Our Schools Should Be a Major Issue in the Mayoral Campaign
1 July 2021/By: Lawrence S. DiCara
?I am a graduate of the Boston Public Schools. I entered in K-1 and graduated from Boston Latin School.?My mother was a teacher in the Boston Public Schools for 34 years.?I grew up in a family where our schools were discussed at the dinner table.
At Harvard, I did research into the failure of the BPS to educate Spanish-speaking children. I fought hard while on the Boston City Council to secure district representation on the School Committee and often found myself at loggerheads with members of the School Committee who had their own ideas as to the Constitution of the United States.?Later in life, I was part of the coalition that brought about an elected School Committee.
I have now read that the Education Commissioner is considering withholding federal funds from the Boston Public Schools, perhaps for a host of reasons.?33 schools have been placed in a form of receivership and one questions whether much has occurred to bring about change.?
It is a sad day indeed when the school population continues to go down, even as the city’s population continues to increase.?Furthermore, the school budget, which one would think should be reduced as a result of a diminished population, continues to increase, annually.?I fear that much of this money goes to contracts and that there are no standards as to how those who have been paid to provide services by the School Committee are monitored as to what they are doing and as to whether what they are doing is beneficial to the young people of the city.
A contract with the Boston Public Schools should not provide access to an ATM. We owe it to our children of every shape and size to do so.
Members of the School Committee also have a duty to represent all of the children of the city and arguably all of their parents, rather than believe that they are appointed to represent a certain segment of the population.?
We owe it to the current and future children of our city that our schools be accountable to all of us.?Our mayoral candidates should review these important issues and propose necessary changes.?
Executive Chairman, Advanced Cyber Security Center, Chairman, CEO & Founder, Mass Insight Global Partnerships
3 年Long overdue. When Mass Insight Education published the list of the bottom performing 100 schools in the state in 2004 based on multiple years of MCAS data, 35 of the 100 were in Boston. I would guess this list today includes the same schools from almost 20 years ago. There was in the 1990s an alliance of urban liberals and minority leaders and conservative education reformers who - to paraphrase the movie Network - decided they were “mad as hell and wouldn’t take it anymore.” Led in Boston by Bob Turner at the Globe editorial board. If there was ever an equity issue, it’s access to education opportunities and good teaching which goes far beyond the Boston Latin School issues in Boston. Where is the outrage and the support for radical change in failing schools while another generation of largely minority kids are left behind?