SENATOR SONIA CHANG-DÍAZ

State House News Service

Mass. Senate Leaders Propose Sweeping Police Reforms

By Katie Lannan | Jul 06, 2020

The Massachusetts Senate plans to vote Thursday on a wide-ranging bill that would create a process for certifying and de-certifying officers and impose new limits on use of force, including a ban on chokeholds and restrictions on the use of tear gas.

The Boston Globe

‘I have wounds that I’ll never lose.’ The state’s top political leaders of color press for change across all levels of government

By Matt Stout and Dasia Moore | Jun 02, 2020

Mobilized by the social unrest gripping the country, the state’s top political leaders of color gathered Tuesday to urge action across all levels of government, their words underwritten by a docket of resolutions, policies, and legislation they say are designed to transmute anger into change, increasing police accountability and chipping away at structural racism.

Jamaica Plain News

State Law Puts Moratorium on Evictions, Foreclosures During COVID-19 Emergency

By David Ertischek | Apr 23, 2020

“Ensuring people have safe, reliable housing throughout this crisis is one of the most important things we can do to flatten the curve and save lives right now,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz (D-2nd Suffolk).

WGBH

How Are People Who Don't Primarily Speak English Getting Information About Coronavirus?

By Esteban Bustillos | Mar 20, 2020

State Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz’s Twitter feed has been filled with information about local resources in both English and Spanish.

MassLive

Bill that calls for no-interest loans for Mass. marijuana social equity and economic empowerment applicants reported favorably by committee

By Melissa Hanson | Mar 05, 2020

“This is both a critical and efficient step in delivering on the requirement that money from marijuana tax revenues be spent on restorative economic development for communities harmed by the War on Drugs,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Díaz, the chair of the joint committee.

State House News Service

Baker Signs Landmark Student Opportunity Act

By Chris Lisinski | Nov 27, 2019

Massachusetts will invest an additional $1.5 billion in K-12 public education over the next seven years after Gov. Charlie Baker signed a funding reform bill, touted by supporters as a generational change, into law Tuesday.

Lowell Sun

Gateway Cities beneficiaries of ed-funding bill

By Editorial | Nov 22, 2019

The bill, dubbed the Student Opportunity Act, represents the most significant update to the funding formula since it was established as part of the 1993 Education Reform Act.

WWLP

Lawmakers work on changes to prison visitation policies

By Jodi Reed | Nov 16, 2019

Senator Chang-Diaz said the current policies in place make it hard for inmates to return to civilian life once they are released.

MassLive

Massachusetts Senate passes $1.5 billion education funding bill after lengthy debate

By Shira Schoenberg | Oct 03, 2019

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, D-Boston, a former Education Committee chair and a leader on education funding reform, said, “This bill stands as our commitment that, in Massachusetts, zip code must not be destiny.”

Boston Globe

School funding bill will change the game for disadvantaged students

By Sonia Chang-Díaz | Sep 30, 2019

Fulfilling the promise of public education as the great equalizer is our next big goal. Bay Staters believe in it. It’s a goal our constitution anchors us to. Now, that collective effort in advocating, crafting policy, and working together has given us a chance to deliver on it.

MassLive

Massachusetts lawmakers consider bills to update state gun laws

By Shira Schoenberg | Aug 28, 2019

Chang-Diaz noted that mass shootings, especially those involving middle-class white children, make headlines. But she asked fellow lawmakers to have that same “sense of horror, unacceptance, urgency when shootings happen in Dorchester or Roxbury or Springfield or Holyoke or other urban communities, when the child’s riddled body is black or brown and their family is low-income, doing their best to make ends meet.”

Dorchester Reporter

Weekend shut-downs set on MBTA subway lines

By Katie Trojano | Aug 14, 2019

“There’s no reason it had to be this way, the situation we find ourself in now is due to years of deferred maintenance. Deferring maintenance is a habit that State leaders need to break,” Chang-Diaz said.

MassLive

Massachusetts lawmakers will leave for August break with major unfinished business: education funding

By Shira Schoenberg | Jul 31, 2019

“At what point does ‘we’re working on it’ become justice delayed and denied?” Chang-Diaz said the Senate has passed the recommendations of the Foundation Budget Review Commission multiple times. “The Legislature has had nearly four years to consider the recommendations — that’s half a kid’s elementary school years,” she said. “There’s no good reason that students will go back to school with no foundation funding plan in place.”

Dorchester Reporter

Chang-Diaz seeks breakthrough for funding of education reform

By Jennifer Smith | Jun 27, 2019

In an extended interview during and after The Horse Race podcast last week, Chang-Díaz told the Reporter that the dramatic funding boost is necessary to fully meet the state’s obligation to provide a quality education to its students while grappling with the greater cost of educating disadvantaged children. It expands on the bipartisan though last-minute efforts of the last cycle.

MassLive

Public school advocates have $950 million incentive to lobby for education funding bill, study finds

By Shira Schoenberg | Jun 17, 2019

Chang-Diaz said the difference in funding between the PROMISE Act and Baker’s plan is “stark” and represents the difference between a school district hiring a fraction of a school counselor or starting a quality preschool program.

The Boston Globe

To boost equity, give public loans to pot startups

May 17, 2019

The nascent legal pot industry is dominated by white players and out-of-state corporations. Enter state Senator Sonia Chang-Díaz.

Energy News Network

Massachusetts bill would restore net metering rate for community solar

By Sarah Shemkus | Apr 25, 2019

“I want to fix it because it is just plain unfair,” said state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz, the bill’s sponsor in the Senate.

Boston Patch

Hundreds Show Up At State House Education Funding Hearing

By Jenna Fisher | Mar 22, 2019

During eight hours of testimony, hundreds took to the mic to indicate their support for the PROMISE Act.

Boston Herald

Officials, Patriots push for education funding hike

By Mary Markos | Mar 22, 2019

“Massachusetts still has one of the worst achievement gaps in the nation between rich and poor students,” state Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz said in her testimony. “Everybody knows that money alone won’t do it, but we also know that you can’t do it without money.”

Jamaica Plain Gazette

Sen. Chang Diaz uses the spirit of Martin Luther King Day to call for education funding reform

By Seth Daniel | Jan 27, 2019

JP Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz took the podium at the 49th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast in the South Boston Convention Center and used the shining light of Dr. King’s example to call for another local fight for justice – that being the justice of equal education funding.