Massachusetts
How are Massachusetts schools failing Jewish students through bias? – opinion
As Massachusetts students remain stubbornly behind their pre-pandemic levels in math and reading scores according to the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress, the Massachusetts Teachers Association’s recent focus of attention is instructive.
The teachers’ union, also known as the MTA, pushed successfully for a ballot initiative in November that torpedoed a longtime graduation requirement that students pass the state’s MCAS exam. And in December, it released an extensive list of resources it compiled for its members on “Israel and Occupied Palestine.”
Among the so-called pedagogical aids? A poster showing dollar bills folded into a Jewish star and another featuring a keffiyeh-clad, rifle-toting fighter that proclaims, “What was taken by force can only be returned by force.”
The almost 100 resources are an overwhelmingly demonic portrayal of Israel, Zionism, and Jews, even with two links containing those posters ultimately deleted. It speaks to a broken system of oversight, emblematic of similar education issues in other parts of the US.
Jewish and non-Jewish members of the grassroots group Massachusetts Educators Against Antisemitism had tried repeatedly to have the union remove the material but were rebuffed by MTA board members’ accusations of “censorship.” For many teachers, the entire undertaking is a pernicious diversion from their core classroom struggles.
“I have 15 kids reading six years below grade level, so I don’t know why we’re talking about a country that’s 0.1% of the world population and a 10-hour plane ride away,” one told me.
It took nothing less than a Massachusetts State House hearing held by a recently formed commission on combating antisemitism for the MTA to budge after union president Max Page was grilled about the posters and other materials and after commission co-chair State Sen. John C. Velis referred to them as “a recommendation for educational malpractice.”
That a teachers’ union has the capacity to ply uninformed educators with material bereft of factual accuracy and balance is troublesome, given its powerful platform.
But it is part of a much larger problem acknowledged during that hearing and a subsequent one held last week: Curricular vetting and accountability are virtually nonexistent at the state level. It leaves schoolchildren vulnerable to ideologies subversively inserted locally, and it is not unique to Massachusetts.
Jewish students exposed to high levels of antisemitism
Jewish students “are being bullied at record levels with the positioning of Zionism as an epithet,” said Katherine Craven, chair of the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, which governs the state’s education department for K-12.
And the board is hearing anecdotally that children as young as first and second grade are being exposed to antisemitic curricula. However, according to state law, its role is limited to initial teacher certification, bullying, and the state’s curriculum frameworks, which are only standards.
“If you folks at the board, [if] your job is not to provide that oversight, I view that as a really, really big problem,” Velis told her. “Am I missing something?”
“No, you are not,” Craven replied while noting its duties are not “prescriptive,” instead offering districts recommendations and guidelines.
So even as Massachusetts, with its reputation for inclusivity, ranked an astonishing fifth among states in the number of antisemitic incidents in 2023 according to the Anti-Defamation League, the state’s inability to intervene heightens the probability that kids will learn with MTA “curriculum resources,” like “Handala’s Return: A Children’s Story and Workbook.”
Antisemitic ideologies and conspiracy theories
It draws on antisemitic conspiracy theories portraying Jews as predators targeting non-Jewish children, who in this narrative are “having their homes taken by Zionist bullies… always scaring” and “arresting them,” and instructs kids to name what they will chant “at a Palestine protest.”
Nor are there “any kind of approval rights” over professional development at the board or department level, Craven said, describing it as “very locally driven.”
It was a professional-development webinar hosted by the MTA’s Anti-Racism Task Force that raised the alarm after teachers in attendance reported that Zionism was equated with settler colonialism and presentations were replete with antisemitic tropes like the claim that Zionism is a “multi-million dollar, Israeli state-funded propaganda machine.”
Registrants were surveyed about whether they feel supported by their administration “in teaching anti-Zionist narratives about Palestine.” Notably, the MTA, as a Professional Development Provider, furnished certificates of participation for the webinar, which can be used for teacher re-licensure.
Those views on Israel reflect ideologies “deeply embedded” in other MTA initiatives, according to a report by the American Jewish Committee New England.
It noted the union’s recent launch of Revolutionizing Education, a journal the MTA states is “dedicated to advancing education policy and practice in Massachusetts,” to advocate “for transformative practices that dismantle power hierarchies” and “envision education as a tool for liberation.”
It is yet another worrisome development in the union’s laser-focused mission to influence teachers.
Antisemitic and antizionist narratives embedded into curriculums
BECAUSE EDUCATION in America is consigned to “very local control,” ultimately, most classroom resources are designed and developed by teachers with the autonomy to introduce problematic material into the curriculum with little to no oversight, said David Smokler, a former public school teacher and administrator and now the executive director of the K-12 Fairness Center at StandWithUs. When teachers are stretched, they often turn to educational websites that are entirely unvetted.
“It’s a minefield out there in terms of resources,” even if teachers are acting in good faith, said Smokler. The market for such classroom resources is huge, often with little scrutiny over who is funding them.
What’s more, ethnic studies and its more radical relative, liberated ethnic studies, are penetrating teachers’ lessons and professional development in many US districts with scarce oversight of material. With themes of oppression, colonialism, and resistance, ethnic studies educators describe the discipline as “not just curriculum” but a “movement” for “action” to effect “social change.”
But oftentimes, blatantly antisemitic and anti-Zionist narratives are found within these studies, particularly in the liberated model, a link to which is listed among the MTA resources.
Such issues are multiplying throughout the US.“We’re seeing many of our teachers and schools indoctrinating students with materials designed specifically to tailor to left-leaning people so that a lot of the indoctrination can be done invisibly,” Smokler told me.
“It’s designed to attract people who care about social justice. But it’s not just about antisemitism. It’s about liberal Western values in general. Some of the same teachers who are teaching that Israel is a genocidal apartheid state say the same about America. There’s illiberal indoctrination going on now that is pretty shocking.”
A course correction is necessary to protect our children. Massachusetts lawmakers should give their education arm broader mandates to enact meaningful oversight paired with accountability. Ditto for other states grappling with such challenges. Parents, teachers, and taxpayers must regain trust that public education isn’t eroding into a mere platform for indoctrination.
How this legacy is cemented will ripple through future generations of kids as they launch from classrooms to leadership positions, with global consequences.
The writer is an award-winning reporter and the recipient of a journalism fellowship that supported her graduate education at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is a former writer for The Boston Globe, reported for the Associated Press and is published in the Wall Street Journal and the National Review.
Police shot and killed a man who officials say rushed officers with a knife during a call in Lexington, Massachusetts, on Saturday.
Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said the situation started around 1:40 p.m. when Lexington police received a 911 call from a resident of Mason Street reporting that his son had injured himself with a knife.
Officers from the Lexington Police Department and officers from the Northeastern Massachusetts Law Enforcement Council (NEMLEC), who were already in town for Patriots’ Day events, responded to the call.
Police were able to escort two other residents out of the home, initially leaving a 26-year-old man inside. According to Ryan, while officers were setting up outside, the man ran out of the home and approached officers with a large kitchen knife.
She added that police tried twice to use non-lethal force, but it was not effective in stopping him. The man was shot by a Wilmington police officer who is a member of NEMLEC. The man was pronounced dead on scene and the officer who fired that shot was taken to a local hospital as a precaution.
The man’s name has not been released.
Ryan said typically in a call like this where someone was described as harming themselves, officers would first try to separate anyone else to keep them out of danger, which was done, and then standard practice would be to try to wait outside.
“It would be their practice to just wait for the person to come out. In the terrible circumstances of today, he suddenly rushed the officers, still clutching the knife,” Ryan said.
The investigation is still in the preliminary stages and more information is expected in time. Ryan said her office will request a formal inquest from the court to review whether any criminal conduct has occurred, which is the standard process.
This happened around the same time as the annual Patriots’ Day Parade, and just hours after a reenactment of the Battle of Lexington, which drew large crowds to town.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Massachusetts
‘An impossible choice’: With little federal help to combat rising costs, Head Start looks to Massachusetts for more help – The Boston Globe
In Massachusetts, roughly 1,300 slots for children across Head Start’s 28 agencies have been eliminated in the last three years because federal funding has plateaued over that time, while the cost of running the program continues to rise, according to the Massachusetts Head Start Association. Nationally, Head Start enrollment dropped from 1.1 million kids in 2013 to around 785,000 in 2022, according to research by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
“If they didn’t get into a Head Start program, they would be sitting at home,” said Brittany Acosta, a Head Start parent in Dorchester.
It’s teachers are drastically underpaid, and there’s a serious need for a rainy day-type fund should the federal government shut down again, the association says. As they’ve done in years past, state lawmakers have offered to provide financial relief, but the Massachusetts Head Start Association’s request for 3 percent above the amount it received last year, an additional $4.6 million to help its staff keep up with the state’s rising cost of living, so far has not been allocated.
Last year, President Trump’s leaked budget proposal revealed he considered eliminating Head Start entirely. Then, in the summer, he cut off Head Start enrollment for immigrants without legal status. And during the fall’s government shutdown, four Head Start centers in Massachusetts closed because they couldn’t access their funding.
Trump’s latest budget proposal shows a fourth year without increasing funding for the program, which was established in the mid-1960s.
Michelle Haimowitz, executive director of the Massachusetts Head Start Association, said the program doesn’t want to eliminate more child slots than it already has, but paying teachers a competitive salary is equally important in order to keep them from leaving for higher paying jobs. Head Start teachers make under $50,000 annually compared to over $85,000 for the average Massachusetts kindergarten teacher.
“It’s an impossible choice,” Haimowitz said. “When we reduce the size of our programs, we’re not reducing the size of the need.”
Massachusetts is one of few states that supplements federal funding for Head Start, and last year it increased the program’s state grant from $5 million to $20 million, adding to the $189 million in federal aid it receives in this state.
“We can’t run a program without giving staff a raise for three years,” Haimowitz said. “Our next fight now is not just for survival, but it’s for thriving and growth.”
The Massachusetts House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday released its budget, which doesn’t grant Head Start’s request of a 3 percent boost. But state Representative Christopher Worrell filed an amendment for additional funding. Worrell, whose district covers parts of Dorchester and Roxbury, said he loves Head Start’s embrace of culture, recalling one visit to a center where he could smell staff cooking stew chicken, a traditional Caribbean dish.
“I’ve been to dozens of schools throughout the district, and you don’t get that home-cooked meal,” Worrell said. “[The state is] stepping up and doing the best we can with what we have.”
At the Action for Boston Community Development’s Head Start and Early Head Start center in Dorchester, the children of Classroom 7 arrived one Monday morning and dove into bins of magnetic tiles before their teachers, Paola Polanco and Leolina Rasundar Chinnappa, served breakfast. Acosta dropped off her 4-year-old daughter, Violeta, before reporting to her teaching position at the center, where several other Head Start parents also work.
“It’s important for all Head Start parents to have the opportunity to give their child an experience in a learning environment before they actually start kindergarten,” Acosta said.
Beyond providing early education and care to children of low-income families, from birth to age 5, the program helps them access other resources, including mental health services, SNAP benefits, homelessness assistance, and employment opportunities.
It also serves as daycare for parents who might not be able to afford it, while they’re at work.
Research has shown the importance of preschool in a child’s development with one 2023 study, focused on Boston public preschools, finding that it improves student behavior and increases the likelihood of high school graduation and college enrollment.
For Rickencia Clerveaux and Christopher Mclean, the Dorchester Head Start center is the only place they feel comfortable sending their 3-year-old son, Shontz, who is on the autism spectrum. Shontz’s stimming — repetitive movements that stimulate the senses — has reduced, and his speech has improved since he joined the center in 2024, Clerveaux said.
His parents say he’s also come out of his shell. Mclean now drops his son off and gets a simple “bye” as Shontz joins his classmates, he said.
He and Clerveaux said they appreciate the specialized attention Shontz can receive from teachers, such as when staff identified that Shontz might have hearing issues. His parents were able to follow up with their doctor and get Shontz to have surgery to improve his hearing.
“It’s a safe net for parents,” Clerveaux said. “There’s so many ways that him being here helps him grow better.”
Without Head Start, Clerveaux said a lot of pressure would be put on parents to find care for their children, “knowing that they’re already struggling or not getting the ends to meet.”
“That’s a burden for everybody in the community,” she said. “If there’s no funding, there’s no daycare and parents cannot work.”
Lauren Albano can be reached at lauren.albano@globe.com. Follow her on X @LaurenAlbano_.
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