Matt Damon, Mike Bloomberg Weigh In On MCAS Ballot Question

In a sprint to the finish line, celebrities, elected officials, and millions of dollars in new donations have flooded the hotly-contested race over Ballot Question 2 over the last two weeks.

A “yes” vote on Question 2 would remove the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as a high school graduation requirement. The referendum is the most controversial of the five ballot propositions, garnering more than $18 million in donations from both sides, $7 million of which arrived over the last 11 days.

The race took a turn on Wednesday when Hollywood star Matt Damon — a Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School alum and Harvard dropout — endorsed a “yes” vote on Question 2 in a video posted to X.

“We need to trust our teachers, not some one-size-fits-all test,” Damon said in the video, adding that the graduation requirement “disproportionately affects lower-income communities,” students with disabilities, and people of color — “people whose futures we do not want to limit.”

Eight days earlier, Michael R. Bloomberg — former mayor of New York City and entrepreneur, who hails from Medford — made a splash when he donated $2.5 million to the “no” campaign.

“Mike Bloomberg has been a fierce advocate on issues affecting children, such as reducing gun violence and improving education,” Dominic Slowey, a spokesperson for the No on 2 campaign, wrote in an email.

Bloomberg’s donation accounts for 48.5 percent of the total funds raised by the No on 2 campaign. It was accompanied by a slew of donations from other business leaders, according to reports from the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance.

James S. “Jim” Davis, chair of New Balance, donated $250,000 to the effort. State Street Corporation, Bain Capital Co-Managing Partner John Connaughton, and Ross Jones — a managing director of Berkshire Partners — each donated $100,000.

Damon’s endorsement of a “yes” joins supporters from ​​Massachusetts’ congressional delegation, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) — who endorsed the question on Monday — and Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.).

“Passing Question 2 is about promoting an educational system that upholds high standards while recognizing the diverse ways in which students learn and succeed,” Markey wrote in a statement.

Both Markey and Damon’s endorsements were posted directly to social media platforms from the Yes on Question 2 campaign.

The campaign is funded by the Committee for High Standards, Not High Stakes. Its sole benefactor has been the Massachusetts Teachers Association, which has spent nearly $14 million on the campaign.

In Cambridge, Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern and Councilor Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler are public supporters of the “yes” campaign. McGovern and Sobrinho-Wheeler both voted to endorse Question 2 at an Oct. 7 City Council meeting, though the proposal ultimately failed by a 4-4-1 vote.

“I believe it’s time to replace the test with a more equitable measure of a student’s competency by looking comprehensively at their schoolwork and give teachers and districts more freedom to decide what’s best for their students,” Sobrinho-Wheeler wrote in an email.

But other top state officials oppose the measure, including Governor Maura T. Healey ’92, Attorney General Andrea J. Campbell, and leaders in the state legislature. At an Oct. 22 panel at the Graduate School of Education, Massachusetts Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler said he opposes the measure because it does not propose an alternative, which he says harms students’ preparedness.

The No on 2 website lists Cambridge City Councilors Paul F. Toner and Patricia M. “Patty” Nolan ’80 as opponents of the measure, as well as former Cambridge School Committee member Manikka Bowman.

Toner, who previously served as president of the MTA and president of the Cambridge Education Association — the union for CPS teachers — wrote in a statement to The Crimson that before the implementation of the MCAS graduation requirement, schools “allowed kids to fail.”

“Many — mostly poor kids of color — were allowed to float through the grade levels and graduate unprepared for college or work,” Toner wrote.

As out-of-state endorsers like Damon and Bloomberg attempt to tip the scales in different directions, the fate of the ballot question will remain in the hands of Massachusetts voters when they head to the polls on Tuesday.

—Staff writer Darcy G Lin can be reached at darcy.lin@thecrimson.com.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com.