Massachusetts
Massachusetts students return to school after lengthy teacher strike
Students in Newton, Massachusetts, were finally able to return to class on Monday after a historically long teachers union strike that kept the schoolhouse doors shuttered for more than two weeks.
The strike ended on Friday night after 15 days of protest and 11 missed school days, allowing students to come back to class Monday morning. The Newton Teachers Association reached a contract agreement with the school district Friday and voted to ratify it late Sunday evening.
Ninety-seven percent of the union voted to affirm a four-year contract that accounts for 13% cost-of-living increases, pay increases for classroom aides and behavioral therapists, and 60 days of parental leave, among other things. The school district will hold a public vote to approve the contract on Wednesday.
Union negotiator Ryan Normandin said the deal was a victory, saying closing schools to reach the new contract terms sent a powerful message to the students who could not go to class.
“We taught our students not to be afraid that when those in power try to take away your rights, that they should stand up for themselves, that they should not do it alone, but together,” he said at a press conference. “We taught every other district in this state what will happen if they try to balance their budgets on the backs of our students and educators.”
Newton parent Trevor Mack, a father of an eight-year-old girl, struck a different tone, telling the Boston Globe that the contentiousness was “long overdue” and “avoidable,” adding, “I don’t think there’s a single party that won in this strike.”
Both the district and the union “lost my trust very early on in their very negative tone and rhetoric,” Mack continued.
The Newton controversy unfolded against the backdrop of a wealthy district with favorable student-to-teacher ratios, as well as higher-than-average teacher salaries and spending per pupil.
According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, teacher salaries increased considerably in Newton from 2018’s $82,045 to $96,810 in 2022. By contrast, the average teacher salary in Massachusetts was $80,204 in 2018 and $89,889 in 2022. Similarly, Newton’s per-pupil spending is higher than the state average, clocking in at about $24,521, where the state average is $20,133, as of Jan. 18.
The district and the union incurred significant costs over the course of the strike, which started with a walkout on Jan. 19. In total, 2,000 teachers from roughly two dozen schools were affected, but roughly 12,000 students took the brunt of the strike in the affluent suburb of around 87,000 locals.
Since striking is illegal for public sector union members in Massachusetts, a judge continuously increased the fines on the teachers union, reaching $600,000 and threatening to double fines to $100,000 per day if a deal was not reached by Sunday evening.
The school district, on the other hand, is now expected to spend an added $53 million over the course of the new contract.
The strike, which was the longest of its kind in 30 years, was roiled in controversy, and some in Massachusetts see it as a flashpoint that could invite more during contract negotiations in other school districts.
Around 15 to 20 districts in the state are concerned about upcoming negotiations, Massachusetts Association of School Committees Executive Director Glenn Koocher told the Boston Globe.
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“A lot of districts that have contracts coming up are thinking about what this means if the unions are becoming more militant, if they’re not afraid of a judge, if they’re not afraid of being held in contempt, and if they think it can get them more,” Koocher explained.
Teacher strikes have increased in the Bay State since 2022, with unions showing a willingness to weather fines for long periods of time.
Massachusetts
Police to address Princeton death during child sexual abuse material investigation
Authorities will speak Friday after a death occurred while police were serving a search warrant for child sexual abuse material in Princeton, Massachusetts.
The subject of the search warrant “was a person of trust in communities in Worcester and Middlesex Counties,” Massachusetts State Police said.
Authorities said little about the case ahead of the press conference, which will begin at 6 p.m. and be streamed in the player above.
State police will be hosting the conference, which will include Princeton Police Chief Paul Patricia, Worcester County District Attorney Joseph Early Jr. and Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan.
Check back for more as this story develops.
Massachusetts
Mass. unveils $250 million in subsidies to protect residents from premium hikes – The Boston Globe
Audrey Morse Gasteier, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Connector, said the financial bulwark that benefited 270,000 residents is “part of the reason that we’re hanging in there in terms of enrollment and keeping people covered.”
But Thursday’s announcement won’t translate into any additional help.
Healey’s news conference coincided with the beginning of an election year in which three Republicans are vying for her job and voters are expected to be particularly focused on the state’s high cost of living. One survey last year found Massachusetts had the second highest cost of living in the country. People who saw their insurance premiums increase this year said it was one pricey bill amid an onslaught of growing expenses.
“I can’t believe how much it is when we go to the grocery store. Our electricity has gone up,“ said Judith O’Gara, whose family was hit with a $400 increase a month in insurance premiums for their ACA plan in January. ”We were just bracing ourselves to try to stretch the paycheck further.”
O’Gara, of Millis, is a part-time editor at community newspapers, and her husband is a self-employed computer animator and mural artist. She has added hours at work, she said, but it still wasn’t enough to qualify for health coverage through her employer, leaving the couple to buy insurance through the connector.
Healey also used the news conference to weigh in on a high-profile effort in Congress to revive the federal subsidies. Also on Thursday, the US House, with help from 17 Republican defectors facing competitive reelection races, passed a bill that would extend the subsidies for another three years. A small group of senators is considering proposing their own extension of the subsidies.
“We need to see people in Congress step up and take action and fight the president on this and get him to focus on the domestic agenda and how to make life more affordable for people,” Healey said.
The governor said she didn’t announce the influx of funds earlier because she had hoped Congress would act before the end of 2025.
“We gave up until the deadline to see if they take action,” she said.
ACA open enrollment extends through Jan. 23.
The infusion of funds from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund brings the state’s total commitment to the insurance marketplace to $600 million, which Healey said is the largest support from any state in the country.
Federally subsidized insurance policies were first made available to people making less than 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or about $128,600 for a family of four, in 2009 under President Barack Obama’s ACA, also known as Obamacare. In 2021, Congress made those subsidies more generous for many recipients and extended them to people earning up to 500 percent of the federal poverty level. The expanded tax credits doubled participation in the ACA exchanges over the past four years, and by last year 337,000 people in Massachusetts received subsidized insurance through ConnectorCare.
The increases were slated to expire after four years, and without congressional action to preserve them, premiums reverted to pre-2021 levels for this year. People earning more than 400 percent of the poverty level became ineligible to receive subsidized insurance. State officials have estimated roughly 300,000 people could become uninsured statewide over the next decade, in part due to the expiration of the tax credits.
Democrats staged a 43-day shutdown last fall, the longest in US history, in an unsuccessful effort to preserve the expanded subsidies.
The Commonwealth Care Trust Fund predates the 2021 coverage expansion, said Doug Howgate, president of the Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, a nonprofit budget watchdog, and was established to support ConnectorCare programs. Massachusetts has long had a robust public insurance program, and the 2021 expansion essentially allowed the state to shift the cost of subsidies it had been paying to the federal government. Tapping the trust fund now essentially returns Massachusetts to the support levels it provided prior to 2021, Howgate said.
Regardless of the timing of Healey’s announcement, it is a reality that Massachusetts has a uniquely robust commitment to health insurance access, Howgate said.
“I do think that the idea that the state is able to offset some of those impacts is an important message to get out there,” he said. “This is real money.”
According to Healey’s office, a 45-year-old couple with two kids making $75,000 in Fall River previously paid $166 per month for the lowest-cost coverage. Without state action, their premium would have more than doubled. But with the infusion from the trust fund, they will pay $206 per month.
There’s only so much the state can do to mitigate the impacts of the expired subsidies, though. Because Congress didn’t extend them, people between 400 and 500 percent of the federal poverty level simply are ineligible to sign up for subsidized policies through the ACA marketplace. There are roughly 27,000 people statewide who cannot benefit from the state’s effort to compensate for the lost federal money, and those people are among those facing the biggest new insurance expenses.
Christa, 56, a hair dresser, and her husband, Gary, 69, a truck driver, earn less than $105,750 annually combined, just shy of 500 percent of the poverty level. The couple, who asked not to be named to protect their privacy, went from paying $282-a-month for Christa’s insurance with no deductible, to a private plan costing $725 a month with a $2000 deductible.
Gary, who is enrolled in Medicare, is still counting on Congress for a reprieve.
“I believe the Senate will be forced to do something, and we’re hoping,” he said.
Jason Laughlin can be reached at jason.laughlin@globe.com. Follow him @jasmlaughlin.
Massachusetts
Healey shares plan to limit health insurance cost increases for Massachusetts residents
Gov. Maura Healey said Thursday that the state is spending an additional $250 million to limit premium increases for residents who have insurance through the Massachusetts Health Connector.
After Congress let Affordable Care Act tax credits expire at the end of last year, more than 300,000 people in Massachusetts have been facing a potentially steep increase in their health care bills.
The governor’s office said those enrolled in ConnectorCare who make below 400% of the of the federal poverty level, which is $62,600 for an individual or $128,600 for a family of four, will see “little to no premium increases.”
Under the plan, Healey’s office said a 45-year-old couple with two kids in Fall River will see their monthly health insurance costs rise from $166 to $206. Without the new funding, the governor says they would be paying $452 a month.
“While President Trump continues to increase health care costs, we are taking the strongest action in the nation to address them and keep costs as low as possible for families,” Healey said in a statement. “Despite this increased state investment, far too many people will still see their premiums increase because of the White House.”
The U.S. House of Representatives is set to approve a three-year extension of the health care tax credits. While it appears unlikely to pass the Senate, senators have talked about a compromise plan that could include a two-year extension with added reforms. President Trump hasn’t offered a specific health care plan, but said subsidies going to insurance companies should “go to the people” instead.
The $250 million is coming from the Commonwealth Care Trust Fund, which gets its money from employer medical assistance contributions and financial penalties from residents who violate the state’s health care insurance mandate.
Massachusetts residents can sign up for health insurance coverage or switch their Health Connector plans until Jan. 23 if they want to be covered by Feb. 1.
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