Topline results and crosstabs for the poll can be found at www.umass.edu/poll

A new University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Poll has found substantial consensus in responses regarding Bay State residents’ views on a trio of important topics – race, education and abortion.

“With Black History Month soon to be in the rearview mirror, residents of the commonwealth are expressing optimism about the progress made in the march to the mountaintop of Martin Luther King’s dreams,” says Tatishe Nteta, provost professor of political science at UMass Amherst and director of the poll. “Six in 10 believe that the state has made ‘a lot of progress’ toward the goal of racial equality between whites and African Americans, and this sentiment is shared by majorities of every racial and demographic group in the Bay State except liberals (46%). While the state still has room to improve on the issue of race, it is undeniable that the state of Massachusetts, one of two states in the nation to elect an African American senator, governor and attorney general, has come a long way in fulfilling the promise that all its citizens are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights.”

Looking back to events from the first tenure of President Donald Trump, including Charlottesville and the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, and comparing it to the first month of Trump’s second term, Nteta says the poll conducted Feb. 14-20 provides some surprising results based on the 700 respondents’ views toward the future of race relations.

“The first Trump administration was marked by a number of concerning racial incidents that challenged the notion that the country had achieved a status as post-racial,” he says. “One month into the second Trump administration, race is once again at the top of the agenda, as President Trump has ended federal diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts and he and a number of prominent Republicans have blamed the nation’s DEI programs for a number of natural disasters and a string of airline mishaps.

“Given the national backlash against efforts to continue the nation’s steady march toward racial equality, many would suspect that residents of the commonwealth would express high levels of pessimism about the future of race relations in the state,” Nteta continues. “Our results suggest otherwise, as a majority (56%) believe that race relations between African Americans and whites will improve in the next four years, and this belief is exhibited across generational, gender, class and racial divisions. The lone exceptions are majorities of residents with postgraduate degrees (56%), Democrats (57%), liberals (63%) and Harris voters (56%), who all believe that the next four years will worsen relations, likely a reflection of concern with national headwinds on race.”

The poll also found significant backlash among respondents toward the current efforts by Trump to dismantle DEI efforts.

“In the Bay State, majorities of its citizens oppose corresponding state efforts to end DEI policies in education, employment and housing, with the only exceptions being Republicans (74%), conservatives (74%) and Trump voters (64%), who support ending them,” Nteta says. “Whether these policies survive will likely be determined in the courts, but our results suggest that – in the court of public opinion – residents of the commonwealth remain committed to DEI policies to address racial inequities.”

“Massachusetts residents have complicated, and perhaps overly optimistic, attitudes about racial equality,” warns Jesse Rhodes, professor of political science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll. “On one hand, they perceive that the state has made great strides toward equality between whites and African Americans and expect that circumstances will improve further in the coming years. On the other, they have mixed feelings about policies intended to promote racial equality. While a strong majority opposes ending DEI programs, a majority (54%) opposes reparations to African Americans for slavery. Arguably, public ambivalence toward policies intended to promote racial equality is one of the most significant obstacles to advancing equality.”

“While African Americans in the state have achieved historic levels of economic well-being, social inclusion and political power and influence, the Black community still suffers from a number of disadvantages, most notably in the areas of education, employment, finances and housing that place African Americans at or near the bottom of the socioeconomic hierarchy in the state,” Nteta says. “In explaining this persistent inequality, citizens of the Bay State point to structural issues such as less access to good schools (70%) and high paying jobs (68%), as well the continuing influence of racial discrimination (71%). However, many residents believe African Americans’ status reflects cultural factors, such as family instability (76%), and a lack of good role models (60%). Less popular explanations correspond with stereotypical views of the African American community, with only 4 in 10 pointing to a lack of motivation to work hard as important in explaining racial inequalities.”

“Even in one of the most progressive states in the nation, roughly a third of residents express racially resentful attitudes toward African Americans,” Rhodes notes. “These include the idea that African Americans should lift themselves up by their bootstraps ‘without special favors’ (42%), and the belief that African Americans aren’t trying hard enough to advance themselves (27%). Such beliefs are closely related to opposition to public policies designed to promote racial equality. The prevalence of these beliefs in the commonwealth helps explain why racial equality is such an elusive goal.”
 

Education

The latest UMass Amherst/WCVB Poll also asked respondents their views on K-12 education in the commonwealth, specifically regarding the retirement of the MCAS test and restricting the use of cell phones by students in schools except in the case of an emergency or if the student has a medical condition or disability.

“In 2024, Massachusetts residents voted in favor of ending passage of the MCAS as a requirement for high school graduation, but that doesn’t mean that they believe that there should be no statewide graduation standards,” Rhodes says. “Indeed, our survey suggests that a majority (53%) of Massachusetts residents want statewide graduation standards, with the most popular option (52%) being a requirement that all students successfully complete a required set of courses. This indicates that Massachusetts residents approve of robust graduation requirements but believe they should be tied to substantive courses rather than a single high-stakes test.”

“Regarding cell phone use by public school students, Massachusetts voters are saying, ‘can you hear me now?’” says Raymond La Raja, professor of political science at UMass Amherst and co-director of the poll. “They are sending a crystal-clear signal about restricting cell phone use in schools – 76% support such restrictions, almost a majority (48%) strongly so. Parents overwhelmingly support it, as well, with 84% of this key constituency wanting more interventions.”

Abortion

The UMass Amherst/WCVB Poll found growing fears about the future of abortion among its respondents.

“Although Massachusetts has strong protections for access to abortions, residents of the state have become somewhat less convinced that the right to choose having an abortion in the commonwealth will remain safe, legal and accessible,” La Raja says. “Since the election we have seen a decline in voters feeling this way, from 70% pre-election to 62% now, and an uptick of people telling us they just don’t know if it will remain, from 23% pre-election to 27% today. Importantly, men and women don’t differ much on views of abortion access. Not surprisingly, voters in childbearing years appear especially concerned about abortion access.”

The survey also found consistent support for protecting women’s choice, emergency access to abortions, access to birth control, and providers and pharmacists from out-of-state legal actions.

“Massachusetts voters have not changed their views since before the election about which laws and constitutional amendments should be passed around the nation to protect a woman’s choice to have an abortion,” La Raja says. “In reviewing a list of policy choices, voters are overwhelming in favor of all ways of protecting women’s ability to choose whether to have a child. Large majorities believe there should be constitutional amendments to protect a woman’s choice (69%) and women especially feel strongly about this (75% women, 63% men). Equally high majorities are in favor of laws protecting access to birth control (76%), laws protecting access to abortion pills (69%) and protecting providers and pharmacists from legal actions by other states (68%). Clearly, commonwealth voters put a premium on a woman’s capacity to avoid pregnancy and right to have an abortion.”
 

Methodology

For this University of Massachusetts Amherst/WCVB Poll, YouGov interviewed 733 Massachusetts respondents who were then matched down to a sample of 700 to produce the final dataset. The respondents were matched to a sampling frame on gender, age, race and education. The sampling frame is a politically representative “modeled frame” of Massachusetts adults, based upon the American Community Survey (ACS) public use microdata file, public voter file records, the 2020 Current Population Survey (CPS) Voting and Registration supplements, the 2020 National Election Pool (NEP) exit poll and the 2020 CES surveys, including demographics and 2020 presidential vote.

The matched cases were weighted to the sampling frame using propensity scores. The matched cases and the frame were combined, and a logistic regression was estimated for inclusion in the frame. The propensity score function included age, gender, race/ethnicity, years of education and home ownership. The propensity scores were grouped into deciles of the estimated propensity score in the frame and post-stratified according to these deciles.

The weights were then post-stratified on home ownership, 2020 and 2024 presidential vote choice as well as a four-way stratification of gender, age (4-categories), race (2-categories) and education (4-categories), and a two-way post-stratification on race (4-categories), and education (4-categories), to produce the final weight.

The margin of error of this poll is 4.8%.

Topline results and crosstabs for the poll can be found at www.umass.edu/poll