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“Hi I’m Jackson, I’m here to ask a question to Governor Patrick, if he has all these tough
decisions to make on the budget, one area to cut back on might by the MCAS. Nobody I
know likes it, either teachers or students, and I was wondering why he might not cut back
on that?” “Hi Jackson, my name is Andrew London, I’m
a staff member here in Governor Patrick’s office. First of all, I want to thank you
for coming out to the town hall in Needham. I know the Governor really likes seeing young
people come out, come to these events, learn more about their government and get involved.
As for your question on the MCAS first of all, please know I know how you feel. When
I was in school I had to take the MCAS, I remember the pressure that came with, and
me and my friends, none of us really liked it. The MCAS, however, started in 1993 as
part of Massachusetts’ landmark educational reform plan. And since then we’ve had some
of the top performing students in the Nation. According to one test actually, a science
test, our students were the top performing students in the world recently. Now the MCAS
is actually a really important part of this success and that’s actually good news for
you. Now what Governor Patrick says a lot while he’s out giving speeches is that every
fourth grader only has one chance at fourth grade, and just because we’re in an economic
crunch now, we can’t take the risk of sacrificing that fourth graders one chance at fourth grade.
So we’re going to do whatever we can to make sure the processes and the tools that
we’ve used to gain that success in education are maintained during these tough economic
times. Now you’re clearly a smart kid, I’m sure you’re going to really well on the
MCAS when you take it and thank you for coming out to the event and please stay involved.”