FYI from BSF, 1.10.20
The State of Education (in the City)
In his annual State of the City Address, Mayor Walsh announced a single new education initiative:
This increases revenue ahead of the new money coming from Massachusetts through the recently signed Student Opportunity Act. It adds about 3 cents on the dollar to the BPS budget. Details on how this will be spent will come out through the BPS budget process in the next few months.
We went back through Mayor Walsh’s State of the City addresses from 2015 onwards. Below are the new or updated education initiatives from each year, though many also repeat across several years without significant update. In addition, updates are not always timely: for example, extending the school-day was mentioned in 2016, but was not a new initiative as it was settled before 2016 and outside of BTU contract.
Here is the status of the above initiatives:
The late Mayor Menino famously said "If I fail to bring about these specific [education] reforms by the year 2001 then judge me harshly."
What will Mayor Walsh say?
Notes in the Margin
Almost four years after originally it was originally reported, there continues to be concerns about BPS/City Hall cooperation with Trump policies around deportations. WGBH, MassLive, WBUR, Herald, and even Newsweek reported on it. Superintendent Cassellius promised it would not continue.
Chalkbeat looks back at the big stories of the 2010s.
If you are an auditory learner, you can get a simple summary of the Student Opportunity Act from WBUR.
Want kids to finish college? Paying them may help.
Incisive piece examining school choice.
School Matters
Priority registration for BPS opened up Monday. You can get all the tips and tricks via email or text at Boston School Finder.
