BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey pledged to review business and licensing regulations in an attempt to cut “red tape” and stand up a group of stakeholders to develop recommendations for a permanent high school graduation standard after voters nixed the MCAS in November.

In her second State of the Commonwealth address, Healey largely reflected on her legislative accomplishments over the past two years — a massive borrowing bill focused on housing, tax cuts, a jobs bill laden with policy proposals, veterans legislation, and cannabis pardons.

The first-term Democrat, who has not said whether she plans to run for reelection in 2026, announced only a handful of new initiatives that she had not already floated earlier in the week.

Among them was a forthcoming effort to respond to a successful ballot question that removed the MCAS as a graduation requirement for high school students.

Healey said she is “directing” a Statewide Graduation Requirement Council to develop recommendations for a “permanent, high standard.” The group, the governor said, will include teachers, colleges, employers, and students.

“We’ll evolve to a new Massachusetts model for high school excellence that best serves our children,” she said, according to her remarks as prepared for delivery. “And we’ll match high standards with great opportunities — like early college and job training programs that give students a leg up on their next step.”

Massachusetts residents got rid of the MCAS graduation requirement in November with nearly 60% of the vote. The state’s largest teacher’s union, the Massachusetts Teachers Association, backed the question and ultimately beat out business groups who opposed the idea.

The association argued that the standardized test students took in tenth grade to graduate two years later harmed both teenagers in school and educators. Opponents said getting rid of the assessment would eliminate the only uniform statewide assessment for schools.

Healey, who opposed the ballot question, said voters decided this fall that the MCAS graduation requirement was “not the way forward.”

“I respect that decision,” she said Thursday night. “But it creates for all of us a responsibility to make sure every student graduates ready to succeed. We need a high, statewide standard. Students, families, and employers need to know what a diploma represents. And without a baseline, it’s always the most vulnerable students who don’t get what they need.”

Minutes later, Healey turned to the business sector and pledged to direct her “economic team” to review all business and licensing regulations in the first three months of this year “with the goal of cutting red tape.”

Healey said she wants to make it “cheaper and faster for you to do business in Massachusetts.”

“When we back our businesses, they grow and thrive,” she said.

The governor delivered her speech after weeks of facing heated criticism for her administration’s management of the state-run emergency shelter system, which was created under the decades-old right-to-shelter law to provide temporary housing to homeless pregnant women and families with children.

Healey proposed dramatic changes to the system Wednesday, including pushing Democratic leaders in the House and Senate to sign off on multiple restrictions that could make it harder for arriving migrants to access the taxpayer-funded system.

The Democrat from Arlington briefly touched on immigration in her speech and largely stuck to long-used talking points on the issue — Congress and the federal government have failed to pass comprehensive immigration reforms.

Healey said her administration will “prioritize Massachusetts families,” a tone shift from her address last year in which she lauded Massachusetts for how officials “stepped up with compassion — and solutions — for the influx of migrants that is testing states across this country.”

“The federal government needs to fix this at the source, by passing a border security bill,” Healey said Thursday. “They need to deport violent criminals. And immigrant families who have lived here, have children here, have jobs and pay taxes here, need and deserve a path forward.”

In another notable departure from her time as attorney general, when she sued Trump some 100 times during his first term in office, Healey pledged to work with the incoming administration.

“In four days, there will be a transition of power in Washington,” she said. “I assure you we will take every opportunity to work with the federal government in any way that benefits Massachusetts, and I also promise you we will not change who we are.”

Earlier in the week, Healey said she would use her fiscal year 2026 budget to eliminate renter-paid brokers’ fees in Massachusetts and pitch a transportation funding plan that directs $8 billion into various initiatives over the next decade.

Healey said moving can lead to “huge” costs for renters.

“Fire month, last month, security deposit, I rented for many years, I know it adds up,” she said. “And with today’s rents, it’s so much more. And too often, there’s another cost tacked on: a broker’s fee, for a service you didn’t even ask for. That’s not right.”

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