AT HIS State of the City address last January, Mayor Menino pledged that “one year from now Boston will have adopted a radically different student plan — one that puts a priority on children attending schools closer to their homes.’’ It’s now clear that Menino won’t meet that deadline, but people in the city shouldn’t be too concerned about it. On this issue, an extra month or two won’t matter. It’s more important to get it right.
The current student-assignment plan buses children across three wide geographic zones at great expense with little in the way of educational payoff. The mayor’s external advisory committee, charged with recommending a new plan, continues to plod through data in an effort to craft a solution that recognizes the stability of neighborhood schools while respecting some parents’ concerns that their children could be trapped in underperforming classrooms. The committee could have taken the easy way out and limited its analysis to one of the five alternative plans created by the school department. But members, to their credit, are paying careful attention to outside recommendations of plans that do more than move geographic lines around on a map of the city.
Comments
Children have not been the priority for four decades; yes, the Yankee WASPS were not fair in terms of the quality of education, but the facilities were the same; bare basics, the minimum, Spartan and Puritan. Children and teachers have been toys and pawns in the Menino world of make-believe education; we tried to gift this genious "Kelly Girl" Mayor a 325 seat public school in Upper Boston, 100% paid for, with support of the City Council, including Chuck Turner, which later was opened the Park St. (Church) School, paid for in full, $18 million, and the Urban Mechanic refused to meet with is, that being Ross, Hennigan and Flaherty in 2002.
Only the Communist Party of Russia would impose this kind of insanity on children, and they did, I was there; now the time has come to stop. Next year, 2014, we shall have restored neighborhood schools, or provided school vouchers to allow Bostonians to decide on their own. Boston spends $12,000+ per head, plus $100 milliion per year on busing, not to mention the cost of time, money, and worse, the unsuppervised time of children on busses... Some private schools have tuition of only $6,000. Either Tom Menino sets free the parents of Boston, or parents should stop paying real estate taxes. If the nearest school is in Revere or Winthrop, let's ask if we can buy into their school system, as East Boston right next door.
Neighborhood schools are the way to go. It connects people to their neighborhood and the people who live there. Gets rid of busing, children have a shorter 'commute' time. Can't see a single benefit for not having a neighborhood school. All schools should be equal, spend the money there and not on busing. Get good teachers, bring the parents in. Increase the school day, in my area - school is only 4 1/2 days a week. Students are getting short changed, thanks to a 'teachers meeting'. But that is a whole different issue.