JP Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz took the podium at the 49th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in the South Boston Convention Center and used the shining light of Dr. King’s example to call for another local fight for justice – that being the justice of equal education funding.
“I have watched this tragic inequality play out in Massachusetts schools for too long,” she said at the breakfast. “We are one of the best states when it comes to educating our youth, but we are also amongst the worst with sharing that educational opportunity with every child…I named my new bill the PROMISE Act in remembrance of Dr. King’s promissory note.”
The speech came on the heels of Chang-Diaz filing another education reform bill on Jan. 9 – a act in the memory of Dr. King which she called the PROMISE (Providing Rightful Opportunities and Meaningful Investment for Successful and Equitable Education) Act. The act – similar to one she filed in 2018 that died last summer before the end of the session – will implement all four recommendations of the bipartisan Foundation Budget Review Commission (FBRC) – including long-overdue equity provisions for low-income and English learner students. The Commonwealth has failed to update the aging foundation budget formula for more than 25 years, she said.