Thoughts on the Boston Public Schools

?Thoughts on the Boston Public Schools/16 June 2022

I write as a graduate of the Boston Public Schools.?I attended K-12, as did my brother and sister, and both of my parents.?I think it was Horace Mann who referred to education as a “great equalizer” and so it has been for all five of us, as it has been for millions of Americans.?I have referred to the public school as the great up escalator, especially for immigrant children, like my father.

The Boston Public Schools are in the news again and by every measurable standard, are in a downward spiral, yet the budget continues to increase even as the number of children served continues to decrease, precipitously.

As the number of students has decreased, the number of administrators has increased. Will we soon be like some colleges where there are more non-teaching than teaching professionals?

I bear the scars of the desegregation battle in Boston in the 1970s. The goal of putting children on yellow school buses every morning was to integrate our schools. That is now a practical impossibility. And we should admit it.?It makes absolutely no sense to send children one neighborhood to the other to sit next to children exactly like them in a school exactly like the one down the street. We can reduce transportation costs significantly and reinvest that money in our children.

Children should feel safe in school. I certain hope children feel safer than they do in Texas, where guns are easily obtained.?We should think of the children first, rather than the administrators, or teachers, or an activist community which attends school committee meetings.

The role of our schools has changed throughout the years and will continue to change.?Today, it is essential that children be fed breakfast and lunch.?We are no longer a poor city and we can afford to do so.?

The most important role of a school, however, remains education.?We must prepare young people who live in the city for the 21st Century economy.?We have the resources.?