Sonia Chang-Díaz is a former public school teacher and the first Latina and Asian-American to serve in the Massachusetts State Senate — and she’s spent her career fighting for and winning the bold change that working families need. Sonia’s mom was a social worker. Her dad came to America with $50 in his pocket and became NASA’s first Latino astronaut. Now she’s building a movement to tackle our state’s biggest challenges and restore Massachusetts’ promise to all families.
Our state is known for our education system. But beneath the surface, it’s clear that the quality and quantity of education our kids get still depends on what you look like, where you live, and what’s in your wallet. It is Sonia’s personal mission to make sure our state provides a quality, debt-free, public education to every student from birth into adulthood.
As a former public school teacher, Sonia knows first-hand the importance of providing our families, educators, and school districts the support they need to give every child the chance for success. As a policy-maker, she also knows that empowering an educated workforce is our state’s single best strategy for economic prosperity. That’s why Sonia’s administration will lead the way to make quality, debt-free, universal public education from birth to adulthood a reality for every Massachusetts student. She’s released a comprehensive education plan, which will:
Establish universal early education as an affordable option for all families.
Fully implement K-12 education funding reforms from the Student Opportunity Act, expand behavioral health services, and dismantle the school to prison pipeline.
Provide debt-free public college for all Massachusetts students.
It’s also why she’s led the fight to increase funding for schools, and in particular for our highest-need school districts, for her entire career:
Wrote and championed the Education PROMISE Act, which served as the basis for the Student Opportunity Act of 2019, winning $1.5 billion in new progressive aid annually to K-12 districts across the state — the most significant update of our state education funding system since 1993. She also held the line during years of negotiations to ensure the bill would prioritize funding to close the achievement gap for low-income students, students of color and English language learners.
Co-chaired the bi-partisan Foundation Budget Review Commission, which concluded in 2015 that Massachusetts was underestimating the cost of K-12 education by $1-2 billion every year and was drastically underfunding school districts with high proportions of students of color and low-income students. The commission’s recommendations were implemented with the Student Opportunity Act of 2019.
Negotiated key reforms to statewide education policy to allow public schools to provide bilingual education to English Learners, reform the state’s school discipline laws, and expand civics education in Massachusetts.
Advocated for legislation to expand access to high quality early education and childcare for families across the Commonwealth.
Consistently prioritized increased funding for early educator salaries and subsidies to reduce waitlists for children in need of care.