Massachusetts
Why it's illegal for teachers to strike in Mass. (and why they're doing it anyway)
The Newton teachers strike has dragged on into a 10th day of closed schools even though such strikes are illegal in Massachusetts. As a result, the Newton Teachers Association (NTA) owes nearly $600,000 in fines as of Thursday and will owe $50,000 more each day the strike continues.
While the NTA’s strike over failed contract negotiations is reported to be the longest strike the state has seen since the 1990s, it is not an anomaly. In recent years, teachers’ unions in Andover, Malden, Brookline, Woburn and Haverhill in similar collective bargaining ruts have organized strikes and faced fines.
- Read more: Striking Newton teacher hospitalized after hit by car near union rally spot
Even so, the highest dollar amount leveled against any of them was $110,000, and that was against the Haverhill teachers union, according to The Boston Globe. Thus, both the length of the strike and the fines against the NTA are unprecedented in Massachusetts as of the 21st century.
Here’s a breakdown of the issue:
What the law says about teacher strikes
The law that makes it illegal for Massachusetts public school teachers to strike does not single out teachers.
A part of Massachusetts General Laws, the relevant section reads: “No public employee or employee organization shall engage in a strike, and no public employee or employee organization shall induce, encourage or condone any strike, work stoppage, slowdown or withholding of services by such public employees.”
This is the norm across the country, with only 13 states allowing public school teachers to strike, according to EducationWeek.
- Read more: Newton teachers strike fines approach $600K as school canceled for 10th day
The law that made public employee strikes illegal was passed in 1973, according to The Boston Globe. But making public employee strikes illegal was just one part of the law.
Overall, the law wasn’t a loss for unions — it was a boon, Massachusetts Association of School Committees Executive Director Glenn Koocher told MassLive. Public employees had the right to unionize before the law, but the legislation formalized the collective bargaining process, as well as the process of forming a union.
“It created a framework under which collective bargaining could go on, so then everyone could begin to organize,” he said.
What happens if teachers strike anyway?
When a union representing public school teachers implements a strike, to take action against them, a school district must ask the state’s employee relations board to determine whether a strike is actually happening. If the board determines a strike is happening, it then asks a judge to order them back to work, and the order is typically granted.
If the union doesn’t stop striking after it is ordered to by a judge, the judge can hold it in contempt of the court order and implement fines as he or she sees fit. Importantly though, the judge is supposed to consider many factors when deciding how punitive the fines will be, such as whether the school district is bargaining in good faith, according to The Boston Globe.
- Read more: Dropkick Murphys cover pro-union song in support of striking Newton teachers
In recent years, fines are the only punishment teachers’ unions have faced for striking, Koocher said. Even so, a judge is permitted to implement other sanctions against them.
In the 1970s, the leaders of the teachers’ unions were often jailed for weeks during strikes, according to The Boston Globe. In one case in 1977, about 80 Franklin teachers were jailed during a two-week strike.
Why the state has a stake in prohibiting public employee strikes
When public employees go on strike, there’s no one to provide vital services, such as policing or firefighting, Koocher said. In the case of teachers’ strikes, children may be left at home alone if parents cannot arrange for supervision during school hours.
The students can also experience learning loss ahead of important tests, Koocher said. “If you’ve been out of school for two weeks during the prime learning period, you’re not going to get to a lot of the material that is being tested.”
- Read more: National Education Association president cheers on striking Newton teachers
Additionally, under state law, school districts are required to provide students with 180 days of school by June 30. If a strike goes on too long, the district may need to extend the school year into July, but that can only happen if the state education department grants a waiver.
Why teachers choose to strike anyway
Teachers strike when they feel they have no other way of getting municipal leaders to address important issues affecting the school district, Massachusetts Teachers Association (MTA) President Max Page said. In the case of the recent strikes, the unions had been negotiating a new contract for months or even years because district leaders weren’t agreeing to some of the unions’ core demands.
“In Newton, it’s been 16 months of negotiations. That’s far, far too long to actually just settle a contract,” he said. “They felt like they did not have a fair bargaining partner.”
- Read more: 5 things to know about the monetary impact of the Newton teachers’ strike
Page also pointed out that the MTA has 400 local chapters, and of those, only six have gone on strike in the past few years. Furthermore, most of those strikes resulted in the parties resolving the contract disagreements within a few days, he said.
“It’s an extreme action that members never imagine taking,” Page said. “But clearly, some members, in overwhelming numbers, decided ‘This is what we have to do to have the schools that our students deserve.’”
Ultimately, while a strike may negatively impact students, the teachers feel that the short-term loss is acceptable if it leads to the district implementing changes that will impact the long-term success of the students, Page said. One example of this is the NTA refusing to compromise on the issue of hiring a social worker for every school in the Newton school district.
Why have there been more teacher strikes in Massachusetts lately?
Teachers have felt the need for change in their districts more urgently as society has emerged from the COVID-19 pandemic and the learning loss and the toll on students’ social and emotional well-being has been realized, Page said. It’s one reason longstanding issues such as better compensation for educational support staff have been coming to the forefront of contract negotiations, he said.
“There’s been a feeling that the educators worked heroically, risking their own lives and making sure that students can continue their education. And so, they have, perhaps, less patience for not addressing the issues that they consider so important for their school,” Page said.
- Read more: Newton teachers’ strike closes schools for 9th straight day
But Koocher pointed out that the strikes coincide with a resurgence of union power across the country in recent years. Union leadership in general has become more aggressive, he said.
How the law could change
The MTA has backed a bill that would make strikes legal for public sector employees after six months of negotiations, with the exception of public safety employees.
“I believe that there needs to be a level playing field between labor and management,” state Rep. Erika Uyterhoeven, D-27th Middlesex, a co-sponsor of the bill, told Boston.com. “To me, this fundamental right not existing in the public sector results in these really challenging circumstances that we’re finding ourselves in today.”
- Read more: Newton teachers’ strike update: City Council prez claims ‘considerable progress’
But many stakeholders don’t support this change. Teachers’ unions should not use striking as a means of getting officials to capitulate to their demands, Boston University Joshua Goodman told BU Today. Instead, those changes should be implemented through the democratic process, and unions can make that happen by convincing communities to elect public officials who support their positions, he said.
Additionally, Gov. Maura Healey told WBZ-TV last year that she doesn’t support legalizing teacher strikes. While she empathizes with the teachers, she said it’s “paramount” that children remain in school.
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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