Senators Ready Reforms Of Educational Collaboratives

As state senators begin their new session, one of the first bills they'll take up is reform of educational collaboratives.

The bill was written in response to abuses at the Merrimack Special Education Collaborative, where the director was accused of funneling millions of dollars into an account that he controlled.

Sen. Sonia Chang-Diaz says that this bill would require greater oversight of the collaboratives so that similar abuses couldn't take place again.

"For all of the behaviors and the patterns that we saw across the [inspector general's] and the auditor's reports, either greater transparency, greater accountability, or greater clarity was always the remedy for what was ailing the collaborative system," Chang-Diaz said.

The bill has widespread support in both houses of the Legislature.