Boston school parents to Patrick: Show us the federal money

I was there and it was raucous, to say the least. 

It is amazing how the city has changed over the years.  Many of the parents in the audience today -- and at the Congress Street Garage meeting last night -- are new to the city (they said so), having arrived during the past ten or fifteen years.  Many want to stay in the city after they have children and many want to put their kids in the local public schools.  They are begging for help.  Last night, parents at the Garage meeting asked the developer to build a public school as part of his project.

Many people today at the State House expressed the opinion that the state is causing damage by withholding federal funds.  Obviously, the state should give the city's schools funds, and the Governor said this evening at the JFK Library that it will; Boston schools will get millions of dollars before the end of this fiscal year.  Other schools won't get any (for example, many of those in the suburbs).

What surprised me was that few, if any, parents last night and today seemed to hold the city's leaders responsible for the quality of our public schools or for budget shortfalls.  Last night, a representative from the Boston Redevelopment Authority said that the city was "doing a study" to determine if the North End, Beacon Hill, and West End neighborhoods need a new school.  They don't already know??  Stand outside Eliot K-8 in the North End on any weekday morning and you can tell it's oversubscribed.  Members of the audience seemed to accept this excuse, but -- as I said to parents afterward -- the Mayor wouldn't let a developer build a public school in the Seaport, and he wouldn't build a public school on Beacon Hill; why do they think the Mayor will listen to them now?

At the same meeting, City Councilor Michael Ross stood up and said, clearly, "If the developer of this project doesn't include a school in the plan, I don't think I will support it."  I don't know if the Councilor and the Mayor talk to each other often, but Ross should check with his "boss" to find out what's going on.  It seems to me that the city's leaders are taking a pass on this issue.  The city is well aware of the increasing student populations of the downtown neighborhoods and needs to act appropriately (and swiftly). 

The city's leaders did the same thing again today at the State House. Yet again, the audience seemed to think the city's officials were on their side and that the Governor was the bad guy.  I don't think the facts back up this claim.  Boston schools cost well over $1 billion and we have one of the highest per-student expense rates in the state (over $16,000 per student).

The city faces a deficit not because federal stimulus funds aren't coming in but because the city has less tax revenue coming in. 

The Mayor today laid blame for the problem squarely at the feet of the Boston Teachers' Union for not accepting a wage freeze and on the Governor for not giving the city any of the federal stimulus funds.  Perhaps the union should accept a wage freeze -- but it's not because teachers want raises that the city is facing a budget deficit.  Even if the BTU agreed to a wage freeze, the city budget would still be in the red.  Federal funds can, and will, help.  But Boston faces much more fundamental budgetary issues that we need to face up to right away.

I am in complete agreement with one thing I heard today.  One of the speakers said that the city's home rule charter needs to be rewritten in order to give Boston control over its own destiny -- the power to tax, and so on.  Overhauling our broken system of home rule is a big part of my campaign, in fact.

The anger expressed today about a lack of fairness in funding is spot-on.  It's the proverbial kicking of a man while he's down.  Schoolteachers and parents feel the odds are stacked against them at every turn.  If you stand among them (as I did today -- check out the front of my head in one of the photos on boston.com ) you can actually feel their passion.  But I think they need to be more critical and skeptical of all their leaders if they want things to change.

At least those are my first thoughts.