Ballot questions would legalize medical marijuana, allow independent repair shops access to diagnostic information from manufacturers, establish a new system for evaluating teachers and allow terminally ill patients to self-administer drugs to end their lives.
BOSTON -- Secretary of State William F. Galvin is moving forward four proposed statewide ballot questions including measures to allow terminally ill patients to self-administer drugs to take their lives and another to create a new system for evaluating teachers.
Galvin plans to file the four ballot questions with the clerk of the state House of Representatives on Wednesday, marking another step in the process for such citizen initiatives. Under the state Constitution, legislators will now have until May 2 to pass the ballot questions as bills. If the bills don't pass or legislators fail to act, supporters would need to gather an additional 11,485 voter signatures to qualify for the Nov. 6 ballot.
Two other questions would legalize medical marijuana and allow independent repair businesses to obtain access to all the diagnostic information they need for fixing motor vehicles.
Secretary of State William GalvinArthur Kinsman, coordinator of the Massachusetts Right to Repair Coalition, said the group intends to vigorously pursue approval of the repair measure in the Legislature, but is also prepared to collect additional signatures.
"We have every intention of taking it to the ballot if the Legislature doesn't act," Kinsman said.
According to Brian S. McNiff, a spokesman for Galvin, the secretary of state's office counted and allowed 83,180 voter signatures for the "right to repair" question and 80,710 signatures for the proposed law for the humanitarian use of marijuana.
Galvin allowed 79,626 signatures for the proposed “death with dignity” initiative and 81,117 for the measure to establish a new evaluation system for educators.
Municipal clerks had certified the signatures before an earlier deadline. Advocates then turned in those signatures to Galvin's office by early in December.
All the ballot efforts collected more signatures than the required 68,911. Each group used paid signature gatherers, a common practice for binding questions the reach the statewide ballot.
The proposed teacher evaluation law would take effect on Jan. 1 of 2013. The law would not affect existing union contracts but would have to be followed in future agreements, according to a summary by the state attorney general's office.
Timothy T. Collins , president of the Springfield Education Association, said he personally opposes the teacher evaluation ballot effort.
"I don't think it will be good for public schools or public school children," he said.
Collins said he supports new educator-evaluation regulations approved in June by the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education.
Collins said those state regulations are being phased in and should be allowed to fully take effect. "It would be very, very difficult to start over with new changes," he said.
Sam Castaneda Holdren, a spokesman for Stand for Children, which is sponsoring the proposed ballot question, said the measure would make teaching performance a priority over seniority when making layoffs, abolishing "a last in, first out" policy.
"If we wait any longer, we risk keeping generations of kids in classrooms where they are not learning by allowing our schools to languish with outdated policies that do not put performance first and respect educators as professionals," Holdren said in an e-mail.
According to the new state regulations, teachers and administrators are evaluated partly by the scores of their students on the MCAS statewide tests, the opinions of students and parents, observations in classrooms and other measures.
The ballot question would have evaluation requirements that would go beyond the state regulations in some ways, Jason Williams, executive director of Stand for Children in Massachusetts, has said.
“We are pleased that .. lawmakers will now have a chance to weigh in on An Act to Promote Excellence in Public Schools when they return in January," Williams said in a statement.
The proposed ballot question may face a legal challenge. Paul F. Toner, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, has said the association the plans to file a lawsuit, asking the state Supreme Judicial Court to block the proposed teacher-evaluation law from the ballot partly because it is too broad.
According to the "death with dignity" ballot question, patients would be allowed to ask for life-ending medications from a doctor if they are terminally ill. Modeled after a law in Washington state, the proposed law would be available for people with six months or less to live and they would need to take the medications themselves after obtaining a prescription.
The proposal is being opposed by the state's four Roman Catholic bishops and the Massachusetts Medical Society.
Another ballot question would make Massachusetts the sixteenth state, including Maine and Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia, to have laws allowing the medical use of marijuana.
Under the proposed ballot question , people would need to be diagnosed with a debilitating medical condition such as glaucoma, cancer or "other conditions" as determined by a doctor, according to a copy of the proposed question.
Patients would be allowed to buy up to a 60-day supply of marijuana for their personal use from a nonprofit center that would grow the plants. The state Department of Public Health would regulate the provisions for medical marijuana.
Sen. Stanley C. Rosenberg, D-Amherst, who has filed a medical marijuana bill, has said he will work to approve his bill and then will back the ballot question if his bill fails in the Legislature.
“We are still hopeful that the Legislature will act to provide patients in Massachusetts the same access to necessary medical resources to fight debilitating diseases that are available in sixteen other states across the country,” Whitney Taylor, spokeswoman for the medical-marijuana effort, said in a statement.
Under the "right to repair" initiative, manufacturers would be required to sell to independent shops all the computer software they need to correctly figure out the problems of vehicles belonging to customers.
Supporters said that people should not be required to have dealers repair their vehicles. Independent repairers said they need access to the right diagnostic and safety information to fix cars.
But car manufacturers have said that if the information becomes widely accessible, it would lead to the manufacture of cheap versions in foreign nations. They warned it would allow operators in other countries to avoid the costly research needed to make the parts.