AFT Massachusetts Responds To House Literacy Education Bill (October 29, 2025)
AFT Massachusetts President Jessica Tang released the following statement in response to the debate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives today on legislation regarding reading and literacy skills:
“Teaching students to read is one of the most important things we do as educators. Literacy skills are foundational skills - ones that are crucial to supporting student development and long-term success.
“The needs of our students vary from district to district, from school to school, even from desk to desk. Strong literacy instruction is responsive to the unique learning needs of individual students and can be complex.
“As passed today, this bill establishes a limited, blanket curriculum that is concerning, particularly to veteran educators who have developed rich and effective evidence based literacy curriculum over the years. Even more concerning is that it bans important, proven tools our educators currently use and use successfully, particularly with our English language learners and students with special needs.
“As educators, we fully support evidence-based literacy curriculum. We also know that it will take more than just curriculum for our students to fully thrive as they progress from learning to read to reading to learn.
“Even though we have concerns, we are pleased that the bill passed today includes key provisions we were proud to advocate for, including reporting and tracking measures, expanding funding opportunities for critical positions, and establishing a commission to continue the important work to advance literacy in the Commonwealth.
“We will continue to work with Legislative and state allies on this issue and we look forward to seeing what comes out of the Senate.”