As demonstrations calling for police reform and racial equity continue across the state amid the coronavirus pandemic, multiple crises of public health, public safety and economy are converging.
Students of color at elite high schools are raising their voices against the institutions that educated them and the bias ingrained in our society, highlighted in the Boston Globe. Meanwhile, the economic downturn due to the coronavirus shutdown is threatening a promised infusion of cash for school districts across the state.
Attorney General Maura Healey told Boston Public Radio on Tuesday the issues are intertwined.
"It's heartbreaking when I listen to young people going to school, or their parents, it's like they don't even have a shot because the lens through which they're viewed is so ingrained in our institutions and all around us," she said. "We just need to work, seize this moment, seize this opportunity, and make this right."
The right to a public education is constitutionally protected in Massachusetts, and Healey said in order to honor that right, the current system needs additional money from the federal government — with protections for public schools over private schools — as well as a fully funded Chapter 70, the program that determines education funding for municipalities across Massachusetts.
"Particularly as we've seen through students having to be educated remotely, it's not the case that every student in the state has access right now to a tablet, or computer, or reliable wifi, that is a must, we have to get that in order now, certainly before the fall," said Healey. "I don't know why we don't recognize that fundamentally as a society, not only it's the right thing to do, it's just bedrock to building the kind of community, economy and state that we aspire to by supporting education."
When asked about whether money could be divested from police departments, as the chorus of demonstrators calling for this have increased over the past few weeks, Healey responded she wasn't sure it would "come close to making a meaningful difference," but is something to be considered nevertheless, as the state considers how to reimagine public safety.
"I think there's money being spent right now on police budgets that could be either reallocated within departments or to other agencies that will actually help address issues of public safety," she said.
