FALL RIVER — At the Boys & Girls Club of Fall River on Monday afternoon, Gov. Maura Healey asked a group of teens what school means to them. The kids were shy, reluctant to speak, but one girl gave it to her straight:
“School’s not part of my life.”
Healey was direct, too, but not unkind. “Well, we want it to be,” she said.
The governor, Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll, Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler and other state and local officials toured the Boys & Girls Club in support of the administration’s Literacy Launch program, which aims to improve early reading in kids ages 3 to Grade 3, and other statewide initiatives to guide students to educational success from childhood to college.
Healey said that Massachusetts is the top state nationally in terms of quality of education.
“But the fact of the matter is, not everyone is feeling it,” she said. “Not every student is seeing the same success or seeing the same results. Our job every day is to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to support all 351 cities and towns and the young people who live there.”