Boston: Two Different “Public” School Systems?

Two recent Boston Globe stories raise serious questions about how public schools in the city of Boston are funded – and by “public” I mean the traditional public school system versus charter “public” schools. The premise is that we have one public school system but do we really?

The first story, by James Vaznis, was published on January 27 and titled Amid a booming economy, Boston’s schools seem cash poor. What’s going wrong? certainly asks the right question and the array of potential causes are long and baffling. But the takeaway from the story is that Boston public school students – the ones in traditional schools – are trying to learn in a system with “Decades-old buildings plagued by leaks. Drinking fountains shut because of lead pipe contamination. Persistent shortages of guidance counselors, nurses, psychologists, textbooks — even soap in the bathrooms.” Later we learn that  . . . “in music class in Blackstone students beat on small cans instead of using instruments.”

As I said there are a number of reasons offered including management shortcomings, health care, pensions, special education, transportation, and of course, the dedication of state funding to charter schools.

The second Globe story, by Ysabelle Kempe, is about another kind of “public” school, and is titled Boston Collegiate Charter School Formally Opens New Dorchester Campus. This school it must be said does not sound like it had much of a physical plant before the new campus, but it now has “13 new classrooms and 11 small-group meeting rooms, along with labs, art spaces, improved technology infrastructure, and a multi-purpose cafeteria called ‘The Commons.’”

How could this be? The answer is a private fund raising campaign, as we see from a recent school newsletter:

The campaign featured donations from many of the oligarchs who funded 2016’s charter schools campaign – almost all of it in untraceable dark money, until the Office of Campaign and Political Finance required disclosure. In the $500,000-$999,999 category, the Barr Foundation is the charity of Amos Hostetter and the One8 Foundation is Jonathon and Joanne Jacobson. Hostetter gave $2,025,000 and the Jacobsons gave $2,000,000 to the since-collapsed-in-corruption dark money front Families for Excellent Schools. Brian Spector, under BCC’s $100,000 to $249,999 category, gave $525,000 to Families for Excellent Schools. In the $50,000-$99,999 grouping we see Strategic Grant Partners. Several of its members (including the Jacobsons) contributed dark money to Families for Excellent Schools, and SGP itself donated $1.8 million for Families for Excellent Schools “to help launch organization in Massachusetts.” (The Jacobsons and SGP have also been pouring millions into Educators for Excellence in Boston; I’ll get to them another day). Not shown in the above chart is the Longfield Family Foundation, in the $25,000-$49,999 grouping. (Longfield Family Foundation also funds Massachusetts Parents United). Charles Longfield was responsible for $650,000 in dark money to Families for Excellent Schools.

How “public” are charter public schools is a bone of contention in the debate over charters. The Globe’s two stories invite the question, what kind of public school system do we have if one portion – traditional – receives only public funding and has much of that siphoned off to support the other portion – charters – which also attracts millions from wealthy individuals.

The donors and foundations I’ve mentioned above are all in the highest tax bracket of 37% (for 2018), and their charitable donations to their foundations are tax deductible. What that means is that if the Jacobsons donate $1 million, the real cost to them is $630,000. Who donates the other $370,000? If you are an American taxpayer, you do, you schnook.

I’m not an education scholar, I’m a follow-the-money scholar, so I honestly don’t know how the unelected Boston School Committee functions. Who approves school building and funding? Because it sure looks like the Boston “public” schools got about $5 million to spend on construction, but the decision about where to spend the money was made by the wealthy individuals and directed to their favored school. That’s oligarchy, not democracy.

Justice Louis D. Brandeis said, “We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.” I say: We must make our choice. We may have democracy, or we may oligarchy, but we can’t have both.

[Full disclosure: as an educator in the UMass system, I am a union member. I write about dark money (and other things)].