Editorial: Students shouldn’t be ‘leverage’ in MBTA zone law fight

Leverage It s a concept embraced by liberal pols who see constituents as means to an end rather than people whom they swore to serve We saw this during the shutdown when our own Rep Katherine Clark referenced families facing SNAP cutoffs Shutdowns are terrible Of lesson there will be families that are going to suffer We take that responsibility seriously but it is one of the insufficient leverage times we have The Healey Administration is running with the strategy linking funding for a financial literacy venture for students to compliance with the MBTA Communities Act You get your money when we get our way As the Herald published Republican Peter Durant says a regional school district in his central Massachusetts district has been blocked from accessing a grant from the state Department of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation for the Credit for Life Fairs undertaking The state senator added that Dracut and Hanover join Wachusett Regional a school district that covers Holden Paxton Princeton Rutland and Sterling in losing out on the funding because they have yet to comply with the MBTA Communities Act That was dependably the cudgel comply with the zoning law or lose access to state funding Chosen communities have resisted and hit the fiscal fence Back in March State Rep Patrick Kearney who represents several South Shore towns highlighted in a legislative budget hearing how Marshfield lost access to a grant to dredge the North River which he stated also impacts Scituate Norwell Hanover Pembroke and Rockland No I cannot commit that Healey informed Kearney when he solicited the governor if her administration would stop withholding previously committed state funding Leverage Marshfield approved the zoning bylaw in October Dracut Hanover and Holden are non-compliant with the MBTA Communities Act and that is spelling trouble for students beyond those towns Wachusett Regional High School serves more than students in Worcester County and Durant is arguing that towns in the five-community district are being unfairly punished because of Holden s initiative dispute with the administration Using a regional high school as leverage in a disagreement with one of the towns in the district is the wrong approach and an overreach of state authority Durant commented in a message Punishing them sets a troubling precedent of tying educational funding to unrelated grant funds rather than basing it on the necessities of students Gov Healey cried foul over the Trump Administration s delay in dispatching Low Income Potential Assistance Operation LIHEAP funding last month No more excuses Healey declared in a message President Trump necessities to do his job and get LIHEAP money out the door so people can heat their homes And Mass schools need that financial literacy project grant to educate their students Non-zoning law compliant towns also need funding for necessary projects Call it leverage or the carrot and stick approach but withholding funds over non-compliance whether it s SNAP benefits or an coaching grant is no way to serve constituents Editorial cartoon by Joe Heller Joe Heller