EDUCATION

Gov. Maura Healey signed the “Freedom to Read” law on Monday in an attempt to keep book bans out of Massachusetts schools and librarians. The new law aims to strengthen protections for public school teachers and librarians.

A federal state voucher program is weighted to benefit private schools, communities receive $100 million in natural gas investments from utilities companies despite moving away from fossil fuels, Berkshire County loses another dairy farm, and South Hadley considers lifting a ban on marijuana establishments.

The Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center argues the federal program pulls state resources away from the public school system.

Less than a week after signing the new Massachusetts budget, Gov. Maura Healey filed a supplemental budget seeking an additional $100 million for public schools this year.

Officials announced a new governance structure in eight Springfield Public schools in western Mass. The district's Innovation School Zone is an evolution of the district's Empowerment Zone they said, established a decade ago to turn around failing schools.

We bring June's Mayor-of-the-Month to North Adams with Mayor Jennifer Macksey, we visit Mount Holyoke College for the return of their Summer Theater program, and visit the J.S. Bryant School to learn about their LGBTQIA2S+ programming.

Carrie Saldo and panelists discuss data centers in the 413, the challenge of filling aging government positions, potential for new high school graduation requirements, a new nature preserve in the Berkshires & much more.

MassCORE and MyCAP could replace the MCAS in the state's education standards mix, according to the final high school graduation standard recommendations filed Wednesday by the K-12 Graduation Council.

Lawmakers face no strict deadlines to advance the bills in conference other than the end of this two-year session on Tuesday, Jan. 5, 2027.

We take a hard look into higher education and its economic impacts in Massachusetts.