is based on the professional expertise of librarians and educators, and would establish a process and standards for handling book challenges so that books are not taken off the shelves based on political or personal views.

At a time when education is under attack from a hostile federal administration, and the goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion are under attack, Massachusetts should be clear about our values and join other states like Illinois, New Jersey, and Rhode Island in pushing back against book banning. 

Thank you for all your work on the hearing, and, again, we urge you to swiftly advance these important bills.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Testimony in Support of Language Access and Utility Accountability

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Chair Cabral, Chair Collins, and Members of the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group with chapters across the state committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.3384 / S.2125 (An Act Relative to Language Access and Inclusion) and H.3400 (An Act prohibiting the use of ratepayer funds for utility lobbying, promotions, or perks).

H.3384/S.2125: Language Access and Inclusion Act

Massachusetts is home to a vibrant immigrant community. One in six Massachusetts residents is an immigrant, while one in seven residents is a native-born US citizen with at least one immigrant parent.

Massachusetts, correspondingly, is home to great linguistic diversity: more than 1 out of 4 residents report speaking a language other than English at home, with the most common languages being Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese), Vietnamese, and Russian. However, as the pandemic demonstrated, our state agencies and departments have a patchwork of different policies around language accessibility, and there is no current statute to ensure that non-English speaking residents have a fair and equitable opportunity to obtain an education, apply for benefits, receive housing assistance, or represent themselves in court.

The Language Access and Inclusion Act would help our Commonwealth better meet the needs of all residents by standardizing and enforcing language access protocols and practices at public-facing state agencies. Everyone should be able to interact with and seek help from their own government, no matter what language they speak.

H.3400: Utility Accountability

Our public utilities are supposed to serve and be regulated in service of the public interest; however, gas and electric utilities are regularly using money they collect from customers’ bills to fund their lobbying, advertising, and trade association dues. Customers have no say in such decisions, and such spending can often be directly in contradiction of the public interest. Voters across the Commonwealth want strong environmental laws and robust and equitable climate legislation, and we should not be coerced into funding opposition campaigns simply because of the need to have light, heat, and electricity in our homes.

Similarly, utilities are using customer ratepayer money to subsidize the lavish expenses of their Boards of Directors—at the same time as they are raising prices.

It’s quite simple: If utilities have so much money to spend on lobbying, ads, and perks, they are charging customers too much money and investing too little in the transition to clean, green energy.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

Testimony: MA Needs Debt-Free Higher Ed

Friday, July 18, 2025

Char Comerford, Chair Rogers, and Members of the Joint Committee on Higher Education:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group with chapters across the state committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to H.1436/S.929: An Act relative to debt-free public higher education.

Because of the transformative new revenue from the Fair Share Amendment, Massachusetts recently took a major step forward by making community college free. But we need to ensure that students can graduate from any of our public colleges and universities without debt.

Our public colleges and universities are engines of economic opportunity. Studies reliably show that a postsecondary degree provides a proven premium in lifetime wages for graduates, and has become a commonplace requirement for a wide range of job types. But for too many of our high school graduates, the cost of attending college is prohibitive.

That’s because the cost students face is not just that borne by students during their years in school, but the costs years after through accrued debt. By preventing young people from living independently, buying a home, or pursuing their career of choice, student debt is a drag on our economy. Even when students drop out due to cost, they can be saddled with debt for years after, and have a much more difficult time finding jobs.

The United States stands out compared to other countries in how expensive it is to attend college, and the costs have grown exponentially in recent decades, outpacing other economic indicators. It is often shocking to hear people talk about how cheap college used to be several decades ago, while many students today are forced to work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

Let’s do right by our students and right by the future of the Commonwealth by embracing debt-free public higher education.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts

MA Can and Must Do More to Protect and Expand Workers’ Rights

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Chair Oliveira, Chair McMurtry, and Members of the Joint committee on Labor and Workforce Development:

My name is Jonathan Cohn, and I am the Policy Director of Progressive Massachusetts, a statewide grassroots advocacy group with chapters across the state committed to fighting for an equitable, just, democratic, and sustainable Commonwealth.

We urge you to give a favorable report to S.1311/H.2078: An Act uplifting families and securing the right to strike for certain public employees and S.1327/H.2086: An Act protecting labor and abolishing barriers to organizing rights. These bills would protect and expand rights for workers in the Commonwealth.

Unions and working-class people are under attack from the federal government, as President Donald Trump and his oligarchic pals in Big Tech and Big Finance seek to unravel decades of labor, civil rights, consumer, and environmental protections to enrich themselves further.  

Massachusetts should voice a loud and clear NO to that agenda and do that by strengthening and protecting the rights we have in this state.

First, a word on strengthening. The right to strike is a critical labor right that ensures that workplace negotiations happen in good faith. But this right is not sufficiently protected or respected in Massachusetts because public sector workers lack that right.

To be clear, banning strikes does not mean that strikes do not happen. We have seen many such examples across the Commonwealth in recent years. The ban means unreasonable penalties and fines, not the lack of strikes. A right to strike, by contrast, treats a strike as what it should be: an available tool for workers to use if negotiations occur in bad faith and a mechanism for structuring the timeline of negotiations to encourage both parties to come to an agreement. The current situation tips the scales against workers; restoring this right would create a level playing field.

Moreover, current law is worse than just penalizing strikes. Current law penalizes even talking about strikes, a gross violation of the First Amendment. This legislation would end that.

But, as noted earlier, as we expand labor rights, we also need to ensure that the rights that exist are protected. The Protect LABOR Act would ensure that labor protections continue to exist in Massachusetts even if Trump and his corporate buddies eliminate them at the federal level.

Trump and his Cabinet of Project 2025 authors has made clear that they want to eviscerate the National Labor Relations Act, under which private sector labor rights are established. Decades of labor protections could disappear if they succeed.

This bill offers a necessary bulwark against that by ensuring measures like Department of Labor Relations certification of pre-existing federally recognized unions; a presumption of employee status to ensure all workers, regardless of industry, have guaranteed access to wage, hour, and benefits protections; a ban on captive audience meetings; protection right anti-union “right to work” laws; and more.

Massachusetts has had a great track record of strengthening labor rights, especially when they are under attack federally. Let’s continue that legacy.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Cohn

Policy Director

Progressive Massachusetts