Speaker 1: It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Wbzy Constance Video Ori.
Speaker 2: Welcome back everybody. Before we start the nine o'clock hour tonight,
Speaker 2: we have a special ticket giveaway here on night Side.
Speaker 2: We haven't done this often, but if you happen to
Speaker 2: be a Tina Turner fan, well there's a big show.
Speaker 2: The Tina Turner Musical is coming to the Hanover Theater
Speaker 2: in Worcester on Friday, October eighteenth at eight pm. So,
Speaker 2: as I begin this hour talking to my guest, if
Speaker 2: you'd like to give a shot at this, if you're
Speaker 2: calling number ten right now to this number special number six, one, seven, nine, three, one,
Speaker 2: ten thirty, you're gonna win two tickets to see Tina
Speaker 2: the Tina Turner Musical let the Hanover Theater in Worcester
Speaker 2: on Friday night, October eighteenth at eight pm. It's an
Speaker 2: uplifting comeback story like no other. Tina the Tina Turner
Speaker 2: Musical is the inspiring journey of a woman who broke
Speaker 2: barriers and became the Queen of rock and roll. Set
Speaker 2: to the post pounding soundtrack of her most beloved hits.
Speaker 2: This is an electrifying sensation. It will send you soaring
Speaker 2: into the rafters. So Rob, just let them come in.
Speaker 2: It's going to be caller number ten. Don't have to
Speaker 2: spend a lot of time with it. Just tell them
Speaker 2: caller one, caller two, call a three, call of four,
Speaker 2: and we'll move to caller number ten as quickly as possible.
Speaker 2: You may get some busy's here, but just give them
Speaker 2: the courtesy Rob of telling them to call her three,
Speaker 2: call of four and we'll get him for calling number ten.
Speaker 2: Call her ten at six pe seven ninth, three, one, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty will win two tickets to a great musical, The
Speaker 2: Tina Turner Musical at the Hintover Theater in Worcester, Friday,
Speaker 2: October eighteenth, at eight pm. Rob, when you get a winner,
Speaker 2: tell me and I'll call. Tell the people that think
Speaker 2: they can stop calling. All right now, The subject that's
Speaker 2: sort of the appetizer for this hour, the subject that
Speaker 2: he end. The subject that he end is the m
Speaker 2: CAST question. It's BALLID two. It's BALLID Question number two
Speaker 2: in Massachusetts, which will ask voters whether or not an
Speaker 2: MCAST passing score should remain a graduation requirement for public
Speaker 2: school students throughout the state. The Massachusetts Teachers Association are
Speaker 2: opposed to this idea, and so they have put a
Speaker 2: ballid question on which would eliminate not mcast, but would
Speaker 2: eliminate the graduation requirement. With us to talk about it
Speaker 2: and explain, I think a question that is a vital
Speaker 2: importance to the commonwealth, to be very honest with you,
Speaker 2: is Matt Hills. Matt is the vice chair of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. Matt his family
Speaker 2: live in Newton. He in a lovely wife, have four
Speaker 2: children who went through the Newton Public School K through twelve.
Speaker 2: Matt received a bachelor's degree in economics and politics from
Speaker 2: Brandeis University and NBA from Harvard Business School. He's former
Speaker 2: chair of the Newton School Committee. He served in the
Speaker 2: committee for eight years through twenty eighteen, and he is
Speaker 2: currently vice chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and
Speaker 2: Secondary Education. Matt Hill's welcome to Nights Out. How are you.
Speaker 3: I'm great, Dan, Thanks so much for having me. I
Speaker 3: appreciate you inviting me. And it's not my first time
Speaker 3: on your show. I was on at least once a
Speaker 3: number of years ago about some Newton issues. So thanks
Speaker 3: for having me back.
Speaker 2: As we say, and by the way, It's important to
Speaker 2: point out that you serve on this position. This is
Speaker 2: not a funded position. You do this out of your
Speaker 2: concern for public education in Massachusetts, and that's very important
Speaker 2: for people to realize, to be thank you, to be
Speaker 2: honest with you, this is an appointed position. You were
Speaker 2: first appointed, well, you've been appointed twice by Governor Baker,
Speaker 2: if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 3: Right, like most people on the board, I believe most
Speaker 3: people on the board. I'm a registered Democrat, and Governor
Speaker 3: Baker appointed us notwithstanding any party affiliation, So that's correct.
Speaker 3: I was appointed originally in twenty nineteen and then in
Speaker 3: the summer of twenty twenty two for a second five
Speaker 3: year term.
Speaker 2: And before we begin, I want to make it clear
Speaker 2: to my audience that we had hoped to turn this
Speaker 2: program tonight, at least the hour that we're going to
Speaker 2: spend with you, into a conversation or a discussion. We
Speaker 2: invited Max Page, who is the president I believe, of
Speaker 2: the mass Teachers Association, to join us, but he declined,
Speaker 2: and I just wanted to make a there. We actually
Speaker 2: invited them to designate someone else. So let's by the way, Rob,
Speaker 2: I assume you got a winner there. On the Tina
Speaker 2: Turner tickets, right, Okay, so you can stop calling folks
Speaker 2: of the Tena Turner tickets. That's what's important about that.
Speaker 2: So congratulations. Maybe I get that name from you during
Speaker 2: the break so I can give them a congratulations. Now,
Speaker 2: let's talk just a little bit of history here before
Speaker 2: we go to break, and then we will take phone
Speaker 2: calls from interested individuals. Mcass was part of education reform
Speaker 2: in the mid nineteen nineties when Republicans and Democrats felt
Speaker 2: that there had to be some standards in the public
Speaker 2: school systems, in every public school system throughout the Cormwealth
Speaker 2: of Massachusetts. Explain to us if you could briefly how
Speaker 2: that legislation came to be and how the system that
Speaker 2: parents today are very well you came into in your creation.
Speaker 3: So the very short answer to a very long story
Speaker 3: is the legislation was just a great example, as you
Speaker 3: said in nineteen ninety three, of bipartisan cooperation and excellent
Speaker 3: policy that came out of that bipartisan cooperation. Bill Weld
Speaker 3: was governor, I believe Tom Birmingham was President of the
Speaker 3: Senate at the time, and it's origins, I'd love to
Speaker 3: say it was all good intentions, but its origins were lawsuits,
Speaker 3: and the essence of the lawsuits were the Commonwealth has
Speaker 3: a constitutional responsibility, given the words in the Massachusetts Constitution,
Speaker 3: to fix the unequal educational arrangements that we have with
Speaker 3: three hundred plus district having three hundred plus different ways
Speaker 3: of funding, and three hundred plus standards. Out of that
Speaker 3: game was often referred to as the Grand Bargain, the
Speaker 3: Massachusetts Educational Reform Act, which in a nutshell, provided significant
Speaker 3: amounts of additional state funding billions and billions of dollars
Speaker 3: today in addition to local funding in return for certain
Speaker 3: standards voluntarily being adopted by districts, not all districts to
Speaker 3: adopt them, and some way for the state to assess
Speaker 3: whether districts are meeting their obligation to all students, not
Speaker 3: just to the best performing students, to all students to
Speaker 3: meet certain standards.
Speaker 2: Just to make sure people understand that because some of
Speaker 2: our listeners have kids in schools in school systems, others don't.
Speaker 2: There are some tests that are given to students in
Speaker 2: some basic courses in the third grade, uh and in
Speaker 2: the eighth grade, and in the tenth grade, and in
Speaker 2: the third grade in eighth grade. Those tests, as I
Speaker 2: understand that, and please correct me if I'm wrong, are
Speaker 2: intended to uh measure the strengths and weaknesses of the
Speaker 2: kids in certain in certain subjects, and for the teachers
Speaker 2: then to have an opportunity to help the kids, uh
Speaker 2: the students that need some help, whether it's in English
Speaker 2: or math, both in the third grade and then in
Speaker 2: the eighth grade. And that there are test scores and
Speaker 2: all of that, but there's no uh, there's no consequence
Speaker 2: of good grades or bad grades in the third grade
Speaker 2: or eighth grade. That's just part of the process that
Speaker 2: that's going on. And those tests in the third and
Speaker 2: eighth grade are not the issue in this ballot question,
Speaker 2: but talk about the importance of those tests because they're
Speaker 2: not going away no matter what the ballot question siderect.
Speaker 3: So, yes, that's correct. School districts have their own assessments
Speaker 3: of their students. The one opportunity, the only opportunity that
Speaker 3: the state has to assess the performance of districts and
Speaker 3: students is the MCAST MASSACHUSETTSS Comprehensive Assessment System. I think
Speaker 3: that's what MCAST stands for. They are given third through
Speaker 3: eighth grade, so third, fourth, fourth, fifth, seventh, sixth, seventh grade,
Speaker 3: tenth grade, and there's state law and federal law that
Speaker 3: requires it. None of that goes away if this referendum would,
Speaker 3: unfortunately pass, the referendum would do away with the single
Speaker 3: opportunity that the state has to ensure minimum standards across
Speaker 3: districts are being met for all students that are ready
Speaker 3: to graduate from high school and to ensure some consistency.
Speaker 3: That's all we're talking about here. It's a tenth grade
Speaker 3: m CAST assessment. It's based on tenth grade educational standards,
Speaker 3: and in the absence of this test, there is no
Speaker 3: other opportunity for the state to ensure minimum standards or
Speaker 3: some consistency across districts.
Speaker 2: Matt, I got a pause for a commercial break. But
Speaker 2: when we get back, what I want to talk about
Speaker 2: what happens if when the students take the test in
Speaker 2: the tenth grade. And I thought that these tests only
Speaker 2: were given into third and eighth grade. So you've educated
Speaker 2: me already that all of this the testing is three
Speaker 2: through eight, not just third and eighth.
Speaker 3: Correct, correct, the graduation requirement is only tenth grade.
Speaker 2: Though yes, I understand that, No I did. I thought
Speaker 2: but okay, so the only thing that is at risk
Speaker 2: here is the graduation requirement. We'll talk about that. We'll
Speaker 2: talk about the success rate of students, the number of
Speaker 2: tests that students have, the number of opportunities they have.
Speaker 2: There are certain students obviously who have you know, some
Speaker 2: have maybe their anxiety. We'll talk about all of that.
Speaker 2: They try to help kids achieve at a very minimal
Speaker 2: level this test. But the Teachers' Union, as I understand it,
Speaker 2: is leading the charge to eliminate this test and in effect,
Speaker 2: in my opinion, return to what we used to call
Speaker 2: social promotion, where it doesn't matter how prepared you are,
Speaker 2: whatever your age is, you get promoted, and then eventually
Speaker 2: the system kind of kicks you out at the end
Speaker 2: of your senior year and says good luck. We'll be
Speaker 2: back with my guest, Matt Hills, who is the vice
Speaker 2: chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Speaker 2: We'll get to some phone calls if you want to
Speaker 2: join us right away. Six one, seven, two, five, four
Speaker 2: ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty
Speaker 2: Back with Matt Hills talking about the MCAST graduation requirement,
Speaker 2: A ballid question that all of us who are going
Speaker 2: to vote. It's ballid question number two, when we will
Speaker 2: explain to you kind of the complexity of this because
Speaker 2: what might seem like a yes vote should be a
Speaker 2: no vote. Inconversely, what you might think is a no
Speaker 2: vote as a yes vote, because it is all the
Speaker 2: way the question is phrased. We'll be back on night
Speaker 2: Side right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
Speaker 1: night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Well, I guess this Matt Hills. Matt is the vice
Speaker 2: chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education,
Speaker 2: and he is here to support mcast not only the
Speaker 2: testing that goes on during the elementary and junior high
Speaker 2: school years and the assistance and the instruction the teachers
Speaker 2: are supposed to give students who are having difficulty with
Speaker 2: one or more subjects, but he also is a supporter
Speaker 2: of the testing. Now, Matt, these tests, some would say
Speaker 2: their high stakes test. I think that's what the Teachers
Speaker 2: Union are saying. What percentage of students in Massachusetts do
Speaker 2: not successfully complete these tests? My understanding it is a
Speaker 2: very low percentage, that's right.
Speaker 3: So this is a great place to start. So if
Speaker 3: I could just explain kind of the facts and fiction
Speaker 3: about the test and why it's so important to keep it.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is, as I said before, the sole
Speaker 3: only opportunity the state has to ensure minimum graduation requirements
Speaker 3: in some consistency. If this referendum passes, every district sets
Speaker 3: its own standards. It is not repeal and replace, as
Speaker 3: some people call it. It is repeal and there's a
Speaker 3: prohibition in the question on any other statewide graduation requirement.
Speaker 3: So this throws away a graduation requirement that's been in
Speaker 3: place for decades. It would cause harm to the quality
Speaker 3: of our public education. It's particularly unfair and unjust to
Speaker 3: the most vulnerable students because, as you have already pointed out, Dan,
Speaker 3: the whole purpose of AMCASS is to focus the effort
Speaker 3: of districts on the students who need to help the most,
Speaker 3: and not just push people along or push students off
Speaker 3: to the side. So the mythology around this question is striking.
Speaker 3: I've been involved in local political issues for almost twenty
Speaker 3: five years, and this one stands out. So let me
Speaker 3: just go through some very quick points. Number one, the
Speaker 3: scores on the tenth grade graduation test actually are very
Speaker 3: predictive of future life outcomes that are the very reason
Speaker 3: we value a good education system, future income and or
Speaker 3: the likelihood of en rolling in a two or four
Speaker 3: year college. We want to prepare our students to launch
Speaker 3: into the workforce or for further education. If you hear
Speaker 3: this test is nothing more than testing your ability to
Speaker 3: take a test, that's false. This is predictive of what
Speaker 3: we value in education. Secondly to your question, one percent
Speaker 3: of the students, approximately seven hundred in the last pre
Speaker 3: pandemic year, did not graduate solely because they didn't pass
Speaker 3: the tenth grade M test. It's just not true that
Speaker 3: thousands and thousands of students are not passed. There are
Speaker 3: students who don't pass, but also don't mean local requirements
Speaker 3: that wouldn't They wouldn't get a graduation diploma even if
Speaker 3: mcast went away.
Speaker 2: One fos for a second here if I can mat,
Speaker 2: I want to since we don't have anyone for the
Speaker 2: teachers union here, I want to make sure it's a
Speaker 2: little fair. So so you have seven hundred kids out
Speaker 2: of I guess it's about sixty seven seventy thousand seniors
Speaker 2: who are graduating every year. How many shots do these
Speaker 2: kids have at this exam. Is it one and done?
Speaker 3: Next point, that's your your your feet. You're feeding into.
Speaker 2: Uh because I want to I want to get to
Speaker 2: calls to man, So let's just feed.
Speaker 3: I'm where I'm gonna sort of wrap this up shortly. Third,
Speaker 3: most students, almost ninety three percent pass on their very
Speaker 3: first attempt, which is almost always in grade ten, okay,
Speaker 3: And almost all students pass on their second or third attempt,
Speaker 3: which is grade eleven. There are five attempts you have
Speaker 3: while you're in high school to pass the test, and
Speaker 3: in addition, there's other ways to be deemed to have
Speaker 3: met the requirement there.
Speaker 2: What about kids who have any We'll get to those
Speaker 2: of the What about kids who have anxiety or they
Speaker 2: are disliked that they have some impediment to take it?
Speaker 2: Is there any consideration of those kids?
Speaker 3: So yes, And not only are there considerations for those kids,
Speaker 3: there's a significant number of accommodations for any special need
Speaker 3: student on an IEP. I mean, there's a forty four
Speaker 3: page book filled with accommodations. But the but the exceptions
Speaker 3: go further than that because in addition to the five
Speaker 3: attempts you have to pass, there's a lower score you
Speaker 3: could earn and with some additional help from the district,
Speaker 3: be deemed to have passed. And there's appeals process for
Speaker 3: special needs students and for what you described as kind
Speaker 3: of the students with anxiety, you know, sort of decent
Speaker 3: grades but not good test takers.
Speaker 2: And at the bottom of the hour, Matt, so I
Speaker 2: got to put you on pause for a second, I
Speaker 2: got to take the news. At the bottom of the hour,
Speaker 2: we get back. We will finish the reason that all
Speaker 2: the information we have and then here phone, I'll phone calls.
Speaker 2: Don't understand, but I got to stay on course with
Speaker 2: the news and all of that sort of stuff on
Speaker 2: the radio show. Here I do. We'll take a quick
Speaker 2: break back. But I guess, Matt Hills, who is the
Speaker 2: vice chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education,
Speaker 2: a poll, which we will be talking about next hour,
Speaker 2: shows that most people are not convinced that this this
Speaker 2: graduation requirement should stay based upon a poll we're going
Speaker 2: to be talking next home with Dave Paleologus, Suffolk University polster.
Speaker 2: But I won't. But there's been a lot of advertising
Speaker 2: done by the teachers Union. They have bombarded local television.
Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that as well, and if
Speaker 2: you'd like to join the conversation six one, seven, two, five, four, ten,
Speaker 2: thirty six, one, seven, nine, three, one tenth. They would
Speaker 2: try to get called two calls as quickly as we
Speaker 2: can back right after the news. Now at nine thirty two.
Speaker 1: Night Side with Dan Ray ONBZ, Boston's news radio.
Speaker 2: We're talking with Matt Hills, the device chair of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. We're talking about
Speaker 2: ballot question number two, which if you want to get
Speaker 2: rid of about this on this graduation requirement, this MCAST graduation requirement,
Speaker 2: you're going to vote yes. If you'd like to keep it,
Speaker 2: you vote no. We'll explain that a little bit. But Matt,
Speaker 2: I want to come back to this situation and let
Speaker 2: me sort of if you played Devil's advocate for just
Speaker 2: one second with you here, okay, despite.
Speaker 3: It, And I also just want to wrap up the
Speaker 3: point we were talking about if I have a moment.
Speaker 2: To do that, So yeah, you got to do it
Speaker 2: quickly for me because I want to get the phone
Speaker 2: calls to go ahead.
Speaker 3: I just want to be clear on the question you asked.
Speaker 3: There's not one attempt you got to take the test.
Speaker 3: There's five in high school. You can also take it
Speaker 3: after twelfth grade indefinitely. There's accommodations for special needs students.
Speaker 3: There's also appeals processes, So if you have a student
Speaker 3: with anxiety, who's you know, bad test taker, but good students.
Speaker 3: There's appeals processes also for special needs students who don't pass.
Speaker 3: About seventy five percent of appeals get approved. So if
Speaker 3: you hear you have one chance to take the test
Speaker 3: and that's it, that's just a total falsehood. You have
Speaker 3: many chances, are opportunities.
Speaker 2: That is why matt I phrased the question that way,
Speaker 2: to give you that opportunity.
Speaker 4: No, I understand, and they're fine.
Speaker 2: Now let me go from the point of view please
Speaker 2: devil's advocate for a second. What do you say to
Speaker 2: a parent who has a child who is having trouble
Speaker 2: is not a great test taker and they want to
Speaker 2: vote on this. My argument is that this is sort
Speaker 2: of the reality of life, that there will be tests
Speaker 2: people will have to take every day in there, either
Speaker 2: in college or wherever they might go to school, or
Speaker 2: or in life if they open a business that they
Speaker 2: work in a business. And this sounds to me like
Speaker 2: the Teachers' Union is looking to basically make sure everybody
Speaker 2: gets the same trophy. It's no longer you know, kindergarten
Speaker 2: soccer where everybody gets a trophy. It's something you don't
Speaker 2: want to devalue the value of the diploma by giving
Speaker 2: a diploma and socially basically getting back to social promotion
Speaker 2: promoting everyone. How far off am I on that as
Speaker 2: an argument.
Speaker 5: So.
Speaker 3: I can only speculate about what's truly motivating.
Speaker 2: The That's not my question. My question is is this
Speaker 2: an extension of what used to be called you know,
Speaker 2: everyone gets yeah, And so if it doesn't matter how
Speaker 2: you do in high school, everybody gets it. Everybody gets
Speaker 2: a graduate, gets a diploma.
Speaker 3: Whether that's the motivation, that will be a key and
Speaker 3: negative outcome of this, and that will be the shame
Speaker 3: of it. So social promotion, you know, when it comes
Speaker 3: to schools is not just you know, as simple as
Speaker 3: everybody gets a trophy, so everybody's a winner and everyone
Speaker 3: feels happy. What we are doing as a state is
Speaker 3: shirking our responsibility to give our students what they need
Speaker 3: to move on after grade twelve in the workforce or
Speaker 3: for further education. If we are not doing something to
Speaker 3: ensure that those minimum standards are met. That's what the
Speaker 3: constitutional violation would have been that led to the nineteen
Speaker 3: ninety three and Reform Act. That's what MCAST is a
Speaker 3: critical part of remedying over the last thirty years, the
Speaker 3: ability of the state to ensure that the focus is
Speaker 3: put where it's needed. And that's why educational achievement has
Speaker 3: gone up. It's straightened though, but it went up and
Speaker 3: now it's flattened out. We need to try other things.
Speaker 3: You don't throw out the CAST that's enabling us to
Speaker 3: see that. You have to try other policies that work,
Speaker 3: and that's what, for quite a number of years narrowed
Speaker 3: some of the achievement gaps in the state. So with
Speaker 3: respect to a parent who's seeing their students struggle with testing,
Speaker 3: I would simply say this the only way for the
Speaker 3: state to ensure this is not an IQ test, this
Speaker 3: is not an FAT This is testing whether the educational
Speaker 3: standards are being met, and the only way for the
Speaker 3: state to ensure this is through these tests and through
Speaker 3: the graduation requirement. If we don't have this graduation requirement,
Speaker 3: we will be one of three states in the entire
Speaker 3: country with no comprehensive statewide requirements.
Speaker 2: I got to go to phone calls. Okay, I'm sorry
Speaker 2: to interrupt you, but I think you've made some of
Speaker 2: those points repeatedly, and that's why I want to go
Speaker 2: to phone calls. Let me go first to Lawrence in
Speaker 2: West Roxbury. Lawrence, you're a night side with Matt Hills,
Speaker 2: the vice chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and
Speaker 2: Secondary Education.
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Lawrence, mister Hills, rather than on you the path,
Speaker 4: why when you use the Stanford of metropolitanic teament tests,
Speaker 4: which have you know, fifty years of data, or make comparison?
Speaker 4: I'll think your answer optophone.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm not familiar with that particular test, Matt. I
Speaker 2: don't know that you necessarily are either. But if you
Speaker 2: are correct, then feel free to defend the MCAST test
Speaker 2: because it's been around here for a while and you
Speaker 2: said that it was that it is predictive.
Speaker 3: M test gives us the information we need, so I
Speaker 3: can't compare it to another test. I will only say
Speaker 3: it is it enables us to see whether those minimum
Speaker 3: standards are met.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that is also not the issue here. The
Speaker 2: issue is whether we're going to blow up this test
Speaker 2: and get rid of it as a graduation requirement. That's
Speaker 2: the question played. It simple. It's not that we will
Speaker 2: replace this test with either a B or C. So that's,
Speaker 2: you know, an interesting suggestion by Lawrence, but it doesn't
Speaker 2: quite I assume that the teachers Union would be opposed
Speaker 2: to any of these tests.
Speaker 3: Well, the question, if it passes, would not allow any
Speaker 3: other There's no it would disallow any other state requirements.
Speaker 3: So that's not an option.
Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to take a quick break. I got
Speaker 2: one more couple of commercial messages to get through. If
Speaker 2: you're on the line, stay there. I'm going to try
Speaker 2: to get everybody in. If you support what Matt is saying,
Speaker 2: I'm sure he'd love to hear from him. If you
Speaker 2: have a question, he'd love to take the question. We'll
Speaker 2: be back on Nightside talking about question two of the
Speaker 2: Massachusetts ballot. Getting rid of a yes vote gets rid
Speaker 2: of the graduation requirement of passing an MCAST test. Those
Speaker 2: students would not get a diploma, they would get a stratificate.
Speaker 2: Back on Nightside right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to Dan Way the Window World Life Sight
Speaker 1: Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Folks, we have full lines your question A comment from
Speaker 2: Matt Hills that appreciate no speeches are necessary. I'd like
Speaker 2: to get everyone in who has taken the time to call.
Speaker 2: Some have waited longer than Owthers. Let me go first
Speaker 2: to Jerry and Melrose. Jerry, Matt Hills got to be
Speaker 2: quick for me. Jerry, go right ahead.
Speaker 6: Thank you all try. I'm opposed to question two. I
Speaker 6: represent students in special meetings around the state, and districts
Speaker 6: don't do the job without accountability. They find ways of
Speaker 6: just ignoring what students need. The grades three to eight
Speaker 6: mcast they're supposed to give an indicator of whether a
Speaker 6: student is on track to pass the grade ten. But
Speaker 6: I was just at a school committe meeting tonight with
Speaker 6: thirty thirty five forty percent of students not meeting expectations,
Speaker 6: and the assistant superintendent of Teaching and Learning said, oh,
Speaker 6: we're going to stay with the status quo. The only
Speaker 6: thing that gets districts to actually try to teach students
Speaker 6: is that tenth grade competency determination, so that they actually
Speaker 6: realize they have to do the job. Politically, they know
Speaker 6: if they don't do the job for the students, they
Speaker 6: will fail. And in fact, the tenth grade MCAST is
Speaker 6: really the eighth grade learning standards. That was a political
Speaker 6: decision made back in the early two thousands because you know,
Speaker 6: the state would have revolted if there was twenty five
Speaker 6: percent of students not graduating, so they made the graduation
Speaker 6: requirement very low. But I'm absolutely opposed to this. Districts
Speaker 6: don't do the job without the accountability of students. Would
Speaker 6: that would be failing in the political you know implications
Speaker 6: of that.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Jerry Well said concise to the point six
Speaker 2: thinc Thank you very much. Sure, thank you. Okay, got
Speaker 2: to keep rolling here, going to go next to I
Speaker 2: lean and how I lean. You got to be quick
Speaker 2: for me, Please go right ahead.
Speaker 7: Okay. I just want to say that I grew up
Speaker 7: in New York State, where we took Regent's exam and
Speaker 7: if you didn't have, you didn't have. If you if
Speaker 7: you didn't want to, you didn't have to have a
Speaker 7: Regents diploma, you could get what's called a school diploma instead.
Speaker 7: But I thought the Regent's exams were excellent. I wanted
Speaker 7: to go to college in New York City, and when
Speaker 7: I got there, I had I had the same standard
Speaker 7: of education as students from New York City. And I
Speaker 7: still have some of the Regent's review books. I don't
Speaker 7: know if you have mcast review books, but I still
Speaker 7: have some for algebra and geometry and so forth, and
Speaker 7: they're excellent summaries of things that we learned in school.
Speaker 2: So I assumed that you would probably want to oppose
Speaker 2: this elimination of the graduation requirement, and you'll be voting no.
Speaker 2: One question too.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, yes, thank you very much.
Speaker 2: Let's keep rolling here, trying to get everyone in. Is
Speaker 2: the name Trev like a short Revere.
Speaker 8: That's right, Go right ahead, Trev.
Speaker 2: You're on with Matt Hills, Go right ahead, Thank you.
Speaker 8: I'm I I believe I'm with Matt, definitely. I'm an
Speaker 8: I'm a no vote, and I urge everyone listening to
Speaker 8: you tonight to vote know and not eliminate the m CAST.
Speaker 8: I feel that just the very first statement you said, well,
Speaker 8: you invited the union rep. Teachers Union Rep. Or was
Speaker 8: it the president, I'm not sure who was.
Speaker 2: The president of the teachers Union, Max Pe. We specifically
Speaker 2: invited him, and we and and Matt was willing to
Speaker 2: accommodate him any night.
Speaker 8: Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, your lot, your your second to
Speaker 8: last guests on the air. It just came on and
Speaker 8: said it more eloquently than me. But the union rep
Speaker 8: not wanting to come in and and and talk to
Speaker 8: you and face the music is equivalent to what Liz
Speaker 8: Warren and and uh, you know, Hillary clink and never
Speaker 8: wanted to answer any questions from from you know, from
Speaker 8: the common folk because they believe.
Speaker 2: That again, as they say, I want to make you
Speaker 2: understand that he, Matt Page is the president of the
Speaker 2: teachers Union. Correct me if I'm wrong, Matt, He's much more.
Speaker 3: Than just the president of the Math Teachers Association, right right.
Speaker 8: Him not wanting to come in to answer questions for
Speaker 8: the public is disgusting. He's gonna let their pony ads
Speaker 8: that they spend millions of dollars on try to convince
Speaker 8: people to vote his way so they can basically eliminate
Speaker 8: teachers' unions. They don't they don't want to have, they
Speaker 8: don't want to be held accountable for anything anymore. They
Speaker 8: rule kids.
Speaker 2: Let me off that ask a quick question to Matt.
Speaker 2: Let's assume they're successful and the teachers Union successfully eliminates
Speaker 2: the graduation requirement Uh, the the the m cast you know,
Speaker 2: three through eight will stay, but I'll bet you that
Speaker 2: will come up as an issue in the future, not
Speaker 2: a question.
Speaker 3: So the mcast tests will stay, the requirement goes away,
Speaker 3: and how shall I politely say, we can speculate about
Speaker 3: what happens next. There's federal and state law. But whether
Speaker 3: there's law, whether that law changes, the policy is good
Speaker 3: policy for our students. We need to adopt the right policy,
Speaker 3: not just because we're required to, but because it's the right.
Speaker 2: Thing to do. Thank you very much you call. I
Speaker 2: want to get two more in appreciate the Caul trip.
Speaker 2: Thank you, well said, well said. Let me go next
Speaker 2: to Bob and Boston. Bob you were next night, Zack,
Speaker 2: go right.
Speaker 5: Ahead, all right. First of all, for the elimination of
Speaker 5: a graduation requirement for MCST.
Speaker 2: So you would be a yes vote. You'd be a
Speaker 2: yes vote on one, yes vote, yeah, Bob, I'm just repeating,
Speaker 2: you would be a yes vote on question two. Then correct, yes, yes, Okay.
Speaker 5: And picking up on the person who spoke about the
Speaker 5: regions regions in New York, and there's also our regions
Speaker 5: somewhere to California. They've been around forever. They it's one
Speaker 5: hundred years almost of the year that the Regents hasn't
Speaker 5: been diescablaged. That's ten decades, not two decades. And they
Speaker 5: hundred people taking tests by giving and regents scholarship. I
Speaker 5: just checked. The current region scholarship for New York is
Speaker 5: between one hundred I'm sorry, between one thousand and five
Speaker 5: thousand dollars a year, which will help out.
Speaker 2: You know, well, that's not Look, I appreciate that information,
Speaker 2: But tell us why you are in favor of getting
Speaker 2: rid of this modest education requirement and tell us in
Speaker 2: a few short words, what's the advantage of getting Does
Speaker 2: just everyone in your room get a trophy? He does not.
Speaker 2: He's not even listening to my question.
Speaker 5: In mindset that that you don't get awarded for working
Speaker 5: hard at school and regents give their awards for working
Speaker 5: hard at school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know what again, and all the information in
Speaker 2: the regions, that's not what we're talking about tonight. But
Speaker 2: I wish you'd listen to my question because your answer
Speaker 2: might have been interesting. Thank you very much. Let me
Speaker 2: go to John in New Hampshire. Very frustrating in my
Speaker 2: job is when people don't want to they want to
Speaker 2: make a speech and not listen to a question.
Speaker 9: Go ahead, John, Okay, I'll make it.
Speaker 2: Bring you got it, just really got about thirty seconds left.
Speaker 5: Go ahead, Okay.
Speaker 9: Eliminating eliminating the mcast is an Amtrak move. Early in
Speaker 9: the days of Amtrak, the trains were not on time
Speaker 9: and the unionized train crews came under criticism. So there
Speaker 9: was a solution. They slowed down the schedule. Guess what
Speaker 9: trains were on time, and the unions were free of criticism.
Speaker 2: Okay, so I'm in New Hampshire's anyway. Thank you very
Speaker 2: much for the analogy. I'll digest that in the next
Speaker 2: few minutes. Thank you very much, John. Okay, Matt, I'm
Speaker 2: sure you figured out. But I was still thinking about
Speaker 2: Bob and all the information about the recent scholarships. I
Speaker 2: wish we had better questions. But you want folks to
Speaker 2: vote no on question two. And right now the polls,
Speaker 2: which we will find out next hour, are going against that,
Speaker 2: and they're going in favor of getting rid of this mcast.
Speaker 2: How come there's been no effort to match the teachers' unions.
Speaker 2: How much of the teachers unions spent on TV ads
Speaker 2: in the last month.
Speaker 3: I don't know what they've spent. They've obviously started their
Speaker 3: ad campaign. There is a strong No campaign that has
Speaker 3: a media blitz that should be coming. Our own internal
Speaker 3: polls and this is the Globe poll that came out
Speaker 3: as a high quality poll internal.
Speaker 2: We have thirty seconds go ahead.
Speaker 3: Our internal polls are consistent with the Massing poll that
Speaker 3: came out last week which showed Yes barely above fifty
Speaker 3: percent with no movement for the last few months, So
Speaker 3: we have time. We have four weeks before and the
Speaker 3: No campaign needs to make the case.
Speaker 2: Like how would you How can folks get in touch
Speaker 2: with you if they would like to get in touch
Speaker 2: with you and either help you or get information. Is
Speaker 2: there a website?
Speaker 4: There?
Speaker 3: There is a website for the No campaign, and the
Speaker 3: simple way to do it is just go to for
Speaker 3: no on Question Too. I think it's protect our kids,
Speaker 3: but if you google it you'll find it. You can
Speaker 3: get through to me by emailing me. You could find
Speaker 3: my email, or you can go directly to the No campaign.
Speaker 3: The governor, the Speaker of the House, the Senate President
Speaker 3: are all opposed to this, as are the current and
Speaker 3: all former secretaries of Education of both parties all.
Speaker 2: Right, out of time. As much as I'd love to
Speaker 2: keep the hour going, I got to get to the news.
Speaker 2: Thanks for your time tonight, Thanks for the information. I
Speaker 2: think it was an effective hour. Let's see what happens.
Speaker 2: Thanks Matt.
Speaker 8: We'll talk so thanks Dan.
Speaker 2: When we come back, we're going to talk to poster
Speaker 2: Extraordinary David Paleologus Dave Paleologus, poster for, amongst other Suffolk University,
Speaker 2: about this and other races in Massachusetts.