Election roundup: Poll shows Wyatt still has time to make a move

Dan Conely & Michelle Wu drop literature on every vehicle in Charlestown. Never mind the mess on my street this morning, but both pieces were in Chinese 中式英语风靡全球.
Perhaps this drop was meant for Chinatown, instead of Charlestown...oh well, my neigbhood watch is pissed about the clean-up too.

I'm not a fan of John Connolly. Every time I dig into one of the marketing claims he makes on TV and in the numerous glossy campaign mailers (8 so far), the facts I uncover reveal his claims to be misleading.

He's slick, and I've learned not to take him at his word.

Connolly self-identifies as the 'education mayor'. Well, he's not the mayor, he's a city councilor who worked as a lawyer for 6 years and before that, taught in Boston at Renaissance Charter for 1 year, 1 year! and in NYC for 2 right out of college. If anything, he's the lawyer mayor more than he's the education mayor.

There are two education-related stories about Connolly as a councilor; the bad freezer food story, and his extreme displeasure with the teachers' contract negotiated by the mayor and approved by everyone on city council except Connolly. Neither of these stories are about an educational policy accomplishment that demonstrates a proven vision for the future of Boston Public Schools.

Connolly says he went into education because "not every Bostonian could get a quality education..." but he didn't go into education in Boston, he went into education in New York City. This is a good example of how the facts put a lie to his rhetoric. His interest in teaching, while short lived, is admirable but he certainly didn't go into teaching to improve the quality of Boston Public Schools.

Connolly taught in a small catholic school in SOHO on Houston near Katz's Deli for 2 years, and one year at Boston Renaissance charter before going into into law. If you can call 3 years a career (I don't,) then teaching was John's first.

Connolly claims he taught kids from every Boston neighborhood. If you didn't know he spent just one year teaching in Boston, you might think he taught in schools all over Boston for 10 years, not 1. That's my point. His arguments about the experience and expertise that informs his insights into education policy are exaggerated, and Boston deserves better.

More importantly, why isn't Connolly applying for the BPS superintendent position if education is his raison d'etre. I think the truth is that Connolly sees education as his path to Boston Mayor victory, and it's not his passion or he'd be moving in a different direction. All told, the "eduction mayor" claim is premised in thin gruel at many levels.

Then there's this small moment in the campaign: Connolly's campaign lit misspelled education--they forgot the "a". If he's elected, we all better hope he's better at running city gov't than running a campaign.

John Connolly's campaign is financed by DFERmass. They spent $80,000 in July and August trying to get him elected. These are Wall St and hedge fund folks. (If you liked what Wall St did to the US economy, you'll love what they do to schools systems.) Apparently, there's a lot of money to be made operating charters. After the $80,000 they wanted to spend another $420,000 on John Connolly (and their school privatization agenda) but people were so outraged by big money buying the election, Connolly held a press conference and asked them not to. That said, they can and will do what they want.

While charters are taxpayer funded, the school board and mayor have no control over them whatsoever. And every charter that opens will eventually cause the closure of a neighborhood public school, which John Connolly also claims to support.