Following the rollout of a school finance overhaul crafted by Massachusetts House and Senate leaders, early reviews were positive.
It's already penciled in for a vote in the Senate next week.
Carrie Healy, NEPR: Should we expect a lot of amendments as this bill progresses?
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that there will be amendments. This is obviously a big, complex bill, something people have been waiting a long time to see happen.
The committee spent a lot of time writing this bill and it is now moving into the Senate, where the Senate Committee on Ways and Means is going to take a look.
We expect it to come out of that committee this week and members will have their chance, after more than a week now, to read it, digest it and figure out how it impacts their districts, their local schools. So I'm sure there will be a number of amendments as we move towards a debate the first week of October in the Senate.
But you're right, this did get released to pretty positive reviews from a lot of the education reform groups that have been angling to see this type of investment in education for a long time: $1.4 billion over seven years to increase the amount of money flowing to these local districts.
So it appears that this is something that is on the near horizon.
In January, I stood w families & educators calling for all 5 #FBRC recs w/ full equity provisions. Yesterday's #MAEdu comm bill is such a big deal because it goes the distance on these points – meeting broad public consensus for equity & incorporating bulk of #EduPROMISE. #mapoli https://t.co/15yxE583ie
— Sonia Chang-Díaz (@SoniaChangDiaz) September 20, 2019
Now, could some of those changes in that amendment process derail the compromise?
You always have to be wary of that, and it'll be interesting to see how leadership handles this. They made a big show of sitting together, both the House and Senate leaders, when they rolled this out. It was a way to kind of ward off some of the, you know, anxiety that people might feel who remember how this collapsed at the end of the session in 2018.
They are together on this bill.But the more that each branch kind of changes it, the further away from this compromise they get. So that is something that they have to be careful with, and it'll be interesting to see how many amendments leadership actually accepts, or members go forward with.
Last week, the bill that many lawmakers say is their top priority safety item, the distracted driving bill, was again without movement.
It's been stalled in conference for almost three months, apparently after disputes over the collection of traffic stop data as it relates to racial profiling. Frustration among some road safety advocates has grown, and they've designated this Thursday as a sort of deadline. What does that really mean?
They want to see this come out of the conference committee and move forward. It has gotten so close to being done.
There's really general support among the vast majority of legislators. But there are these details that the committee has been unable to get over the hump on, presumably because they don't really talk about what's holding them up. But the collection of this data could be one piece.
There's also been suggestions that making sure that this law is enforceable for local police and law enforcement is also of concern as they write the language of this bill.
But it has been a long time now that it's been in committee, especially when there's such broad agreement on the general principles of this bill. And the advocates are threatening to really start to hold [lawmakers'] feet to the fire if this doesn't get done soon.
Because, of course, the longer this bill doesn't land on Governor Baker's desk and get signed, the more people are out there driving with their faces in their phones and putting people at risk.
What does "holding feet to the fire" actually look like for advocates when they say that?
Well, I think you'll see [advocates] here. You'll see them stage some public demonstrations and really try to bring the pressure and put this on the front burner now that the lawmakers are back from their summer recess.
House Speaker DeLeo and Senate President Spilka both say that this has not dropped on their priority list. But it's certainly starting to feel that way. So you may see them try to make sure that this is something that they know people have not forgotten about.
This week brings the roll-out of Mass. Most Wantedplaying cards. They will be distributed in county jails with pictures of people police are looking for, as well as photos of missing people or victims of unsolved crimes. What's this all about?
Yeah, really an interesting story coming out of the Norfolk County Sheriff's Office. Sheriff Jim McDermott is planning to introduce what he's calling mass most wanted cards in the county jails.
He says this is something that's been effective in other states. And it's something that he hopes, as he circulates these among his facilities, will help police and law enforcement, the district attorney's office, and the sheriff's office solve some of these unsolved homicides and other cold cases that are difficult to find new leads.
