“Antisemitic propaganda” spewed at teachers union webinar | Developers scramble to hide falling luxury condo prices | School closings on horizon in Boston | Harvard student clobbered by falling utility box sues T | Boston Schools Fund to close down |
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Chain reaction: Boston’s looming budget woes could force the city’s hand on school closures
School closings are the third rail of Boston politics, with mayors having generally avoided them at all costs.
The city spends tens of millions, if not more, to keep half empty and often ancient buildings and classrooms fully staffed and running, even as student enrollment has plunged over the past two decades.
But a long-postponed reckoning with financial reality may have finally arrived for Boston Public Schools, driven by the end of the epic real estate boom that for years has kept the city’s coffers overflowing with tax revenue.
As City Hall stares at a potential $1 billion shortfall in tax revenue in the coming years, BPS is likely to face increasing pressure to consolidate and close schools, city education insiders say.
Last December, the Wu administration released a report that suggested that the district could potentially shutter half of its nearly 120 schools, with announcements of individual closings to be made on annual basis each spring.
BPS has since released no additional details, while a spokesperson for the district did not respond by Contrarian Boston’s deadline.
That said, BPS could very well announce closings of specific schools in the coming weeks after it wraps up work on the district’s record, $1.5 billion budget, insiders say.
The district is currently spending $41 million to support “soft landings” to maintain staffing and other services at schools that have been hit hard with enrollment declines, Will Austin, CEO of the Boston Schools Fund, told Contrarian Boston.
When times were good and taxes from new development projects were rolling in, there was no pressure for city officials to move ahead with potentially contentious school closings and consolidation, he noted.
But that is starting to change as the city’s revenue outlook darkens.
“The pace of this will be driven by the city’s revenue and budget,” Austin said.
“There is an opportunity cost,” he added. “Instead of ensuring we have librarians in every school, we are maintaining more buildings.”
If there are closings, some of the city’s high schools may be the most logical candidates, a group that includes Brighton, Charlestown and English high schools, city ed observers say.
Meanwhile, BPS is already showing signs of financial strain even before the impact of the real estate downturn fully hits home.
Boston has ramped up spending on its schools over the last several years, even as enrollment has plunged from over 60,000 two decades ago to just under 46,000 now.
But despite ever larger budgets, expenses have been rising even faster, forcing BPS to announce it would be cutting staff in music, arts, libraries and other programs at 70 percent of its schools.
“The city has increased its contributions to its schools by hundreds of millions,” Austin said. “Can that investment continue in a world where there is not that level of economic expansion?”
A very timely question indeed.
A powerful rebuke: Mass. teachers union under fire from state lawmakers in wake of bungled anti-racism workshop
The backlash continues against the Massachusetts Teachers Association in the wake of a controversial workshop that critics contend featured anti-Israel and anti-Semitic propaganda.
Two of the MTA’s staunchest allies on Beacon Hill are now taking aim at the teachers union for its March 21 webinar, which was meant to provide guidance to classroom teachers, Contrarian Boston has learned.
While the event had been billed as an examination of anti-Palestinian racism, it “did nothing of the sort,” contend Sens. Jason Lewis and Rebecca Rausch, both progressive Dems and long-time union supporters, in a letter to the MTAs president.
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