There's an election in Boston on November 3rd,
and Bostonians have a city councilor race
that's cause for concern.
Mayor Walsh wants City Councilor Charles Yancey out, and here's
why.
- Councilor Yancey wants to put body cameras on police, which the Mayor strongly opposes.
- Yancey has called for and held (30) audit hearings concerning the city's budget and spending.
- Yancey has been hounding the Mayor (and the city) for city workforce diversity data (which, to date, the Mayor has been unwilling to provide)
- Yancey has stood up for Boston's children and Boston Public Schools by voting NO on the cities education budget two years in a row - because of the $108 million Mayor Walsh has seen fit to underfunded our schools by over the last two years.
The
powers that be - seem to have hand picked an opponent that will toe the line and not make waves. Her
name is Andrea Campbell, and some powerful people are backing her financially.
- Two are lawyers whom I'm told are associated with the law firms that threatened to sue the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to lift the cap on the expansion of charter schools.
- Two others work for MATCH Education, a charter school company that would like to have the cap on charter schools lifted so they can expand in Massachusetts.
- Another works for Democrats for Education Reform, a faux grassroots education reform group that lobbies for charter schools.
Councilor
Yancey is working to ensure that all children will be given an opportunity to receive the best education possible. He strongly supports everyone enrolling the children they
care for into any of the schools available to them, charter or public, and he's not
against
charter schools. At the same time, he can't help but see the disastrous consequence that
having 42% of the states charter schools in Boston is having on the funding of the traditional public schools.
As
a result of the expansion of charter schools in Boston, Boston Public
Schools has lost an average of nearly one million dollars in funding, per school.
As a result of the expansion of charter schools in Boston, Boston's Public Schools have been forced to cut every position they can: all levels of
service, teachers, busing, supplies, mental health services, food options, and schools
are now asking for funding on DonorsChoose - for pencils.
Councilor
Yancey wants to see education in Boston improve for ALL children,
not
just the selected populations that the charter schools retain.
Councilor
Yancey sees that the expansion of charter schools, without some
drastic
changes
in funding mechanisms, will further harm the 57,000 students
attending traditional public schools, 87% of which are minority children.
It's obvious that some of Andrea
Campbells' backers might expect her help in blowing the lid off the charter
school cap, and some of these same people would like nothing better than to force us to foreclose on the traditional public schools you and I have made a choice to send our children to. With the overwhelming evidence that many charter schools in Boston are little more than a scam, what other goal do you think they have - other than to take our public tax dollars and place them into private pockets?
In
one city where this has already happened, Chicago,
Twelve people haven't eaten since August 17th in an effort to save their one
remaining open enrollment public school.
Councilor
Yancey is fighting to stop this from happening here.
The traditional public schools in Boston are owned by us, funded by our tax dollars and attended by our
children. Councilor Yancey will fight to keep local control of our
schools. Councilor Yancey will fight to get our traditional public
schools the funding
they need to
provide our children with a good education, and Councilor Yancey won't stand by and watch as 57,000 traditional public school children have their chance at a good education stripped away.
Andrea Campbell's backers, well, seems some of them want to get rich by closing traditional public schools and opening privately managed charter schools - on the public's dime - consequences to the vast majority of Boston's children be dammed.
District 4, I'm asking you to please vote for Charles Yancey for City Councilor on November 3rd. Our children and our city need to have him continue in his fight for us, and for all the children of Boston.
Andrea Campbell's backers, well, seems some of them want to get rich by closing traditional public schools and opening privately managed charter schools - on the public's dime - consequences to the vast majority of Boston's children be dammed.
District 4, I'm asking you to please vote for Charles Yancey for City Councilor on November 3rd. Our children and our city need to have him continue in his fight for us, and for all the children of Boston.
