Lately, all that we are hearing about are racial issues inside Boston Latin and all we see on the TV news is Boston City Councilor Tito Jackson, who chairs the City Council’s Education Committee.
Back in the day, before they eliminated the elected school committee, issues such as this current one would have been dealt with by members of the elected school board. Parents would have applied pressure and the elected members would have held court. Parents back then had a voice, either on the original five-member citywide committee or the 13-member district/citywide committee.
Today, Boston has a mayoral appointed Boston school committee. I see them on BNN-TV all the time, but when it comes to issues such as the ones at Boston Latin, it is City Councilor Tito Jackson taking the lead. The school board’s silence is deafening. Of what value is this school board to parents of public school students in Boston?
I feel it is time to end the appointed school board and put it back into the hands of Boston voters and Boston parents once again. The children should have a voice inside the Boston School Department; with an appointed board, they are voiceless.
Remember the reasons behind abolishing the election of school committee members? It was time to take politics out of public education. Well, how’s that been going? I see politics having an even bigger impact today than ever before.
Let the people elect the school board members and stop pretending things are working well today. Things aren’t working out and there is little pressure to improve public education.
The City Council Education Committee is not the Boston School Committee and shouldn’t pretend to be. Things will never get fixed doing the status quo. They can only get worse.
Sincerely,
Sal Giarratani
East Boston
