A recently formed non-profit raised more than $1.5 million for an ad campaign criticizing Boston Public Schools — only for their ads to quickly be pulled off MBTA train cars for violating agency rules, a T spokesperson said Thursday.
The ads, which carry the slogan “BPS IS FAILING HER” superimposed on an image of a child’s eyes, cites state data that reports most of Boston’s third graders are below grade level in math and reading.
“We can fix it, together,” the ad reads.
But the ads, which were spotted Wednesday night by a Globe reporter on a Red Line train, were being removed Thursday by the MBTA because, a spokesperson said, they violated the T’s advertising guidelines.
“These ads do not comply with the MBTA’s advertising guidelines and were placed in the system by our advertising contractor without the required MBTA review prior,” Maya Bingaman, a T spokesperson, said in an email.
Local education advocate Mary Tamer, one of the leaders of the group that organized the ads, described the move as censorship.
The non-profit group, led by local education advocates Tamer and Vernee Wilkinson, calls itself Next Chapter Boston. Tamer declined to reveal a complete list of donors to their organization — including an unnamed out-of-state foundation. About seven or eight donors contributed. She named two: local philanthropists Rick Burnes and Michael Champa.
Tamer, a former Boston School Committee member appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino, declined to say what foundation supported the non-profit because they operate anonymously. She said the foundation donates millions of dollars to causes, and asks recipients to not disclose who they are.
Michael Champa, a retired technology entrepreneur who has served as a Dana-Farber trustee, said in a brief interview that he supported the campaign because he’s concerned about the quality of Boston’s schools.
“Massachusetts has always prided itself as having one of the best education systems in the country, but when seven of 10 kids in the city of Boston can’t read at grade level, that borders on a crisis,” Champa said. “Boston educators and the mayor, have to acknowledge that there’s a significant problem, and then put a plan together to fix it.”
Burnes, a founder of Charles River Ventures, has been a prolific donor to candidates and political causes, including $60,000 to the Coalition for Healthy Democracy, which is working to eliminate the state’s current party primary system.
In 2024, Burnes donated $100,000 to a group that opposed a ballot question asking voters to eliminate MCAS as a high school graduation requirement, state records show.
Burnes did not respond to an interview request Thursday.
Tamer said the ads were created by an out-of-state agency, and the children in the photographs do not attend Boston Public Schools.
In a statement, Lea Serena, the executive vice president of the Boston Teachers Union, criticized the campaign. The challenges facing Boston aren’t unique, as test scores across the country and the world have declined since before the pandemic, Serena said.
“Perhaps if they really want to help local students, this group should funnel the money they’re putting into subway ads toward restoring the funds that the Trump administration has taken away from public school students,” Serena said.
But the public won’t get to see the ads donors paid for on the T, at least right away.
Tamer said the T granted approval for the ads weeks ago. Tamer shared a screenshot sent by an employee of an MBTA contractor, Outfront, confirming the ads were in place on Thursday morning.
“Why is telling the truth about the poor outcomes in the BPS against the standards of the MBTA? This is a poor reflection on honesty and transparency in government and an attempt to squash a needed call to action for improvement,” Tamer said. “This effort is about one clear goal: to see significant academic gains in student outcomes in the Boston Public Schools.”
The non-profit has already taken to publicizing data it says shows the Boston Public Schools’ academic shortcomings online, on its website.
The district spent about $34,000 per student in 2024, the most recent state data available. But it serves some of the most vulnerable children in Massachusetts. Most Boston public students are classified as high needs, including kids who are low income, are learning English as a second language, or have disabilities, according to the state.
The school system, which is the largest in Massachusetts, ranks in the bottom third of MCAS scores in grades 3 to 8 for school districts, according to state data.
Its most recent test scores, released by the state last week, showed that 29 percent of students in grades 3 to 8 met or exceeded expectations in English and math, while one-third of 10th graders met that standard.
Those figures are below statewide statistics for both groups of students. But Boston’s results are reflective of an overall decline in student achievement across the state since before the pandemic, test scores show, and indicate that students largely haven’t improved much since last year.
There were some highlights. Boston officials, in a press release, pointed to a rise in math scores in grades 6 and 8 and an uptick on the 8th-grade science exam.
But Tamer and Wilkinson said that Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Superintendent Mary Skipper, and the city’s School Committee are not spending enough time talking about students’ poor academic outcomes, nor what they intend to do to improve them.
“This is the conversation that needs to happen, because you can’t change a problem until you acknowledge its existence,” Tamer said.
Wu, Skipper, and School Committee chairperson Jeri Robinson did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
John Hilliard can be reached at john.hilliard@globe.com or on Signal at john_hilliard.70. Follow him on Bluesky at iamjohnhilliard.bsky.social.