Making Schools a priority

I attended the Wednesday joint meeting of the school committee and the ways and means committee with Superintendent Johnson and her budget staff. They explained to the council what I have blogged about. The Mayor is saying to all departments "you need to cut 7% of your budget". Sam Yoon started to ask the important questions that I and many BPS parents have been asking, essentially: don't we need to make a value judgment about what areas to cut and what not to cut?

Sam is absolutely on the right path here. I hope he comes around to my position that no teaching jobs should be cut at BPS. Administration and other less important jobs maybe. Cuts in other departments if needed. But education needs to be our number one priority, and we can't be cutting language, arts, and Advanced Placement programs.

The more that teachers, parents, and elected officials like Sam Yoon insist, like I do, that we need to have quality schools in all our neighborhoods, the more difficult it will be for Mayor Menino to cut funding for education.