Also referred to as the ‘Education Diversity Act” this bill would establish new pathways for more diverse educators.

For students of color to thrive in a classroom, it is important that they see themselves represented in their teachers and role models that they interact with.

This bill would establish a pathway for alternative certification to the Massachusetts Tests for Educator Licensure (MTEL) by 2024 and would also put safeguards in place to prevent the negative impacts of certification on candidates of color.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) would also be required to work with stakeholders to establish an Educator Diversity Data Dashboard which would disaggregate data in areas such as educator retention by race in order to set clear targets for the diversification of the educator pipeline.

School Districts would be required to appoint diversity officers or teams to set the vision for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion plans, set measurable goals, and ensure the compliance with all provisions of the bill. Districts would also be required to have mandatory diversity training for the entire school committee, district leaders, and all staff. Any candidates would also have to participate in anti-bias training during the screening process.

Lastly, this legislation would establish an Educator Diversity Council to elevate the voice of diverse educators and to serve as an advisory council to school committees and district leaders while helping to address issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion.

The National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual study found that 107 institutions held endowments of $1 billion or more as of June 30, 2019. Together, these institutions of higher earning held $494 billion in assets, or roughly a tenth of the total net worth of all individual billionaires in the United States combined. The university figure is surely much higher today.

Universities and grant-making foundations pay a mere 1.4 percent in federal taxes on their net investment income, a fraction of the 23.8% wealthy people pay on their capital gains. To put this in perspective, if Gates made $100 million in trading Microsoft stock, he would pay $23.8 million in federal capital gains tax, plus any state income taxes he might owe. If the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made the same $100 million trading the same stock, it would pay a mere $1.4 million.

This legislation would tax private institutions with endowment funds that had aggregate funds of over $1 billion at rate of 2.5%.

All the money collected from this tax would be annually deposited into the Educational Opportunity for All Trust Fund, established under this legislation as well.

The Educational Opportunity for All Trust Fund would operate under the Executive Office of Education and would be directed by the Educational Opportunity for All Trust Fund Board of Trustees in consultation with the Dept. of Higher Education and the Dept. of Early Education and Care.