Is There Any Parent Here?: Fixing the Failures of the Massachusetts Public School System

Abstract

Research has shown that many students in Massachusetts’s public schools have yet to receive the adequate education required by the McDuffy decision. Most unsettling is the fact that it is the students most marginalized in the Commonwealth—racial minorities, those from the poorest school districts, and those for whom English is a second language—who are getting the least benefit, if any at all, out of various recent education reform measures. This article discusses the shortcomings of the public education system in Massachusetts to further illustrate the inequity and dismal results of the current system. It will then argue that the Commonwealth should adopt specific measures, such as increased wages for its teachers and lengthened school hours, to finally provide all children in Massachusetts with the quality education they deserve.