The Activist Politician: Tito Jackson's Victory with Voters in Jamaica Plain

Boston news media covering the results of the Boston Preliminary Election held on September 25th focused primarily on the predictably low turnout, without any self-awareness that stories written in the months and weeks leading up to the election made them complicit in this outcome.

One striking omission from every mainstream newspaper covering the election results was that Councilor Tito Jackson won Jamaica Plain easily in the September 25th Mayoral Preliminary. Jamaica Plain is comprised of Wards 11, 19 and 10; Jackson was victorious in both Wards 11 and 19, as well as neighboring Ward 12 in Roxbury. [See all data here]

In the days since the election, I’ve been reflecting on the many reasons why Jamaica Plain voters supported Tito Jackson and one explanation is abundantly clear: We are a neighborhood that’s been both protected and nourished by the tireless efforts of grassroots activism for so long that we recognize our fellow activists when they walk among us.

We are a neighborhood raised by the community organizers that formed the Jamaica Plain Expressway Committee, successfully stopping Interstate 95 from bisecting our city. We are the activists that formed the Southwest Corridor Coalition, resulting in miles of walking and biking paths and the stabilization of the neighborhood. We established the Franklin Park Coalition to cherish this emerald jewel suffering from decades of neglect.

Jamaica Plain Historical Society: http://www.jphs.org/transportation/people-before-highways.html

We are the home to three of the seven plaintiffs in the 2003 Supreme Judicial Court Lawsuit Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, resulting in the legalization of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts. It comes as no surprise that we voted to support a leader who has never marched in the South Boston Saint Patrick’s Day Parade in the years when they excluded our LGBTQ neighbors.

Boston Pride Parade, June 10, 2017. Photograph by Kristin Johnson

Jackson marched with us in the Women’s March, to Fight Supremacy, and to support our Muslim neighbors when President Trump issued his travel ban. He stood with affordable housing activists when they protested the mayor’s controversial JP/Rox development plan. He advocates alongside homeless activists for the re-opening of the Long Island Homeless Shelter, closed abruptly by Mayor Walsh in 2014.

Councilor Jackson’s 2015 subpoena of the Boston Olympics bid supported the work of activists from No Boston 2024 and No Boston Olympics, saving Boston taxpayers from millions of dollars in costly overruns. Enhancing the work of the Make GE Pay activists, Jackson has been outspoken about the enormous tax breaks given to GE and the outrageousness of offering GE a municipal helipad while we have budget cuts in our schools. He supported adult cannabis activists in the passage of Question 4 long before it was politically “safe” to do so.

As Chair of the Committee on Education, Jackson has steadfastly supported the youth of Boston Public Schools when they protested Walsh’s school budget cuts. Last year, he was the undisputed champion of the grassroots No On 2 campaign, which spared public schools statewide from the financial devastation that Question 2 would have wrought. He received the Massachusetts Teacher’s Association “Friend of Education” award as a result of these efforts.

No On 2 Rally, November 1, 2016. Photograph by Kristin Johnson

If you put your ears to the ground of this fertile southwest corridor of Boston, you can hear the seeds of change taking root here once again. The Democratic establishment would be wise to tune their ears to hear the calls of our grassroots leaders or risk future political irrelevancy.

Jamaica Plain recognizes a leader who is more likely to wield a megaphone with fellow activists than a shovel at a developer’s groundbreaking.

Beacon Hill after the Muslim Ban Protest, January 29, 2017. Photograph by Kristin Johnson

BPS Budget Cuts in Fiscal Year 2018

Boston Public Schools delivered the preliminary Fiscal Year 2018 budget to the Boston School Committee on February 1st. Despite the tightly controlled messaging from both the Mayor’s Office and the BPS Budget Office which promised that school level spending would increase by 3% next year, 49 schools are losing a total of $11.47 million, according to BPS’s own WSF School by Comparison spreadsheet.

The losses are staggering, especially after 3 consecutive years of similarly devastating deficits. Brighton High is losing $1 million; McCormack Middle School is losing $936,000; the Dever, the Tynan and Madison Park are all losing over $700,000 each. For a full list of schools experiencing losses this year, click here.

What is truly alarming to us is that the evisceration of our urban schools has become so commonplace that the Mayor’s Budget Office and school department didn’t even acknowledge these budget cuts at their February 1st budget presentation. Our schools are already operating on austerity budgets after 3 consecutive years of multi-million dollar losses. Donors Choose crowd-funding and parent councils deliver even the most basic schools supplies; many schools have only a part-time nurse; the cuts to Weighted Student Funding last year mean that there are more students in classrooms with fewer adults and fewer resources.  

This year, like many years before, our children will lose teachers and professionals who had gained their trust. Burke High will lose 4 positions, including a librarian, an English teacher, a math teacher and a para-professional. Charlestown High, Excel High, Brighton High and the McCormack will all lose their librarian. As more BPS school libraries become unstaffed or under-staffed, we are wasting valuable resources and risking the loss of a high school’s accreditation.

Twenty three of the schools receiving budget cuts this year are categorized as DESE Level 3, eleven are Level 2, and six are Level 1. Because these cuts are related to a decline in enrollment in a choice based system, a correlation must be drawn between a school’s DESE level and their desirability to BPS families. We must consider supplemental funding interventions for schools in which higher DESE levels have a detrimental impact on funding as a result. [See our data related to losses and DESE levels here]
 
Of greatest concern, at least one Level 5 and six Level 4 schools will suffer from budget cuts in next year’s budget. Dorchester Academy is losing over $100,000; Channing Elementary is losing over $380,000; Grew is losing over $200,000; Winthrop is losing nearly $200,000; Madison Park is losing over $700,000. Brighton High is losing over $1 million, as well as 90% of their current teachers in an attempt to turn the school around (Excel High is also losing 90% of their current teachers). How can a school be expected to improve when they are being given less resources to do it?
 
We analyzed the schools funded through WSF and were shocked to discover that the current funding system means that roughly half of our schools are on the losing side of the enrollment game. In the context of this graph below and the current national conversation about school choice during the DeVos confirmation hearings, we’ll certainly be continuing the conversation about how school choice can result in the unintended consequence of under-funding the schools already facing the greatest challenges.

Do you have information about FY18 Budget Cuts at your BPS School?
Contact me on Twitter @krissycabbage.