What the McKinsey Audit of Boston Schools Signals

McKinsey uses the same template to audit school systems in every city. They claim that schools should be closed for a variety of reasons. The schools aren't actually closed but reopened usually by an outside operator.

This creates a "portfolio district" something Rahn Dorsey, the Chief of Education in City Hall, has promoted since he was at the Barr Foundation.

Portfolio districts sound nice to some but it is a system of intense student tracking with diluted accountability and governance is certainly handed over to outsiders. These districts tend to be even more racially segregated with the poorest children ending up in a system that has silenced their parents voice and wants students who follow rules very well but don't learn to question. Curiosity and imagination are suppressed.

Many do-gooders with money love this model as they have influence and think that they can really make a difference but ultimately the data doesn't support this and they stop funding the individual schools and public education has been decimated.

We know this because other cities in the US have moved in this direction using the same step-by-step prescription written by the Broad Foundation and James Peyser, Charlie Baker's Secretary of Education.

Chicago closed 50 public schools claiming it was a cost issue while, in the background, preparing to open up as many charter schools over the next five years. Chicago public schools are still under funded and the charters have all of the problems you've heard folks talk about. In protest, teachers, parents and students have had two major strikes.

Mayor Walsh wants to close twenty to thirty public schools. The Snowden is a particularly attractive target because it sits on a piece of real estate with great value. The Snowden is an excellent school but the mayor can't see beyond it's real estate value.

Walsh didn't run on school privatization, he ran against it claiming his opponents would shred Boston Schools. Ask him about it, he'll tell you who to blame.