The demand for ESOL education keeps increasing, and so does the need for better coordination to serve workers and employers at scale by Andre Green October 14, 2025
In politics, timing can be everything. When the Boston Foundation’s Latino Equity Fund released “The ROI of ESOL,” documenting the economic returns of English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) education for immigrant workers, the plan was to catalyze immediate policy action. Unfortunately, we released it in February 2020, just weeks before COVID shut down the world and policymakers shifted to a different set of emergency priorities.
But when we revisited workforce development for immigrant workers alongside a powerful coalition of organizations last fall, the timing couldn’t have been better. Labor shortages across industries had employers desperately seeking skilled workers. The state’s Fair Share Amendment had created new revenue streams for transportation and education.
Federal threats to immigrant services inspired advocates and lawmakers to step up at the state level. Gov. Healey’s signature on the $10 million vocational ESOL appropriation this June demonstrated how strategic coalitions can capitalize on policy windows when they finally open. For policymakers nationwide grappling with immigrant workforce integration, the Massachusetts experience offers crucial lessons about both patience and preparation.
The Commonwealth’s demographics have long illustrated the need for ESOL investments. For decades, Massachusetts has experienced an increase in its foreign-born workforce, but despite a proud history, an abundance of trusted ESOL providers, and a deeper commitment to state funding than many other states, our ESOL efforts have not matched the scale of the need. Waitlists continue to grow, job trainers have struggled to provide proper English curricula, and available ESOL training hasn’t always met the needs of foreign language-speaking job seekers.
That’s not to say there haven’t been wins. The economic disruptions of the pandemic triggered interest in new investments in programs to reskill workers. Working in partnership with the Workforce Solutions Group and JVS Boston, we successfully persuaded the Baker administration to invest millions in ARPA funding to expand ESOL programs in colleges and workplaces.
More recently, we collaborated with the Jewish Alliance for Law and Social Action (JALSA) and others on advocating for improved services for immigrants in state shelters, while other partners, such as MIRA and the African Bridge Network, have successfully advocated for legislation that makes it easier for foreign-trained physicians to practice in Massachusetts, providing warranted opportunities for professionals who can help meet the local need for health care providers.
Meanwhile, a broader coalition was forming. Beginning in the fall of 2023, at the urging of groups including Caribbean Youth Club and English for New Bostonians, SkillWorks and the Boston Foundation began convening representatives from more than 40 immigrant support groups and job training programs to find common ground on an immigrant worker agenda. Conversations quickly centered on the need for better coordination and funding across state systems supporting immigrants, with a particular focus on ESOL for employment.
Under the banner of the English for a Strong Economy (ESE) coalition, we developed a sophisticated policy framework connecting vocational English training directly to career pathway programming. Through numerous meetings, we developed proposed legislation to enhance system coordination and agreed to advocate for necessary increases in ESOL funding.
Coalition members combined rigorous research with strategic advocacy. Research published by the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, Eastern Bank Foundation, Massachusetts Taxpayers Foundation, and MassINC built upon the original “ROI of ESOL” report to make a macro-level case for change. We then rallied around the MassINC report to frame our requests. New qualitative research from the African Bridge Network and the Latino Equity Fund added depth, capturing stories of the barriers that block skilled workers from career advancement.
Partners are continuing to lean in, recently highlighted by Eastern Bank Foundation’s $10 million commitment to workforce ESOL, and the attention on the issue is increasing private donor interest in supporting ESOL providers.
In short, rigorous research combined with strategic advocacy created a virtuous cycle, sparking government investment that in turn catalyzed philanthropic resources and increased interest in ongoing advocacy.
Continuing that cycle is vital. Currently, even with expanded funding, workers face a maze of disconnected programs across community colleges, workforce agencies, and community organizations. Employers struggle to identify which programs align with their industry needs. Our advocacy wins won’t provide full value until we create more seamless pathways that enable workers to transition from basic ESOL to vocational English through industry-specific training and employer-connected job placement.
This means developing shared best practices for vocational ESOL curricula, creating common assessments and measurements that support progress in language and job training, expanding access to wrap-around support for participants, and recognizing that the path to a job will look different for different immigrants. It will require technology infrastructure that allows workers to access services across multiple agencies, organizations, and data systems and enables employers to easily identify workers with both English language proficiency and job-relevant skills.
Bringing these pieces together may well be more challenging than finding funding. It requires policy frameworks that incentivize collaboration over competition, funding mechanisms that reward system-wide outcomes rather than individual organizational metrics, and regulatory approaches that standardize quality while allowing programmatic flexibility.
We have the interest, but we need the will. The question for fiscal year 2026 and beyond isn’t whether to invest more in ESOL—it’s whether Massachusetts will seize this moment to build the comprehensive system that can truly serve workers and employers at scale. The foundation is built. The system design work begins now.
Andre Green is executive director of SkillWorks, a workforce funding collaborative housed at the Boston Foundation.
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