Public Education

Support of public education.
JALSA believes that strong public schools with quality education attainable for all students are essential to a democracy. Our members helped to support the Massachusetts Education Reform Act and we work to continue true reform. We support adequate state funding and were supportive of the Hancock v. Driscoll case where Massachusetts Superior Court Judge Margot Botsford ruled, on April 26, 2004, that Massachusetts is not meeting its constitutional obligation to provide children in poor school districts with an education that equips them for citizenship and post-high school training. Disappointed that the Supreme Judicial Court did not immediately order the state legislature to provide such funding, we continue to work with the Council for Fair School Finance to achieve adequate state funding for poor school districts.

JALSA opposes privatization of public education.
We believe that the structure and funding mechanism of for-profit charter schools in Massachusetts drain money from the public education system way out of proportion for the number of students who attend those schools. We are opposed to voucher systems and believe that such programs increase abandonment of public education for small groups of students rather than improvement of public education for all students. Working with Citizens for Public Schools, JALSA works to support public education, change the funding mechanism for charter schools, require accountability and public visibility of government decision-making, and increase student, teacher, and parent input to educational decisions.

JALSA believes in a strong wall of separation of church and state in public education.
While many of our members individually support the renaissance in Jewish Day Schools, we do not believe it is the proper function of government to force taxpayers to pay for religious education. We also believe such public funding has serious potential of interfering with the independence of church and synagogue-related schools. JALSA members have strongly resisted the efforts to change the Massachusetts constitution, organizing resistance to efforts to permit funding of private schools. JALSA has been in the leadership of the successful efforts at the legislature, at the ballot box, and in the courts, to resist removal of the anti-aid provisions.

We work against efforts to teach creationism or intelligent design in science classrooms.

JALSA believes that the over-emphasis on high stakes testing is not in the best interests of school children and was not contemplated in the Massachusetts Educational Reform Act.
Working with the Alliance for the Education of the Whole Child, formerly the Alliance for High Standards NOT High Stakes, JALSA has worked to minimize the use of MCAS results, resisting efforts to make state college enrollment dependent on the MCAS, opposed efforts to use MCAS results as the basis for college scholarships, or inserting MCAS results on school transcripts circulated to colleges. JALSA continues to work to encourage multiple forms of assessment.

JALSA believes that increased efforts need to be made to end the achievement gap and to achieve equity in admissions and achievement.
Working with the Massachusetts Coalition for Education Equity, JALSA encouraged the Attorney General’s Office to support voluntary integration efforts in Boston and Lynn. JALSA led efforts to provide multiple amici briefs in the Lynn v. Comfort case which successfully resisted challenges to a voluntary integration program.

JALSA has cooperated with the Civil Rights Project of Harvard University, concerned about the increased school segregation reflected in charter schools in Massachusetts, and worked with local coalitions throughout Massachusetts that work on achievement gap concerns.

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