This Globe Op-Ed by four Patriots players is a really impressive piece of tough, enlightened public advocacy, on behalf of equitable school funding, a la the Foundation Budget Review Commission. The McCourty brothers,
And they pull no punches in describing legislators’ efforts. At this very site, Sen. Jason Lewis has been at great pains to tout his dedication to the FBRC recommendations. Rep. Alice Peisch of Wellesley (yes, Wellesley) has complained (via the Speaker) that protests of her handling of this issue were “counterproductive”.
Well, listen to our advocates describe the negotiation (with my emphasis):
So we were surprised that the two chairs of Joint Education Committee were working on renegotiating the low-income rate, despite the fact that the committee last session unanimously released the bill with the full low-income weighting. While Senator Jason Lewis said that he would like to see a bill out of committee in June, Representative Alice Peisch indicated that a bill might not come out until later this summer. This comes after the House delayed passing their education funding reform legislation until the final weeks of session last year and stripped out the low-income rate altogether.
We sincerely ask the House leadership not to leave behind low-income children again this year. This fall will mark the fourth anniversary of the report by the Foundation Budget Review Commission, and in that time an entire class of high school students has been failed by this inaction.
Remember that the FBRC was a bipartisan commission that made recommendations based on students’ empirical needs. It already did the math. What are we seeing here? The State Rep from one of the most fabulously wealthy towns in the Commonwealth is trying to figure out how to give little kids in Lynn, Brockton, and Lawrence a little bit less. It is, as they say, not a good look.
Your Massachusetts House of Representatives, and Rep. Peisch in particular, have not earned deference and trust. They are earning impatience and frustration, which you can detect in the Players Coalition piece here.
Rep. Peisch, Mr. Speaker: Stop complaining. Earn it. Do what the FBRC says. Give the kids the funding already.
Do your job.
johntmay says
Every time I hear someone (usually on the right) tell me that “our schools are failing”, I inform them that it’s not the schools that are failing, it;s the community and everything in it, the schools, the infrastructure, the shops and medical facilities, the whole community. Again, those “schools are failing” voices typically point to teacher’s unions as the problem and charter schools as the solution, at which point I inform them that of all the 20+ nations that outrank the USA in math, reading, and science scores for their students, all of them have teachers unions.
This piece by Charley on the MTA lets me know that once again, many Massachusetts Democrats are not blue to the core, once you scratch the surface. .They can talk the talk of equality and racial justice, but when it comes to opening their checkbook, it’s a different matter.
Charley on the MTA says
There’s a line in the ThreePenny Opera that gets translated into English: “First bread, then the moral code.” Give people (especially little people) what they need first, then we can discuss “reforms”, “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps”, all that prattle.
johntmay says
That line really got me going Charley. Then again there is the Biblical Romans 14:17 that some evangelicals might reply with “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit,” I can hear Betsy DeVos and Mike Pompeo right now……..
I’ll go with Brecht on this one. sorry God….
We’ve learned with homeless citizens, veterans, that may lack a job and are self medicating with drugs that the answer is not to demand that they clean up their act before we give them a home, but to give them a home first, and watch as they begin to improve themselves with this firm footing.
SomervilleTom says
@many Massachusetts Democrats are not blue to the core:
Most of those are bright red with a light overspray of bluish paint applied to dull the shine.
jconway says
I’ll also call a spade a spade and say that Rep. Peisch and Sen. Lewis represent two of the wealthiest and whitest districts in the state. Their resource hoarding is a big reason those two communities annually make Boston’s ten best suburb lists and why their property values are so high. It is particularly shameful to hear this vacillation from Jason Lewis based on his background as a South African from a family that fought apartheid. .
He should recognize a latter day township when he sees one and that is what our inner city districts are becoming if we do not act to equitably fund them. This is truly educational apartheid. These schools are dumping grounds for the families who cannot afford Winchester or Wellesley rents and home prices..This is exactly the kind of NIMBY liberalism that defines our states approach to policymaking.
As a proud MTA and NEA member who taught in a charter last year, I have come to the conclusion that charters are ways to leach funding and student talent from under performing public schools. Vouchers, the next frontier in privatization from Pioneer, would exacerbate these trends.
Massachusetts got a lot of right with education reform. This is the hardest state to become a teacher in and that is a good thing. We have standards that are stronger than Common Core and our curriculum is aligned with them. MCAS, for all its flaws, does a decent job of ensuring equity by gathering data on student performance. Instead of allowing that data to inform our decisions, our policy makers are still relying on ideology or the influence of powerful lobbies to set the agenda. The districts that underperform are chronically underfunded. Fixing the funding gap will fix the achievement gap. It’s time for Sen. Lewis to do his job and follow the damn data.
SomervilleTom says
@Fixing the funding gap will fix the achievement gap:
That’s the money quote.
We need to significantly increase taxes on the wealthy and very wealthy in Massachusetts, at the state level. We need to use some of that new tax revenue to significantly increase school funding in cities and towns.
It is certainly true that long-term solutions to under-performing schools require more than just more school funding. That is a reason to increase taxes even more, and invest even more in “infrastructure, the shops and medical facilities, the whole community”.
I encourage folks to take a ride on the commuter rail to Haverhill, Fitchburg, or Lawrence. Get off the train. Walk around. It’s harder to do on a weekend because we run so few trains that Saturday or Sunday options are quite limited (1-2 trains per DAY between Boston and Haverhill in each direction). It’s still worth the trip, though. Haverhill and Fitchburg each have a lovely new(ish) commuter rail station-turned-into-transportation-hub (this means you can take a bus at the same place). That alone is not nearly enough, as a 1-2 block walk in any direction will show.
There are at least indications of rebirth in Haverhill — building renovations underway, condos and apartments being built near the train station, new shops and restaurants beginning to appear. Fitchburg is still in the depths of depression. I haven’t yet done the exercise in Lawrence. It is prohibitively difficult to do in Springfield.
The wealth disparity of Massachusetts is easy to see, feel, and experience if we will get off our butts and do it.
We need to collect MUCH higher taxes from the wealthy and very wealthy of Wellesley, Concord, Dover, Carlisle, and similar towns (not to mention the actual neighborhood of Beacon Hill). We need use that wealth to invest MUCH more in school funding in our most underperforming school systems.
When we fix the funding gap, the achievement gap will follow.
pogo says
We’d have better funding for education if we didn’t live in a society that pays teachers and professional athletes at current levels.