This November 5, in addition to several national and local elective offices, Concord will vote on five statewide ballot questions.
Question 2, “Eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement,” is of particular importance to the Concord Public Schools, Concord-Carlisle Regional School District, and the citizens of Concord. A solid education system is essential for preparing future generations and is critical for maintaining status as a top-tier community.
MCAS works and should be retained. It hardly seems an accident that since its adoption in 1993, Massachusetts student test score rankings have been among the highest, and, by some measures, the highest in the nation, according to Forbes.
The proposal does not replace MCAS with another standard, but would allow each school district to set its own graduation criteria.
MCAS provides not only a minimal standard for students, but provides some much-needed accountability for teachers. Without MCAS, there will not be any measurable standard of the quality of their product: high school graduates who can read, write, calculate, and think.
One of the fundamental principles of conservatism is to conserve what works, and the MCAS standard does.
We are pleased to note that support for the maintenance of the MCAS requirement is not a purely partisan issue, with both Gov. Healey and Secretary of Education Tutwiler both in favor of continuing the MCAS requirement.
Lawrence Franko
Concord Republican Town Committee
Silver Hill Road
