“THANKS TO A windfall of $1.8 billion in the latest round of federal COVID relief funding intended to help schools recover from the last two years of interrupted learning, we have an historic opportunity to transform public education in Massachusetts.
Yet millions of federal dollars sit untapped in the state’s coffers, and if funds aren’t used by 2024, they expire. Unless there are plans set in motion – today – for this money to support students, we will continue to deny them the education they deserve after two of the most challenging years of their lives.
This isn’t an opportunity to be squandered, especially when decades of data prove that Massachusetts should not rest on its laurels of topping national lists for educational outcomes. The most valuable lesson of the pandemic may be the need for greater urgency in addressing the stark and disparate outcomes for students of color, low-income students, English learners, and students with disabilities across our great state.”
Read Mary Tamer’s full op-ed in CommonWealth Magazine.