Her son struggled to read. Now the Mass. Senate’s top Dem is making literacy a priority for 2026
Years ago, long before she became a powerful pol, Karen Spilka was a mom to two school-aged kids. And one day, she noticed that her son was having trouble learning to read.
Spilka, D-Middlesex/Norfolk, who's now the president of the Massachusetts Senate, and her husband swooped into action.
She and her husband swapped Springsteen records for "Hooked on Phonics" on the family's home stereo.
In time, her son loved the records so much "that learning to read became fun," and he "grew up to be an avid reader," Spilka recalled.
He also grew up to be a high school history teacher. And in addition to inspiring Spilka to push for a statewide classroom cell phone ban, he also now coaches students who need extra help of their own.
And now, motivated by her own experience, the Ashland lawmaker is making what she describes as "high-quality comprehensive literacy instruction," a top priority for the New Year, she wrote in a Substack post published Wednesday.
The budget-writing Senate Ways and Means Committee is expected to release the bill, with full details, on Thursday. The floor debate on the proposal is slated to follow on Jan. 29.
The proposal echoes a previously approved state House bill that beefs up resources for classroom teachers and raises the bar for instruction.
"As a parent, it was hard to see my son struggle with something as foundational as reading," Spilka wrote in that Substack post.
If the majority-Democrat upper chamber passes the bill, legislative leaders in both chambers will reconcile their differences before sending the bill to Gov. Maura Healey for her signature.
Like the Senate, the state House is controlled by Democrats. Healey, too, is a Democrat.
"As a legislator, I now know that our family was not alone. I also know that not every child has the resources and extra help that my son had," she continued. "And when children advance in grade levels without having sufficient reading skills, their entire academic careers suffer—and doors of opportunity that should be unlocked for them remain closed."
On Wednesday, Healey's office announced that the state had tapped 84 more elementary schools to receive free "high dosage" literacy tutoring from February to June 2026.
The $3.9 million in funding announced Wednesday is the second round of funding to come from $25 million in Millionaires' Tax revenue earmarked for education spending. A total of 356 schools statewide have now received funding for these efforts, Healey's office said.
"High-dosage" tutoring provides one-on-one or small-group instruction multiple times per week for at least 10 weeks to help young learners build literacy skills, Healey's office said in a statement.
The latest round of funding "expands access to intensive early literacy tutoring for students who need it most, helping them build the foundational skills critical for long-term success," Healey said in a statement.
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