Write to your Representative and Senator about the critical need to revise Chapter 70 Funding. Northampton, Amherst, Holyoke school systems can’t balance their budgets for 2026, and are considering cutting teachers and programs because of insufficient Ch.70 Funds.

LWVMA Where We Stand, p 39 calls for adjustment of the state’s education funding formula (the foundation budget formula) to meet changing needs and to cover costs, including those associated with mandated programs (2017)

Excellent slide show Overview of Chapter 70 Funding for Education by the Mass Municipal Association.

The Northampton Area League is fully committed to ensure compliance – in principle and in practice – with LWVUS Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policy.

1/21/2024 LWV DEI Policy: Discrimination or harassment of any kind will not be accepted within the League, including but not limited to race, socio-economic status, age, ability status, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, gender identity, or marital status. The League is committed to fostering, cultivating, and preserving a culture of diversity, equity, inclusion, access, and belonging for all people. The League is an organization that respects and values the richness of our community and our members. The collective sum of our individual differences and life experiences represents not only our culture, but our reputation and the organization’s mission and achievements as well.

On October 31, 2025 the court permanently blocked the Trump Administrations’s order to add Documentary Proof of Citizenship (DPOC) to the federal voter registration form. “This is a clear win for voters and for our democracy,” said Celina Stewart, CEO of the League of Women Voters of the United States. “Requiring voters to provide documentary proof of citizenship is not just unnecessary—it’s discriminatory, suppressing the voices of communities of color, women, and young people—eligible voters who simply want to participate. Today, the court sent a strong message to the Trump Administration: our elections must be accessible to all citizens, not just the privileged few.” Read press release HERE.

LWVUS sent two urgent letters to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Lee Zeldin. The letters (Sept. & Nov. 2025) were in strong opposition to rule changes that would: 1. rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which is the legal foundation used to control all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and 2. eliminate reporting GHG emissions by fossil fuel industries. Simply abandoning their mandate from Congress to control GHG emissions and to measure them won’t make climate change go away!

Quotes from the letters: “The League believes government must protect citizens’ right to know about dangers to health and the environment; that climate change is a serious threat facing our nation and planet; and that an interrelated approach to combating climate change is necessary to protect public health. The League also believes that the federal government should have a major role in setting standards for environmental protection and pollution control.”

Primary concerns include: “EPA’s proposed rules are not supported by robust scientific evidence and EPA’s economic rationale for the proposed rules is specious. As per EPA’s official website, the Agency has a responsibility to ensure that Americans have clean air, and that national efforts to reduce environmental risks are based on the best available scientific information.”

“Eliminating the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program (GHGRP) will not save Americans money as EPA claims, but rather, will result in the loss of billions of dollars in economic investment, tens of thousands of jobs, and America’s place as a leader in innovation, leaving Americans wholly unprepared to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century.”

**Read Celina Stewart’s Press Release Here.**

LWVUS Joins letter Opposing Federal Control of DC Police with coalition of 126 organizations

“President Trump has once again declared a false emergency to access executive powers that were not meant to be used as political tools to amass power. It is a terrible precedent that could harm cities, communities, and people well beyond D.C. What he is able to achieve in D.C., he will try to do elsewhere. He has already threatened to do the same in other major cities around the country.

The simple fact is that President Trump is not seriously interested in reducing crime. He is interested in misleading about crime to justify abhorrent practices, including rapid expansion of criminalization, unprecedented abuses by federal law enforcement agents, and dangerous executive power grabs. Time and time again, he has shown that his real goal is to create a police state, as he has repeatedly weaponized law enforcement to quash dissent and to serve his own personal and political ends.”

Tell your members of Congress to protect the freedom to vote and support the passage of the JOHN LEWIS VOTING RIGHTS ADVANCEMENT ACT. Use this LWVUS form to send the letter. Click on Write your letters.

Every day, the freedom to vote is under attack. Since the 2013 Supreme Court decision in Shelby County v. Holder gutted the Voting Rights Act (VRA), at least 31 states have enacted 114 voting laws that make it harder to vote, with the burden falling hardest on Black voters and other voters of color. We need a fully restored VRA to defend our democracy and protect the freedom to vote.