Now that we are one quarter of the way through the 2025-26 legislative session, committees have begun holding hearings to learn more information about all of the bills that were introduced earlier this year. A number of bills that MBAE is advocating for have been included in these recent hearings, and the MBAE team has delivered testimony – both in-person and written – urging committee members to advance these key initiatives. The bills that have been on recent hearing agendas cover a range of topics including the expansion of Early College programs, longitudinal education data governance, industry-recognized credentials, and more.

These legislative hearings kicked off on May 5^th, when the Joint Committee on Higher Education considered the College in High School legislation (H.1455/S.923) that is supported by MBAE and our partners at the Massachusetts Alliance for Early College. We know that Early College programs are producing transformative results for participating students, many of whom are Black, Latino, or Low-Income students, and this legislation would build on the momentum generated in recent years by creating a formalized structure that would allow these successful pathway programs to reach many more high school students across the Commonwealth.

The Joint Education Committee has also been active in recent months, holding a hearing on May 12^th that featured discussion on a longitudinal education data governance bill (H.630) that MBAE has supported for the last two sessions, in partnership with the policy team at MassINC. Massachusetts already has a data infrastructure in place that collects a lot of valuable information about the programs that students participate in and the resulting outcomes for each student. What our state doesn’t have is a centralized governance structure that is designed to ensure that we are leveraging these powerful data systems in ways that are valuable for policymakers, students and families, researchers, and other stakeholders. H.630 would establish this sort of structure.

Another hearing of the Joint Education Committee on June 3^rd included four different bills that are a part of MBAE’s pathways legislative package:

• Legislation to codify the Workforce Skills Cabinet (H.637/S.325), which would provide important vision and governance duties as a cross-agency governance structure overseeing the equitable growth of college and career pathway programs;
• Bills to incentivize the awarding of industry-recognized credentials (H.686/S.321) by giving districts an additional $1,000 in funding for every high school student that earns a credential that has high employment value;
• Legislation to require the state to conduct a biennial pathways alignment review of all student learner pathways (H.727/S.331) to determine which programs are setting students up to successfully fill the requirements of job openings in future years – and whether there is equitable access to such programs; and
• A bill that would require the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) to provide coordinated governance and oversight of high school pathway programs (S.439) to ensure that there is a clear focus on equity and common sets of goals and metrics for success.

Lastly, on June 17^th the Joint Education Committee held a hearing on a number of bills including legislation that would expand access to and participation in the MyCAP career and academic planning program (H.533/S.438). This legislation would require school districts to ensure that all high school students participate in programs such as MyCAP that allow them to develop an individualized learning plan aligned with their goals for college and career by the start of the 2028-29 school year.

MBAE is very grateful for the support of our legislative partners who have championed these important bills, and for the efforts of committee members and staff to coordinate the logistics of these hearings. We are excited about the upcoming work to advance these bills and will make sure to keep our employer networks and other partners updated on our progress.