Now that the House and Senate have each passed a fiscal year 2025 budget, a legislative conference committee will reconcile the differences between them.

The House and Senate budgets each contain several significant elements that resulted from your strong advocacy, particularly in recent months. This includes increased Chapter 70 minimum aid and rural school aid in the Senate budget that begin to address the needs of students and educators and acknowledge the growing funding crisis that is impacting public school districts across the Commonwealth. Thanks to your work in passing the Fair Share Amendment and commitment to realizing debt-free public higher education, the Senate budget also includes scholarship aid that will cover the full cost of tuition and mandatory fees for students attending community colleges. In addition, after years of retired educators highlighting the urgent need for a stronger pension COLA, the House budget creates a commission to study the current state and teacher pension COLA system, including exploring long-overdue increases to the COLA base.

We need your help to ensure that these and other crucial provisions make it into the final FY25 budget. Together, we can create a strong foundation for our ongoing work to build the public schools and colleges that students and educators deserve.

Please email your state representative and senator right away and urge them to contact the budget conference committee in support of the Massachusetts Teachers Association's FY25 budget priorities. Please also consider calling your representative and senator to follow up on your email. You can find their phone numbers by clicking here.