THE GOVERNOR proposes, the Legislature disposes.
So goes the saying that points to who ultimately wields power on Beacon Hill. On most issues, lawmakers can have the final say.
That’s true for things introduced by the governor, but it also extends to other players in state government.
A case in point is the ongoing debate over vocational high school admission policies, which a top House official is suddenly looking to upend through one legislative lever or another.
For the better part of a decade, local officials and advocates have been calling for changes to state regulations that allow the state’s vocational high schools to use selective criteria, such as a student’s middle school grades and attendance record, in making admission decisions. The years-long deliberation seemed to culminate last month when the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to begin a public comment period on new regulations that would overhaul the admissions process.
Advocates for reform, who have argued that the existing process disproportionately denies seats to students of color, English learners, special education students, and those from low-income households, didn’t get everything they wanted. But they view the changes – which would use a form of lottery to award seats – as a big step forward.
Vocational school leaders, on the other hand, decried the proposal, with the head of the state association representing voc-tech administrators calling it “one step forward, two steps back.”
The public comment period on the proposed regulations ends on Friday, with the state education board expected to take up the issue and vote on new admission rules at its monthly meeting on May 20.
But not if state Rep. Frank Moran has his way.
The Lawrence rep, who is a second assistant majority leader, filed an amendment to last week’s $1.3 billion supplemental budget plan that would have put the kibosh on the whole process.
Although the state education board formed a special subcommittee that studied the vocational admissions question, Moran’s amendment called for a new admissions task force to look at the issue and report back its findings in a year. In the meantime, it said no changes could be made by the state education board.
The House did not end up including the amendment in the budget package it approved, but Moran has filed the same language as a separate bill, together with Rep. Adam Scanlon of North Attleborough. And it could show up as an amendment to the House budget plan for 2026, which will be released today.
None of the legislative paths would reach the finish line before the education board’s May meeting, but the wording of the measure says any changes adopted by the state board after March 2025 would be in violation of the new law. The move by Moran may be more of a signal to the education board of discontent with proposed admission changes than a viable plan to block them.
Moran’s office did not return a message seeking comment.
Under the proposed new regulations unveiled at the March education board meeting, vocational school seats would be awarded through a weighted lottery. All middle school students could enter the lottery but those with better attendance records and no serious discipline infractions would get extra chances at a seat. The proposal differed significantly from the lottery plan the board had been considering, in which students with serious attendance issues or discipline infractions would not be eligible.
“The latest proposal came out of nowhere,” said Steve Sharek, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Vocational Administrators. He said the association is aware of no study that has looked at whether a system like this would address the admission disparities that critics have raised. “We thank Rep. Moran for filing this attempt to try to put the brakes on something that seems to be out of control.”
Sharek, who maintains that the education department has been relying on faulty admissions data, said a new admissions task force could “take an objective, dispassionate look at the data and move forward with all deliberate speed.”
Moran’s legislation calls for various groups, including the voc-tech administrators, to have seats on the task force. Not included is a seat for the Vocational Education Justice Coalition, the group that has led the call for change.
That omission is OK with Lew Finfer, a leader of the coalition. “We weren’t eager to sit on a task force to delay something we’ve been working on for years,” he said. Finfer said the issue has been studied extensively through “a process that all sides have been involved in,” and it shouldn’t be delayed further.
State Sen. John Cronin of Fitchburg, who pushed for changes to the admissions policies, said any suggestion that the data don’t show troubling disparities in acceptance rates for different group is “absurd.”
“Fundamentally, it’s about recognizing vocational education as a vehicle for economic mobility,” said Cronin. “And recognizing these as public schools that rich kids and poor kids get an offer to attend at the same rate.”
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