Bill H.1065/S.197

Update: MATSOL testified at the Joint Committee on Education hearing October 4 on Bill H.1065/S.197, An Act Relative to Enhancing English Opportunities for All Students in the Commonwealth, the same bill filed by Rep. Jeffrey Sánchez and supported by MATSOL in 2009.  This bill will allow schools greater flexibility in choosing programs to educate ELLs and provide accountability measures to ensure that educational goals are being met.  It also provides structures to ensure parental involvement.

The hearing before the Committee on Education is just the first step in the legislative process.  In order to continue on its way to become law, the bill must be “reported favorably” out of committee.  Our goal this week is to make sure this happens.  (See “How an Idea Becomes a Law”)

You can still voice your support to the Joint Committee on Education and your legislators and encourage them to move forward with the bill.

Read MATSOL's Testimony

1.  Read the bill on the Mass state government website (the house and senate versions are almost the same).  Click here.

2. Come to the hearing and sign up to testify in support of the bill on Tuesday, October 4 at 10 am in room B-1 at the State House.  You will have three minutes to speak and can also submit your testimony in writing.

3. Call or email members of the Joint Committee on Education to voice your support. (See the contact information below)

4. Call or email the state representative and state senator in your district (where you vote) to voice your support.  See the list of sponsors of the bills below.  Click here to find your legislators (note that the state House and Senate are called the "General Court"). 

5. Report back by emailing MATSOL at advocacy@matsol.org so we know who you contacted! 

Joint Committee on Education
Website: http://www.malegislature.gov/Committees/Joint/J14

Senate Members: Senate Chair: Sonia Chang-Diaz, Senate Vice Chair: Patricia D. Jehlen, Sal N. DiDomenico*, Katherine Clark, Barry R. Finegold, Richard J. Ross

House Members: House Chair: Alice Hanlon Peisch, House Vice Chair: David B. Sullivan, John H. Rogers, Geraldine Creedon, Sean Curran, Jennifer E. Benson, Marcos A. Devers, Denise C. Garlick, Carlos Henriquez*, Kimberly N. Ferguson, David T. Vieira

* Sponsor of the bill

Email addresses of committee members (copy & paste into your email program). If you can, send individual, personalized emails.  If you only want to send two emails, send them to the two committee chairs: Sonia.Chang-Diaz@masenate.gov and Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov.

Senate: Sonia.Chang-Diaz@masenate.gov, Patricia.Jehlen@masenate.gov, Sal.DiDomenico@masenate.gov, Barry.Finegold@MASenate.gov, Katherine.Clark@masenate.gov, Richard.Ross@masenate.gov

House: Alice.Peisch@mahouse.gov, David.Sullivan@mahouse.gov, John.Rogers@mahouse.gov, Sean.Curran@mahouse.gov, Marcos.Devers@mahouse.gov, Carlos.Henriquez@mahouse.gov, David.Vieira@mahouse.gov, Geraldine.Creedon@mahouse.gov, Jennifer.Benson@mahouse.gov, Denise.Garlick@mahouse.gov, Kimberly.Ferguson@mahouse.gov

Bill Sponsors

Senate Bill 197 Sponsors: Sal N. DiDominico, James B. Eldridge, Denise Provost    
House Bill 1065 Sponsors:  Jeffrey Sánchez, Geraldo Alicea, Antonio F. D. Cabral, Christine E. Canavan, Gloria L. Fox, Carlos Henriques, Byron Rushing, Carl M. Sciortino Jr., Frank J. Smizik, Ellen Story, Benjamin Swan, Timothy J. Toomey, Jr., Alice K. Wolf

What to say
When you testify or contact a legislator, identify yourself and the bill you are supporting, state why you support the bill, and ask that the Committee make a “favorable report” on the bill, which sends it on to the next step in the legislative process.  You can adapt this template – feel free to add you own personal perspective or experience:

Subject: Bill H.1065/S.197

Dear Rep/Sen. _______

My name is __________ and I live at __________. I’m a teacher at __________. I’m very concerned about the education of English language learners (ELLs) in our state and ask you to please support House Bill 1065/Senate Bill 197.  This bill will provide schools with much needed programmatic flexibility while also holding schools accountable to do high quality work, as well as providing valuable structures to ensure parental involvement.  These three things: programmatic flexibility, accountability, and parental involvement are fundamentally necessary for the quality education of ELLs and will only become possible in this state with strong legislative action.  It is time for the legislature to act in support of our students. Please do everything you can to improve the education of ELLs in Massachusetts by reporting H. 1065/S.197 out favorably and eventually getting it passed. Please contact me if you have any questions.

Signed,
Name
Address
Email/Phone