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Walsh's long-term plans for Boston schools start with this year's proposed cuts
By adamg on Sun, 01/17/2016 - 9:55am
With Boston booming, there's no real reason Boston schools are being ordered to make cuts that could mean teacher and program cuts, is there? There is if you look at it as one of the first steps in Mayor Walsh's long-term plan to completely reorganizes BPS and build a system with fewer, but bigger schools, Mike Freedberg writes:
Complete reorganization of Boston’s schools system is certainly Walsh’s goals, as it is the goal of the city’s employers and of many of the city’s school-kid parents. This cannot possibly be accomplished all at once. You can only reform an entrenched vested interest by chipping away at it, a little at a time. Walsh’s $ 50 million FY 2017 schools short-sheet looks like the first chip in his long term plan.
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Comments
Should each of the City Councilors be critiqued re Schools?...
Should each of the City Councilors be critiqued re Schools as the Mayor is critiqued re Schools?
For example compare Councilor Wu and Councilor Linehan re Schools!...
This year Walsh intends to
This year Walsh intends to cut another $50 million from schools. Freedberg calls it "the first chip in his long term plan."
If so, what do you call the $100 million he cut in 2014, and the $40 million he cut in 2015? The anti?
You can see by the state of
You can see by the state of BPS that it is not run well even though we spend a lot of money. Currently, we are putting the interests of teachers unions and administrators over students and parents. Throwing money at the problem will not make BPS better. The city should close under utilized schools, and cut nonvalue add programs like busing students to faraway neighborhoods and reinvest the savings in improving the remaining schools.
Food for thought
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/charter-schools-mortgage-cri...
Looks like Mahty wants some of that Pioneering Koch Industries $$$ too! Why doesn't he just stick an "R" after his name and get on with browsing Charlie's curls?
Food for thought
Fringe leftie outfits like motherjones are the D equivalent of fauxnews. Now go back to dailykos and resume your berniewanking.
Do you have any rational arguments here?
You actually could not be more wrong. Mother Jones has a very long track record of doing solid journalism and presenting reliable information. Unlike your favorite InfoWars.
You are not required to accept the presented analysis, but you are strongly encouraged to present a rational rebuttal using vetted information sources.
Funny you should mention "wanking" ... but maybe you should go tend to that black eye that your kneecap inflicted first?
UPDATE: NancyL, below, offers the WaPo story along the same lines. You might actually want to read that - I'm sure it doesn't have these "liberal" or "leftist" cooties that your fearful sort dreads.
Are you really asking for a citation
that you're a loudmouth blowhard who has too much time on the internet?
Please refer to everything you've ever written on this web site.
Walsh has got it backwards, exactly 180 degrees backwards
I have to agree with SwirlyGrrl, Walsh is systematically defunding Boston Public Schools -- $100 million, $40 million and $50 million -- over three consecutive years. It's clear that he's making a concerted effort to extract resources from our public schools.
Menino worked very hard to make sure our schools were well funded so it's a shame to watch Walsh undo the work that produced results, higher avg test scores, huge gains in dropout reduction.
Walsh has also said he plans to close schools, and convey school building to charters.
This is the guy who thought we'd all line up to pay Boston Olympics budget risk $800,000,000, and cost overruns for Boston 2024 construction projects. How is it that in Walsh's eyes taxpayers have the deepest pockets in the world for the Olympic games but not appetite to fund public schools. He's got it backwards, 180 degrees backwards.
He is a disaster.
Menino doesn't get a free pass
He failed to provide leadership at the end of his tenure, right as the escalation costs of running the system left the city with some hard choices. It's still too early to know how Walsh will fare with BPS.
It's not defunding the schools when the budget goes up. It's just not. What's happening is that the budget isn't rising fast enough to cover committed costs for payroll, heath care, SPED, etc... Let's say you spend $2000 on rent, car payments, food. If your rent goes up by $100 and nothing else changes, you haven't cut your cost of living budget by $100 - you're just sinking more of your money into one aspect of your budget.
We've all had lots of debate about this and opinions matter about what the best path forward is, but it's simply not a budget cut - it's a budgeting failure which either needs to be resolved by laying out a clear plan to either get more money or how the BPS will move forward with a different funding picture.
Adding to what Vaughn K wrote
Quick history quiz- which Boston mayor, after getting millions in state money to rehab the building, tried to close the Hyde Park Educational Complex? Hint, he was born on Hyde Park Avenue.
Walsh inherited the mess with the physical plant at the BPS. The only mayor who had it easy with closing schools was White, since it was put in the hands of an independent body.
Let's switch this up a bit
First all - this isn't Walsh's mess - this is Menino's because he refused to make the hard decisions slowly over time. He should have been closing a school a year for a long time among many other things I could list that the "urban mechanic" patched with VERY expensive duct tape instead of truly repairing. But that ship has sailed.
So - for us to give more money to the schools we have to cut from somewhere else. Here are your options:
1) Fixed costs - impossible - these are basically contractual agreements and short of defaulting or short-shrifting pensions, there's no way you are going to change that.
2) Non-school/public safety departments - in order to keep up with expenses for schools and public safety, the city has hollowed out virtually every other department - plus - they are so small that COLLECTIVELY they are now less than 25% of the budget.
3) Public safety - in this day and age - seriously? Maybe some efficiencies if the BFD - but best of luck with that and even a 10% cut to the BFD only gets you half way home for one year. What's next year?
That leaves the schools.
Other than the schools - where are you going to cut $50 million (assuming that's even a valid number)
Other option -
Raise taxes - a) on what and b) how do you get Beacon Hill to sign off on this? And again - where do you find a revenue source of $50 million a year extra - in perpetuity to carry out your plan of maintaining the bloated status quo?
Marty's made some BIG mistakes - but he's spot on with this.
I'm asking for a proper rebuttal
I supplied a citation. Neither you nor "Anon" bothered to read it, let alone create any meaningful argument regarding what it was talking about.
Nice try to deflect from your inability to engage with the citation. You seem unable to offer anything but name calling. Now you expect to be congratulated on being "clever"? I don't think so. Enjoy your delusions of intellectual competency, though.
Koch Koch Koch!
Trump Trump Trump! BLaM BLaM BLaM! That pretty much sums up motherjones, or any other fringe leftie outfit.
How about the UK Guardian then?
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jan/17/dark-money-review-nazi-oi...
Eh, not really.
DK can get a little wacky but MJ isnt fringe.
Besides, the study that the article is about is hardly political (boring, yes) but not political.
Sounds like a doctrinal Democrat speaking
So, Walsh wants to improve the BPS and has no problems with charters, which taints his party purity.
Don't get me wrong, I also hate it when doctrinal Republicans do the same thing. The difference is that I am a Democrat, at least until I'm kicked out. But that's okay. Having both major political parties lacking any overlap in views can't be a bad thing, right?
Are charter schools the new subprime loans?
If you don't like Mother Jones, how about the Washington Post?
Are charter schools the new subprime loans? (Think ‘The Big Short’)
Give GE huge tax breaks
Push the middle and low class families out of the City and you don't need schools. Make condos that families can't afford out of the schools (like the Archdiocese does) and the process just repeats itself.
Newsflash
Boston is NOT giving GE anything, it's simply agreeing to a lower tax rate. And I bet the city would still get more tax revenue out of GE than the alternatives. I don't know about you, but I'd rather see tax revenue coming in than my tax dollars being wasted on yet another "affordable housing" project that will go to the kids and relatives of the BRA big shits.
When you own property you owe real estate tax unless non-profit
TIF is public financing. City of Boston made an agreement with GE to cover $25,000,000 worth of GE's real estate tax due over the next 20 years.
That mean those of us who pay real estate taxes are paying for GE.
GE made $5 billion in US profit in 2014 and paid $0 in federal income tax. In many years GE does not pay any state income tax in any of the 50 states it does business.
The governor has agree to spend over $125,000,000 on infrastructure and tax spending for GE. The good news is that GE often doesn't owe state tax. The bad news is that we're prioritizing infrastructure for GE when we have daily problems on the Orange, Red and Green Lines.
More kinds of tax revenue than Fed/State income tax...
It certainly sucks that our politicians allow corporations to evade income taxes.
But, bringing jobs to the area provides different kinds of revenue. Payroll taxes (NOBODY EVADES THOSE!), sales taxes/meal taxes paid by additional workers in the area, etc.
The labor cost angle is so
The labor cost angle is so needlessly divisive, of course it's the biggest chunk of the budget. Why are people aghast to find out that schools are full of professionals with masters degrees who expect to make a middle class salary? Anybody who actually has kids in the BPS and goes to conferences and open houses knows that 90% of the teachers are smart, caring, dedicated people who probably deserve more pay than they get. Would we be better off with fewer but much bigger schools? Ask your 13 year old self that question, you already know a big urban school is a great place to go unnoticed and fall through the cracks.
So for 13 year olds
A school with about 500 students in a grade would be a terrible idea?
Let me guess, you're trolling
Let me guess, you're trolling so you can jump out with "that's what they do at Latin"? Assuming that's your point here's my response - Latin exists outside the normal environment of the BPS by definition, its an exam school chock full of high achieving kids, not a school chock full of SPED and ELL kids from messed up homes. If you want a more typical BPS school for your case study look at some of the large schools we already have like English, the Burke, Charlestown, the Frederick, the Irving and so on. Relationships with teachers matter to adolescents and teens, and big schools tend to make you anonymous.
About SPED kids at exam schools
BLS actually has a SPED program and it has kids who have lived in homeless shelters and no doubt has kids from troubled homes. No, not "chock full," but let's not insult kids with issues of one sort or another and say that by definition they can't get into an exam school.
Let's be clear on the numbers...
Out of 2,400 kids, BLS has approx. 38 kids on IEPs and about 4 classified as ELL. MA DESE website has all the stats,so to be clear, it's hardly reflective of the BPS and, in fact, has numbers that run far, far below the oft-maligned charter schools.
http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/profiles/student.aspx?orgcode=00350560&orgt...
I'm a BPS graduate
Who spent time in SPED classes. I also work for a Fortune 500 company, however that would not be possible if I didn't go to private school during my elementary education as BPS is a shit show.
BPS is a money grab for the union, which is a finacial arm of the Democratic Party.
I had a few great teachers but I would beg parents of young kids to fight to get your kid out of BPS asap if practical.
oh boy those evil democrats
First, can we have a debate WITHOUT some mudslinging toward a political party?
Secondly.. let me break it to you gently... WALSH IS A DEMOCRAT. So your little jab pretty much invalidates itself.
Trololo
Sure, let's look at English. How big is a class supposed to be there?
I mean, when the school isn't half-empty.
Same for the Burke.
A class of fewer than 300 at these schools isn't an indicator of success but failure. These aren't small schools; they're half-abandoned schools.
Do you have any successful examples?
I think every teacher should earn a decent wage
But do you think a K2 teacher should earn $112,00 per year?
That is what a K2 teacher in my kids school earns.
I was mistaken
it's $100,048 not $112,000
Yes.
If the teacher is passionate about their job, has a positive attitude, getting kids to read and do math, makes a connection with kids (particularly those that come from challenging backgrounds)....then YES. The teacher deserves 100K. Actually that teacher deserves 150K (but the union's anti-child policies prevent that).
On the flip side, if the teacher just isn't getting the job that teacher should be easily removed. The principal shouldn't have to jump through hoops to fire a teacher. (but the union's anti-child policies prevent that).
It's time to raise the bar on what it takes to become a teacher. C students go onto become teachers...it's not like that in many other countries.
Sounds like you have a
Sounds like you have a teacher with some years under their belt, which believe it or not usually trumps being a fresh face in terms of educator effectiveness. Stability and job satisfaction are good things for schools and the students they serve. How much do you think a person with years of experience and advanced degrees should earn? How much does a person need to earn to live a comfortable middle-class existence in Boston? Have you ever seriously met a loaded public school teacher? I haven't.
I don't know
How much they should be paid, but for teaching K2 100 grand seems a bit much.
She certainly earns enough to send her kid(s) to private school, unlike myself.
Teachers > Business
I'm not sure that wage is factual... however...
If someone makes 70-100K a year for babysitting lawyers [without having to necessarily incurred hundreds of thousands of school debt], why shouldn't someone taking care of your kids make at least as much?
What reason do you have
For thinking the wage I stated is not factual? I even corrected myself after I double checked.
https://data.cityofboston.gov/Finance/Employee-Earnings-Report-2014/4swk...
At the expense
Of the pupils education. BPS is a union money grab. Schools should put students first not teachers, but I guess kids can't vote.
90%?!?
Probably closer to 10%. Any plan that doesn't make it easy for the Superintendent to easily remove principals and make it even easier for principals to remove teachers...will fail.
The problem is...C students go on to become teachers. I say, fire them all, hire back the good ones (with a bump in pay without the antiquated union structure) and raise the bar for what it takes to become a teacher.
I have done extensive volunteer work (reading to kids mostly) in BPS and I was shocked (and sad) at the lack of quality and lack of professionalism of the teachers.
Current budget reflects incomplete long term plan
I can't really speak to how the BTU contract negotiations are likely to go, but I think this article is correct that the budget is, sooner or later, going to really force the issue when it comes to under-enrolled school buildings. If it's true that the plan is to get from 126 buildings down to 90, that's going to be a painful process no matter when it occurs. What's really unfortunate, though, is that the budget pressure to make this happen is starting now, before the BPS facilities plan has been completed. The superintendent has indicated that there won't be any school closures until that plan is done, so for this year, at least, the schools we have will be left to try to operate on a budget that in some ways feels like it is intended to reflect how much the mayor's office thinks the schools should eventually cost to run, not the amount that they actually do. Hopefully the facilities plan, once it's complete, will present some reasonable way forward for BPS, but I think that for the foreseeable future there's going to be a lot of tension around the long-term vision for the schools and their short-term reality. And even a best-case plan that involves such a dramatic reduction in the number of school buildings is going to make a lot of people really upset. I don't really know whether BPS will emerge better off in the end, but no matter what it seems likely that it's going to be a pretty rough road to get there.
BOSTON SCHOOLS
Do you thinkt that Marty, the Schools Mayor, as opposed to Menino, the Schools Mayor , will entice his highly paid staff to move back to Boston and subject thier children to this abomination of a SCHOIOL SYSTEM?
What school
did you attend? Please spell check.
Committee on Post Audit and Oversight not included. City Council
Committee on Post Audit and Oversight not included in listings of 2016 Committees of Boston City Council
Post Audit & Oversight
2014/15 Committee Chair: Councillor Yancey
Committee Vice Chair: Councillor Baker
Committee Members: Councillor LaMattina, Murphy, Zakim
Committee E-mail: ccc.pao at cityofboston.gov
Committee Description: Committee on Post Audit and Oversight, which shall concern itself with evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of city operations and programs, and administrative compliance with legislative intent, including administrative regulations of departments, agencies, and programs.
The committee shall select areas for review, establish goals and objectives, collect and analyze data, and report to the council with recommendations, including possible legislative and programmatic changes based on its review and analysis.
The committee shall exercise oversight with respect to the Auditing Department and the Boston Finance Commission.
Long Live Yancey
This was his committee.
No one cared even to attend the meetings.
What evidence shows no one attended the Hearings?
What evidence shows no one attended Committee on Post Audit and Oversight Hearings?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evidence