PAYING ATTENTION EXTRA!
By: Tom Duggan
In 2011 the Commonwealth of Massachusetts determined that the Lawrence Public Schools were so badly mismanaged and failing children so poorly that they took over control of the entire system.
They weren’t wrong. So called “educators” in Lawrence were passing kids from grade to grade despite the fact that they couldn’t read, write, or even do basic math at grade level.
Sadly, in the thirteen years since taking over the Lawrence schools, the state has done an even worse job at educating kids. They used the Lawrence school system to indoctrinate kids about abortion, global warming, transgender nonsense, and race hatred under the disguise of “anti-racism.”
In short, they taught kids just enough to become social justice warriors for the Democrat Party, but not enough to get a job that would elevate them out of the ghetto. What they didn’t do was teach kids how to achieve.
That was done on purpose. You might even call it “systemic racism.”
Now, Lawrence Mayor Brian DePena has fulfilled his campaign promise to wrestle control of the Lawrence Schools away from the state and return local control to the voters.
Here’s DePena’s plan; first, the voters will elect three school committee members in a city-wide election, doing away with the disaster of school committee members elected by district. Second, The Mayor will appoint three members of the school committee, and his nominees for each spot will have to be approved by the city council, providing checks and balances on his nominees. Lastly, the mayor will sit as chairman and will break all ties.
Of course, this doesn’t sit well with those who who are enemies of DePena like current School Committeeman Jonathan Guzman and his colleagues. They say that the voters should choose each member of the school committee and DePena’s plan gives the mayor too much power.
Guzman is right that the current mayor will have full control of the schools, but he will also bear the full blame if the schools fail. Guzman and his colleagues also dismiss the fact that the mayor is also an elected official and answers to the voters.
What’s more, our source in the governor’s office told the Valley Patriot that city leaders have the option in the future to change the structure of the school committee to an all-elected board, and even go back to district committee seats if they so choose.
But to do that, the city must first prove it is competent enough to adequately educate Lawrence kids at grade level. Either way, DePena’s plan has taken power away from the state and put it squarely in the hands of Lawrence voters. That’s good news for Lawrence school children. At the end of the day, that’s all that really counts. ◊
Tom Duggan is owner and publisher of The Valley Patriot newspaper. He is also an author, public speaker and host of the Paying Attention! Podcast as well as a 1990 Police Survivor. You can email him at valleypatriot@aol.com