UPDATE: Walsh says Pierce should shut his misinformed yap. More below.
Charles Pierce (yes, that Charles Pierce) levies a j'accuse at Mayor Walsh, charging he wants to shut 36 public schools to make way for more charter and parochial schools.
He's cut a deal with some of the most odious practitioners of the school "reform" grift, including the Walton Family of Wingnuts, and he did so under the radar.
Pierce bases his assertion on FOIA'ed documents, as discussed by Mary Lewis Pierce, who has a kid in BPS.
Mayor Walsh's office issued the following statement:
The Mayor has never said, nor does he have a plan to close 36 schools. Mayor Walsh has proven his dedication to Boston Public Schools by, in the past year alone, providing unprecedented budgetary support, extending learning time for students, adding 200 pre-kindergarten seats to the district, and hiring a first-class Superintendent. The Mayor also launched a multi-year Educational and Facilities Master Plan this fall to guide smart investments in Boston's schools with the goal of providing all students with a high-quality, 21st-century education.
The Esquire article is untrue and unsourced, and references meetings that the Mayor has never had. We are extremely disappointed at the spread of misinformation.
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Comments
So much misinformation
By Stevil
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 5:19pm
Have you ever taken a look at Boston's budget and how the BPS gets funded?
It's pretty simple - take the gross receipts of the city - multiply by 35% and that's the school budget. Don't believe me - go back and look - it's online as far back as 2003. +/- some noise- that's how it gets decided. Charters do not take a single red cent from BPS - and considering the BPS budget per student has continued to rise at the same rate as the overall budget AND there are thousands fewer kids - BPS budget has gone up tremendously (and even more if you factor in pensions which are increasing citywide about 10% a year).
If BPS is lacking funds - you are looking in the wrong place. They aren't in the charters. However, you may want to check under the couch seats in Dudley.
BPS pays
By Kathode
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 6:54pm
for charter school bus transportation, for one thing.
And private and parochial schools as well, no?
By Sally
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:08am
As far as I know, kids going to charters and private and parochial schools all get yellow buses from bps.
Yes, Sally
By Kathode
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 6:56am
that is right. BPS has to take on burden of transporting kids whose parents have opted them out of public schools.
So then
By Sally
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 8:45am
why use yellow buses as an example of the money that's being siphoned to charters when we're already paying for kids to be schlepped to St. Anatole's or wherever? I always thought it was a bit weird, frankly, but as long as we're doing it for one group, why not all?
From what I
By Kathode
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 11:49am
have read, there is a state law that kids in charters and parochial schools are eligible for yellow bus transport. I was using that as an example of paying for charter (or parochial school) costs by a district school.
Technically
By Waquiot
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 10:10am
The service is provided to residents of the City of Boston who are attending school more than certain distance from their homes, regardless of the school being public or otherwise.
And by opting out of the BPS (and I am keying in on parochial and private schools) the parents are saving the city money, so as a taxpayer, isn't that a good thing with the transportation costs being a small portion being spent. I mean, $26 for a monthly T pass for middle and high school kids is a drop in the bucket compared to the overall per pupil cost. And yes, the K-6 kids will have higher transport costs.
Correct
By anon
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:12pm
But don't forget a lot of these anti-charter people also think long time city residents shouldn't have access to the exam schools without attending BPS either so don't spend too much time looking for fairness from them.
I'd be a huge fan
By lbb
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 3:45pm
I'd be a huge fan of the exam schools only being open to BPS students. I have no respect and no patience for rich and arrogant suburbanites who have sent their kids to private school for eight years and now bully their way into Boston Latin because Daddy is a big obnoxious entitled piece of lawyer crap who thinks it's just fine for his special snowflake to have only the best even if it's at someone else's expense.
Um
By Waquiot
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 3:58pm
cannot send their kids to Latin (or Latin Academy or the O'Bryant.) You have to prove residency just to apply to take the exam. And that is something that the parents of public, charter, and parochial school kids can agree on.
Oh for Pete's sake
By Sally
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 4:00pm
You know what I have no patience for? People who get all rabid about stuff they clearly know nothing about. "Suburbanites" as you call them cannot send their kids to Latin unless they lie about their address and most "rich arrogant lawyers" are living in school systems that are as good as BLS and have a hell of a lot more resources like you know...soccer fields, tracks, etc. Second, said fictional folks cannot "bully" their way into an exam school--that's why it's called an exam school and not a My Dad Makes More Money Than Your Dad school. The majority of kids who come to BLS from privates and parochials are city kids, some rich, some not (and btw, my kid was not one of them) who chose those schools over their local public for whatever reason. Yes, we navigated the BPS for elementary school but it was a bumpy road and I can't say that it would have worked for everybody. There is no way to reasonably exclude kids who live in Boston from applying and being accepted to the exam schools, though God knows I wish there were more support for under resourced kids to prepare and even to aim for them, including ISEE test prep which was near universal among a lot of educated families and virtually unheard of for the average BPS kid.
Don't blame IBB
By anon
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 4:46pm
clearly just a self-loathing suburbanite.
Not just a suburbanite...
By Michael Kerpan
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 5:50pm
... but one who clearly knows little or nothing about most aspects of Boston, but still feels the need to speak patronizingly to those of us who DO live here.
again, no tie to reality
By anon
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 4:38pm
There are residency requirements for the exam schools and you have to live in the city in the fall prior to your 'snow flake' getting to attend the schools. West Roxbury, Roslindale, Brighton, wherever the theoretical 'suburbs' are in your ignorant post are all part of Boston.
My kid doesn't go to a BPS school right now and as a Boston resident, I fully expect them to attend an exam school if/when they test in. It's got nothing to do with rich BTW, I suspect the average income of BLS represents the middle class, a group which is heavily under-represented in BPS overall. And that's fine, those families have made the decision as to what is best for their kids at that time.
Just like you did when you chose to not live in the city.
The public schools still
By Kathode
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 1:44pm
have to stay open, be administered, and take any student who shows up at any time of the year so there are still fixed costs involved.
Yes
By Waquiot
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 4:02pm
And if yellow buses are involved, that level of transport could be a relatively fixed cost, but since BPS isn't paying for the heating of St. Whoozits Grammar School or the salary of its administrative staff, we can leave the costs within the buildings out of this debate.
Of course, when there are less and less students, schools could be closed, thus leading to a cost savings. It has happened in the past and could happen in the future.
I agree
By nancy L
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 5:47pm
TFA recruits are typically excellent students with no training (5 weeks.) A friend of mine who taught for TFA in NYC said she was definitely not prepared to run a classroom. She also was required to teach topics which were not her expertise. TFA helped pay her college loans and paid her a poor salary for two years of work. She, like most TFA associates, moved on to grad school. Now she's at Tufts Medical School learning to become a doctor. Public School teachers are certified and have master's degrees.
And some of them are wonderful and some are not.
By Sally
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 11:51pm
I'm seriously thinking back on the dozens of BPS teachers I have known during the past forty or do years when I was a student and then a parent. There have been some brilliant, kind, wonderful teachers. There have also been more than a handful--I can think of a dozen easily--who were awful. Incompetent, ignorant, lazy, cruel, bored. And nuts. At least six of those I can think of were borderline mentally ill. No exaggeration. There was little to no difference between the way the great teachers were treated and the awful ones were. I don't think I recall EVER a teacher being successfully fired or even removed from a particular school. And at least two thirds of these taught at a school with Latin in the name.
My point is--we can tell all the stories we want about TFA or charters but as long as the BPS feels like a f'ing coin toss as to what kind of education your kid is going to get in a given class or year, I'm not going to condemn anyone who's looking to do things differently.
Apples to oranges
By Anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 10:06pm
Sure, Boston charter schools might not perform as well as a public school in Newton or Weston. But, are you really telling us that an average BPS school performs better than an average charter school? As for "classroom management," there's no need for it when you have a classroom full of kids who are there to learn, not to deal drugs and cause trouble. Teachers need to spend their time teaching, not "managing" the classroom.
That retail analogy would assume that
By Sally
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:02am
the current situation was working--ie offering a choice of high quality products when in fact it's offering a very limited range of very mixed, mostly middle to low quality products, sending a lot of engaged consumers running to the er...other retailers like Brookline and Westwood and Newton as fast as they're able, via moving or METCO.
BPS turnover?
By anon
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 11:19am
Here's a Harvard study from 2009 which includes the following statement:
"Among novice teachers who entered the district in the 2006–07 school year, 55% were still teaching in BPS three years later, and 43% were still teaching in the same school":
http://sdp.cepr.harvard.edu/files/cepr-sdp/files/s...
The Brooke has a turnover rate below 20%. So, present some actual data please about turnover, not edushyster regurgitation.
I've told you where my kid goes to school - where does yours go to school? What's your specific source for this opinion about the quality of the teachers? I've been very happy so far with the quality of these people and their dedication to the kids in the classrooms, in spite of the longer school year and longer school day. If you want to stake a claim that the charters are bad, fine, but don't slander hard working people you've never met or spoken with. I was also happy with most of the BPS teachers we've had for our family so I don't view this as black and white as you do, perhaps because you have zero idea what you're talking about.
Agreed...to a Point
By Lyle Lanley
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 5:15pm
Certainly good with the special ed and exam schools, but part of the reason the schools struggle with "the middle" is they don't get to choose their students like the Charters. Having friends and family who have taught in both Boston charters and BPS, my take-away has been that in the charters, the answer to bad/disruptive behavior is "back to BPS you go". Easy to look good when you can retain the good and ship away the bad. Not easy to look good when that good leave and the bad are shipped back in.
This!
By anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 8:01pm
As a BPS teacher, we get a good number of students every winter from charter schools... most are students with IEPs whose parents report feeling pressured to leave or being told the charter school can't follow their IEP. Others leave because they were struggling with punitive discipline policies - being sent home for not having the uniform shoes on, excessive suspensions/detentions, etc. It also seems to take a toll on the kids' self-esteem.
Right
By Anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 8:57pm
Would you want your kids in a classroom with kids at a charter school that were "good" enough not to be shipped back to BPS, or the gun-toting, crack-dealing ganbnagers at BPS? Come on now, be honest...
Oh Anon
By Kathode
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 9:47pm
if anyone doubts that Boston is still a racist city, I can point to your comment.
Thank you
By Anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 10:13pm
But I have this funny feeling your kid, assuming you have one, isn't attending Boston English or Madison Park.
Just because you're still stuck in 1990
By adamg
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 10:30pm
Doesn't mean everybody else is. Boston Arts Academy is an example of a BPS school that doesn't have "Latin" in its name that does well.
Also, while I normally don't point out simple mistakes, Lord knows I make enough of them myself, somebody with your sense of smug know-it-all-ness really should learn that it's English High School, not Boston English. You're welcome.
One small point
By Waquiot
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 11:28pm
It's The English High School.
Another Generalization
By Stonian
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 4:39pm
2 kids in charter. Kid 1 receives SPED services. I have never been turned down or discouraged from getting services for kid 1. Kid 2 is in middle school with kids that I would describe as bad/disruptive. The kids have been there for years. I wish they would leave, but clearly the charter has not gotten rid of them.
I know that some kids leave charters when they learn they will be retained. Kid 2 has had several friends leave for that reason.
More parochial schools?
By Waquiot
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 3:08pm
Sure, my little papist heart heaves at the idea, but in reality, it ain't gonna happen.
If anything, charter schools are the enemy of the parish school, moreso than the publics, since those escaping (sorry for those who love the BPS, but it is the way of thinking) the Boston Public School and were willing to pay tuition for Our Lady of the So and So now see a free option. Moreover, when the Archdiocese was closing schools and selling them to charters, they realized that they were basically making the demise of Catholic education in the city snowball.
I do think the idea of coordination between publics, charters, and parochials is interesting, but then again the US and USSR also used to coordinate things.
cohort loss
By nancy L
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 5:52pm
Boston charter schools lose 40%-60% of a class from 6th grade to 12th. They call this cohort loss and it seems to be in part how charter schools manage high average MCAS scores. Anyway, I think this issue will continue to get more attention. Charters need to be willing to educate all of the students they take, not just the good test-takers who behave without exception according to strict discipline standards.
That and 2 quarters will get you a cup of coffee
By Waquiot
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 6:40pm
And none of this has anything to do with parochial schools.
However, I will try to be topical. In a pre-Walker era, Wisconsin gave vouchers for kids whose neighborhood schools were failing to attend any private school, even religious ones. That would not work in Massachusetts, not due to current views on religious education, but based on anti-Catholic bias in the 1850s. That's right, the Commonwealth is prohibited by the Constitution from providing assistance to Catholic schools, which leads me to scream "no discrimination in the Constitution!"
The transportation part is a bit of a loophole. I was happy that I was able to get a free T-pass when I was in high school. I guess they can pay to get you to a religious school, but that's where the cash stops, since the cash actually went to the T.
Crabs in a bucket
By Anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 9:01pm
Let's keep our schools uniformly crappy instead of giving the bright ones an opportunity to get a quality education and finally get out of poverty, amirite? Heck, BLS and BLA are racist, classist, ableist, discriminatory shitholes that need to be shut down ASAP!
Nancy, I have good news for you
By anon
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:16pm
The Brooke is hoping to open a high school so then they can educate kids from K-12. That's what you want, right, for a charter school to keep kids? Or are you thinking that they'd then somehow weed out the 'bad' kids after 6th grade but then get a fresh batch in 7th to fill up the high school seats?
What's the 'cohort loss' for schools with AWC programs from 6th to 7th grade when kids start testing into the exam schools BTW?
Public Schools in Boston
By anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 4:10pm
at the HS (arguably middle), minus a few schools, Latin,and a few charter schools, are an effing disaster and have been for a LONG time. And it's far from lack of funding.
I attended BPS off and on as a child, ending with two years at the HS level. Madison Park was my final assigned school, which fortunately I was able to avoid by getting into a parochial school at the last minute. I had no desire, neither did my mom, for me to be a guinea pig in a social experiment gone bad. I feel bad for the good kids who get stuck going to the shitty schools with the kids who don't respect school, come from a very dysfunctional environment, but whom BPS must accept. I'm afraid some things will never change. And of course the teacher's union (I'm not reflexively anti-union, but do object to public sector unions) are only looking out for their $ and benefits. They have far too much power.
Madison Park
By Sock_Puppet
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 4:48pm
Is one huge lost opportunity.
The Globe this morning ran a front-pager about the imminent shortage of the kind of skilled labor that should be prepared by vo-tech.
Not everyone will go to
By Patty
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 7:19pm
Not everyone will go to college so we need to fund for all types of learner now. Bring back vocational education now. P.S. I'm a BPS teacher who lives and has raised children in the BPS system and who regularly works 10 to 12 hour days teaching all students probably to the detriment of my own family. Mayor Walsh you should come and see our traditional public schools. You will find a lot of positive things happening. Charter schools AREN'T THE answer.
Positive things?
By Anon
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 9:06pm
Let's see - metal detectors have gotten better and more sensitive over the years so fewer guns and knives make it into school buildings, that's a positive thing I suppose...
They aren't the ONLY answer.
By Sally
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:14am
But they're not the devil incarnate either (nor are BPS in general but my experience has been mixed to say the least and I'm tired of the constant demonization of charter schools along with almost any kind of innovation that's been going on since I was a kid.
Completely untrue, Walsh says
By adamg
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 6:20pm
Just updated the original post with a statement from the mayor's office.
Walsh denies
By Nancy L
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 10:05pm
Walsh denies he plans to close 36 schools. That is all.
I heard 30 from two different sources. My point is that he's playing you with his denial non-denial.
Charlie Pierce's response
By Kathode
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 7:24am
to the "untrue and unsourced accusations":
"The Mayor “has never said, nor does he have a plan to close 36 schools.” The Mayor has said that he plans to “consolidate” schools. How can he consolidate schools if he does not close some? Oh, wait—if he leases some of the “consolidated” school buildings to charter schools then the buildings will technically remain open. They just won’t be Boston Public Schools. Despite the expressed concerns of the Mayor’s office, the Blog post was sourced and linked to twelve relevant documents obtained in response to what Boston public school blogger Mary Lewis Pierce [no relation] described as a FOIA [Massachusetts Public Records Act] request. Among those records was an agenda for a meeting between the Boston Compact and Mayor Walsh and a Boston Compact talking points memo prepared for the Mayor in which the Mayor is scripted to announce and define Enroll Boston.
Despite the claims of the Mayor’s office, the Blog post was neither untrue nor unsourced. However the Blog is newly concerned by the reading comprehension levels of those entrusted with the education of Boston’s public school students."
How many schools do we need?
By Stevil
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 9:33am
Rather than rant and rave about the how we are underfunding the schools (which along with what we sent to the state for charters consume about 40% of the budget - and that doesn't include pensions), why don't we start with a rational thought.
We have 54,000 students. Opening or closing schools isn't the question. It's how many do we need? Difficult without all the info - but that's about 600 per school (as opposed to the current average of 430 which seems small even for a small school - and like 1500 of these kids - 3 schools worth - are Pre-k which requires minimal physical resources).
The mayor can't just give these schools away. He doesn't have to convert them to luxury condos - but he does have to obey certain laws in the disposition of property (assuming the BRA can't get their grubby hands on them).
Rather than say "OMG - we are closing 36 schools!!" answer the questions a) how many do we need? and b) if less than we have, what do we do with the surplus?
do we need any more reasons not to support Walsh
By Ed Katz
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 6:50pm
he didn't talk with the Olympic honchos
and he tried along with O'Flaherty to punish
city workers who spoke out against olympics,
He's got to be dreaming (hoping) for a warm winter
I can't wait till the first snow falls.
Signs are all over town, $150 fine for blocking the box
but who is enforcing?
he doesn't have my vote and to tell the truth he didn't have it
before!
Then why should he care?
By mseskin
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 7:12pm
I'm not sure you get how this election thing works... If he got elected without your vote last time, why should he care that he still doesn't have it?
He may not have my vote (depending on who the other candidates are), and he DID get it last time, so that's probably a bit more relevant.
more importantly..
By John-W
Tue, 11/10/2015 - 12:35pm
...was that post in free verse?
Right, we'll close the 36
By Matt_R
Mon, 11/09/2015 - 11:24pm
Right, we'll close the 36 schools and instead of leasing or selling them to charters we'll convert them into luxury condos. That will make everybody happy.
(I'm being sarcastic, before you get out your knives and pitchforks.)
The most odious practitioners of the school "reform" system
By Nice Try
Tue, 12/08/2015 - 11:57am
Are those who have rejected "reform" at every turn. Charter are out performing the majority of BPS schools. Shut the BPS school which haven't turned around in the past 20 year of promising to do so and replace them.
As a 4th generation Bostonian who has seen a lot of family move to the burbs because of the schools system, having a child i now understand why they moved.
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