Boston Voters: Please VOTE on November 3rd

We’re not voting for a Mayor, Governor or President on November 3rd, but don’t be lulled into voter apathy during this quiet election cycle. There’s some city council elections happening with a lot at stake, especially for families living in the city with children in Boston Public Schools.

I watch almost all of the Boston City Council Hearings, especially those that are related to BPS. After the last cycle of Ways and Means Budget Hearings, I noticed that I hardly ever saw Councilors-at-Large Murphy or Flaherty attend the City Council hearings related to BPS. I couldn’t find any minutes or attendance documentation online, so I did something only a true political junkie would do; I watched all of the BPS related hearings from the past year again. Of the 15 BPS hearings in 2015, Councilor Murphy attended one and Councilor Flaherty attended three. I tried to repeat this experiment for the 2014 BPS hearings, but luckily for me (and luckily for them), those links are currently broken online. 

Allow me to introduce you to the lone Councilor-at-Large challenger on the ballot November 3rd, Annissa Essaibi-George. This Dorchester parent of 4 (3 of them triplets!) teaches at East Boston High, so she understands the issues facing BPS from all angles. We serve on the BPS Citywide Parent Council together and I’ve been impressed with the depth of her knowledge and her level-headed style of presentation. But mine is a hard vote to earn, and I don’t like to vote on one interest alone, so I started to do some research. At a JP Progressives Forum in June, she pivoted easily through every topic, from affordable housing to homelessness to small businesses.


Here’s my voter recommendations in the At-Large category: As a parent with children in city schools, you cannot go wrong by voting for Essaibi-George, Pressley and Wu. All are proven champions for BPS. Councilor Pressley has a passion for finding a way to provide locally sourced, healthy food onto the menu in BPS cafeterias. Councilor Wu’s commitment to transparency in government is helping to restore resident trust in BPS. You can select up to 4 candidates on your ballot. But you know what? Please don’t. Let’s not give votes to Councilors like Murphy and Flaherty who may say they support our schools, but don’t actually show up for hearings related to them. For Essaibi-George to win, she simply needs MORE votes than these two lazy-bones, so don’t fill in any bubbles for these two gentlemen. Read more perspective on the at-Large race from outspoken Globe columnist, Yvonne Abraham. 

How about the other contested races? If you live in District 5, your man is Tim McCarthy. When the Citywide Parent Council asked him to co-host a meeting with BPS parents in his district, he decided to host THREE of them. I watched as he took notes of constituent’s concerns and brought them directly to BPS in the City Council Budget Hearings. When the city was getting hammered with snowstorm after snowstorm, he was extremely responsive to resident reports of unplowed BPS bus stops. He has an outstanding education advisor, a BPS parent of 6 who has served as a parent representative in every level of school governance.

If you live in District 4, your man is Charles Yancey. This past June, he was the only Councilor to vote down the Mayor’s budget because he does not support putting our middle school students on the MBTA. He’s been an advocate for our teens and urges his fellow Councilors to support BPS by investing in new schools and facilities. He strongly supports teacher and workplace diversity and holds all Boston municipal offices accountable on this issue.

If you live in District 7, Councilor Tito Jackson is the way to go. As the Chair of the Education Committee he's been a fierce defender of our kids. He’s outspoken against the Mayor’s plan to save money by moving 7th and 8th graders from yellow buses to the MBTA. He’s willing to meet with parents any time, attends Boston School Committee meetings, and testifies at the State House in defense of BPS. I don’t have enough kind words for this hard working, dedicated Councilor. 

My own District 6 Councilor, Matt O'Malley, is running unopposed and deservedly so. His fluency on every issue related to public education is unsurpassed; from playing fields to libraries to testing to inclusion to Extended Learning Time, he just gets it. He is a BPS graduate and a tremendous champion for our kids. Please do head out to vote for him on November 3rd to show him how much we appreciate his support.

City Councilors, please take notice that Councilor Linehan did not attend one single BPS hearing. We look forward to you recognizing this by electing a President who represents constituents. Boston residents, don’t forget to feed the democracy on November 3rd. Do the Tito Dance all the way to your polling place and our kids wills be better for it.

How can more schools be the solution for underfunded schools?

Dear Members of the Joint Committee on Education,

I respectfully ask that the Members of the Joint Committee take a moment to imagine a fictitious urban library system. This library system is struggling because of two decades of being underfunded; the funding has been based an outdated Foundation Book Formula that does not take into account technological innovations, rising costs and the skyrocketing expense of providing health care for employees. The libraries are understaffed and disorganized, the books are sparse and the spines are broken, and the libraries lack current advances in technology. The librarians are doing their best with what little is given to them, even buying new books with their own money to provide the best libraries they can, but their efforts cannot make up for decades of underfunding. And now imagine if our Governor suggested his solution for improving public libraries: opening MORE more public libraries, funded by diverting money away from the struggling libraries.

Opening more schools when our current schools are being chronically underfunded is fiscally irresponsible and bad education policy. Our educational resources will be spread too thin among our district and charter schools alike, and our kids will pay the price. I’m confident that under the leadership of our thoughtful legislators in the Joint Committee on Education, Massachusetts can do better.

I commend Senator Chang-Diaz, Representative Peisch, Senator Jehlen and all the members of the Foundation Budget Review Commission for their work over past year, and I’m optimistic that the recommendations of the Commission will modernize the funding structure of public education for the 21st century. Let us pause to examine these forthcoming recommendations. And as Massachusetts is implementing a new funding formula, Boston’s new Superintendent Tommy Chang is facing the daunting task of “right-sizing” a large urban school district. This process will no doubt result in painful closures that tear neighborhood’s apart. This is not the time to open more schools in Boston, this is the time to properly fund and carefully restructure the ones already in existence.

Please: Let us stop fighting over for schools that don’t exist and start investing in the ones that do.

 

BTU: Please Vote Yes for Expanded Learning Time

 

As a parent of a child attending one of the Boston Public Schools that will benefit from the Expanded Learning Time proposal, I am respectfully asking that BTU members vote Yes to ratify this agreement on Wednesday, January 14^th.

The proposal designates that the Principal, Faculty and School Site Council design how this additional time will be incorporated into the school day, simultaneously allowing more time for arts, music and language instruction, while offering more autonomy for school stakeholders. As the children of BPS move into the higher grades, classroom time for the arts drops significantly due to increased academic rigor. This proposal will allow some of this enrichment to return to the school day.

Mayor Walsh has shown true leadership on this initiative. Voting Yes will further this collaboration and signal to the families of Boston that the Boston Teacher’s Union is committed to trying new approaches to close the achievement gap.