03.19.2024

Zoom bombing comes to Concord | No stopping those crazy home prices | BPS’s grudge against parochial and private school kids | A joke that could spell trouble for Wu |

News tips? Story ideas? Email us at sbvanvoorhis@hotmail.com

Loyalty test: Boston exam schools are increasingly spurning students who spent their elementary years at parochial or private institutions

It is as illogical as it is undeniable: Boston Public Schools give every indication of having a very large axe to grind against families who don’t show unwavering loyalty to one of the worst urban school districts in the country.

Mayor Michelle Wu’s free museum admissions program recently blew up in her face, having excluded thousands of Boston children and teens who attend parochial, private, and even city charter schools.

Now, that BPS resentment against families who voted with their feet appears to have infected an issue with much higher stakes for the young students involved.

Tens of thousands of families over the years have pulled their children out of BPS’ woeful elementary schools, choosing instead to send them to parochial or private institutions.

Later, as they prepare to enter middle or high school, some of these students apply for a seat in one of the city’s three exam schools, one of the few functional parts of the BPS system.

Leonard Bernstein in 1955. The legendary composer and conductor is one of many famous BLS grads.

However, an increasing number of these students are now winding up with rejection letters, and it more than likely has nothing to do with their grades or scores.

Nearly half of all percent of parochial and exam school students who sought a seat at Boston Latin or one of the city’s other two exam schools instead got a rejection letter coming into the current school year.

That’s down from a 61 percent acceptance rate two years ago, BPS stats reviewed by Contrarian Boston show.

And, given present trends, that number may very well fall again for the coming 2024-25 school year, with the city’s exam schools poised to notify students this spring whether they have earned a seat.

The decline comes amid BPS’s highly controversial revamp of exam school admissions aimed at diversifying the student body at Boston Latin School, Boston Latin Academy, and the John D. O'Bryant School of Mathematics and Science.

The new policy has led to the rejection of dozens of straight-A students, some with perfect test scores, depressing exam school admission rates for middle class and more affluent neighborhoods while boosting it for parts of Dorchester and Roxbury.

And many private and parochial school students and their families also happen to live in the neighborhoods, like West Roxbury, that have been hit hardest by the change in exam school admissions.

Along with acceptance rates, the number of students from parochial and private schools applying to Boston exam schools has also plunged, falling by more than half, to just 150.

As with Wu’s free museum program, Boston families with children in parochial and private schools are getting the message loud and clear: You are not wanted here.

And what a sad message that is. Boston is where public education was born in 1635, and at Boston Latin School, no less.

This is nuts: Antisemitic Zoom bombing attack disrupts sleepy Concord finance committee meeting

How vile can you get?

An online meeting of the Finance Committee in Concord turned into a nightmare last Thursday amid a barrage of antisemitic rhetoric, “hateful ranting,” and a screen shot of a swastika, reports The Concord Bridge, an independent, startup newspaper.