Boston Needs to Return to the Basics When It Comes to Education:

• We Need Teachers Who are the Best and The Brightest
• We Need Administrators Who Do Not Forget What They are There To Do
• We Need To Give School Choice Over to the Families
• We Need To Dismantle Bussing
• We Need To Restore Discipline and Instill Respect
• We Need to Hold Parents Responsible for Their Children

 

How Do We Get What We Need:

We Need Teachers Who are the Best and The Brightest

We Need to Make the Boston Teachers Union Accountable for its Teachers. We Will Institute A System Wide Required Teachers Test That Will be Required in Addition to The Mass. State Teachers Test. Accountability at the Individual School Level which Will Require all Teachers to Have Their Students At or Above Class Level.

We Need Administrators Who Do Not Forget What They are There To Do... Educate

I Will Support Redefining the Role of Administrator Level Teachers at Our Schools. I Support Requiring Administrators to Teach 2 Classes During Regular School Hours, to Return them to the Mind Set of Their Teachers and Remind them What They are There To Do... Educate.

We Need To Give School Choice Over to the Families

I will Fight Hard to Make Boston's Public School System The Best In The Nation. One of the Ways I Will Work Towards This Goal is By Giving the Parents the Choice of Where to Send Their Children. If They Choose to Send Their Children to Local Schools or If They Prefer A School Offering Different Areas of Schooling Across Town It is Up to The Family. Where I it Should Have Always Been.

We Need To Dismantle Bussing
Bussing was and End to A Means. I believe that the entire system of bussing children from one place to another in the city to enable desegregation was a way of providing equal access to all schools for all. However when you are making the kids travel up to an hour each way to attend a school that is just as poor as the community school the child could have attended in less than 10 minutes it is a waste of time, resources and budgetary needs. I agree with many other Bostonians that believe that this archaic means of desegregation needs to be abolished. I would fight to have the city end bussing for all non essential means and reinstate community schools. Also I would increase the issuing of MBTA reduced far student passes to all BPS students allowing for the ability for all students whom choose to attend school in another neighborhood. Finally I would take the money saved from the reduced need for transportation and implement it in the BPS budget to allow for improvement of our schools.

We Need To Restore Discipline and Instill Respect

We need to return to a time when discipline was still used in the BPS but was not consuming the whole day. If there are troubled students causing problems in the class then we need to be able to deal with these problems using proper and professional techniques. We need to work with the School Committee, Boston Teachers Union and The Parents to help diffuse these situations. The hands of the teachers have been tied by politics and it is time that we reduce the bureaucracy and restore respect.

We Need to Hold Parents Responsible for Their Children

We need a City of Role Models for our children. Our Children are the next inhabitants and keepers of our great city, we need to instill in them a sense of responsibility to their family, neighborhood and city. We cannot start to even consider restoring respect and decency to our homes, schools, streets unless we the adults and parents of this city take a stand and take responsibility. I will sponsor laws that will require parents to take responsibility for their children when in or out of school. I will use current laws and enforce them while updating and stiffening the consequences for student and parent alike. We need to take chare for our children and our city.

 

Public Safety