On November 4th, a ballot for the state of Massachusetts was introduced. Whenever these ballots happen, they bring important and impactful topics and questions that can be voted on. They do this to decide if something such as minimum wage should change for our state or if it will stay as it is. This one however, might be one of the most important ballots ever.

The ballot gave five questions, ranging from ones which got voted to change such as “Allow Audits onto State Legislators”, “Allows ride-share drivers to form labor unions”, and more. However, the most important question for schools all across the state was question two as it proposed the following: “Elimination of MCAS as a High School Graduation Requirement”.

When the ballot took place, the overall vote for question 2 of the ballot was a yes with 59.1% of votes being yes!

The idea of having schools not needing MCAS to graduate is a huge thing that affects the format of education and emotions of the students. For example, students will be less stressed about graduation.

“I’ve always had a thing against standardized testing to be completely honest. I just don’t think it’s a good way to assess anybody’s ability to perform on any kind of academic thing,” said Olivia Palmer, a resident in Boston.

However, some issues also come into play, one of which being the schools must now question what other potential requirements are needed to graduate. 

With this new rule, it’s noted that schools must handle it correctly. School’s aren’t able to enforce MCAS nor give people unfair advantages with graduation requirements. Therefore, for now the future of kids requirements for graduating highschools in Massachusetts is under the administration of a district’s schools commands. 

Overall, the general public of MA feels as if the MCAS graduation requirement removal can and will heavily support the students graduating.