Massachusetts voters on Tuesday decided by a wide margin to eliminate the requirement to pass the MCAS tests in order to graduate high school — but that might not be the last word.
Before people had even made their way to the ballot box, the state Legislature’s top officials — House Speaker Ron Mariano and Senate President Karen Spilka, both Democrats — were already leaving open the possibility for future intervention in the results of Question 2.
Prior to Tuesday’s election, public school students in Massachusetts were required to pass the 10th-grade MCAS tests in order to receive a high school diploma. Both Mariano and Spilka support that.
Voters passed Question 2, effectively eliminating the graduation requirement, with 59% of the vote and a margin of more than 600,000 out of about 3.3 million votes.
Passage of the ballot question means MCAS tests will no longer impact the chance of graduation, starting with the class of 2025. The tests will continue to be administered, however, and the state will collect the same data on school performance.
Now that all ballots have been cast, the question remains: Will the Legislature intervene?
John Schneider, chair of the leading group opposing the ballot initiative, “Protect Our Kids’ Future: Vote No on 2,″ asked the state to reconsider as he reacted to the results on Wednesday.
“Those responsible for our state’s public education system need to have an honest conversation about whether moving forward with this proposal is the right decision for Massachusetts,” he said in a statement.
Gov. Maura Healey, who supported the graduation requirement, was asked about the ballot question during a press conference on Wednesday.
“The voters spoke on this and I think what’s important now is that (the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education) move forward in getting out the appropriate guidance right now in terms of implementation,” she said.
Asked further if the Legislature might intervene, Healey said, “I‘ll review anything that comes to my desk but I’m not going to engage in hypotheticals.”
In a statement Thursday, a spokesperson for Spilka said, “Voters made their opinions clear on Question 2, and we expect guidance soon from DESE on how districts can adapt their policies.”
Mariano’s office did not return a request for comment Thursday.
How can the Legislature override a ballot question?
Laws enacted by ballot initiative, like other Massachusetts laws, can be amended or repealed by the state Legislature. The House and the Senate work together to pass legislation, and proposed laws have to pass in both chambers.
The governor, however, can’t outright veto a ballot question that passes.
Pre-election, Spilka and Mariano set the stage for a potential intervention on Question 1 — which would allow the state auditor to audit the Legislature — and Question 2.
Both questions passed with large majorities.
“Being no fan of making laws by ballot initiative after seeing how screwed up the marijuana thing got, I haven’t made up my mind yet,” Mariano, D-3rd Norfolk, said of the auditor-related Question 1, Politico reported. “We’ll see how big the margin is.”
Max Page, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the driving force behind Question 2, responded to the possibility that lawmakers could alter or revoke the MCAS graduation requirement repeal.
“The State House is not Ron Mariano’s house or Karen Spilka’s house — the speaker and Senate president should refrain from crossing the will of the people,” he said at the time, as reported by Politico.
Has the Legislature overridden a ballot question before?
There is at least one time the Legislature fought a voter-approved ballot question — starting in 1998, according to the Boston Globe.
That year, voters passed a law to create a system of publicly financed campaigns for candidates who agreed to certain fundraising and spending limits. But the Legislature refused to fund it, and that prompted a Supreme Judicial Court justice to order the state to auction property to pay for the program, the Globe reported.
Ultimately, the state raised some money, and lawmakers later agreed to put millions into it. But in 2003, five years later, they voted to repeal it outright.
