0 Walsh's Woe: Boston Public Schools Families Protesting State of the City 2016

Well, if you are a resident of Boston or a Boston Public School community member you may have heard that there is going to be a protest tomorrow afternoon before Mayor Walsh's State of the City address. The protest, already making news on Twitter using the hashtags #SotcProtest #SOTC16, has been getting a bit of news coverage. 

Why are the #handfulofparents protesting? Short answer: BPS budget "shortfalls*." Bet you are thinking, I heard Mayor Walsh has said he did not cut the budget and in fact is generously giving BPS another $14M to bring the BPS budget to a whopping $127B total! And rumors are that Mayor Walsh will be announcing a bit more money to add to that! Geez, BPS families and students sure are asking for a lot! What is the issue - you should really be able to educate every student with that kind of money! 

This protest is about the "shortfalls" to our BPS budget and despite Mayor Walsh's request that BPS "trim down" central administration which ALWAYS seems to trickle down and negatively impact ALL of our students and schools more than the central administration. Even with the central office trimming down, that doesn't stop the bleeding that happens at the school level - and quite frankly, if nothing changes then pretty soon BPS will bleed out completely. 

Shortfalls - however they happen and no matter what we call them- translate to actual cuts at the school level. Cuts which eliminate positions, services and programs like:

Nurses: It is rare to have a BPS school with a full-time nurse - better hope those students don't need emergency care except during that nurses' hours at the school; 

Teachers: Why do we need science, math, language, history or special education teachers? STEM? Eh, whatever, city students don't need that stuff - we are preparing them to WORK, what do they REALLY need to know to press a button or say "Welcome to Walmart"?!; 

Libraries and/or Librarians: students only need to read the items which will be on the MCAS/PARCC - so really no need for literature or fictional reading!;

Programs: Art - they can draw, sing, dance or play instruments at home! Sports - what obesity problem? Specialty programs - all they need to pass high stakes testing is ELA, Math, a bit of Science and we TELL those teachers WHAT to teach them for those! 

Supplies: computers? paper? toilet tissue? bottled water? Pshaw - the teachers that DO remain are getting paid so well, they can buy it!

The above is brought to you by me channeling my inner non-BPS parent 1% corporate ed reform political donor - to my regular readers, I apologize!

Maybe now you are beginning to think, well... maybe there is something wrong here (at least, I hope you are!) - students need more than just Reading, Writing (oh yeah, no cursive in schools anymore!), Arithmetic and testing. Wow, Boston is a very rich city, why do the public schools have to keep eliminating so much? 

That, dear reader, is the 127 billion dollar question! The answer: declining federal and state funding for education, costs taken out of the BPS budget for students who attend other schools, and rising costs all contribute to the issue.

Mayor Walsh is correct, he did not cut anything from the BPS budget. And yes, we are thankful he has actually kept the "shortfall" from being worse by allocating that $14M to the budget - thank you Marty! Without it the "shortfall" would actually be $64M  instead of the $50M it still is with these added funds. Of course, this latest "shortfall" is in addition to the prior two years "shortfalls" totalling $140M. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg. 

What do we want? After all, the BPS budget takes up a huge portion of the city budget, do we think Mayor Walsh can give even more? Well, another short answer: yes, and no. 

If the city can afford to give huge tax breaks to General Electric to entice them to make Boston the home of their headquarters and propose putting the city into debt to bring the 2024 Olympics, and let's not forget Indy Car racing; well, shouldn't there be a way to add more to the most important resource for our city, state and country: the education of every single student in Boston?

Additionally, we are asking that Mayor Walsh commit to, at the minimum,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.

Who are we? We are the true stakeholders of BPS and come from all walks of life to take part in this movement to invest in our students and Boston Public Schools. We are every race, religion, economic and education level; whether we are for or against the Boston Compact, charter or traditional Boston public schools, love or dislike our elected leaders - we are all in agreement and solidarity where it counts the most: "Shortfalls" are still "cuts" at the school level!

Please join us before Mayor Walsh's #SOTC16 for the #SOTCProtest at 4:30 p.m. to demand that Mayor Walsh and our elected officials collaborate aggressively with us: the students, parents, educators and community members fighting to ensure that every single BPS student has the education and schools we deserve! 

It will be cold, so Mary Pierce and I bought quite a few hand warmers!

Please dress warm, grab some caffeine, make a sign - or use one that my daughters and I made - and join me and the awesome students, families, educators and community members! 

And yes, Bospoli, Mapoli - especially our Boston City Councilors, Massachusetts Senate and House of Representatives Boston Delegation members, Governor Baker and Lt. Governor Polito - we would hope YOU all will stop by to speak with us, otherwise, the next protest may be at your big event!

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 Confessions of a Public School Parent

The Boston Compact, Charter School legislation, possible school closures and the Mayor who left ALL Boston's children behind once he took the oath of office. School, citizen groups, weird City of Boston "partner" events, reaching out to others in places like Chicago, Philadelphia, New York - all places being decimated by education reform, reading articles and digging into data on DESE and other sites. This is what my spare time - time when I could relax or do something totally selfish with - essentially revolves around or something similar for the past 23 years. 

Confession: my youngest is now in high school and I feel like I have failed my children. I failed them by allowing those who won't even put their own children into a public school to determine how my children would be educated. I failed them by not pushing back more against their use as guinea pigs in the edu-experiments that have encompassed the past 20 years of public education in my beloved city. I have failed them by allowing them to be nothing more than data-points to those who swore their focus was the children of Boston and ensuring they would receive the best education. I failed them by not screaming louder or opting them out of the insane MCAS sooner. All of these things are how I also feel I have failed ALL of our Boston students. 

To my children: I'm sorry. I loved school, okay - not the early hours, but when I went to Boston Public Schools, despite what was written about how horrible our education was, I got an amazing education. An education that, contrary to the popular myth pushed by education reformers, actually taught me how to ask questions, research, think critically, write everything from a resume, correspondence, legal documents, this blog and read for knowledge as well as enjoyment. My education gave me the drive to continue as a scholar throughout my life. This is what I want for all of you - the children I gave birth to and those that may not even know me, for school to be a place where you love to learn, even if you don't like the hours. 

Grades are subjective and standardized tests are just standards others have decided on or the "norm", well, my kids are not and never will be the "norm" so their scores on these tests mean almost nothing to me. In my opinion, the true success of a school and district is not how many of the students can pass a single test measure, but how many of the students that they educated not only go on to have successful lives, but continue to spend their life learning and never stop. 

Despite my feeling of failure, or maybe because of it, I will continue to fight against those who see our students as nothing but a data-point or dollar sign. Right now, that includes elected officials like Mayor Marty Walsh, Governor Charlie Baker and many others who seem to be paying off campaign debts by selling off our students' (and the city's) futures. And they are backed by big money and corporations hiding behind the foundations and groups that are purportedly non-profit: Gates, Walton, Broad, Democrats for Education Reform, Families for Excellent Schools, Stand for Children. Gates has already funded the Boston Compact through the Boston Schools Fund and the Boston Compact folks are in talks with the Walton Family Foundation for more funding. All of these organizations have the objective of opening more charter schools as one of their primary missions. And yes, I have been tweeting about all of these concerns and questions to all of them.

There are many concerns surrounding the Boston Compact, not the least of which is the lack of transparency and lack of any of the true stakeholders being part of the group. If you want to learn a bit more you should really read Public School Mama's blog and the links in her posts!

Call me crazy - rightfully so, because who else but a crazy person would believe that one voice or a small group of voices can indeed make a difference? I'll own my craziness because despite everything, I also know I have succeeded in some ways because I see it throughout BPS and my children do have the desire to continue learning. I didn't do it alone, and every day I am thankful to the staff and educators, and yes, BPS district personnel, City Councilors and Mayor Menino, and most of all the awesome students, parents and groups that helped ensure that my children became lifelong learners. 

We still have a lot of work to do, but luckily I know there are many community members, parents, students, families, educators and groups who are also fighting to ensure that every student truly receives the best education we can give them and to light the spark necessary to continue their learning for the rest of their lives. I may also be a dreamer, but I truly believe we can accomplish our goals. So, to the many parents, students, families and community members feeling fatigue or, like myself, feeling like you may have failed your students, I thank you for fighting on despite the constant barrage of education reform initiatives and compacts designed to decimate public school districts. 

If you want to learn more about the current issues many are concerned about such as what the Boston Compact, Mayor Walsh and Governor Baker's education proposals could mean for Boston I hope you will join me tomorrow evening, Wednesday, December 2, 2015 at 6:30 p.m. at the District B-2 Police Station 2400 Washington St, Roxbury, MA 02119 (Dudley Square).

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.