Good morning,

We’ve got a couple weeks left in the campaign to End Loyalty Pay in the state house by bringing stipend reform to the ballot in 2026! 

We need to get 10,000 more signatures by November 12th to get this critical reform to the voters. If everyone on our email list got papers to sign and got just one other person to sign, we’d be on the ballot! We’d be one step closer to a system where our representatives don’t have to risk their own livelihoods every time they take a vote. 

This week, we have a major opportunity to reach many registered voters: municipal elections. 55 cities and towns in Massachusetts are hosting municipal elections this Tuesday, November 4th. If you live in or near one of these communities and 1-2 hours free on Tuesday (or 15 minutes after you vote!), please pitch in to get a few signatures. Let us know your availability here.

PITCH IN THIS WEEK TO GET STIPEND REFORM ON THE BALLOT>>

If you can't gather on election day, you can still help us get on the ballot by signing up on StipendReform.com to get signature sheets mailed to you immediately and to find out where folks are gathering signatures in your area. You can get some tips and tricks by watching Act on Mass’ short training video. 

Friends: this reform is what we need to break down Beacon Hill’s powerful hierarchies and kickstart a real democracy in our Commonwealth. Please pitch in by getting your friends and neighbors to sign this week! 

HELP US END LOYALTY PAY IN 2026>>

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State House Scoop

House votes unanimously on education bill controversial with teachers 

The House met in formal session this Wednesday to act on three bills related to education, all of which passed unanimously. The first of these, H.4670, would require middle and high schools in the Commonwealth to provide financial literacy classes to students. The second, H.4671, would expand access to the state’s “Seal of Biliteracy” award. The third, and most controversial, H.4642, would target early childhood literacy with new standards based on “science of reading” methods. 

This last bill, An Act relative to teacher preparation and student literacy is targeted at the “literacy crisis” in Massachusetts. Although Massachusetts students still lead the nation in reading skills, reading scores have not returned to pre-pandemic levels and huge gaps exist between higher-income and lower-income school districts. Recent MCAS results revealed that only 42% of MA students grades 3-8 are meeting standards in English language arts. 

According to Representative Gordon (paywall), who is the House chair of the Joint Committee on Education, the bill was partially inspired by the so-called “Southern Surge” in literacy. In the last 20 years, four Southern states (AL, LA, MS, & TN) that have traditionally scored poorly in literacy have managed to make significant gains on 4th grade reading scores, while scores in other states stagnated or declined. Their approach has inspired similar legislation focused on “science of reading” strategies nationwide. 

Massachusetts has already taken action to improve early childhood literacy through a “Literacy Launch” initiative started in 2024, which provided $35 million in state funds for “science of reading” teacher education programs and high-quality curriculum materials. 

However, supporters of the new bill claim that ⅓ of Massachusetts’ school districts are still using “low-quality” reading instruction curricula (paywall). This bill, if also passed by the Senate, wouldmandate schools to adopt pre-approved curricula, set new standards for teacher instruction, and require more regular screening of K-3 students for literacy. It would also ban a practice called “three-cueing” that science of reading advocates consider outdated. 

Look: I’m not an educator and it’s been a long time since I learned to read. It seems clear that the state should take further action on childhood literacy and there are people much more qualified than I to weigh in on the merits of this action. Rather, as any good good government advocate, I’m interested in what this vote says about our legislature. 

Here’s the interesting thing about this reading bill: it was opposed by the state’s largest teachers’ unions. According to Massachusetts Teachers Association President Max Page, the bill would limit teachers’ abilities to tailor curricula to students. Page also noted that “science of reading” curricula have not had the same impact in every state. The American Federation of Teachers MA warnedthat the bill would establish a “limited, blanket curriculum that is concerning, particularly to veteran educators.” 

Many legislators have close relationships with teacher’s unions. Labor-based political organizations like the MTA often play a major role in turning out volunteers for legislative candidates during election season. Representatives often tout their pro-union bona fides and “pay it back” by sponsoring union-backed legislation. Several reps, including Speaker Ron Mariano, are former teachers themselves. Whether or not you agreewith the teachers unions, it seems likely that in a legislature of 160 members, somebody would! 

Yet, during discussion on the bill, not a single House member raised concerns about the underlying legislation. A few members filed union-backed amendments to the bill, including a successful Rep. Connolly amendment to soften the ban on “three-cueing.” Republican Kelly Pease filed an amendment (paywall) to give school districts the right to state funding to implement these new requirements, which was rejected on a voice vote. If there was debate about passing a sweeping education bill without support from the state’s largest teachers’ unions, it was kept neatly behind the scenes. The bill ultimately passed 155-0. 

We can assume that the bill will get more significant debate as it makes its way through the Senate– it seems that the unions are banking on this. However, the bill’s unanimous vote exemplified an unfortunate reality in the House, where 85% of the Democratic caucus follows the Speaker on every vote and meaningful debate is a thing of the past. 

Debate and dissent are essential parts of democracy, especially on controversial topics. We know that the Speaker of the House has a few powerful tools at his disposal to keep dissent at a minimum– and uses them. It’s why we’re pushing for stipend reform: for a legislature where our representatives can speak their minds without risking their livelihoods. Where issues as important as how children learn to read are addressed through meaningful public debate. 

On another note, the passage of this bill demonstrates that the legislature can act swiftly when they want to. This literacy bill combines two bills assigned to the Joint Committee on Education that had their hearing on September 16th– just over a month and a half ago! Although early childhood literacy is important, this bill wouldn’t exactly make my “Top 10 List of Things Massachusetts Should Do As the Trump Administration Targets Our Communities and Attacks our Values.” 

Since last December, we have been asking our state leaders to take swift action to prepare our state and protect our most vulnerable communities from the attacks of the Trump administration. Since then, they have passed only one (1!) new law that does that (check out our Halloween postabout it!). And just this week, they neglected to join other states in providing state funds to ensure that SNAP benefits will continue amidst the government shutdown. For more on that, keep reading for Syd's Sprinkles!

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Syd's Sprinkles

Syd’s Sprinkles: An Update on SNAP & the Government Shutdown

I am once again left wishing that I had better news to share with you all, but I cannot say that I have any. 

A silver-lining to all of the scary and dangerous things that our country is going through is the way that we continuously come together as caring community members to take care of our friends, families, and neighbors. 

For now, the government shutdown does not have an end in sight. This means that millions will be impacted by SNAP funding running out. In Massachusetts alone, 1.1 million people will not have access to the assistance that they rely on to buy food. 

Out of this number, over 300,000 SNAP recipients impacted by the government shutdown in Massachusetts are children. 

Not only will SNAP recipients suffer from the shutdown, but businesses which rely on customers using SNAP will also face significant losses in sales. 

So what is our state government doing about this? 

Not a ton when it comes to the SNAP benefits themselves. Several other states have put forth funds to ensure that SNAP benefits do not lapse. However, our elected officials in the State House are still weighing options for ways to help SNAP recipients supplement the assistance that they are set to lose today [paywall]. 

One source of potential funding that state leaders have taken out of the running is the rainy day fund. This reserve of over $8 billion – meant for times of crisis – has been deemed as a nonviable option for supporting food assistance programs. 

Why? 

According to House Speaker Ron Mariano, the rainy day fund does not provide enough funding to supplement all of the federal government's programs that are lapsing this month. 

“It's the federal government who is choosing not to fund these things. This is the first time SNAP hasn't been funded in any of these government shutdowns, and that's a choice that the president has made,” according to House Speaker Mariano. 

The bottom line of arguments given by our lawmakers on Beacon Hill as to why rainy day funds cannot be used is that its use for SNAP recipients will begin a slippery slope of the state funding federal programs with its own money. Others suggest that the real reason the state is unwilling to dip into their reserves is that doing so might impact the state’s bond rating. 

So for now, it seems like Massachusetts lawmakers are sitting and waiting, playing the same game that is being played down in D.C., right? Well, not necessarily... 

The Healey administration, in  conjunction with the State Legislature, has advanced funding for food banks so that rather than sending $4 million to Massachusetts food banks this month, the total will now amount to $8 million. Although this is intended to buffet the increased need food pantries will face, it is unlikely to make up for the $212 million loss in benefits they will contend with. 

Alongside the increased funding for food banks, Healey also solicited private donations for an emergency relief fund with United Way. 

With that being said, there is one lawmaker on Beacon Hill who has proposed some solutions to the reasons House leadership has given against the use of rainy day funds. 

Senator Mark Montigny, a Democrat representing Second Bristol and Plymouth, has proposed cuts to unnecessary expenditures so that the state budget can be used to fund SNAP benefits, as well as other benefits that have been affected by the shutdown. Some other legislators have referenced that they’re urging state leaders to allocate state funds to cover gaps in the benefits, but it has yet to result in action. 

Friday came with news of a ruling from a federal judge in Rhode Island that the Trump administration must use contingency funds to continue the benefits. Although this is good news, the administration was given until Monday to respond, and is likely to counter with an appeal that could drag on. Meanwhile, SNAP benefits stopped today. 

And as sad as I am to tell you this, I do have some more bad news. 

The Healey Administration this week announced a new initiative called Massachusetts Strategic Hub for Innovation, Exchange and Leadership in Defense (SHIELD), to partner with Business Executives for National Security (BENS) to “bolster the state's defense industry sector.” 

Unfortunately, this is not the plot to a new dystopian movie. This is a real initiative that is expected to be allocated $47 million of state funding, so that the defense sector has better access to state funding. 

Now this is not great for a number of reasons, but high among them has been put best by Brain Garvey, Executive Director of Massachusetts Peace Action. 

“When Massachusetts is seeking private donations to pay for food aid for its citizens due to the federal government shutdown, it should not be wasting taxpayer money on funding for building new weapons… The Federal Government is breaking new laws every day, yet Gov. Maura Healey wants to spend Massachusetts taxpayer dollars to further enrich military companies, and increase the military’s ability to break the law and oppress the American people, by building them a new microelectronics center and other giveaways. The Legislature and State Auditor should hold the Governor accountable for these serious mistakes.” 

You can read more of Brian Garvey’s response here – and I highly recommend that you do. 

In times like these, Bay Staters deserve to have their tax dollars go toward initiatives and programs that help sustain Massachusetts residents, not to programs which go against our core values and which hurt others.

Thanks to this email template from Project Bread, please take some time today to email our state leaders and tell them: fund SNAP, not defense companies!

TELL STATE LEADERS: STATE FUNDS FOR SNAP>>

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Worth reading: more stories from this week

Some other stories from this week: 

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Missed a Scoop or two? You can find a full archive of all past Saturday Scoops on our blog.

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Take Action

Rein in Reckless Utility Bills - People Over Energy Profits

Our friends at Mass Power Forward are continuing their "People Over Energy Profits" campaign from last winter! Contact your legislator today to let them know: we need action now to rein in reckless utility bills. 

TELL YOUR REP: TAKE ACTION ON ENERGY COSTS>>

Take action to get stipend reform on the ballot!

We are a month out from our deadline to get 75,000 signatures! Help us get across the finish line by pitching in in your own community. 

PITCH IN TO GET STIPEND REFORM ON THE BALLOT>>

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Thanks for reading, stay warm out there! 

In solidarity,

Scotia

Scotia Hille (she/her)

Executive Director, Act on Mass