Nascent Tito Jackson for Mayor campaign registers a Web site

Tito, parents in JP, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan and East Boston, plus MassTeacher, BTU, Mass AFLCIO, NAACP, QUEST etc are on the vanguard turning back the tide on charterizing (or privatizing) public schools in Mass.

Question 2 was an historic defeat for the charter industry. 62% of Mass. voters opposed repealing the cap on charters across Mass but it was worse than that, 95% or cities and towns opposed Question 2, including 100% of cities. Holy f*ck, talk about repudiation, 100% of cities opposed Question 2 to repeal the cap on charters.

Only 6 years ago Deval Patrick raised the cap on charters in Mass. bottom 10% schools districts from 9% of district budget to 18%. Boston Schools parents have seen what happens to public schools when the money that funds them walks out the door. It isn't pretty.

For a long time charter schools were considered progressive solutions for minority kids in city school districts. Everyone ignored all the kids that were admitted and then pushed out. Many schools push out a third to two-thirds of students. There's a school in Boston that started with a class of 125 and graduated with 25. The 25 were 100% proficient in their 10th grade MCAS.

Folks also started to ask why hedge fund managers from NYC, billionaire retailers from Arkansas, and the wife of the heir to Amway (worth $5 billion) were so interested in funding the yes side of the ballot question in Mass.

We pro-public education progressives made history in November and I think we should build on it. The state still underfunds public school districts by about $1.4 billion a year. The best thing we can do for kids growing up poor is get them in pre-k, and keep their class sizes to 15 or less from k-3 if they're ELL.

About 38% of kids in BPS speak a different language at home than in school. About 2/3rds of kids in Boston Schools are from families than earn low income. 19 out of 41 class valedictorians are foreign born.

Walsh still wants to cut $100 million annually from Boston Schools budget, even though he won't try during an election year. Because of charter growth from 9% of district budget to 18% of district budget since 2010 Boston Schools finances are in a downward spiral, just as Moody's warned. Don't count on Marty Walsh to be honest about why more BPS cuts. Walsh was an advocate and maybe a co-sponsor of the 2010 charter expansion bill. Walsh wants it both ways, charter growth but not too fast, as if the rate mitigates the effect-- it doesn't.

Walsh is a pol. He'll sell you without informing you of the whole picture. Another case in point, Boston 2024 and taxpayer blank check. He never discussed it publicly until the day the USOC pulled the plug.

Campbell and Zakim want it both ways too. They take money from pro-charter NYC hedge fund managers to fund their campaigns.

The state could fund two educations systems--districts and charters-- adequately. It never will. In fact, we're having a hard time getting it to fund the Mass public district schools, the best in the nation. Underfunding districts by $1.4b hurts the poorest districts in MA the most. These districts are also the poorest performing districts. Funny that, poor kids need more resources to catch-up. BTW, district schools and charters are funded 90% locally from property tax revenue.

On a related note, Charlie Baker cut a food program that feeds Cambridge school kids on the weekend. Kids that miss meals are sent home on Friday with a backpack with meals for Sat and Sun.. The program has to find new funding. Kids are better students when then can concentrate.