UPDATE: Story rewritten to take into account BPS comments.
WGBH reports School Superintendent Tommy Chang is looking at a plan that would require exam-school applicants be enrolled in a BPS school in fifth or sixth grade to apply to one of the city's three exam schools - as a way of dealing with the minority-enrollment issue at Boston Latin School.
BPS, however, denied the report. In a statement, School Superintendent Tommy Chang called it "patently false:"
BPS does not have a report, in draft or final form, entitled: “BPS Strategic Implementation Plan 2016/Opportunity and Achievement Gaps Task Force.†There are no proposals to prevent any students from enrolling into the district’s three exam schools.
School Committee Chairman Michael O'Neill opened tonight's committee meeting by saying he looks forward to WGBH's apology. The committee did not otherwise discuss the issue during tonight's meeting.
Mayor Walsh said in a statement:
There is absolutely no truth to a report published on WGBH today that claims that the Boston Public Schools are proposing changes to the admissions process of our exam schools.
In fact, in November, 2014 - several months before Chang became Boston superintendent - a BPS task force did recommend changes in the exam-school entrance process that included limiting entrance to students who spent fifth grade in BPS schools and adding recommendations and interviews to the admission process. The recommendations were not acted on.
This year, a BPS committee - which includes representatives of local civil-rights groups, but not exam schools - has been working on recommendations to increase minority enrollment at Boston Latin School that could include changes to the admission process.
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Comments
What?
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:27pm
Sounds discriminatory to me.
Yup
By bosguy22
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:29pm
Sure, that's fine. Just reimburse me for the property taxes I paid that went to BPS for the years I had my kids in private/parochial school.
Boo hoo. You gave money to
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:51pm
Boo hoo. You gave money to the Catholics to keep your kids away from the scary ones. That was your call.
You obviously don't know
By Patricia - not ... (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:34pm
You obviously don't know anything about parochial schools. Newsflash; many students are not only not white, but not catholic.
It's got nothing to do with race, but nice try.
And they are still a resident
By bgl
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:02pm
And they are still a resident of the City of Boston, so are their kids, regardless of giving money to "the Catholics", they are entitled to a seat in the BPS and have a right to take the test for the exam schools. BTW, perhaps OP sends his kids to "the Catholics" not because they are keeping their kids away from "the scary ones", but maybe, just maybe, it is because OP can afford to give their kids what they see as the best education possible, especially given how crazy the lottery system is in the city, and how generally bad overall the grade 1-6 program is.
I'm confused
By tachometer
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:30pm
I thought the priests were the scary ones to keep your kids away from.
(Ah, sometimes the lowest hanging fruit is the sweetest)
Wow.
By anon (not verified)
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 7:24am
How does a bigoted comment like this get past Adan's review process.
Holy crap!
By Gary C
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:29pm
The parents will have Tommy's head if he really tries to implement that. The city cannot hold out a Latin carrot to draw people back for a year or two.
Tommy's ... and Marty's
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:32pm
Almost certainly illegal -- as well as politically radioactive.
Chang and Walsh both need to go, sooner, rather than later.
If a family that happens to
By Rob (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:53pm
If a family that happens to send their kid to a parochial or private school for lower grades is city residents & taxpayers the same way another family is that happens to send their kid to BPS for lower grades... I'd say "almost certainly illegal" to exclude one or give a preference to the other in BLS contention.
How about keeping schools only available to our kids?
By Boston_res
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:36pm
No more of this type of nonsense:
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2016/03/30/i-team-forei...
Tommy Chang thinks poor minorities are stupid
By Sock_Puppet
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:44pm
He thinks the only way they can get into Latin is to disqualify the competition.
BS at BLS
By GalFriday (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:50pm
If the good Superintendent thinks this is going to solve his minority enrollment problem, he is getting bad advice. Catholic schools, unlike this proposed plan, do not discriminate based on a student's racial background. In fact, the Boston Catholic Schools Foundation raises millions each year to make sure all students, irrespective of their background, can afford a Catholic education.
So if he does try to implement this plan, he may just be locking out some of the best prepared minority students the city has to offer. On the other hand, I'd love to see the legal challenge as parents who have worked multiple jobs to pay tuition to keep their children from being warehoused in some of the underperforming Boston Public schools are expected to sit by and watch their children be locked out of a free public education.
Sounds like a Trump plan.
Parochial students also do
By Patricia - not ... (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:52pm
Parochial students also do not qualify for the Adams scholarships, which I always thought was unfair
Not unfair
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:09pm
If they scored high on MCAS they would get an offer.
Can't have it both ways, darling.
Don't understand your
By Patricia - not ... (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:36pm
Don't understand your response. care to explain? If my child took the SAT's and scored high to qualify for the scholarship, she would be excluded because she went to parochial school.
Maybe you don't understand (?)
That scholarship is based on the MCAS
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 8:19pm
Don't take the MCAS, don't get the scholarship.
Score in the top quartile of the MCAS, get the scholarship.
Many private schools and parents of private school kids brag about their kids not having to take to MCAS. Then complain that their kid doesn't get an MCAS based scholarship.
If my son hadn't taken the PSAT, he couldn't complain about not getting the Finalist honors or money.
The police union gives out scholarships as well.
By Pete Nice
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 8:26pm
Put that in your pipe and smoke it steelworkers and pipefitters!
Almost true
By Sock_Puppet
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 7:53am
The eligibility for the Adams scholarship is not just restricted by MCAS.
Private school students whose tuition is publicly funded could be admitted to MCAS testing, but not other private school or homeschooled students. Even private school students who were allowed to take the MCAS could not win the Adams scholarship because it is restricted to public school graduates.
Representatives have presented more than one bill to change that, for example H411 / HD4113, presented by Rep. Jones / Rep. Silvia. It's unclear whether that bill is making any progress at this point. I don't think the bill will make it through before MCAS is abolished in favor of PARCC, and the scholarship is abolished as well.
It's a pretty bullshit scholarship anyway. "Tuition" at UMass is what, $1700 out of $23,000 total cost? And it accomplishes what again? Oh, right... In the long run, however, winning the scholarship actually lowers a student's chances of graduating from college on time.
Because Private/Parochial Parents don't pay city taxes?
By Iresd
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 2:53pm
Yep, this was well thought out.
This idea has been rattling around for ages....
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:10pm
... but no one before Chang was so incompetent and foolish to seriously propose it.
Tell us WGBH, who was your source!
By Josip (not verified)
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 1:00am
I don't think WGBH made this up but it's possible. I hope they spill on their source.
Not Only..
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:27pm
Not only do they pay taxes, they are not costing the BPS any money.
Not a Parent...
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:11pm
... so I have no horses in this race, but my impression was the k-8 schools were already really tight? If they have a sudden influx of kids into 5-6 grade to qualify for latin, isn't that going to put more of a strain on BPS?
Almost certainly illegal
By alkali
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:32pm
I can think of three reasons that such a plan would likely be illegal:
1) Any plan that would penalize a student for attending a Catholic or other parochial school rather than a public school is almost certainly unconstitutional as a violation of the First Amendment, full stop.
2) Any plan that would penalize a newcomer to Boston is almost certainly unconstitutional as violation of the constitutional right to travel. (Long story short on the right to travel: In the 1960s and 1970s the Supreme Court struck down various laws that imposed lengthy prior residency requirements on the exercise of certain rights, e.g., you have to live somewhere a year or more to receive welfare benefits or vote in state elections.)
3) In view of 1) or 2), any plan that would effectively penalize a student for attending non-religious private schools would arguably be unconstitutional as a violation of due process and equal protection.
A law can't favor one group at the expense of another on a purely arbitrary basis: for example, Massachusetts couldn't raise income taxes on people whose last names started with "A" so that it could lower them on everyone else. Any plan to accomplish greater enrollment of certain minority students will obviously have an adverse impact on all other students' chances for enrollment, but BPS would likely need an actual, not-made-up reason to focus that impact only on some limited subgroup of those students.
As it happens, BPS doesn't have seats for all students in the city, and so the families who send students to non-religious private schools are substantially lightening the load on the BPS budget. That's not the end of the discussion, of course, but that fact would make it difficult for BPS to argue that students in non-religious public schools who seek to move back to BPS for high school can appropriately be penalized.
[Update: Thinking a bit more about this, if #1 above is correct that might resolve the issue for all private schools. If BPS were to allow applicants from parochial schools and BPS schools on the same basis, it might be obliged to accept applicants from non-religious private schools on the ground that a government can't favor religion over non-religion.]
It's a good start, and a Great Idea!
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:32pm
Great idea!! Level the playing field. You can't expect a child who's enrolled in a Boston Public school to be able to compete with one who's been enrolled in a fancy expensive private school. It's unfair, and the current system favors the rich affluent residents of this city who think their kids are too good to attend Boston Public schools. Force them to send their kids to our schools. The population of all our public schools should reflect the population of the city. There's no reason why in Boston in 2016 we should have schools that have a majority of minority students, and schools that are majority white. Fix the entire system. A return to neighborhood schools would not only diversify our testing schools, but all of our schools.
Kind of nope
By adamg
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:40pm
Boston public schools can be good, and there are plenty of BLS kids who attended them (raises hand as the parent of one).
Key Word CAN
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:58pm
There are great ones and there are horrible ones. The great ones tend to be the ones with the most parental involvement and are also usually more diverse. These kids and their parents would help the system.
What are the stats
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:05pm
Also...Does anybody know the statistics on the amount of students enrolled at our testing schools (specifically BLS) who attended private and parochial schools vs. a Boston public schools?
I cannot find this info anywhere.
By Sally
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:50pm
And I'm curious. A lot of the kids we knew at BLS went to a mix of public and private or parochial during grade school but plenty went public all the way. Still, I can't find any info on what percentage of kids enter from private vs public.
Nope
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:24pm
Charter schools are definitely not full of rich white kids, so I guess you're cool with charter kids being allowed into exam schools or...? .
Some charter school students
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:37pm
Some charter school students also have an unfair advantage. In my opinion those schools shouldn't even exist, but they're filling a gap where the public schools have failed. I also don't think rich minorities should have an advantage at getting into testing schools either if that's what you're getting at.
What Boston school
By bosguy22
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:27pm
Has a majority of white students? It's not Latin, which is about 45% white...and Boston is about 45% white.
Fair...
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:46pm
Fair...but there definitely isn't anywhere close to 45% white students in any other public high school in this city.
Somethings not right
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:40pm
White students make up 14.2% of the district and 47.4% of Boston Latin. Asian Students make up 8.7% of the district and 29% of BLA. Why do these students make up 76.4% of the school when they only represent 22.9 of the district. WHY? Are the rest of the students less intelligent or at a disadvantage?
14 percent of the pre-secondary school population....?
By Michael Kerpan
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:47pm
...who happen to be enrolled in the Boston public schools?
Or 14 percent of Boston entire school-age population?
Ha!
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 4:48pm
Don't forget Asian kids somehow count as white in terms of ethno-politics related to BPS. Not the 'right' kind of minorities I guess?
That makes me wonder, are
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:37pm
That makes me wonder, are asian kids eligible for METCO?
Yes.
By adamg
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:43pm
Yes.
Pretty much the worst idea
By bgl
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:04pm
Pretty much the worst idea possible. First of all, the neighborhoods are fairly segregated on their own (you know, hence the need for the current system, and busing back in the day). Plus, a resident of the city is a resident of the city - as a tax payer they have the right to have their kid go to Latin, or have them go to a Private/Parochial school. In fact, it seems kind of wrong to discriminate against people sending their kids to a religious school - there just might be something about that in the little known document called our Constitution.
Furthermore, Parochial school isn't just for the rich - there are plenty of middle and working class families that send their kids to them. Tuition at the schools are very needs based, at least from my experiences with Pope John Paul II Academy recently, which, BTW, also has quite a few minority students, especially in the Lower Mills and Mattapan campuses.
You want to get people back into the BPS? Start by making the education better and give better results. Then people will start coming back to them. Also, not all 1-6 BPS schools are terrible, either - I knew and am/was friends with many people in my days at BLS who came out of the BPS system.
The neighborhoods aren't as
By F-Trump (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:30pm
The neighborhoods aren't as segregated as they used to be. If you draw the lines right, it works. And if the schools really arent that bad, why are so many parents passing on them.
In my opinion?
By Sally
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:58pm
Uncertainty. It just feels like a total crapshoot, no matter what zone you're in. The quality of schools is pretty uneven though not as dire as some people make out. But more importantly, you have little control over where your kid goes.There's no knowing, if you live in Charlestown, say, whether your seven year old is going to be assigned to the school down the street or get bused to Allston or East Boston or Roxbury. And that's enough for many parents to move to some suburb where they know that the schools are more consistent and they won't be wondering every 3-4 years where the heck their kids are going.
We still rank nationally as
By bgl
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 6:34pm
We still rank nationally as one of the most segregated cities in the country by income and race. At this point, I would be the most concerned about social economic segregation than anything else - it still reverts back to schools in the city serving mainly poor kids, and school serving mainly more wealthy kids, which calls into question resources/etc. Many of the schools are pretty bad, I simply said that not all of them are terrible, but its a shit show on which you get put into.
Where
By bosguy22
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 9:39am
Did you find those stats on segregation? I have a hard time believing Boston is any more segregated that Chicago, LA, etc.
We're note even in the top 10
By Waquiot
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 11:45am
According to Nate Silver, and Brown University by extension.
That said, I look forward to seeing more complete data.
Boston is segregrated.
By Pete Nice
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 11:47am
Just my opinion based on driving around the city.
Of course it is
By bosguy22
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 12:22pm
As is every other major city in the US.
Try our short little street
By Michael Kerpan
Thu, 07/21/2016 - 12:31pm
White, black, hispanic and asian Americans.
I'm not rich or affluent -
By anon (not verified)
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 5:06pm
I'm not rich or affluent - but my wife and I work out butts off to send our child to a parochial school because the city assigned our child to a tier 4 & always in the chopping block school 2 communities away.
My has every right to BLS as the next.
Superintendent's response
By ckollett
Wed, 07/20/2016 - 3:38pm
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