State level advocacy with MARS (virtual)

Senator Lewis has introduced two critical bills to strengthen public education funding:

• SD.1912: An Act to Ensure Adequate and Equitable Funding for Public Education
• SD.1237: An Act Increasing the Commonwealth’s Share of the Education Foundation Budget

If successful, these bills will eventually provide much-needed financial relief to school districts across the Commonwealth. However, it will likely be a few years before any formula changes are complete. If an interim solution is not provided, districts and municipalities will be forced to continue cutting essential services and programs just to survive.

MARS has been working with the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents (MASS), the Massachusetts Association of School Business Officials (MASBO), the Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) to develop a K-12 funding proposal that we believe will bring much-needed relief to school districts and municipalities for FY 26. The proposal can be found here: K-12 Funding Proposal.

We encourage you to review this proposal and to join us on March 4, 2025, at 6:30 PM for a Zoom meeting. We will discuss the details and rationale behind each item in the proposal. We will also talk about advocacy steps that need to be taken to get the necessary attention from the state legislature and send a clear and consistent message that additional K-12 funding is imperative in FY 26.

You can register to join the Zoom meeting by following this link: Project 211 + 21: Uniting to Advocate for Increased K-12 Education Funding Once you have registered, you will receive an email with a link to join the meeting.