UU Youth and Adults Lobby Massachusetts State House, at 4th Annual Legislative Action Day
Promise the Children hosted our fourth annual Legislative Action Day (LAD) on Tuesday, April 17th. It was a wonderful experience with a terrific group of youth and adults. Unitarian Universalist teens came from around Massachusetts to lobby their state legislators on two issues: protecting marriage equality, and reforming high school graduation requirements. In all, twenty-five Unitarian Universalists took part in the Legislative Action Day.
Our day began with morning workshops at the First Church in Boston, Unitarian Universalist. We analyzed the two pieces of legislation on which we would lobby.
First, we discussed the proposed constitutional amendment to reverse marriage equality. Unitarian Universalists throughout the state are firmly committed to protecting equal marriage, and we role-played how we would talk with our legislators about the danger of the amendment.
Second, we discussed a piece of legislation that would change high school graduation requirements to de-emphasize the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests. (This bill is H.561). To help us understand this legislation, we had a special presentation from Lisa Guisbond of FairTest. Several of the youth in attendance spoke passionately about why standardized testing is a flawed assessment of a student’s academic abilities and progress.
In the afternoon, our group walked from First Church, across Boston Common, to the Massachusetts State House. The group then split up by district and met with legislators. Youth and adults reported that the meetings were worthwhile and productive.
To celebrate, we finished the day with ice cream sundaes at First Church (yummy!) and writing thank-you notes to the legislators and their staff. I left feeling proud of our group for lobbying on these important policies, and for the cooperation and enthusiasm that every one of the participants brought to this day.