FCCPR is offering an online forum on MARCH 14 at 7 pm focused on school funding.

Massachusetts is a very wealthy state.  It has close to eight billion dollars in its rainy day fund.  It has so much money on hand that it was required by law to send money back to taxpayers.

 And Massachusetts politicians say that they love our children, that children are our future, and that education is the key to unlocking that future.  

So why don’t we fully fund our schools?  Why are our teachers and instructional assistants working without a contract, our technology outdated, and why is the school district begging the town for more money, which the town does not have?  And what can we do about it?

Agenda for the forum:

1. A slide show that presents an overview of how school funding works (or doesn’t work) in Massachusetts, highlighting areas that may help us to understand why so many districts are struggling. 
2.  Overview with a panel discussion on issues raised in the slide show and by participants in the forum. 
3. Identifying action steps individuals and groups can take that will lead to more fully funding our schools.  

We have the money in Massachusetts, and our children, who are our future, deserve the very best education we can provide for them.  Please join us at our education funding forum on March 14 at 7 pm.  

Slide presentation that we will go through during the forum:

School Funding 101 (Greenfield)

Links and Source Material for the Slide Show:

• Education Funding 2019 Where We Stand
• School Foundation budget State overview chapter-2023-whitepaper
• MASC Budget and Finance for School Committees presentation

Register

Get the zoom link here: tinyurl.com/MASchoolFunding

Contact

Please contact Doug Selwyn with any questions you might have:  dougselwyn@aol.com

Facebook Event

https://fb.me/e/4oiKlR2Uh

We hope to see you and others you know concerned about local school funding there! Please help us spread the word!

On November 20th we held our General Assembly which was filled with lots of lively discussion. Here are some of the highlights.

Results of ballot questions we worked on.

We had targeted several of the ballot questions for our work. Here are the results.

Question 1 Fair Share -Millionaires Tax Franklin County 21,052 Yes 9,859 No 66% yes

Question 4 Drivers Licenses for All 19451 yes, 11443 No, 61% yes

Question 5 Medicare for All 2nd Franklin State Rep district 9367 yes, 5383 no, 57% yes

Question 5 Medicare for All 7th Hampden State Rep district 9859 yes, 6820 no, 53% yes

Medicare for All passed in all 20 State Rep districts that it appeared on the ballot.

Question 6 Transparency on votes in the Massachusetts House of Representatives:

2nd Franklin district 11623 yes 2977 no, 71% yes

The General Assembly voted to send $500 to the Warnock campaign in Georgia via Movement Voter Project. This has been done.

Discussed the situation of Police and Mayor in Greenfield and agreed to keep having discussions with FCCPR, Racial Justice Rising and Greenfield Peoples budget campaign.

There was a report from the newly formed Reproductive Justice Task Force and people signed up to help with the task force.

It was reported that ballot referendums supporting abortion rights won in all 5 states where they were on the ballot, and suggested that the Democrats did better than usual in the mid-term elections nationally  in part because more women and young people turned out to support abortion rights as a way to oppose the SCOTUS Dobbs amendment.  One legislative priority of the new RJ task force is MA Medicare for All, since we want to connect reproductive rights with economic and social rights.

What legislation do we want our delegation to propose and strive  for in the new session?

There was a very good discussion for what kind of legislation we want our State Reps. and Senators to support. Here are the results. We will be trying to set-up meetings with our Reps to discuss all these issues.

Items in bold considered highest priorities by FCCPR Coordinating Committee

Climate

• Restructure MassSave to eliminate utility control
• Incentivize (publicly owned) solar along side highways and over parking lots and not industrial solar via clearcutting forests or by removing productive farmland
• Add climate education to state standards
• Close the Northfield pump and storage facility as it’s an energy sink and hurts our river and fish
• Build state-owned and run electric car charging stations
• Fund electric school buses

Housing

• Amend the law about funding for housing construction only when its near public transit to be appropriate for rural communities that do not have public transit
• Allocate more funding for community land trusts for housing – Small Properties State Acquisition Funding Pilot: this legislation was passed; we need to lobby our reps for some of the money
• Create enabling legislation for regional housing trusts
• Allow building codes to allow for tiny houses
• Fund energy efficiency and conservation
• Make funds available for collective/neighborhood geothermal
• Give tenants first right to buy building being sold by owner (TOPA)

Reproductive Justice

• Amend the MA Constitution to codify abortion rights (and reproductive justice) in MA
• Truth in advertising re “fake clinics”
• Mandate that Massachusetts not cooperate with extradition requests from other states (already done?)
• Fund an abortion action corps of staff and volunteers
• Establish a fund to support out of state abortion travelers to MA

Medicare for All

• Pass the Medicare for All bill (which would also promote reproductive justice)
• Have our legislators join M4A caucus

Education

• Eliminate MCAS as a graduation requirement; replace it with alternative assessment
• Guarantee that Fair Share funds are above and beyond existing funding (supplement, not supplant) and re-examine the MA funding formula with rural districts in mind
• Establish funds for green and healthy school buildings
• Increase transportation funding for schools
• Reimburse teachers and parents for out-of-pocket school supplies
• Restructure DESE – e.g. elected board members (delete Pioneer Institute influence)
• Divest the teacher (and state worker) pension plan from fossil fuels

Racial and Social Justice

• Increase transparency in House of Representatives
• Provide alternative social services funding (separate from police funding)
• Extend the timeline for new state flag and seal
• Support the landback initiative to local Indigenous people
• Ban MA police departments from accepting federal military supplies
• Expand gun control
• Pass Death with Dignity

Transportation (Question 1 funds)

• Implement East-West rail through Franklin County and North Quabbin to North Adams
• Expand local public transportation
• Provide public transportation to Bradley Airport

By Ferd Wulkan and Anne Ferguson

We all know we have a housing crisis all across our country.  Rents have skyrocketed; there are insufficient numbers of apartments and houses available; many people in our cities are unhoused; rent control is considered too radical; there are few protections against evictions.  The American dream has long included home ownership and stable safe neighborhoods.  But the dream has become a nightmare as racism and capitalism leave some without homes altogether, and have displaced so many more.  Most discouraging, few people see any alternatives to the current system of how housing is allocated and paid for.

But there is an alternative.  Two members of Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) were in Vienna, Austria recently and saw how things could be different.  Montague resident Ferd Wulkan was there in September and spent time with several Viennese residents, all of whom proudly talked to him about housing in the city.  He visited the Karl-Marx Hof, the largest of the socialized housing developments – it stretches over 1 kilometer and houses 5,000 people.  The picture shows a small part of that development.

Leverett resident Ann Ferguson was there a few years earlier and learned how the people in the Karl-Marx Hof complex led the resistance to the Nazis in the early 1930s.  She was particularly impressed by the combination of individual kitchens and communal dining services the original complex offered, including dumb waiters to every apartment allowing the food from the communal kitchen to be delivered to each flat, and the communal laundry and child care center.

Between 50 and 60 percent of all Viennese live in permanently affordable, rent-stabilized subsidized dwellings.  These include 220,000 city-owned units and 200,000 non-profit co-operative flats built with municipal subsidies. Vienna’s 1,800 municipal housing estates alone are home to close to half a million citizens (out of a population of slightly under two million).  All of it together is referred to as “social housing”, which they think sounds better than “public housing”.  There has been a conscious effort to integrate the projects such that members of different social classes live next to each other, each paying a similar percentage of their income for rent.

This all started after the devastation of World War I.  In under a decade, from 1925 to 1934, more than 60,000 new apartments were built in large developments situated around green courtyards.  The Karl-Marx Hof is a good example of this. Forty percent of the building costs came from the Vienna Housing Tax, the rest from the proceeds of a luxury tax and from federal funds.  From 1919 to 1933, the city was the only entity building new housing.

While Austria’s national government has been ruled by a variety of parties ranging from right to left over the years, for over 100 years (except for the Nazi period 1938-45) Vienna has mostly been governed by the Social Democrats: indeed, starting in the 1920’s, it was known as “Red Vienna”. The socialists implemented policies to improve public education, healthcare, sanitation and, especially, housing.  Stable affordable housing, how the dwellings were managed, and what services were provided, were key to  the party’s  creation and celebration of  a workers’ culture. It was also a way to increase workers’ power by eliminating a major source of economic stress.

It remains true  today that with so much of the rental market subsidized and affordable in Vienna, there is downward pressure on rents overall .  This means that  owners of private apartments have to compete with the socialized sector and are thus limited in the rents they can charge.  In other words, the rental market is not subject to the forces of the free market or the ideology of neoliberalism.

Ferd and Ann were also impressed by how apartments are allocated.  Starting in 1925, persons with disabilities and other societally vulnerable groups received preference in receiving subsidized apartments.  Even  today, there continues to be  a complicated allocation system so that many of the more desirably located apartments are made available to low-income people.  

So what does this mean for us in the US today?  We need to acknowledge that housing is a basic human right!  The Vienna example shows that where there’s a will there’s a way, but we in the U.S. need a socialist vision that can compete with the dominant capitalist world view.  Learning from other places, like Ann and Ferd did in Vienna, can be part of what could get us there.  

Sources, and for more information:

City of Vienna, “Social Housing in Vienna”  

Miles Howard, “Maybe more of us should live in public housing”, Boston Globe, 3/13/2020

Wikipedia, “Red Vienna”  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Vienna

“Red Vienna: Experiment in Working-Class Culture” by Helmut Gruber [1991, Oxford University Press]

Where do We Go from Here?

Hold the Date

Sunday November 20, 2022

2:00pm to 4:00pm

Guiding Star Grange

401 Chapman St. Greenfield

From the FCCPR Co-Ordinating Committee

Yes on Question 1 – Fair Share Amendment, the Millionaires Tax

This is a long needed amendment to our State Constitution.

This proposed constitutional amendment would establish an additional 4% state income tax on that portion of annual taxable income in excess of $1 million. This income level would be adjusted annually, by the same method used for federal income-tax brackets, to reflect increases in the cost of living. Revenues from this tax would be used, subject to appropriation by the state Legislature, for public education, public colleges and universities; and for the repair and maintenance of roads, bridges, and public transportation. The proposed amendment would apply to tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023.

For more information please go to https://www.fairsharema.com/why-fair-share

Yes on Question 2 – Regulation of Dental Insurance

This proposed law would direct the Commissioner of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance to approve or disapprove the rates of dental benefit plans and would require that a dental insurance carrier spend at least 83 percent of the premiums on actual dental coverage rather then administrative costs. If a carrier’s annual spending on dental coverage is less than 83 percent, the carrier would be required to refund the excess premiums to its covered individuals and groups. The proposed law would allow the Commissioner to waive or adjust the refunds only if it is determined that issuing refunds would result in financial impairment for the carrier.

For more information please go to https://voteyeson2fordental.com/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMInbis26nx-gIVdwOzAB0HGA9EEAAYASAAEgJP6vD_BwE

Yes on Question 4 – Eligibility for Driver’s Licenses

The Republican candidate for governor is looking to use anti-immigrant and racist actions to bolster his campaign. This is an attempt to overturn a law that was passed by the Massachusetts Legislature.

This law allows Massachusetts residents who cannot provide proof of lawful presence in the United States to obtain a standard driver’s license or learner’s permit if they meet all the other qualifications for a standard license or learner’s permit, including a road test and insurance, and provide proof of their identity, date of birth, and residency. The law provides that, when processing an application for such a license or learner’s permit or motor vehicle registration, the registrar of motor vehicles may not ask about or create a record of the citizenship or immigration status of the applicant, except as otherwise required by law. This law does not allow people who cannot provide proof of lawful presence in the United States to obtain a REAL ID.

For more information please go to https://masspeaceaction.org/vote-yes-on-ballot-questions-1-and-4/

Yes on Question 5 – Medicare for All

Instruct your Representative to vote in favor of Massachusetts establishing a single-payer health care plan, also know as Improved Medicare for All

This will be on the ballot in the new 2nd Franklin district which comprises Greenfield Precincts 1,2,3,4, and 9, Athol, Erving, Gill, Northfield, Orange, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick, Winchendon Precinct 1

This will also be on the ballot in the new 7th Hampden District which includes Belchertown.
Ludlow, New Salem, Pelham, Petersham, Shutesbury, Wendell

In 2018 all of Franklin County voted overwhelmingly for this ballot question. Both our State Reps., Natalie Blais and Paul Mark endorsed the legislation. Now with the change in the State Rep. districts it is on the ballot in the new 2nd Franklin District. We are hoping that Rep. Susanah Whipps if elected will also ensdorse the legislation.

“Shall the representative for this district be instructed to vote for legislation to create a single payer system of universal health care that provides all Massachusetts residents with comprehensive health care coverage including the freedom to choose doctors and other health care professionals, facilities, and services, and eliminates the role of insurance companies in health care by creating an insurance trust fund that is publicly administered?”

For more information please go to https://masscare.org/

Vote Yes on Carbon Tax  

(The number of this question may vary from town to town)

Shall the representative from this district be instructed to introduce and vote for legislation that puts a fee on the carbon content of fossil fuels to compensate for their environmental damage and returns most of the proceeds in equitable ways to individuals as a cash-back dividend?

Another partial solution to a big problem but it is a good step in the right direction.

This will be on the ballot in the First Franklin District which is comprised on Greenfield Precincts 5,6,7,8, Ashfield, Bernardston, Buckland, Charlemont, Colrain, Conway, Deerfield, Hawley, Heath, Leverett, Leyden, Monroe, Montague, Rowe, Shelburne, Sunderland, Whately

For more information please go to :https://www.gazettenet.com/Voters-in-1st-Franklin-1st-Hampshire-districts-asked-to-weigh-in-on-carbon-tax-48395589?utm_source=pocket_mylist

Vote Yes on Transparency

(The number of this question may vary from town to town)

Shall the representative from this district be instructed to vote in favor of changes to the applicable House of Representative rules to make each Legislator’s vote in that body’s Legislative committees publicly available on the Legislature’s website.

This will be on the ballot in the new 2nd Franklin district which comprises Greenfield Precincts 1,2,3,4, and 9, Athol, Erving, Gill, Northfield, Orange, Phillipston, Royalston, Warwick, Winchendon
Precinct 1

It seems to us this is a simple ask, have votes by our elected Representatives made public. That’s basic democracy.

For more information please go to https://actonmass.org/the-campaign

Governors Council

Our last recommendation is that people vote for Tara Jacobs in the governors council race. This vote is often overlooked, but the Governors council provides advice to the Governor on selecting Judges and on parole issues. Recently our current Governor appointed an anti-choice person to a judgeship. We believe Tara Jacobs will not work to appoint right wing judges.

Wednesday September 7 at 5pm Greenfield City Hall

Are you upset by Mayor Wedergartner’s unilateral decision to give Chief Haigh his job back, with zero regard to his illegal, racist conduct and his enabling of serious misconduct in the Greenfield Police Department? 

You’re not alone!

Please come out on Wednesday, September 7 at 5pm in front of Greenfield City Hall to let the mayor know that we are paying attention and this is NOT OK! (Bring signs!)

RACISM HARMS ALL OF US, and it is the responsibility of each one of us to speak out and to hold one another accountable for harmful, racist actions, particularly actions by elected and taxpayer-funded city officials. The reinstatement of Chief Haigh is a stain on the City of Greenfield, and we must not stand by silently.

For a full account of all the reasons why Haigh should not be our police chief, see this Greenfield People’s Budget’s blog post.

Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution (FCCPR) believes our government should be protecting the rights to freedom and equality for all, regardless of gender, race or class. We are outraged at the recent Supreme Court decision that eliminates the 50-year-old constitutional right to abortion in the US. State abortion bans violate the doctrine of the separation of church and state (the first amendment right to freedom of religion) based on the narrow religious view that the fetus is a person whose rights overrule the mother’s bodily autonomy rights.  

FCCPR demands that our government’s policies support reproductive justice. This means measures that guarantee the rights of all, regardless of race or income, to parent or not to parent in economic and social conditions that allow for the raising of healthy children, as well as respect for women’s rights to bodily autonomy. The SCOTUS Dobbs decision allows state abortion bans to create forced births and income crises for families. They harm the women and pregnant people forced to undergo them, negatively impact their other children and their families’ future well-being, and disproportionately harm communities of color.

Abortion bans worsen gender injustice as well as economic and racial injustice. They will criminalize many pregnant women and those who help them. They force people in abortion-ban states to lose jobs when they must travel long distances to states where abortion is legal or to deal with aftereffects of dangerous self-induced procedures. More than half of US states are now poised to pass near-total abortion bans. 

Most abortion-ban states lack social supports for medical care and have few welfare benefits for poor families. These states also deny workers’ rights to unionize through right to work laws and undermine voter rights by gerrymandering and other policies. Many of them permit the concealed carrying of guns, which can be used to promote vigilantism. They endanger abortion providers and those seeking abortions, LGBTIQ people and those promoting sex education and access to contraception. They also endanger those who promote fair, democratic elections.

We demand that the Democratic Party unequivocally implement our demands to protect our rights, our safety, and well-being, and promote gender, racial and economic justice. It must immediately:

1.  Implement measures to rein in the present Supreme Court of the United States, which has made politicized, reactionary, and unconstitutional decisions on abortion rights, gun regulation, voting rights, and environmental protection. Policies and laws should include:

·         Restraint of Judicial Review (restrict certain types of bills from being considered by SCOTUS). Article 3 of the Constitution gives Congress the right to limit judicial review on particular bills.

·         Expansion of the Supreme Court per Sen. Markey’s Judiciary Action Bill of 2021. The Supreme Court has been expanded and contracted many times before, including by President Lincoln. 

2. Overturn the Senate filibuster that requires a supermajority to pass a bill. A simple majority of the Senate can then pass laws protecting the rights of women and others. 

3. Pass into law the Constitutional right to abortion and abortion access as well as previous SCOTUS decisions that guarantee the right to contraception (Griswold), gay sex (Lawrence), gay marriage (Obergefell), gay sex (Lawrence), and interracial marriage (Loving).

4. Repeal the Hyde Amendment which bans the federal government from supporting the costs of abortions for low-income people.

5. Place abortion and family planning clinics on federal lands in all states. 

6.Expand education and access to Plan C (abortion through pill medication).]

7.  Pass laws and policies at the state level that outmaneuver unjust Supreme Court rulings.

In a recent FCCPR meeting, members enthusiastically supported four actions that our organization can undertake:  first, to work on getting the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to co-sponsor the Markey bill to expand the Supreme Court; second, to boycott corporations funding right wing politicians; third, to work with Massachusetts legislators to craft and pass laws supporting reproductive justice; and finally to sponsor postcard writing, phone banking, and texting to get out the vote for progressive electoral candidates.  We also created a new Reproductive Justice Task Force to spearhead these campaigns.  We urge those who support reproductive justice to join us, or to do these actions on your own.  To get involved, write to Anne Ferguson at ferguson3638@gmail.com or Sharon Tracy at tracy.sharon@gmail.com.

FCCPR General Assembly

Thursday July 7th

7:00pm

Register for the assembly

As the country hurtles backwards in history – no abortions, no separation of church and state, more guns – please join other CPR members to figure out how we respond to current events.

Four of the current members of the Supreme Court were appointed by “presidents” who lost the popular vote.

Draft FCCPR Statement on SCOTUS Abortion Decision, guns and separation of church and State

As Progressives who believe that our government should be protecting the rights to freedom and equality to all, regardless of gender, race or class, we are outraged at the recent Supreme Court decision that eliminates the 50 year old constitutional right to abortion in the US. We believe this is not just a question of denying women and pregnant people the right to choose whether or not to have a child but is also a question of racial and economic justice. FCCPR demands that our government create policies that support reproductive justice, that is, that guarantee the rights of all, regardless of race or income, to parent or not to parent in economic and social conditions that allow for the raising of healthy children, as well as to respect women’s rights to bodily autonomy. Abortion bans create forced births and income crises for families that not only harm the women and pregnant people forced to undergo them, but also negatively impact their other children and their families’ future well-being.  

Abortion bans are not just a question of gender injustice but also of economic and racial justice. They will force many pregnant women and people in red states to lose jobs when forced to travel long distances to blue states to get abortions or to deal with after effects of dangerious self-induced procedures, as well as potential criminalization. Twenty-six states, more than half of US states, are now poised to pass near total abortion bans that will disproportionately impact the poor, young people, and women of color in states which already lack social supports for medical care and few welfare benefits for poor families. These are also states that deny workers’ rights to unionize by right to work laws, and states that are undermining voter rights by gerrymandering and other policies. Many of them are states that permit the concealed carrying of guns, which can be used to promote vigilantism against abortion providers and those seeking abortions, LGBTIQ people and those promoting sex education and access to contraception, as well as those seeking to promote democratic elections that fairly represent the interests of poor people and people of color.

We demand that the Democratic Party unequivocally wield their power to promote gender, racial and economic justice to immediately implement:

Pressure Points for Discussion

1. Measures to rein in the present Supreme Court of the United States, which has shown that its politicized reactionary decisions on matters of abortion rights, gun regulation, voting rights and other economic justice issues are unconstitutional, corrupt and are anything but impartial. These could include policies that restrain Judicial Review, for example, laws that restrict certain types of bills from being considered by SCOTUS.
2. Action to overturn the Senate filibuster precedent that requires a supermajority to pass a bill, thus allowing a simple majority to pass laws protecting the rights of women and others and making the Senate more democratic. 
3. Laws and policies at the state level that outmaneuver unjust Supreme Court rulings. 

Also we agree with the following policy suggestions of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, among others:

4. Place Abortion and Family Planning Clinics on Federal Lands in all states.
5. Expand Education and Access to Plan C (abortion through pill medication).
6. Repeal the Hyde Amendment which bans the federal government from supporting the costs of abortions for low income people.
7. Floor votes in Congress to codify into law previous progressive SCOTUS decisions. guaranteeing the right to contraception (Griswold), gay marriage (Obergefell), gay sex (Lawrence), interracial marriage (Loving).
8. Vote on Escobar’s bill protecting abortion clinics.
9. Support Senator Markeys’s Judiciary Act of 2021 to expand the United States Supreme Court by adding four seats, creating a 13-justice Supreme Court.

Further Action Steps?   To be discussed

Register for the assembly

This is the follow-up campaign to the successful” Change the Massachusetts State Flag” campaign.

Please call or email Co-chairs of the Joint Committee on State Administration, Rep. Tony Cabral and Sen. Marc Pacheco asap. Ask them to set a vote before the 6/30 deadline and favorably pass this bill out of their Committee, where it has been stalled for months, so the Legislature can vote on it this year:

An Act Establishing Indigenous Peoples Day for Massachusetts (S.2027 / H.3191)

A phone call to Rep. Tony Cabral, could make all the difference. His phone number is (617) 722-2017) or email him at (Antonio.Cabral@mahouse.gov ).

· If you have time, please also call his co-chair, Sen. Marc Pacheco, at (617) 722-1551 or email him at: ( Marc.Pacheco@masenate.gov ).

Urge Rep. Cabral and Sen. Pacheco to allow the Indigenous Peoples Day bill to move forward with a positive vote from their committee today!

The law, if passed, will replace Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day in MA. Changing the second Monday in October to Indigenous Peoples Day would acknowledge the harmful impact of celebrating Columbus as a hero. Historical accounts prove that wherever he went, Columbus and his men murdered and enslaved Indigenous People. The repercussions continue to be keenly felt even now in Massachusetts.

Indigenous Peoples Day would replace something negative with something positive – an increased awareness of Indigenous Peoples and a celebration of Indigenous resilience and survival, in Massachusetts and throughout the Americas.

A victory for Indigenous People would be a victory for all people of color in Massachusetts, who still experience the racism and violence that was first visited upon the Indigenous People of the Americas by Columbus and his crew.

You don’t need to be an expert on this bill. Just speak from your heart and encourage Rep. Cabral and Sen. Pacheco to allow this long stalled racial justice bill to move forward.

We want to honor the Native people of this land rather than honoring the slave trader Columbus in our public schools, and in our cities and towns.

For more information:

IndigenousPeoplesDayMA.org

daviddetmold@gmail.com