Mayoral candidate Josh Kraft rolled out a comprehensive plan to revamp the embattled Boston Public Schools, and in doing so unveiled a third major area his campaign sees as a vulnerability for Mayor Michelle Wu.
Kraft released a five-page “plan to provide current and future generations of Boston families the BPS education they deserve” today, following other plans he’s put forward to tackle the issues of housing affordability and Mass and Cass that he says the mayor has failed to resolve during her first term in office.
The state of the city’s public school system, which narrowly avoided receivership a few years ago, is another key area Kraft — a son of the billionaire New England Patriots owner and longtime philanthropist — says he would focus on, should he be elected mayor this fall.
“Under Mayor Wu and her administration, BPS continues to fail our students and families,” Kraft’s new plan states. “BPS lacks both academic excellence and the basic support families need to ensure their children will learn and thrive, let alone arrive at school on time. Without an achievable plan and the ability to execute it, BPS will continue to remain substandard.”
Kraft’s campaign contends that his plan “puts students and families first, prioritizes parent and community engagement, nurtures and accelerates partnerships, and returns strong competent management to the school district.”
Per the plan, Kraft would focus on improving the district’s “persistently low literacy rates” by at least 10% through a “combination of high-dosage tutoring and community-driven partnerships,” and revitalizing vocational education as an alternative career pathway to today’s traditional college route.
His plan calls for renovating Madison Park, the city’s only vocational school, “the right way,” through a “community-oriented, efficient process” that “prioritizes making this school a regional leader for vocational education” — though it doesn’t get into specifics about how he would look to tackle such a massive project.
Renovations for Madison Park were tied into Wu’s plan to move the highly-rated O’Bryant exam school to West Roxbury, killed by Wu after community blowback, and have since been in limbo.
The estimated price tag for that rehab was reported earlier this year as roughly $700 million, a staggering amount that has the mayor saying she will seek funding from the state to help cover the costs, rather than have the city pay for it with its own money, as was her initial plan, according to a Boston Globe report.
Kraft’s plan also calls for a reevaluation of the current exam schools admission policy, as well as the number of seats available to ensure that BPS students who meet the necessary requirements are able “to attend one of these flagship schools.” His campaign contends that is not the case today.
To increase family and community engagement, Kraft’s plan calls for a switch from an appointed to a hybrid school committee, which Wu opposes. The hybrid committee would consist of elected and mayoral-appointed members, rather than today’s entirely mayoral-appointed board.
He’s proposing a leadership shakeup to bring a “results-oriented management style back to City Hall.” He envisions two superintendents for the district that would “split the job” and report to the mayor.
A so-called superintendent of operational management would focus “exclusively on the nuts-and-bolts” of the city’s school system and a superintendent of schools would “maintain and guide the academic success of the district.”
Kraft’s campaign says BPS students and their families have been “blindsided” by recent school closures, and he would “develop and implement a long-term facilities plan within one year in office.”
Kraft is also placing the blame for “chronic” school bus delays squarely on Wu, saying that his plan would fix the district’s “broken transportation system,” but his plan doesn’t elaborate on how he plans to do so.
His plan also calls for greater partnership with the state, community organizations that work with youth, and parents, who he thinks should have a dedicated office in City Hall that would “prioritize clear communication channels between families, the BPS administration and the mayor’s office.”
