For Immediate Release
September 23, 2004
Please Contact: Colin Durrant (617)722-1650 or
Dalié Jiménez, 617-722-1650

A Strong Education Makes a Strong Community

An Op-Ed by Senator Jarrett T. Barrios (D-Cambridge)

In the last ten years, since the passage of the Education Reform Act in 1993, Massachusetts has made progress in improving educational opportunities for students, but we all know that there is still much more work to be done. More resources are needed, better schools must be built, and every student should be given the opportunity to reach the standards we have set for them. How to best educate our children has become a perennial political issue and with that comes much debate. However, there is one goal on which we can all agree: every child deserves the best education opportunities possible.

From speaking to teachers and school administrators, I know that the single most important predictor for the success of our students is providing schools with the resources necessary to achieve the aggressive standards we have set: small class sizes, adequate services for special education students, and support for professional development. At its most basic level this commitment means that the state must find new ways to send more resources to under-resourced schools – especially in those districts that continue to lag far behind in spending levels.

The first step to ensuring our students’ success is to make sure that the state’s “foundation” budget gives every school district adequate resources to fulfill the seven curriculum frameworks developed under the Education Reform Law. A recent court ruling found that school districts performing well according the Department of Education spent an average of 130% of the foundation budget, while those not meeting standards spent far closer to the 100% level. By comparison, some of the best schools in the state spent an average of 161% of the foundation budget. Actual teacher salaries were 129.7% higher than the amount accounted for in the foundation budget. On this score, persistent achievement gaps between rich and poor suggest that the state has failed miserably.

That’s why I have spearheaded a group of 47 legislators to file an amicus brief to the historic Hancock court case. In superior court, Judge Margot Botsford held the state had failed in its obligation to provide funding to make sure that all public school students, regardless of their school district’s financial means, are provided with an adequate education. In our brief to the Supreme Judicial Court, we argue that schools are not required to be perfect; they simply have to impart students with the skills necessary to get a decent job and participate in the civic life of the commonwealth. Students need to leave school with the skills to succeed in the workplace and in our communities. That’s not asking too much, is it?

Beyond adequate resources for our public schools, the Hancock decision also highlighted the state’s obligation to support children’s education before they were school age. This court case should give early education advocates the leverage we need to successfully push for support of investment in early care and education programs that allow children from poorer backgrounds to start out on a level playing field. The Legislature this year took the first step in the right direction by creating a statewide office of early childhood education. But this is just a start.

Educating for success also means giving teachers and students quality school buildings to learn and teach in. It is impossible for teachers to teach in and children to learn in buildings that are crumbling or overcrowded. Perhaps the most important advance in this legislative session was school building assistance reform. This year the Legislature moved to meet our commitment to cities and towns by shifting to the State Treasurer the school building program and dedicating a penny of our sales tax to this effort, dedicating resources so school districts will no longer fall prey to a fluctuating economy because the funds are in a lock-box.

In my next term as your State Senator I hope to continue to fight to make an adequate education a right for all children. Keep your eyes on the Hancock case as it goes up to the Supreme Judicial Court. And please keep speaking up on behalf of our children!

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