Weekly Roundup - The old normal
Matt Murphy
Recap and analysis of the week in state government
BOSTON - A quiet settled over Beacon Hill and the State House last week. And for a change, it was supposed to be that way.
The rhythms of the State House, and the bars, restaurants and lunch counters that cater to the capitol crowd, have been off beat for more than a year. The building itself is still closed to the public.
But as another Patriots Day came and went without marathon runners to cheer up Heartbreak Hill and to cheer to the Boylston Street finish line, at least the school-vacation lull felt familiar.
Study Warns Massachusetts Tax Proposal Would Deter Investment, Stifling the “Innovation Economy”
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A state constitutional amendment promoted by the Massachusetts Teachers Association and the Service Employees International Union adding a 4 percent surtax to all annual income above $1 million could devastate innovative startups dependent on Boston’s financial services industry for funding, ultimately hampering the region’s recovery from the COVID-19 economic recession, according to a new study published by Pioneer Institute.
“The punitive aspect of the graduated income tax proposal for investors is that, unlike at the federal level, capital gains can push them into a higher tax bracket - a significant deterrent to potential investors in small businesses emerging from the COVID crisis.” - Greg Sullivan, Pioneer Institute
When Superintendent Almi Abeyta of Chelsea listened in a Zoom meeting last fall to her fellow superintendents talk about what they were doing to get students back into school buildings, it was a window into the kind of educational inqueties the pandemic has brought on.
Wellesley s superintendent, David Lussier, mentioned an effort to bring COVID-19 testing to schools in his upscale community. Abeyta had been focusing on improving remote learning and ensuring kids in her district had food to eat. I was like, huh? she recalled. What do you mean, COVID testing in the schools? Are you serious? I couldn t even fathom it.
COVID pandemic creates rare opportunity for education reform, experts say
Updated 7:38 AM;
By Katie Lannan and Chris Lisinski | State House News Service
Education advocates and experts told state senators on Wednesday that the disruption caused by the COVID-19 crisis presents a unique opportunity to reform aspects of all levels of schooling and encouraged them to act before that moment passes Massachusetts by.
“I think we’re in a very short window of opportunity, about a five-year window of opportunity, to make transformational, high-quality, systematic, sustainable changes in education, and I’m urgent about our following through on that,” Hardin Coleman of the Boston University Wheelock College of Education and Human Development told members of a Senate committee.