Massachusetts education reforms would change how low-income districts are funded. The current legislation which has been in effect for 26 years has no clear path on how funds should be divided between the wealthy districts and the poorer ones.
Massachusetts lawmakers are in the process of making changes to education and health care policies. Education funding, over the last 26 years has deteriorated, and they have realized that this needs to be addressed. The main aim of this legislation will be to address the inequalities in education and health care sectors. the bill will target low-income families.
Proposed Massachusetts education reforms
The main education reform that will be implemented is the Student Opportunity Act. The bill will address the funding of low-income schools. The current legislation was passed in 1993 and it guaranteed an equal educational opportunity for all including those who were underprivileged.
The previous bill did not address how to fund education. There has never been any other bill during that span of time that has ever attempted to look into this issue.
This has resulted in a situation where schools from poorer districts have been under-funded for the last 26 years. The Massachusetts education reforms would finally mitigate the huge oversight being committed.
Comerford, who represents nine school districts in her area, remarks on the Massachusetts education reforms:
Districts with a greater proportion of low-income students need more money to help educate those students to fudge stubborn opportunity gaps.
The ability of the bill to recalculate the numbers with 2019 data and implementing the results have been hailed as a step forward by lawmakers. The lawmakers are also optimistic that it will be a bipartisan issue as its implementation is long overdue. The issues being addressed by the Massachusetts education reforms cuts across both political divides.
Lawmakers have also suggested making changes to the formula used in reimbursement of transport fees. Transport costs in rural areas are mostly high compared to urban areas because of the distances covered. This creates inequality in the expenditure of parents and also the time available for learning by these students.
Proposed healthcare reforms
For health care, the lawmakers said that they are looking at ways to make it more affordable to everyone. This will include looking at ways on how to bring the costs down. This will result in a wider coverage of Massachusets citizens. They will also look to strengthen the health care system and they have proposed a MassHealth plan that will do exactly that.
These new bills highlight the commitments these lawmakers have in serving the public. They have kept their differences away to work on something that benefits every citizen in this state. This will, in turn, lead to quality levels of education and well being.
