BOSTON – This fall, Massachusetts voters will face the largest crop of statewide ballot questions in years, many of them involving complex issues.
Massachusetts Ballot Question 1
On Question 1, expanding the state auditor’s authority to audit the legislature , Horowitz said passage “probably will not empower the auditor to oversee the things people care about in the legislature, their votes, their committee assignments. She’s not going to have that authority. The courts probably won’t give it to her, and the legislature will fight back. So I think a yes vote is not a vote for this power. A yes vote is a vote for gridlock.”
Should MCAS be graduation requirement?
A “yes” vote on Question 2, would wipe out the lone statewide graduation requirement in Massachusetts that students pass the MCAS test by 10th grade. Students would still take the MCAS , but each district would set its own standards for graduation.
“This really is a question for voters about who should have the authority to dictate who can graduate from high school. Should it be districts? Or should the state play a role and say we have to sign off because we have over 300 districts in the state, [and] if they each have their own standards, that’s no standard,” Horowitz said.