Latest news with #MassINCPollingGroup
Yahoo
29-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
25 Investigates: New poll suggests Mass. parents more worried about student academics
Parents are increasingly worried about their children's student achievement in school. That's according to a new poll from EdTrust in Massachusetts and MassINC Polling Group shared with 25 Investigates. The statewide survey went out to 1,126 parents of Massachusetts students enrolled in grades K-12, oversampling Black, Latino and Asian parents. 'We have seen elevated rates of chronic absenteeism, and we know students continue to face ongoing struggles with mental health,' says Jennie Williamson, the state director of the EdTrust in Massachusetts. There are also academic struggles as 25 Investigates has documented. In 2024, 40% of Massachusetts 4th graders were reading at or above grade level, according to The Nation's Report Card. Williamson says 5 years post-COVID, students and families are still grappling with the profound impacts of the pandemic while districts face shrinking budgets. The poll says 43% of Massachusetts parents expressed concern this year about their students' academic performance. That's up from 36% when EdTrust asked that question in 2022. It's more acute for parents of students with disabilities of whom 60% say they are somewhat or very concerned. 69% of parents of multilingual learners say they're concerned. '45% of parents report being concerned about their child's mental health and emotional health,' Williamson said. That worry is also higher for parents of students with disabilities at 63%. Williamson said the survey also revealed a persistent digital divide. 'The digital divide is not merely a relic of the pandemic, but an ongoing and for some populations, an intensifying issue,' said Williamson. Survey results show only 68% of parents from low-income backgrounds say that their family has access to enough devices, which is down from 80% in 2020. 94% of parents from higher income backgrounds say that they have sufficient access to devices. Williamson says it will be important to see how state lawmakers utilize funds from the fair share tax to address concerns around education, when there are so many competing priorities for investment. The concerns may be influencing trust in schools. 62% of parents said their child's teacher is doing the best they can. 47% said the same about their child's school. 40% felt their child's district was doing the best they can. 'Most school districts are really facing an increasingly precarious financial predicament between the recent expiration of COVID funds and the looming threat of federal funding reductions at the national level,' Williamson said. 'I think our school districts are really struggling to meet the needs of students while facing significant fiscal uncertainty.' Related links: 25 Investigates: Lawmakers, advocates want to revamp reading instruction in Mass. schools 25 Investigates: Massachusetts launching free teacher trainings focused on literacy This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tough-to-get rent vouchers popular with tenants, landlords
BOSTON (SHNS) – Both tenants and landlords reported significant satisfaction with a state-run voucher program designed to help low-income residents pay rent, even as they continue to flag difficulties with navigating the system, according to a new report. The MassINC Polling Group and The Boston Foundation on Wednesday published a 56-page report about the Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program, combining broader surveys with more detailed interviews involving residents who use the safety-net program. Seven in 10 landlords said they are somewhat or very satisfied with the program, praising it for guaranteeing consistent rent payments, allowing them to make positive community impacts and reducing tenant turnover. Among renters, many described experiencing significant benefits. Eighty-six percent agreed that their children are performing better in school because they have stable housing, and 78% said it's easier to keep a job with housing secured. 'The Massachusetts Rental Voucher Program enables thousands of families to put down roots in our community and access a safe and stable home that provides a foundation for them to thrive in school and work,' Sarah Bartley, senior vice president of safe and stable housing at United Way of Massachusetts Bay, said in a statement provided alongside the report. 'This report demonstrates how we all win when families are able to realize their goals by maintaining employment, saving more, and building credit.' Still, analysts said many MRVP participants continue to experience obstacles. Forty-five percent of renters who were deemed eligible for the program said it took more than a year to receive a rental voucher after they first applied. About a third said it took them four months or longer after receiving a voucher to find an apartment. Roughly one-quarter of tenants said they were treated unfairly in the process of using their voucher. One tenant surveyed reported waiting for hours on the phone to get recertified. 'We have to sit on hold for like five hours. Then the call will get disconnected,' the tenant said, per the report. 'Once you get to number one, you have to sit on hold for another three hours.' Report authors called on Beacon Hill to codify MRVP into statute, instead of keeping it as a single line item renewed in the annual state budget, and to expand the number of vouchers available. Households that make less than 80% of the area median income where they live are eligible to apply for MRVP vouchers. Demand for vouchers far exceeds the supply. The program serves 10,700 low-income households, who typically pay 30% of their gross income for rent and receive a voucher for the remainder, according to the Boston Foundation, but the waitlist to get on the program was recently estimated at 160,000 and the new report pegged it at 168,000 as of February. Policymakers face regular calls for more action to address a statewide lack of affordable, available housing that puts pressure on residents across the income spectrum. In their fiscal 2026 budget proposals, Gov. Maura Healey and the Senate Ways and Means Committee each moved to increase funding for MRVP from $219 million to $253 million. The House-approved budget would go a bit further and bump the program up to $258 million. Healy administration officials have estimated that a $253 million appropriation could support a bit more than 11,000 vouchers, citing increases in rents as a constraining factor. 'Across the Commonwealth, the intensifying housing affordability crisis is disproportionately affecting low-income Latinx and immigrant communities, especially our most vulnerable residents in places like Chelsea,' said La Colaborativa Chief Operating Officer Alex Train. 'MRVP, a major tool in combating the affordability crisis, is a notably effective program, as outlined in this thorough report. We emphatically urge the Commonwealth to codify and expand MRVP, in order to make housing stability a reality for all families in our Commonwealth.' Other report recommendations included better communication with tenants and landlords, state investment in outreach and education about the program, and efforts to tackle the so-called cliff effect, which refers to when a voucher-holder becomes ineligible after an increase in income pushes them above the allowable threshold. The survey, conducted in early December, involved 989 tenants with vouchers through the program and 175 landlords who rent to voucher-holders. Authors also held two focus groups with MRVP tenants and 11 landlord interviews in February. Local News Headlines WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WWLP.
Yahoo
06-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Nonprofits agree they are worse off under Trump
BOSTON (SHNS) – Hundreds of workers and leaders at nonprofits across Massachusetts overwhelmingly agreed that the Bay State will fare worse under the Trump administration, voicing concerns about funding cuts and heightened stress on vulnerable populations. New survey results published Monday by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, The Boston Foundation and MassINC Polling Group found that only 2% of nonprofit staff polled feel Massachusetts will be 'a little better off' or 'much better off' with President Donald Trump in office. Ninety-one percent of respondents said the Bay State will be 'a little worse off' or 'much worse off,' with more than three in four selecting the latter, more dramatic assessment. Jim Klocke, CEO of the Mass. Nonprofit Network, described the results as indicative of an 'existential threat.' 'The nonprofit sector is under attack, as are other pillars of civil society,' Klocke said at an event to unpack the survey. 'We have a long, hard road to travel, but we as a sector, we also have a lot of great strengths that we can bring to this work.' Nearly six in 10 organizations covered by the survey receive federal funding. Asked how their nonprofit's work would be affected by the Trump administration, 31% said they think the administration's policies will impact the populations they serve professionally, 16% said federal policy conflicts with their organization's mission or values, and 11% described fear, anxiety or low morale as a result of the Trump administration. The survey involved 523 respondents and ran between Feb. 25 and March 24. MassINC Polling Group President Steve Koczela said in that span, many nonprofit workers feared potential Trump administration actions and funding cuts that have since become reality. About 8% of respondents said they had lost federal funding during that February-to-March survey window. MassINC senior research associate Zayna Basma-Doyle added 'we anticipate that number would be a lot higher if we did the survey right now.' Koczela also said the pessimistic trend remained consistent across different facets of the nonprofit sector. 'It varies only a little bit when you look at different nonprofits based on which populations they serve. In other words, they all pretty much — this is kind of the shape for all types of nonprofits and whoever they serve and whatever their mission is,' Koczela said. 'You're seeing 75 to 85% [think Massachusetts will be] much worse off, and 90 to 95% saying some variation of worse off.' More than 500,000 Bay Staters work at nonprofits, according to Klocke, who said more than 1.1 million residents also made charitable donations to nonprofits last year and hundreds of thousands more served as volunteers, board members and advisors. During his first four months in office, Trump has ramped up immigration enforcement, moved to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, and sought to slow clean energy development such as offshore wind, many of which are ideas on which he campaigned. He's also pushed to curtail federal spending, including on grants and programs that both nonprofits and state governments use to help build their own budgets. 'It's really not only federal dollars, because as federal dollars shift, the shape of the need shifts, and the shape of where philanthropic dollars go shifts — [that's] what a lot of nonprofit leaders are anticipating,' Koczela said. Most nonprofit workers who participated in the survey said they expect to face higher demand for programs and services they offer under Trump, and nine in 10 said the administration will make it harder to do their jobs. Diane Yentel, president of the National Council of Nonprofits, said at Monday's event she sees 'no way for the nonprofit sector to end this year in a neutral place.' 'There's no way to end the year more or less where we started,' Yentel said. 'We'll either end the year somewhere on a spectrum of harm, from somewhat harmed to really potentially decimated, or I really believe we can end it strengthened in the way that we respond to this moment.' The National Council of Nonprofits is part of two lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's actions, Yentel said, and is also crafting communications strategies to help navigate a response to the upheaval. Other nonprofit leaders are similarly fashioning their responses. Shanique Rodriguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Voter Table, said her group is 'looking at pulling together rapid response funding' alongside partner groups like Lawyers for Civil Rights. WWLP-22News, an NBC affiliate, began broadcasting in March 1953 to provide local news, network, syndicated, and local programming to western Massachusetts. Watch the 22News Digital Edition weekdays at 4 p.m. on Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Poll looks at ditching gas tax, expanding tolls, fees
BOSTON (SHNS) – About half of Massachusetts residents backed phasing out the state's gasoline tax and instead expanding roadway tolling or imposing fees based on mileage, according to a new poll that took the temperature on a range of transportation-related ideas. Fifty-one percent of respondents said they would somewhat or strongly support replacing the gas tax with a 'fee based on how much people drive, whether they drive a gas car or an electric car,' a MassINC Polling Group survey published Wednesday found. Thirty-one percent opposed the idea, and 18% said they do not know. Pollsters found a nearly identical split for eliminating the gas tax and instead deploying 'tolls on more Massachusetts roads': 52% support, 32% opposition and 16% who said they did not know. Massachusetts relies on revenue from the 24-cents-per-gallon gas tax to fund its transportation investments, but experts argue that funding from that source will decline as vehicles become more efficient or as drivers shift to electric vehicles. Gas tax revenues increased from $603 million in fiscal 2023 to $615 million in fiscal 2024, according to the Department of Revenue's 'blue book' report. The MassINC poll conducted on behalf of advocacy group Transportation for Massachusetts also found a plurality of Bay Staters are open to at least studying congestion pricing, a practice of charging motorists higher fees at certain times and in certain locations to disincentivize driving when traffic is at its worst. In their question to respondents, pollsters referenced the start of congestion pricing in New York City and said early reports indicate 'the fee has led to 1 million fewer cars and 10-30% less traffic on the bridges and tunnels into Manhattan.' They also noted President Donald Trump wants to cancel the program. Asked if Massachusetts should study the use of congestion pricing in and around Boston, 48% said yes and 35% said no. MassINC surveyed 702 Massachusetts residents between Feb. 21 and Feb. 25. The poll's margin of error is 4 percentage points. Transportation for Mass. supports legislation that would overhaul the Metropolitan Highway System and its tolls (S 2353) and bills that would push for reductions in how many miles Bay Staters travel in motor vehicles (S 2246 / H 3726). Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
