Teachers canvas for Yes on 2 campaign
By Madison Lucchesi
Teachers and supporters of Yes on 2 to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement canvassed in Medford last Thursday.
Massachusetts public school students must pass the standardized test to receive a high school diploma. The Yes on 2 campaign says the requirement prioritizes teaching to the test more so than preparing students for higher education or the workforce.
Each year, approximately 700 students do not graduate high school due to failure to pass the MCAS exam.
Students with learning disabilities and whose first language is not English are often the students who do not pass the test. Other students that don’t pass the exam may transfer to private schools where the MCAS is not a graduation requirement or get private tutoring. However, those options are not accessible to all students.
“MCAS has been the barrier to accruing generational wealth, to college and to entering the educational workforce,” said Katie Fontes, the Secretary of the Revere Teachers Association and a strong supporter of Yes on 2. Fontes, a former Revere Public Schools teacher, organized weekly canvases in the City of Malden and a canvas in Medford with Senator Patricia Jehlen.
“Getting the [literature] to people is a crucial part of the campaign,” Fontes said with a bag full of flyers in multiple languages. Some residents are interested in talking with canvassers and others take the flyers and shut their door. Most often though, canvassers get no answer and leave the papers by front doors.
Canvas Organizer Colette Berard was tasked with cutting and assigning “turf” – the specific blocks each pair needed to visit. Over the summer, the Yes on 2 campaign cut turfs by political party, specifically targeting Democrats and liberal voters who they believed were more likely to vote Yes on 2.
“The hardest people to convince aren’t Republicans, but people in suburban areas,” said Fontes. That is due to the competitive nature of those areas, especially surrounding getting into prestigious colleges.
As the election grew closer, the campaign changed their strategy to the more traditional way of canvassing by neighborhood. Fontes said this change was due to organizers realizing that stances on Question 2 are not related to a certain political party, but the ballot question is more so “a class issue.”
“When it’s a real person coming to your door, all your preconceived notions go out the window,” she said. After a conversation with Fontes, some residents remain undecided on the issue and others are convinced to vote yes.