Education and business leaders are backing a letter to the Attorney General opposing the proposed ballot question to end the MCAS graduation requirement, claiming the drafted language is unconstitutional.
“The elimination of the passing of MCAS as a statewide graduation requirement would amount to a huge setback for ensuring that all graduates have acquired basic mastery of subject areas to be college or career ready,” said Pioneer Institute Executive Director Jim Stergios in a release. “But the (MTA) goes further in its proposed ballot question, by prohibiting local school districts from choosing to use the MCAS in assessing student competence.”
The anti-MCAS ballot initiative in question, filed with the AG’s office ahead of the Aug. 2 deadline, would eliminate the standardized test as a graduation requirement and require districts to instead assess students based on their performance in school.
The initiative petition must be approved by the AG and then receive nearly 75,000 signatures by mid-November to be put on the November 2024 ballot.
The opposition letter was drafted by the Pioneer Institute, a Boston-based advocacy organization, and signed by leadership of 19 organizations and public figures, including the Massachusetts High Technology Council, Retailers Association of Massachusetts, Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, Democrats for Education Reform, two former Massachusetts Secretaries of Education and former BPS superintendent Michael Contompasis.
The filed letter, accompanied by a legal memorandum, asserts that the petition fails to meet the “related matter” standard of Massachusetts law and urges AG Andrea Campbell not to sign off on the language.
Under Massachusetts Law, an initiative petition must contain “only subjects that are related or mutually dependent.”
The ballot question, the letter argues, addresses two separate matters: eliminating the state’s MCAS graduation requirement and asserting that localities must only consider a student’s completion of coursework as a graduation standard.
The Pioneer Institute also filed a letter in opposition to a proposed ballot question instituting rent control in Boston.
The MTA, which voted unanimously to back the petition earlier in August, pushed back against the challenge and called the move “desperate political maneuvering.”
“Proponents of maintaining the flawed practice of using the MCAS test to determine who gets a high-school diploma are presenting unconvincing arguments to the Attorney General in an effort to deny the public an opportunity to vote on this important public policy matter,” MTA President Max Page and Vice President Deb McCarthy said in a statement.
The union representatives assert the opponents “wrongly claim” the ballot question would limit how district’s decide to determine academic competency.
“Districts will be free to determine how to measure satisfactory completion of coursework that aligns with the Massachusetts curriculum frameworks and maintains the state’s high academic standards,” the MTA leaders stated.
The opponents, they contend, include the same people who’ve supported private charter schools over public schools and opposed funding education with a millionaire’s tax.
The AG’s certification decisions are expected to be released on Sept. 6.
