MassGOP’s sad moment of truth | State ed bureaucrats fiddle, students struggle | The mayor and the tycoon | Quick hits | About Contrarian Boston |
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Double standard? Wu is tough on developers, just not a certain one who has a sports team and a newspaper in his pocket
Mayor Michelle Wu has artfully signaled her disdain for the cozy back-slapping and insider deal making that has long characterized business and politics in Boston.
Developers can forget about meeting with her to discuss their projects, she pronounced to The Boston Globe last year.
So Wu’s decision to give her State of the City address at the newly opened MGM Music Hall at Fenway last Wednesday suggests a high degree selectivity in her self-imposed standard.
Why? Well the glitzy music hall is owned by a certain gentleman billionaire who also just happens to be behind one of the biggest development plans right now in Boston.
That would be John Henry, of course, whose empire includes not just the Red Sox and the Globe, but also a proposed two million square foot office, research and retail project around Fenway Park that is currently under review at Wu’s City Hall.
Wu delivered a withering critique of development in Boston in her State of the City address, painting a picture of a city overrun with new construction and without the infrastructure support it.
There was no mention, however, of the big plans being pushed by Henry’s Fenway Sports Group and WS Development, which would transform beyond recognition the streets around the new MGM Music Hall and Fenway Park.
In fact, for a politician who practices a studied coolness towards the business community, and with developers especially, Wu’s use of Henry’s brand spanking new Fenway concert hall gave off some remarkably chummy vibes.
Wu thanked the Red Sox for use of the music hall in her opening remarks, which immediately raised the question of whether Henry’s Fenway Sports Group, which developed the hall, donated the use of the 5,000-seat-plus venue to Wu.
It took a day for Wu’s press team to answer a question from Contrarian Boston about the lease arrangements, saying that the city paid “about $22,500.”
Hmm, a little vague, maybe? We’ve asked city officials for a copy of the lease - no response yet.
Stay tuned.
A big vote looms for control of the beleaguered MassGOP. Amazingly, it’s too close to call.
Any sane political party would have given Jim “Jones” Lyons the bum’s rush long before now.
But the MassGOP, as it is constituted today, is neither sane nor a political party by any reasonable definition of the term.
You would think Lyons, who has been on a statewide tour to press his case for reelection as state party chair, would be on the defensive right now.
After all, Lyons, a die-hard Trumpie, helped destroy any chance of a reelection bid by now former Gov. Charlie Baker, orchestrating Trump’s endorsement of Geoff Diehl. An historically atrocious candidate, Diehl lost to Gov. Maura Healey in a landslide.
With the vote for MassGOP chair slated for Tuesday, Lyons and his reelection bid is still very much alive and kicking, with recent endorsements by two town Republican committees.
The inspiration for today’s MassGOP? Suicide cult leader Jim Jones
A recent straw poll, taken after one of Lyons’ stops on his reelection tour, had the MassGOP chair taking a third of the vote.
So what’s the issue? Well, there are six or more other candidates for MassGOP chair running amuck, so Lyons, at 33 percent, had the largest share. He’ll still have to win a majority, but that’s cold comfort right now.
But if you think Lyons is acknowledging any of the obvious issues facing the state Republican party, you’d be sorely mistaken.
Lyons’ closing pitch is as nutty as his leadership of the party has been. In a letter sent to state committee members on Saturday, Lyons pledged sue to Baker moderates and other opponents who he contends surreptitiously undermined his leadership.
Oh yeah, and now he plans to seek $5 million in damages while he’s at it.
Shawn Dooley, a former Republican state rep. who came within two votes of ousting Lyons in the last election for state party chair, said Lyons - or “Lyin’ Lyons,” as he calls him - should be voted out unanimously, but won’t.
“Jim has 25 (state committee members) who are blind to his failures and have developed a cult like devotion to him and his conspiracy theories,” Dooley told Contrarian Boston. “His followers then mimic this message as they vilify and call for the destruction of all who are not considered “pure” or not “true” Republicans.”
So will they drink the Kool-Aid and reelect Jim “Jones” Lyons? (Credits to Howie Carr for the nickname.) Or will enough state Republican Party committee members come to their senses - and reclaim their God-given courage - to give the geriatric blowhard his walking papers?
We’ll find out Tuesday what side of history they choose to stand on.
The adults are alright, the kids, not so much…
By David Mancuso
Sorry kids, it just can’t be done. Two billion dollars isn’t enough. For those of you most impacted from Covid learning losses, you’ll eventually catch up. It will just take until 2027, but what does a few extra years matter?
And as for the rest, you haven’t got that much catching up to do, so a year or three might be enough for you.
That, anyway, is what Commissioner Riley, the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) and school superintendents intimated when they doubled down on DESE’s recovery plans at the Board of Education meeting on January 24. For those not following the story for the last several months, DESE’s plans call for all students to catch up to where they were in 2019 first, before any more rigorous academic targets are set.
DESE’s plan, which they describe as “ambitious and attainable,” is lightly sketched out above. Time will cure all, learning will happen along the way, schools will do the best they can, and that is good enough. Maybe DESE meant to say, ambitious OR attainable, as though that was the question on the table.
Fortunately, the Board of Education, the Education Trust, and McKinsey & Co. don’t necessarily see it that way. Nor do DESE’s own consultants, TNTP. Then there is the business community, but really, what do they know about education?
In a presentation to the board, TNTP consultants pointed DESE in the right direction, highlighting the over-arching theme that “accelerated learning is better than remedial learning.” DESE’s four-year window to recovery doesn’t feel very accelerated to the board. DESE’s consistent defense was that an integrated, fully supported, multi-tiered response is complex and takes time.
Education Trust, which is often described as a left-leaning organization that advocates for more spending on the public school system, points to learning-loss research that supports “targeted intensive tutoring and expanded learning time.” And McKinsey & Company research has shown tutoring to be cost effective, coming out to just “$100 per student per week of additional learning gained.”
Heck, even states like Tennessee are following this advice, but all Commissioner Riley could do when this was raised at the meeting was to note that they had the benefit of an initial jump in performance from a low starting point. Perish the thought that we in the Commonwealth could learn anything from education experts, business organizations or other states.
To their credit the Board of Education isn’t giving up on putting the students first.
Board Chair Katherine Craven told the commissioner that “the same arguments we are having today about what’s too bold are the same we had in the 90s. I worry that we are not being bold enough.”
Board member Michael Moriarity reminded DESE that paying attention to critical social emotional needs is important, but added: “Don’t put aside the academics… the academic goals are not aspirational, they are a constitutional mandate.”
For Board Vice Chair Matt Hills, the “cringe moment” occurred when DESE suggested some students can recover in four years, and only then schools can move forward on addressing the achievement gaps.
There is no joy in picking on Commissioner Riley and his colleagues at DESE. Their work is vital, and done with valuable professional expertise. Yet that is exactly what makes their continued focus on time-to-recovery, vs. recovery itself for students and schools, all-the-more inexplicable.
Riley knows what to do. So do the superintendents. Riley’s past success with Acceleration Academies in Lawrence Public Schools is proof enough that he knows how to frame a problem and implement strategic solutions. In public comments at the start of the meeting, superintendents rightly and proudly touted the great work they are already doing - work that actually looks a lot like intensive tutoring. Then they complained the state isn’t measuring their successes, before incongruously pivoting to support DESE. Presumably success is great, but avoiding the pressure of succeeding under the spotlight of state-established accountability standards is better.
So why can’t DESE under Riley’s capable leadership get off the dime and talk about proven, immediate solutions rather than timelines?
There are a few possible explanations: One, Riley and DESE lacks support to do the right thing from higher up the power food chain due to possible political repercussions that would come from upsetting the superintendents and unions; or two, DESE knows the buck will stop with them and that is too much to bear given the fact that local control is truly what drives education in Massachusetts and committed leadership upsets the apple cart.
In the end, Ground Hog Day came early this year. The powerless Board of Education’s wisdom doesn’t shine bright enough to eliminate the shadows over reform. Board Chairwoman Craven’s attempt to resurrect, through her remarks, the spirit of the Grand Bargain of 1993, offered a clear reminder that the now three-decade-old deal between educators, politicians and the business community is what pulled Massachusetts schools out of mediocrity. Today, the best DESE can do is recommend that we all head back to the den and sleep for a few more years. Covid learning loss discussions will eventually be a bad memory, and we may or may not be smarter by then, but at least we will all be well rested.
Quick hits:
Chinese rail manufacturer CRRC has fallen hopelessly behind on delivering long-promised new Orange and Red Line cars. But the T’s advisory board inexplicably has few questions: “MBTA opens up about crippling subway car delivery delays” CommonWealth Magazine
Goodbye SATs? “Fewer colleges relying on standardized tests” CommonWealth Magazine
Already? “The 2024 GOP presidential primary season is kicking off. Here’s the potential field.” Washington Post
Speak of the devil: “Donald Trump kicks off presidential campaign in New Hampshire” Boston Herald
What is Contrarian Boston?
I have fielded emails over the past several months asking what Contrarian Boston is about.
Here’s a link to our mission statement – you can find it in the “about” section.
For a more prosaic, nuts-and-bolts description, read on.
An online newsletter, Contrarian Boston publishes every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. In Contrarian Boston you’ll find analysis of the day’s news, and original reporting as well.
Our focus is:
· Politics and all levels of governance, good and bad, with an emphasis on state and local, with some national mixed in;
· Economic growth and business, especially real estate, housing and new development projects;
· The media and why it does what it does;
· Education, from school board spats to the doings of multibillion-dollar university endowments;
· And whatever else catches our fancy.