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Comments
Interesting
Last year with prop 2 charter school expansion pending it's academic armageddon and they've got students marching out of class. The end result when the dust settles in July and nobody is paying attention is a 1.5% budget increase with net 90 new staff including 35 additional teachers.
Then miracle of miracles a year later when it's a re-election year they come up with a 3% increase for the schools (PLUS some magical mystery fund they drew from to find $20 million for teacher salary increases) and there are magically no cuts, no school closures, no problems.
Somebody played those kids like a piano virtuoso.
Two Things
1. I think your take on the student marches is a bit cynical. Don't you think it's possible that the students' interests overlap with the teachers' at least a little bit? What do you expect the students to say when they see a budget proposal that would result in staff cuts to their schools? Maybe in the long term there is a change that could be made that would be more objectionable to teachers than to students, but in the short term I think that students and teachers probably do want more or less the same thing.
2. There will be schools that are faced with very real problems because of this budget. There are schools facing budget cuts of around 20%. Yes, it's largely because of enrollment decreases, but unless there are entire classrooms being cut (and maybe in some cases there are, I don't know) it will be very challenging for those schools to figure out how to allocate their budgets so that the students attending underenrolled classrooms will receive adequate instruction. Again, maybe there's a better long term fix out there, but in the short term I'll bet that this isn't going to feel like a "no cuts" budget to everyone in the system.
What should we do with under enrolled schools?
I know the anti-charter crowd also views any attempt to close schools as an attack on BPS but what's the practical solution? Force kids to stay in underperforming schools? It's a very hard problem to solve obviously but it's frustrating that all reform attempts seemed to be viewed as unacceptable to that crowd.
Not the kids' fault
1-That a bunch of slimy adults told them lies about the budget in order to convince the kids to do their political bidding. There were no staff cuts (maybe reallocation). In fact they added staff.
2-as Vaughn says, there is a better solution. We need to close 25 schools minimum. Not saying that's ideal. It'sjust reality. A reality that's 10 years old at least.
Maybe the kids contributed something real, though?
I think I just disagree with parts of your premise. You seem to be implying that:
If I have any of that wrong, let me know; I don't want to be putting words into your mouth. But you did use the word "magically" a few times in your original comment. I'm just suggesting that maybe it wasn't magic. Maybe the original budget proposal actually was going to result in cuts, and maybe if no one took action, they never would have been reconsidered. Maybe it was in the teachers' and the students' best interests to march. Maybe some of the reversals that did happen were a result of student actions, and maybe we should give students some credit for being aware of the political context in which their school department operates.
Perhaps you will find my take on this naively earnest, and will point to decades over trends in which draconian sounding budget deficits result in a bottom line that doesn't look as bad as the original proposal suggested. But look, if this whole thing was a foregone conclusion anyway, why would the teachers have bothered with this devious plan of convincing kids to march under false pretenses? And if it wasn't a foregone conclusion - if staff cuts were actually at stake - how can you argue that the kids shouldn't have been upset? I realize that part of what we're talking about here is the long term trend, but for kids currently in the system, can you really blame them for taking a stand to make sure things don't get too out of whack in the short term?
There's even evidence that the marches did produce some results that probably wouldn't have happened without a spotlight being shone on the effects of the proposed budget. Students in the Diploma Plus program at Charlestown High School walked out and had their budget restored thanks to financial support from Liberty Mutual. The director of the program later received a separate grant of $100,000 to continue his work. I think it's pretty cool that these kids, who were involved in a program that was explicitly slated for cuts, were able to raise awareness and ultimately make the case that the Diploma Plus program was worth funding. Do you really think someone just played them?
Hammer meet head of nail
This is a giant dog and pony show. They do this every year so the mayor and others can look like heroes when in fact they know what the city's revenue and costs will be to within 1% or 2% when these budgets are presented.
Bottom line - they gave the schools a huge bump 2 years ago, a tiny bump last year, and then another big bump this year. Last year was staged to throw charters under the bus and manipulate the press into how charters were costing Boston so much money etc. etc. etc.
Not sure the kids were originally part of the plan - but once they got the ball rolling there were some adults feeding them some seriously bogus info to get their teenage hormones raging.
Gotta say it worked. Still slimy scumballs - but they got what they wanted.
This year - election year - let's throw $50 million at the schools and show them how committed we are to the children (and God help us, make sure they don't walk out of any classrooms).
It's all politics and money - and has nothing to do with the kids - or sensible budgeting recognizing that there are still other things that need investments.