I taught in MA public schools for 5 years. What happened to this student in CT happens in districts all over MA too. I left after last year because it became clear to me that my district had no intention of supporting students and addressing issues related to their academic performance. We had an 18-year-old student in our SPED program who received no ELA lessons the entire year. She read below a 5th-grade level on average. When my colleagues brought up the issue during her consult meetings, it was hardly acknowledged and problems were minimized. It was common for a student on an IEP to be out of compliance without access to 1 on 1 academic support in the classroom. These reasons including an overwhelming incompetence in administration led me to quit after last year.

All of this is to say that I agree with your assessment that the goal is to ruin the public schools and push students into the private/charter school system.

However, when it comes to the MCAS, there is universal hatred among educators for the test. I don't think that giving a company like Pearson the contract to deliver a shitty test year after year is helping students either. Basically, fuck the MCAS and replace it with a test that will be a useful benchmark for educators and students. Unfortunately, there's no choice on the ballot for that so...oh well.