Where we stand in education; how we stand up for all our students
As we approach finalizing the Boston Public Schools budget, I wanted you to hear from me directly how we are setting BPS on a path for unprecedented success.
I’m pleased to start with some news: as part of Boston’s annual budget process, I will be resubmitting the FY17 operating budget to the City Council on Monday, June 20. As in every year, the revenue picture has gotten clearer over the months-long budget process.
In this year’s resubmission, we have decided to increase our planned investment in Boston Public Schools by nearly $5 million.
This represents a total increase of $18.2 million over FY16, and a total annual investment of $1.032 billion in BPS. Since I took office, we will have increased BPS’ annual budget by $94 million. That expenditure is likely to grow when we reach a new contract agreement with our teachers.
I look forward to working with the City Council to pass this budget and strengthen our schools, as well as all our vital city services. But as the process moves toward completion, I want to pause for a moment to look at the big picture. I want to remind us of our shared goals for Boston’s students, and how we are working in both the short term and the long term to achieve them.
First, let me get one thing out of the way. The notion that we have a sweeping plan to close schools is simply untrue. The goal of our multi-year BuildBPS process is to create modern, inspiring learning environments for all our students. To me that means renovations, that means new buildings, that means sparkling, creative new classrooms. That means further investment in our schools. If there is any consolidation it will be moderate, consensus-driven, and designed to upgrade every affected child’s educational experience with logical grade configurations and predictable, easily navigated transitions.
On a related note, I want to debunk the premise behind rumors of widespread closures and other “secret agendas.” No outside audit, and no partnership with any reform organization, commits us to any course of action that is not supported by our community. Reports and recommendations are data points, not plans. We receive them with a critical eye and add them to the conversation if they prove helpful.
Back to the big picture. In fact, let’s go back in time a bit. During my campaign for mayor, I made my values clear. I believe deeply in public education. And I believe our unstinting goals in public education should be to close opportunity and achievement gaps, meet the diverse needs of every kind of student, and make our district schools top choices for every family in every neighborhood.
I talked to parents, students, teachers, school leaders, and education researchers about how to reach those goals. I listened. I learned. And I concluded that, rather than tinkering around the edges, we need to prioritize evidence-based, equity-driven policies that will set up all our students and all our schools for long-term success. These include high-quality pre-kindergarten, extended learning time, inclusive special education, wrap-around social services, 21st-century facilities, diverse school leadership pipelines, and transitional pathways through college and into careers. I said I would work closely with educators and families, as well as key community partners, on every initiative. And I said I would support a moderate increase to the charter school cap only if charter financing were fixed. I said that we need greater collaboration among Boston’s district, charter, and private school sectors. I’ve long supported all three sectors, and I will never take sides in the ideological warfare that distorts too much of our current school debate.
My values and my priorities have not changed in the last three years. We hired Dr. Tommy Chang to be Superintendent because his experience and vision were exceptionally suited to advance and enhance these goals. I’m proud to say that together, we have followed through on each of the above-mentioned priorities and many more.
We have seen progress as a result, but we’re only just getting started. There’s a long way to go.
That’s the story behind the school budget for the 2016–2017 fiscal year.
Our proposal would launch new initiatives and strengthen existing ones with the singular goal of getting every student on a pathway to success from pre-K through college and career. But these investments add to a budget that has built up severe inefficiencies over the years — in transportation, in facilities, in personnel, and in operations. It’s a real challenge to get transformative new initiatives off the ground while undertaking structural reforms that in some cases could take years to unlock savings.
The alternative to this hard work, however, is not acceptable — and given our growing budget pressures, it will no longer be tenable. We’ve seen what it’s like in recent years. Each year that we focus only on meeting current (and rising) costs, without making deep reforms, is a year we have to postpone transformative improvements.
Those who oppose these structural reforms — or who argue that we can move forward without addressing them — must acknowledge that they are advocating for the status quo.
It is a status quo where some 4-years-olds get the high quality pre-kindergarten that is proven to close achievement gaps, and others get nothing. It is a status quo where African-American and Latino children are disproportionately tracked away from the highest academic opportunities as early as fourth grade. It is a status quo that does not understand the more than 70 languages BPS families speak at home. It is a status quo where some Boston middle-schoolers get the shortest school day in the country. It is a status quo where youth with special needs do not get the support they need during crucial transitions into adolescence and adulthood.
It is not a status quo that I will tolerate.
Our planned $18.2 million addition to the BPS budget is aimed squarely at these inequities. $6 million more will flow directly into school budgets through weighted student funding. $9 million more is being spent on Special Education and almost $3 million more is being spent in the school-based Bilingual/Sheltered English Immersion program. Staffing levels are expected to increase by about 65, including 32 more teachers, even as enrollment is projected to be flat. We’re adding 200 new prekindergarten seats; a data system to improve parent access to children’s special education plans; and 33 new classrooms at 18 schools.
These investments respond directly to the concerns and criticisms that have been expressed in the community about BPS for many years. And the additional $4.7 million I am announcing today will go even further. It will bring our most rigorous curriculum to a more diverse set of students. It will ensure greater student safety. It will serve special student populations better than ever before. It will introduce unprecedented operational efficiency, performance accountability, and long-term planning. Here’s a breakdown of what’s new today in my BPS budget proposal:
• A $1.2 million pilot of the Superintendent’s Excellence for All program. BPS will offer fourth graders in 13 schools access to rigorous enriched experiences, bringing the benefits of the Advanced Work Classes to a more diverse set of students and equipping them with new skills such as foreign languages and robotics.
• $1 million for extended learning time (ELT) planning. With the district’s plans to expand ELT to an additional 40 schools throughout the district over the next couple of years, substantial instructional and logistical planning is necessary to ensure that this is provided effectively. Funding will be used for items like instructional planning and transportation logistics.
• $600,000 for a new transportation data system that will allow BPS to track ridership, provide information to parents, and improve student safety. BPS will also use the data to streamline bus routes and improve operational efficiency for BPS Transportation, which is budgeting to save $10 million in FY17.
• An additional $230,000 over our previous proposal for five of the Early Learning Center and Early Education Center programs serving nearly 800 students. The additional funding will support surround-care programming across the city at West ELC, East Boston EEC, Baldwin EEC, Ellison Parks EES, and Haynes EEC.
• $75,000 to continue high school redesign work with my team, BPS leadership, and participating high schools.
• $75,000 for planning grants for dual language programs. Next year the district will select three schools to develop the financial viability of dual language programs.
• $400,000 to provide translation in multiple languages. BPS families speak over 70 languages. The district will use funding to translate Special Education Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), documents that go to families, and communications from central office.
• $225,000 for the safety office and expansion of our CrisisGo app to additional staff. The CrisisGo app is a notification system to guide leadership teams and inform staff about ongoing emergencies with BPD intervention.
• $150,000 for a safety audit. In concert with an Executive Director of Safety, BPS will execute a thorough analysis of facilities, policies, and practice and protocol.
• $350,000 to support long-term planning and more efficient operations throughout the district. Staff will focus on improving the accuracy and transparency of financial data; improving enrollment projections and analytics; and exploring instructional and operational improvements across the district.
• $130,000 towards developing a stronger culture of performance management in BPS. BPS will build out data reporting infrastructure to house a live dashboard and develop new measures to assess college and career readiness.
The bottom line is: I will support the existing people and programs that are working well, and equitably, for students in BPS; but I will not take the easy way out, stand pat, and expect the status quo to take care of all our kids, when we all know it has never done so.
I’m going to close this long post by asking my budget team to share with you some of the crucial data that shapes our mission to both invest in and reform BPS. But values come before numbers. So I’d like to remind us first of the values that guide us: equity, coherence, and innovation. They are the values that have driven Dr. Chang’s leadership and the values that will drive the long-term strategic plan for Boston Public Schools.
Every decision we make must be consistent with these, our community values. I’m proud to say that has been the case and will always be the case as long as I am Mayor.
But to advance these values together, we must work from the same set of facts — however daunting those facts may be. So, in that spirit, my Chief Financial Officer David Sweeney has prepared some serious data available in the following post.
Thank you for reading,
Marty
