MAYOR MENINO went before the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce yesterday and said he means business when it comes to protecting the city’s school system against a decline in enrollment and quality. It’s the right message, and one that needs to be heard in living rooms and negotiating rooms across the city.
The schools can’t go on spending freely on a system with 5,600 empty seats, runaway health insurance costs, and erratic teaching quality. The system can’t keep pouring 20 times more money on transportation than on school supplies. “Will we, as a city, have the courage to stop doing things that limit student achievement,’’ Menino asked yesterday, “so we can grow the strategies that accelerate it?’’
Part of the answer should come as early as tonight, when the Boston School Committee is scheduled to vote on school Superintendent Carol Johnson’s proposal to close nine school buildings and merge several others as a way to eliminate empty seats and reinforce remaining classrooms. The rest depends on whether the city’s teachers’ union accepts the need to extend the school day, tie teacher compensation at least partly to student performance, and give administrators more flexibility in assigning teachers to the classrooms where they are needed most.
Menino avoided mention of charter schools. But the concessions he hopes to extract from the teachers’ union would provide precisely the tools that charter schools use effectively. Embracing such reforms is the best hope that Boston has to compete with high-performing charter schools, especially now that the Legislature has lifted the cap to allow for the addition of as many as 12,000 new charter seats in the city over the next six years.
The practical-minded mayor sees mutually beneficial leasing arrangements for the fall when the opening of new charter schools coincides with the closing of district schools. More importantly, Boston school officials and charter school operators are engaged for the first time in serious discussions about how they might form a compact to ensure the highest quality academic experience for all Boston students. This could include the sharing of student health services, teacher training, and curriculum offerings.
“It’s crazy to have all of us fighting for the same territory,’’ Menino said last week. “Let’s work together.’’
The mayor was sometimes absent without a hall pass over the past few years while his superintendent put forth partial plans to fix the schools. But yesterday’s speech was strong evidence that Menino believes in the current approach, and is ready to fight for it.
