0 Boston City Council Hearing FY17 Budget Testimony

Below is the transcript of my prepared testimony for the June 27th, 2016 Boston City Council (BCC) Ways & Means Hearing on the Boston Public Schools' FY17 Budget Amendment which will add $4.68M to the previously submitted BPS budget for FY17. This was the last hearing prior to the City Council vote on the FY17 city budget on Wednesday, June 29, 2016. 

Please note that I was testifying in both my role as one of the Co-Chairs of the Boston Citywide Parent Council (CPC) and as a BPS, public and special education advocate and extremely proud parent. The first part of the testimony is from the email sent by the CPC Executive and Budget Committee to all Boston City Councillors on Friday, June 24th, 2016. The rest is my own testimony.  

Good Afternoon: 

First, the Citywide Parent Council would like to reiterate our gratitude to the Mayor for adding $4.7 million to the current budget proposal. Video of the BPS School Committee hearing to vote on the additional money can be viewed here. 

However, much of the additional money has been allocated to fund positions in the Central Office and does not offset the $26m reduction that will have significant and very real impacts upon building level budgets at schools in every City Council district in this city.

In light of these cuts, we urge you to reallocate the Mayor’s $4.7 million directly to support students and families at the building level. 

We have prepared the following recommendations for your consideration:

Recommendation 1

$2.2m for partial restoration of Weighted Student Funding cuts for students with Autism and Emotional Impairment.

Recommendation 2:

$1.2m to support the rollout of the Excellence for All Program. 

Recommendation 3

$900,000 to completely reverse ALL cuts to the District’s Early Learning Centers

Recommendation 4

$375,000 to support Superintendent’s initiative to improve student safety

The following is my own additional testimony:

Ideally, we would ask that our City Council demand that the mayor go further and add the additional $26M  necessary to restore all the cuts his decision on the BPS budget has made. If the mayor will not agree to the additional funding, then we would ask that you vote NO on the budget. To do so would be showing all of our current and potential BPS families that our city council highly values our Boston students. Of course, it would also revert us back to last year’s budget which would be horrific for our students and schools.

Mayor Walsh is correct, this is the largest BPS budget ever. However, what he fails to mention is that, since the founding of public education in this country right here in Boston, every year we have added to the school district budget. In fact, his (now) 1.8% budget increase is well below many prior years’ budget increases for BPS when you look at our history.

For several years I and others have asked for a fully transparent BPS budget – an itemized, line-by-line breakdown to see where every cent is going that BPS receives. To date, we have never received such a breakdown. This needs to change.  

Without a doubt, we need to explore more deeply how to reallocate funds when it comes to the BPS budget. However, this year’s reallocations have led to cuts that will harm our students. The cuts that have been made are not the cuts that needed to be made. The programs, services and changes to programs directly impacting students, especially those with social-emotional needs or on the Autism Spectrum, did not need to be where we cut this year.

I fear these cuts will end up costing the city far more than we may save in the short-term.

A compromise I would like to suggest that may be more palatable to all of our students, families, schools, BPS, city council, and possibly even Mayor Walsh,and which may lead to less likelihood of repeating the cycle of bleeding our schools dry, is to:

1. Require that BPS reallocate the funds as outlined in the CPC’s recommendations above;

1. Advocate to Mayor Walsh for the city to provide “soft-landing” money to schools for the next year to address the cuts which impact BPS students directly by working with the city council education committee, CPC and SpedPAC leaders to identify the school cuts needing said funding (other than those outlined above);

1. Require that BPS provide a complete line-by-line budget breakdown on its website; and,

1. Request that BPS and the mayor’s office, with CPC and other officially recognized BPS groups (SpedPAC, DELLAC) designees as full team members, delve into the BPS budget to identify areas where reallocations are needed or should be made to ensure that every possible dollar truly benefits our students and gives them a high quality education.

Thank you for your consideration of our requests and my suggestions. 

Karen Kast-McBride
Proud BPS parent and CPC Co-Chair

PLEASE be sure to email, call, visit, tweet, message, snapchat, instagram - whatever works best for you - the Boston City Council members also regarding the importance of increasing funds to BPS! Email and phone contact information, along with a template email, means you can do this quickly! BCC will vote Wednesday, June 29, 2016 - meeting starts at noon.

Usually I do not read my testimony, as many times I create it on the spot, but I did read the majority of the first portion because it was the ask of the CPC and at that point I was testifying as the CPC Co-Chair. Even when I write my testimony before a hearing or meeting, I do tend to go off-script in order to address things I hear while at the hearing. This time was no different during my own personal testimony...

Councillor Linehan had commented earlier in the hearing that $20K per student should be more than enough to educate them, also implying that it was actually too much to be spending. This misconception that $20K per student is spent directly to benefit each student is one of my biggest pet peeves - though Mayor Walsh's consistent reiteration of the (very wrong) "93,000 seats" for BPS students has taken the number one spot! 

If you would like to see the video of the hearing the City of Boston Cable Office should have it up within the next day or so (usually.) In the meantime, my testimony is available here.

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS

MEDIA ADVISORY FOR: January 19, 2016

BOSTON FAMILIES AND STUDENTS TO PROTEST MAYOR WALSH’S STATE OF THE CITY ADDRESS

Boston, MA—On January 19, 2016, a broad-based coalition of public education stakeholders made up of families, students, educators, community members and groups representing public schools throughout Boston will come together at Mayor Walsh’s 2016 State of the City Address to protest budget shortfalls which negatively impact all of our Boston Public Schools. We are protesting the Walsh administration’s failure to aggressively advocate for adequate funding and to make the investments needed to create success for every single student in all of our Boston Public Schools.

DATE: Tuesday, January 19, 2016
TIME: 4:30pm
LOCATION:  Intersection of Westland Ave and Mass Ave Under BSO sign

We are demanding that Mayor Walsh, at a minimum, do the following:

1. Join in solidarity with Boston’s students, families and community members to aggressively advocate for our Boston Public Schools at state and federal levels;
2. Through strategic planning and ambitious revitalization, reduce the BPS budget shortfalls of $50 million this year and $140 million over the last three years;
3. Invest in fully-resourced community public  schools with wraparound services for Boston's children;
4. Work with the true stakeholders of Boston Public Schools: students, families, educators and community members to fully audit BPS’ budget in order to assess community needs and address inequalities; and,
5. Collaborating with the true stakeholders, demand democratically controlled public schools through an elected Boston School Committee.

In Boston, the stakeholders have come together to build a new vision for our public schools and our children—one that champions great public schools as the heart of our neighborhoods and ensures that every student, regardless of zip code, receives the highest quality education available. Our stakeholders have developed a community-driven movement for the benefit of all of our students  and we will hold all of our elected officials accountable to us as their constituents and voters.

To follow this action on social media search #SOTCProtest

Check our our Facebook event page.

Contact:
Karen Kast-McBride Mary Lewis-Pierce
(617) 877-2871 857-891-3271

Karen.Kastmcbride@gmail.com lewispierce@gmail.com

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 Calling all 6 - 9th Grade Students: Your Voice, Your Future

Are you a sixth, seventh, eighth or ninth grade Boston student, or have one in your life? Want to be able to share your vision for Boston's future and possibly help the new mayor make those visions a reality? Want to meet a surprise celebrity guest, have some fun, enjoy entertainment, refreshments and an ice cream social while sharing your thoughts with Mayor-Elect Walsh?

If the answer is yes, than what are you waiting for? Get signed up now for the first of its kind Inaugural Youth Summit hosted by Mayor-Elect Marty Walsh this Saturday afternoon, January 4th! The Youth Summit will be held at Roxbury Community College in the Media Center, 1234 Columbus Ave., Roxbury, from 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. If you need transportation or want more information, please call 617-357-5777 x215.  Click here to RSVP! 

The goal of the Summit is for Mayor-Elect Walsh to hear the hopes and dreams of Boston’s youth and inspire our youth to achieve those dreams and play a part in Boston’s future by becoming involved themselves. Mayor-Elect Walsh realizes that our youth are our future leaders and citizens, so he hopes to see many of our awesome Boston students on Saturday!

I have to admit, with a celebrity guest, all the socializing, entertainment and refreshments, it definitely sounds like a fun event for sixth through ninth grade students to be attending on Saturday after being out of school for a couple of weeks, and possibly cooped up due to the snowstorm! (I am kind of jealous - maybe this should be the format for all school committee meetings? Hint Mayor-Elect Walsh!)

I know this will be a fun event for Mayor-Elect Walsh also and kind of wonder if he requested that the committee have an ice cream social. What? I am pretty sure he hasn't had much time to enjoy ice cream since his campaign started, and let's face it, listening to our youth has got to be more relaxing than what he has been doing for the past year!

Whether you are a student who is just curious about the event and come for that reason, or are concerned about things like education, the environment, making sure your voice is heard, jobs, or you have ideas and suggestions that can help move Boston forward, make sure you come to the youth summit on Saturday. Only you can make sure that Mayor-Elect Walsh knows what the youth of Boston want to see happening in their city, now and in the future!

My own daughters, 12 and 15 years old, were very involved throughout the election process so will be at the youth summit Saturday. They have a lot of ideas to share with Mayor-Elect Walsh regarding Boston's future. Of course, I am 90% sure that the promise of food, meeting other students, fun and the ice cream social factored into their decision to go also!

Want to see if friends are going or connect with others who are attending? You can check out the youth summit event page on Facebook too!

And, if you are the parent or friend of one of the students who decides to attend and want to hang out and wait for your fabulous student, please consider volunteering to help out, that's what I will be doing! (Otherwise I am sure my girls will think I am "watching" them - which no teen ever wants their parent doing while they socialize!) 

Also, please mark your calendars now for the Walsh Transition Committee's Youth Public Hearing on Thursday, January 9, 2014, 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at English High School, in the Auditorium, 144 McBride St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130.

Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at bpsnightmare@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

 

0 Boston Truth’s Light Shines for Public Education

At a time when our public school students are continuously taking high-stakes standardized tests which are used to judge our public schools, students and teachers as "failing" by the results of those tests; which most often lead to the closing of said "failing" schools and the handing over of that same school facility and funds from the local public school district's budget to "school management corporations" that re-open the schools as "in-district public charter schools”; or alternately are utilized to deny a student a diploma; while supposedly showcasing the "success" of corporate backed charter schools who do not take all students while taking funds from the local school district at 2-3 times the amount allocated for per-pupil costs of students staying at the district public schools; a time when here in the United States foundations like The Walton Foundation (Walmart), The Gates Foundation (Bill and Melinda), and The Broad Foundation (Eli and Edythe) finance the attack upon public education throughout the nation, the recent National Day of Action to Reclaim the Promise of Public Education on Monday, December 9, 2013, was a breathe of fresh air. 

Well, maybe not so much to the privatization peddlers who hawk their wares and policies through fear, intimidation and multi-million dollar sponsored "research" and "news articles." But for those of us who never bought the lies; who dug into the raw data behind the manufactured "proof" and reports; have been fighting for and defending public education for decades; educators, youth, families, advocates and community members pushing for investment in our public schools to ensure all students access to a quality education beyond how to take a test, for us, this was a wonderful day! 

The Boston Education Truth Coalition (BETC or Boston Truth), a youth-led coalition made up of students, educators, families and other community members who are directly affected by public education, which officially formed this past summer, sponsored the Boston event, The Future of BPS: A Town Hall to Transform the Public Education Agenda for Boston, which was held in Cardinal Hall at Madison Park High School in Roxbury. 

The town hall agenda was preceded by dinner and an opportunity for interactive activities including: a photo-booth to share why public education is important to you; art activities where you could draw or write what you would see inside your dream school, what a quality school looks like, and a complete the sentence "On our way to better schools...", which could then become part of the ongoing "school bus" and "the school all students deserve" art projects which the coalition plans to have at all future events.  

Despite it being a cold and crummy night, over 250 attendees came out from every neighborhood of Boston, which further substantiates what became evident during the recent elections: the right of all students to a high quality public education is the civil rights issue of our time as it affects the majority of people nationwide. The diversity of Boston was clearly evident among the youth, families, educators, community and labor (union) members who attended along with those in charge of public education, such as Boston Public Schools Interim Superintendent, John McDonough, elected officials and their representatives and Fran Lawrence, the Executive Vice President of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) (a sponsor of the Reclaim the Promise campaign). 

The formal agenda started with a video clip of the 1990 visit to Madison Park High School of Nelson Mandela, in honor of his accomplishments and life-long emphasis on the importance of education. 

"Education is the most powerful weapon which we can use in order to prepare our youth for their role as leaders of tomorrow." Nelson Mandela states to the crowd filling the MPHS auditorium in 1990. This comment, along with Nelson Mandela's other remarks regarding students dropping out and his charge to the youth to take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education possible, seemed to affect attendees just as strongly today as it did those who attended the 1990 event, as these issues are just as relevant today.

After a moment of reflection the official event got under way with, appropriately for a youth-led coalition, Alex Roman, a member of Boston Truth and the Boston-area Youth Organizing Project (BYOP), getting everyone to chant along with him:

"Everywhere we go - people want to know

why we're here - so we tell them,

we are the *students/parents/teachers - the mighty mighty students/parents/teachers

fighting for justice - and an education"

*each separately

Alex definitely brought everyone together - even our city leaders were chanting along with Alex! This fabulous "ice-breaker" was followed by introductions of a few representatives of the diverse coalition membership: Melonie Griffiths, a BPS parent and Jobs With Justice (JWJ) Organizer; myself as a BPS parent and Boston Parent Union (BPU) representative; and Jessica Tang, a Boston Teachers Union (BTU) representative. Each representative had a role which included acknowledging politicians and education leaders, the introduction of a video of interviews of some of the coalition members, and the introduction of Fran Lawrence, AFT EVP, who spoke about the nationwide fight to reclaim the promise of public education while standing united together. 

Carlos Rojas, another youth member of Boston Truth as well as the Student Immigrant Movement (SIM), Youth on Board (YOB), and the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC), then gave a brief overview of the history of the Boston Education Truth Coalition and the "Principles That Unite Us" which were created through multiple community meetings over the past couple of years, sometimes utilizing the increasingly popular charrette process which ensures all voices are heard.  It should also be noted that the principles have been and will continue to be an evolving document through future meetings, town halls and other discussions, such as those that took place Monday night. 

Each one of the eight principles was introduced by student and youth members, who had posters stating the principle, which they read along with a brief description of it, and also spoke individually about what that particular principle meant to them personally. All of them did a great job in front of a huge audience, which is daunting enough, especially when sharing your personal feelings - they truly are the "mighty mighty students!" 

After all of the above took place, attendees took part in facilitated discussions regarding the principles and each person was asked to give input on what was needed to help BPS ensure a quality education for all students. The goal was to continue to add to the principles with what was shared as well as synthesizing all the comments for presentation at a public hearing being held the next night at English High School by Mayor-Elect Walsh's Education Transition Committee. Over the next hour each group discussed their thoughts on three questions:

What is BPS doing well?

Where does BPS fall short?

What do we want to propose to BPS?

The small group discussions were facilitated by youth members of the coalition while other coalition members took extensive notes. Looking around it was clear to see that the level of engagement was high as animated conversations were taking place at every table. At the end of the hour allotted for these discussions, a few of the facilitators reported back regarding what their group felt were the main issues to be shared with the coalition, BPS leadership, all legislators, and of course, Mayor-Elect Walsh's Education Transition Committee the next night. 

Attendees then volunteered to come up and share their reflections on the night, ideas and comments. 

The event came to a close with Alex, Jessica, Melonie and myself thanking all who attended, explaining the next steps, and urging all attendees to continue to speak up, share their suggestions, get involved with their schools and the district, their local representatives, community and elected leaders and the coalition and/or its member groups.

Though there were many adult "big-wigs" in attendance, I believe the event was such a success primarily because it was our ultimate stakeholders, the students and youth who attend our schools, who are leading the movement here in Boston. The parents, families, educators, community and labor members, though important in their own right, can never give the same perspective as our students who have the experience of being the guinea pigs of corporate education reform and are already paying the price daily.

One thing that I found concerning: not one of our Boston School Committee (BSC) members attended the event. The members were personally invited via hand-delivery by Deross Jordan, BSAC/YOUNG member, in conjunction with his verbal invitation and the opportunity to dine with him if they came a little early. I was fairly certain a couple of them would not attend, but am disappointed in all of the BSC members , because this was an opportunity for them to hear from so many of the stakeholders of BPS and have some truly meaningful conversations with many who will probably never attend a BSC meeting. Hmmm, maybe that exact prospect is why they failed to show up?

Since the formation of Boston Truth, and especially since Monday night, I have heard from a couple of people I know that they believe the principles are dictated by the BTU, AFT and other educator and union based groups. Though the unions and others are in agreement with the principles, and indeed did have a voice in developing them, the assumption that the principles are dictated by them is false, and to continue to promote that fallacy dismisses the voices of thousands of invested students, parents, families and other community members and the time they gave to develop them. Those who continue to believe that the principles are dictated by the AFT, BTU, et al; that members and supporters of Boston Truth, and other groups like it across the country are "just union sympathizers," may never believe otherwise no matter how much of the truth is shared with them. 

Take heart though! Since Monday night I have heard from so many people who wanted to share how wonderful the event was and how it inspired them, inclusive of BPS administrators and politicians. All week I have continued to see the affects of the event as, through email and social media, new voices are joining with us. At Tuesday evening's public hearing, and Saturday's Town Hall, both held by Mayor-Elect Walsh, the majority of voices continued to speak up to reclaim the promise here in the birthplace of public education. The tide has turned, and will continue to gain strength and momentum as each day more people become involved and sign onto the principles that unite us. They join in to reclaim not only the promise of public education, but also promises made by our elected leaders. We are united across the city, state and country, and unlike those who would dismiss us, our numbers grow daily.

I was personally most inspired by the youth whose voices were evident throughout the principles as well as the night. As I said during the acknowledgements: "If it weren't for our students, our youth, none of us would be here." I have watched the youth groups and movement in Boston flourish over the years, but having the opportunity to work with them as part of the coalition, and spend a lot of time with them thanks to my own daughter getting very involved with BSAC, I see that they are no longer being ignored as they once were (speaking from experience); that those in positions of power are starting to listen and work with them, at least the smart ones are!

Over the 20 years I have been a BPS parent, I have been actively involved with some of the most dynamic groups around: each of my children's school parent and site councils; especially the original Boston Special Needs Parent Advisory Council (SNPAC) and the Citywide Parent Council (CPC). I have to admit that, other than when lobbying at both the state and federal level regarding special education laws and, in 2002, fighting to retain funding for all the citywide PACs as Chair of SNPAC, Monday night's event was truly one of the most inspiring and empowering events I have attended!

I urge those who read this, no matter your role in the community, to at the very least sign the Boston Truth petition to our elected officials and get involved with your local school and community group. If you want to become involved with Boston Truth, please sign up for the email group or feel free to contact me directly.

Event slideshow: beginning to end! 


Have questions or just want to see what I am working on? Feel free to email me at karen.kastmcbride@gmail.com or follow me via Twitter: @BPSNightmare. 

0 Two Candidates, One Choice: But Not An Easy One

Full disclosure: I have worked closely with Councilor John Connolly on a couple of education issues previously. If you are a frequent reader of my blogs you will remember I did an extensive assessment of his "Quality Choice Plan" (QCP) for education in Boston Public Schools (BPS) last October; until that time, John and I were friends and he would generally return my calls and answer my emails, since then and another incident where I questioned something his chief of staff Ann Walsh said at an External Advisory Committee (EAC) meeting, not so much though. Marty Walsh I only met during this historic mayoral election process and have really gotten to know since the preliminary. Also, though education is my primary issue that affects how I vote, I also have other concerns: public safety, Veterans, health care and other issues. So take my opinions and research for what they are worth to you.

The mainstream media has said that John Connolly and Marty Walsh are so similar that it is hard to differentiate enough to make a choice, and on the surface that may appear to be true, but once you stop looking at only what they claim they want to do and start looking at their track-records and character, there is a very distinct difference. 

There are a number of ways to find out the track record and where candidate's stand on particular issues, besides their own websites and social media sites, when they have worked in the type of government roles both our candidates for mayor have. Unfortunately, because Boston City Council does not put everything online in a concise and comprehensive way, Mr. Connolly's record of voting was also frustrating and daunting to get a true handle on. 

Thankfully, the same is not true of the state house, so you can assess Marty Walsh's record of sponsored and co-sponsored acts here and also a list of votes on other legislative actions through Project Vote right here. 

Luckily a local writer for the Boston Dig put together a few articles outlining John Connolly's record of votes and sponsored bills while on the city council. This accounting is accurate: I verified it myself via the online list of council meeting minutes, my own record of meetings I attended or watched, and via multiple news sources. Please check out the compiled records via the articles here:

John Connolly's City Council Record 2008-2009

John Connolly's City Council Record 2010-2011

John Connolly's City Council Record 2012 - Present

If you would like to see Mr. Connolly's history via the council's own records, they can be found via the Roll Call Votes pages (56 to be exact) and the Meeting Minutes pages though you will need to note that there is a link for meetings prior to 2011 as they are on a different system. 

Okay, so now we know get an idea of where the candidates stand on most of the key issues,  along with what they have accomplished while in office. But that doesn't tell me everything I need to know, so I went into OCPF records for both candidates to look at where their campaign funding has come from, both in prior campaigns as well as this one. 

John Connolly's OCPF Reports 2005-Present 

Marty Walsh OCPF Reports 2002 - Present
NOTE: There is a drop-down box on the right side of the grey menu bar - to see prior campaigns select "Periodic Reports")
  
Please be sure to also click on "Related Reports" which takes you to the IPAC funding reports (Independent PAC payments on behalf of a candidate) which will show you the "outside money coming in from we don't know where" (John Connolly on NECN November 3, 2013). Quick campaign finance lesson: though candidate's must itemize and report exactly where each individual donation comes from including name, address, occupation of a donor and donation amounts are limited to $500 max per individual ($250. if you are a lobbyist) and no corporate/business donations are allowed, IPACs do not have the same reporting requirements, so the money they spend on behalf of candidates can indeed come from "we don't know where." 

I found it interesting that Marty Walsh never tried to hide that outside money and people from out of state were helping his campaign via "Work for America" and other groups, while John Connolly did not clarify that his own campaign benefits from outside money via DFER and Stand for Children who also paid for ads, mailers, phonebanks and canvassers, some of them also people from outside Boston being brought in to campaign for him. 

And this leads to my last factor: who I trust more to lead the city I love. 

It would make sense for me to just pick the man I have worked with for years, who called me friend, and who, despite it all I still think is a nice enough guy to know. However, in the past year I have seen a side of Mr. Connolly that started to make me question whether he was actually a good representative for Boston even before he announced he was running for Mayor. Because of how Mr. Connolly responded when asked questions about his plans (whether on education or his mayoral campaign): avoiding not only me, but many parents and advocates who questioned his plans; his office failing to respond to his constituents questions whether via email or social media venues; his reactions when questioned or challenged; his lack of responsiveness to one of the students he claims to be on the side of until her email to him was posted on a news website, and even when he did respond, he never actually addressed her concerns. 

Additionally, knowing that the groups backing him are pro-corporate education reform and who backs them, and having read all his policy plans for the city, I worry that Mr. Connolly will help those groups accomplish their goals of turning our public schools into profit centers for their backers. I was happy to see that at least Mr. Connolly has now agreed:

• "To meet with the Boston Student Advisory Council (BSAC) three times a year, every year he is mayor, to discuss charter accountability, as well as any other public education issues BSAC brings to him. 
• that he "will also include BSAC and YOUNG in his decisions and work around the Charter School Compact. 
• Furthermore, BSAC/YOUNG, and Boston Truth along with adult stakeholders, will be involved in creating a Charter Accountability Plan if John is elected." 

I only met Marty Walsh because of the mayoral campaign, initially while I was working on Rob Consalvo's campaign, but about a week after the primary Mr. Walsh called me personally. Mr. Walsh told me he really needed my support. Well Mr. Walsh, this lady's support isn't quite that easily attained. As a friend who was in the room said after the call was done: "Every other person Marty Walsh called probably said yes right away, but not you! YOU proceed to grill him on issues and his votes for 20 minutes and even then say 'I will consider it, but we need to talk more!' Priceless."  

Since that call Mr. Walsh and I have had multiple conversations about his plans and ideas and the concerns I and others have regarding the privatization of schools, government, city and other services as well as  his record as a Representative. The very next time we really spoke was actually because my 12 year old daughter, who spends too much time with me at education related meetings apparently and was very involved in Rob's campaign, stated that she wanted to meet with Mr. Walsh to discuss his education platform. Her request led to a meet and greet at my house, though I made it clear to the Walsh campaign staff that even then I was still not sure how I would vote. Mr. Walsh came specifically to speak with my daughter, but also answered a few questions by friends who also attended, and clearly told my daughter that he would invest in not only her school, but all of our BPS schools. Since that time he has also listened to not just myself, but countless other families, students and I will gladly share the many other conversations I have had with Mr. Walsh if you are interested, feel free to email me if you like. 

Mr. Walsh has also agreed:

"To commit to not allow the charter cap to be lifted or raised until he establishes a Boston Charter School Task Force. Students, including YOUNG coalition members, parents, teachers, administrators, experts and other community stakeholders should all be part of the Task Force. The role of the task force will be to:

· Design a Charter Accountability Plan and oversee its implementation

· Monitor for-profit corporate interests in the city and the Commonwealth

· Monitor the cap on charter schools and make recommendations on any activity pertaining to it"

Everything I listed above and more factored into my decision, which I made in the past two weeks, but was solidified through the latest agreements with BSAC and YOUNG. 

Because of his honesty and straight-forward way of dealing with everyone, the character he has shown despite numerous attacks on him, his willingness to listen to the concerns and the way he has handled criticism of his policy ideas even from those not old enough to vote, I am now supporting Marty Walsh for Mayor of Boston.  I hope you will all join me in voting for Mr. Walsh tomorrow!