Matt Stout, Boston Globe
A group backed by business leaders and nonprofit money is rolling out an initial $250,000 advertising campaign urging Massachusetts residents to vote against a ballot proposal that would eliminate the MCAS exams as a high school graduation requirement, hinting at the pricey political fight ahead.
The digital spots are among the first ballot-question ads to spring up ahead of the November election, when voters will decide five different initiatives, the most since 2000. Each one is drawing support or opposition from special interest and advocacy groups, labor unions, and other deep-pocketed donors, meaning voters could face a deluge of advertising in the coming months.
Brian Wynne, a strategist for the group opposing the MCAS question, said his group is prepared to raise and spend millions in its campaign against the Massachusetts Teachers Association-backed initiative.
Currently, high school students have had to pass the MCAS in English, math, and science to earn a diploma. The proposal, listed as Question 2 on the November ballot, seeks to eliminate the tests as a graduation requirement.
Instead, students would be required to complete coursework certified by their district that is consistent with the state’s academic standards. The ballot question would also prohibit any future statewide assessment from being used as a graduation requirement.
The MTA has long been concerned that the MCAS requirement can create inequities in public schools by punishing those who struggle with standardized tests, particularly students with learning or physical disabilities or who are not fluent in English. Critics argue that the mandate puts too much focus on a narrow set of topics and that classrooms have become “too focused on test prep.” More than 700 high school students each year typically don’t receive a diploma because they didn’t pass the tests, according to state data.
The union has already put more than $1 million behind the ballot question effort.
The pair of digital ads from “Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2″ doesn’t actually mention the MCAS exams at all. Instead, in one ad, James Conway, a Revere High School history teacher, warns of “an effort to undermine our education standards,” saying it will “create an unlevel playing field.”
In another spot, Jill Norton, a Concord mother of a student with dyslexia and ADHD, says that “reducing the expectations” for her child would be harmful.
“It’s not fair to our kids, and it jeopardizes their futures,” she says. A voice-over then urges viewers to vote no on Question 2.
The ads are expected to run on digital and social media platforms for roughly three weeks, and are only the first the group intends to release, Wynne said.
The group, which was formed in January, has yet to file records with campaign finance regulators disclosing how much it has spent, raised, or who all their donors are. But a decade-old law requires that the spots feature the names of the group’s top five donors, giving an initial sense of who is helping bankroll the effort.
Among the donors: Raymond Stata, the co-founder of the Massachusetts High Technology Council, which has opposed the MCAS ballot initiative; Bob Rivers, the chief executive of Eastern Bank; Rick Burnes, a founder of the venture capital firm Charles River Ventures; and Paul Sagan of General Catalyst Partners.
Burnes serves on the steering committee for the group, Boston Leaders for Education. Sagan, an appointee of then-governor Charlie Baker, served for four years as chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, during which he faced calls for his resignation after he gave more than a half-million dollars to organizations quietly raising money for a 2016 ballot-question campaign to expand charter schools, which voters ultimately rejected.
Also listed is Education Reform Now Advocacy, an arm of Education Reform Now, a national organization that promotes charter schools. Education Reform Now Advocacy also donated hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the failed 2016 charter school ballot question campaign. But as a nonprofit, it’s not required to disclose its own funders.
Wynne, a longtime adviser to former governor Charlie Baker, and a former executive director of the Massachusetts Republican Party, declined to share more fundraising data. Ballot-question groups are required to file their next disclosure in September.
Wynne said the group expects to draw support from lawmakers and other elected officials. The ballot question has already drawn stiff opposition from Democrats on Beacon Hill who are typically the teachers union’s allies, including legislative leaders and Governor Maura Healey.
Healey has argued that it’s important that state officials “maintain the ability to assess our young people,” including those who don’t pass the MCAS.
“We’ve got to find a way to take care of those young people, get them what they need, and see them through,” Healey said in March.
Wynne said the group expects to have a range of local officials, legislators, and school committee members who are publicly opposed to the question on its side.
“I don’t think we’ll have a problem finding surrogates among elected officials,” Wynne said.
The MCAS question is not the only initiative carrying weighty policy implications. Voters are also being asked to legalize psychedelic mushrooms and allow ride-share drivers to unionize. Other questions, if approved, would give Auditor Diana DiZoglio the authority to audit the Legislature, or allow tipped restaurant servers to make the same $15 minimum wage as other workers.
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