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Mel King: Children suffering under current administration

King

Former state Rep. and one-time mayoral candidate Mel King endorsing Michael Flaherty in front of City Hall today.

King said the election was about children, of ensuring that the city educates them first before worrying about Globe stories about the state of high-school athletics. He said two-thirds of the children in Boston do not attend public schools, and their parents stop caring about public education. But, quoting Khalil Gibran, he said all children are our children and we can't just leave them to the current "system of low expectations."

Former Mayor Ray Flynn also endorsed Floon, saying they would do more than anybody else to ensure social justice, in part by enforcing a city ordinance calling for the hiring of Boston residents on large construction projects.

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Comments

Aside from my wish to retire the petty dictator Menino, I'll say you have to give Flaherty and Yoon credit for making this a race.

I would not count out some electoral shenanagans by Menino's City Hall folks.

We should have a DOJ, OSCE or UN election observer team fly into Boston and place observers at all the polls.

Get out the vote will be key - new Boston vs. hack Boston.

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I am confused as to how Ray Flynn and Mel King can be considered "new Boston" while the guy who came to power after they left represents "hack Boston"? I feel that the time is up for Menino and this shows past and present combining forces to push him off the top of the hill but let us not kid ourselves. Ray Flynn got the biggest hack job in the world, Ambassador to the Holy See!

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If I hadany advice to Flaherty's Camp it would be to keep your distance from Ray Flynn, a man who endorsed George W. Bush for President. That combined with Flaherty's previous job working for then Republican DA Martin gives Flaherty some nice GOP roots in his endorsements and his endorsees.

And in terms of King, he endorsed Yoon months ago when Yoon was actually a candidate. So that's no new news.

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to the press conference, and it really seemed like these four men came together for the same reason. Not to elect a new Mayor so much as to bring real, positive change to Boston. Mel and Ray seemed very genuine in their support for these guys and I think that coming from two men who have had so much impact on our city as activists and politicians means a lot. Seems like these next few weeks will be pretty interesting.

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was Bill Owens there too?

Didnt't Ray Flynn endorse George W. Bush for President? Didn't Mel endorse Ralph Nader? Thanks, guys.

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sounds like they pick the winners, eh?
this is LAME

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Oldies who like old guys whose names they remember from yesteryear, that's who.

Lame? Well, if you are 20 and can't be arsed to register, your opinion doesn't matter in the electorial calculus.

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ehhh...not quite sure what you're replying to here...you comment simply doesn't make any sense.

Mel Kin and Ray Flynn have a history of endorsing people who haven't done anything...or have gone down as the worst president in the history of the US.

I'm 23, registered to vote, and exercise my right...so you're comment again, makes no sense.

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You may be registered and you may vote, but many of the people who would agree with your "LAME" characterization don't bother. Even if they did, you would be outnumbered.

Meanwhile, Boston is stuffed with old folks who love to see yesteryear's hit parade trotted out. They also buy heavily into endorsements as a reason to vote for specific people. In their eyes, having familiar names and faces endorse a couple of youngstas might actually get them to consider voting for them. As such people tend to vote in droves, your thinking that this is lame matters not in the grand scheme.

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Boy are you setting yourself up for a fall. I'm coming over to clear your home of sharp objects.

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help me with my emails too?

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If you have found a way to harm yourself with email then you should stay away from those too. I'm not a fan of Menino but I'm betting he'll win 65/35.

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As soon as I read that "two thirds don't attend public schools" figure, I thought "That can't be right." And it isn't: Only one quarter of the children of Boston don't attend public schools. (Numbers from "BPS at a glance" here: http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/29).

Whatever one's beliefs are about Menino, Floon, Flynn, Mel King, or anything else, I don't think it helps the democratic process for any leader to make defendable claims (the schools could use some improvement) but back them up by numbers that don't reflect reality.

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Thank you!

From the beginning of this Flaherty/Yoon bull...we have been inundated with incorrect information.

With the Floon camp, the message seems to be...we just make things up because they sound good...we don't claim that anything we say is FACTUALLY correct -- c'mon that would take time and people to research! It's so much easier to make things up, and it's more fun too!

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Yes, I absolutely agree that King is wrong when he states that 2/3 of children of Boston don't attend public schools. The city is required to track all children to know where they are attending school, regardless of whether or not it is BPS, and to publish regularly those numbers. I saw the same problem with King's numbers being overblown.

The only way that King could be correct would be if he were using misleading math, such as counting pre-kindergarten children under age 5 (only a small fraction are enrolled in BPS pre-K). He might also be counting dropouts, but while a large fraction of kids drop out before graduating, the drop outs are mostly upper high school years and hence constitute a small fraction of the overall number of children.

I wonder what King was thinking?

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75,500 students (as per the BPS website) out of a city population of 609,000 (as per Wikipedia) is only 12% of the population. That strikes me as a very, very low percentage of school-aged children. This seems to support the idea that middle-class and upper-middle class people are leaving the city when they have kids. How many of us know people who have kids and move out of the city to the suburbs in order to find good schools?

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Boston has a lot of top private schools. Kids in boston go to them.

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This is a very education-heavy area, so even if the public schools were amazing, there are a lot of other options that draw people in. There are people who absolutely love Montessori or Waldorf or Sudbury or Jewish or Quaker or Catholic schools, so if these are available, they're going to pick them no matter what. The same person who wouldn't pass up an opportunity to send their kid to a Waldorf school while living in Boston might well send their kid to public school if they moved to Buttfuck Kentucky and there were just public schools and a couple of nondescript private schools to choose from, but no Waldorf school.

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http://1smootshort.blogspot.com

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In fact it is the Catholic Schools that seem to be fairing the worst as some have closed over the past decade. Traditionally Catholic Schools were some of the cheapest private schools you could find. If they can not maintain class sizes big enough to justify the existence of the school those kids have to be going somewhere.

I believe there are just less children (as a percentage) living in Boston period and that is not because of a "flight" situation rather it is due to a higher concentration of young professionals, students and older residents (both those who never left their houses that could easily fit many children and those who moved into the city later in life.) Many families have a choice either spend 400,000 on a small condo in Boston or pack the family up and get a nice house outside of the city that may actually have a yard. As much as Bloomberg seemed to dislike his hometown I think Medford would be a nice place to settle down for a family and is still very close to Boston.

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...because they are worried about what will happen when their kids have to go to middle school (where there seem to be few really decent public school options -- and no assurance one will "luck out").

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Those who can do math and and those who can't.

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this is pathetic, I was at the rally and I could see the insincerity dripping from everyone up there.

They ALL have different agendas and the only one who's agenda matters is Flaherty because he's the only person going to be elected and therefore the only person who can be held accountable. And Flaherty's agenda stinks to high heavens.

Mel, this is a disgrace to the black community for Boston for you to endorse a man who doesn't understand institutionalized racism and who said to 2 African-American young men at a pick=up bbal game:

"Well you 2 will be good at basketball."

Social Justice will only come if people understand the many facets of racism -- which Flaherty has proven he doesn't.

If this is so progressive, why have all the progressive organizations endorsed Menino? Why do we have the MOST progressive Public Health Dept in the country?

When the overwhelming majority of neighborhoods of color voted in favor of Menino in the Prelim they knew why, it's because Menino supports these communities in Boston. Why do 4 'educated' men stand up and say the know what's best for people of color in Boston? It's sickening.

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Just because Floon has the support of some oldies but goodies, doesn't take away from their new way of thinking. They've totally been taking it to the streets, and I, for one, hope that people are paying attention. As an unemployed Boston resident, it really annoys me to think that City jobs are going to out-of-staters, not even just out-of-towners. I don't work in construction, but it's a good example of how the mayor's ties aren't focused on the city at large, but his own interests.

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The city doesn't enforce the workforce bill mainly because to do so would cost more money and result in less work being done, at a time when the city is cash-strapped and our services are pretty bad.

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I recently read an article in a Boston newspaper that made note of the "geniuses" who walk amongst us in anonymity here on the banks of the Charles. Another article touted the huge number of Nobel Prizes, Rhodes Scholarships and other prestigious academic award winners living and working here in Boston. It's my hunch that you would find none of these people working in the Menino Administration. Such readily available brilliance is shunned to satisfy political favors and generous contributions. It's plainly apparent to me that out of the options available on election day, the Flaherty/Yoon ticket trumps the current administration in the chance of opening itself up to seeking the brightest and most talented to come in and finally move this city from decades old stagnation to the rightful place it should take among other major cities. Ray Flynn and Mel King are probably two of the most opposite people you can find, yet both know that it's with Flaherty/Yoon that Boston has the best chance to move forward.

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EXCUSE ME?

Again, misinformation...there are some of the brightest people in our city working for the Menino administration (and before you jump on it, I'm not one those people, and I don't work for the city)

Barbara Ferrer is a national leader in the field of Public Health -- look up her record. She has been brought before the Latino and Black Caucuses to present on how Boston is the only city in the country with a clear blueprint for how to combat racial and ethnic health disparities

Carol Johnson completely turned around the Memphis School system and turned it from a dysfunctional system to a successful one.

Before making a stupid comment, Dotave1630, and one that is factually unfounded, do some research.

You don't have to win the Rhodes Scholarship to be capable at running a city or dept...in fact, if Rhodes Scholars and other who have only been knighted by the so-called 'intellectual authorities' ran the city --nothing would get done, but we'd have tons of studies and dissertations, yipee!!!!!

And are you somehow insinuating that Rhodes scholars will flock to Flaherty? I don't see them hanging around him or endorsing him.

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Only so much can be done about education with parents that don't care, and are not involved in their kids lives. It's as simple as that.

The city can offer incentives and programs, but when it comes down to it, the city can not raise your kid right.

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OK, I found that to be an empty promise too. But in my experience the average student in BPS has one parent with two part-time jobs. The parent just doesn't have the time or energy to be involved, even if they are emotionally ready and academically able to help (which many are not).

In addition, the city provides few avenues for a young person to see how work will lead to a good life in Boston. The kinds of jobs these kids are looking at just don't pay enough, while good ones are out of reach, outside their network.

The solution has been for some of them to work for the city, but we see how this can't add up in the end. It's a circle that just can't contain everybody who needs it. Everybody in the city can't be working for the city.

After working for 20 years, 98% of it is the economy and the city has a lousy economy. None of the candidates propose to change that, Menino probably has done the least harm which is why he'll win.

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So whats the option? Bring manufacturing to Boston? Don't think that's coming back from China anytime soon.

I do do understand the trials of low income parents. But that fact remains, if you don't find the time to raise your kids right, then there's nothing the best teacher in the world can do to help him. There are success stories, but they're fewer and farther between.

The fastest way to success is getting a child into college, after which they'll have more opportunities then city government and MBTA. Problem is, that's based on primary schooling when they aren't thinking of their future. Parenting is essential, as councilors, big brothers, ect can only do so much. Good teachers can find ways to coerce their students into homework, through incentives or friendship, but they can't treat the disease of apathy for the majority of toes left behind.

The culture needs a serious heart to heart too. To many grow up believing they'll be the next athlete or rapper to the point that school is just wasting time. But most people totally believe it, and it's a poison pill.

Most children only become aware of why their parents pushed them hard in school after adolescents once they realize that most of the other things they obsessed about in their teenage years were small fish to what the world offers.

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Your ideas are simplistic and moralistic. If it was paying off in some visible way, then BPS students would be doing it. As it is, the graduation rate is somewhere between 50-60%, and those who do go to college have a poor chance of finishing.

They simply don't have the private capital to carry them through their 20s, and don't have the connections to get trained in professional jobs.

This is a sign that the city economy is not working at full capacity to hoover up all these people and put them to work at full productivity. Marginal business cannot survive with the taxes we have here. Our commercial R.E. tax is what $27 vs a residential of $10.50. All that has done is shift a huge amount of land off the tax rolls into non-profits. We would be much better off with a flat rate.

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I had a Rhodes Scholar working on my campaign, Fasi Zaka, and look what good that did for me!

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nothing more.....just plain funny.

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Will somebody tell me where Chris Roache is? Baby Flats cant do it alone........

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Where is Chris Nilan?

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Why don't u mind your own fing business and not worry about it

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