MassInsider

Press Release: 2022-05-24

BTU Response to 5/23 DESE Report:

May 23, 2022 by Boston Teachers Union

“First, state receivership has been documented to be generally ineffective or harmful in all cases where it has been attempted in Massachusetts, including where it has been attempted at individual schools within BPS. In fact, over many years, receivership schemes by state bureaucrats have been proven to be ineffectual in nearly all cases where they have been attempted across the nation. Second, the report contains factual inaccuracies to such a degree that it warrants significant revision and either to be rescinded or reissued. Additionally, to the extent the report points to some well-known areas where the district has room for improvement, it is demonstrably clear that the City of Boston’s newly and democratically elected mayor has plans and a vision to address those areas and she should be given the opportunity to see those plans through before the state attempts another expensive, harmful and undemocratic takeover orchestrated by partisan bureaucrats.

This is an opportunistic attempt to overcommit the state past the current governor’s tenure to a hostile, unhealthy and burdensome relationship with the city by bullying the new mayor into an untenable, undemocratic, and patronizing arrangement. The state has forced BPS to do a report that normally takes several months in just two weeks. With a mayor that has been in place less than six months, the timing of this report is suspect, rushed, and ill-advised. Board members being given less than twenty-four hours to read or provide feedback on a report like this is demonstrative of a failed and negligent process on the part of the state. Furthermore, DESE has failed to maintain its obligations under the 2020 MOA with the city of Boston and so should focus its efforts on improving the state’s own performance in the districts where its receivership efforts are already and currently failing.”

– Jessica Tang, President, Boston Teachers Union