Ransoming our schoolchildren
Mar 11, 2009 17:57
In a scene straight out of a Dickens novel, Boston
schoolkids and parents came to English High School
last night to beg for their supper, or their
education -- as they have done in other public
meetings in other neighborhoods. I went to this one,
and to the Dorchester meeting a few weeks ago. I am
astounded that Mayor Menino is unashamedly holding
our kids ransom to force their parents to lobby for
his meals tax. He is letting them think the sky is
falling, when he knows he's giving hundreds of
millions of dollars to the BRA and to private wealthy
developers that should be going into the City
treasury.
City Councilors Yoon and Connolly made an appearance last night, but very briefly; they were announced, got their round of applause (especially Yoon), and next time I looked they were gone.
Councilor John Tobin was there too, and made the same remarks as he did in Dorchester -- assume there is no meals tax coming, and accept the axe.
The Chairman of the Menino-appointed School Committee -- Gregory Groover, a black preacher -- exhorted the crowd to save their children's future by asking the legislature to impose the meals tax. They trust him, and this is what he does with that trust.
Only Kevin McCrea, running for Mayor on a good-government, good-schools platform, stood up to tell the people that there are millions of dollars available to solve our "crisis" (if there is one) and they are being squeezed for nothing. He handed out a flyer with past newspaper stories about the Hayward Place and Winthrop Square boondoggles, and asked Superintendent Carol Johnson and the School Committee members if they had looked into these problems since the time he had testified about them in Dorchester. They gave no answer. Of course not. I had also testified in Dorchester, about the developer tax breaks that bleed of us tens of millions of dollars a year. They obviously didn't care to find out about that either. Better to lay off teachers than to expose the Mayor's diversion of our children's money.
In other cities, the School Committee fights for the schools. We need an independent School Committee here, one that will protect the children, not promote the Mayor's city-tax agenda -- an agenda that will give him a tax on us that he can raise on his own every year, with no state interference (it's already double what he proposed last year). He wants us to pay even more, so he can give away even more to the BRA and to his favored developers.
Shared sacrifice? Only the citizens have to fight it out to share the sacrifice. The BRA is not laying off its bureaucrats, or cutting their handsome wages. The private developers collecting parking fees from City lots and getting exemptions from property taxes aren't being asked to share the sacrifice.
Sam Yoon knows all about Winthrop Square and Hayward Place; he posted a memo about them back in 2007 (not included on his new campaign site). He helped make the deal to let the BRA take Winthrop, burying a public hearing to get a say on where the money would go (hint: not to the CIty) -- or so he thought. The developer enjoying the free use of the City lot at Hayward is a supporter of his previous employer, the Asian CDC. Yoon could have spoken up, used his credibility with the crowd to tell them: "Don't fall for another tax you'll have to pay! Let's force Mayor Menino to get us back our land and our money, so you don't have to beg for your school programs! Join me tomorrow at City Hall Plaza -- which Menino gave away to the BRA for free -- join me for a march on the Mayor!" He said nothing and disappeared, having shown that he cared enough to show up...
We citizens must force the politicians to disclose the giveaways of our public assets.
City Councilors Yoon and Connolly made an appearance last night, but very briefly; they were announced, got their round of applause (especially Yoon), and next time I looked they were gone.
Councilor John Tobin was there too, and made the same remarks as he did in Dorchester -- assume there is no meals tax coming, and accept the axe.
The Chairman of the Menino-appointed School Committee -- Gregory Groover, a black preacher -- exhorted the crowd to save their children's future by asking the legislature to impose the meals tax. They trust him, and this is what he does with that trust.
Only Kevin McCrea, running for Mayor on a good-government, good-schools platform, stood up to tell the people that there are millions of dollars available to solve our "crisis" (if there is one) and they are being squeezed for nothing. He handed out a flyer with past newspaper stories about the Hayward Place and Winthrop Square boondoggles, and asked Superintendent Carol Johnson and the School Committee members if they had looked into these problems since the time he had testified about them in Dorchester. They gave no answer. Of course not. I had also testified in Dorchester, about the developer tax breaks that bleed of us tens of millions of dollars a year. They obviously didn't care to find out about that either. Better to lay off teachers than to expose the Mayor's diversion of our children's money.
In other cities, the School Committee fights for the schools. We need an independent School Committee here, one that will protect the children, not promote the Mayor's city-tax agenda -- an agenda that will give him a tax on us that he can raise on his own every year, with no state interference (it's already double what he proposed last year). He wants us to pay even more, so he can give away even more to the BRA and to his favored developers.
Shared sacrifice? Only the citizens have to fight it out to share the sacrifice. The BRA is not laying off its bureaucrats, or cutting their handsome wages. The private developers collecting parking fees from City lots and getting exemptions from property taxes aren't being asked to share the sacrifice.
Sam Yoon knows all about Winthrop Square and Hayward Place; he posted a memo about them back in 2007 (not included on his new campaign site). He helped make the deal to let the BRA take Winthrop, burying a public hearing to get a say on where the money would go (hint: not to the CIty) -- or so he thought. The developer enjoying the free use of the City lot at Hayward is a supporter of his previous employer, the Asian CDC. Yoon could have spoken up, used his credibility with the crowd to tell them: "Don't fall for another tax you'll have to pay! Let's force Mayor Menino to get us back our land and our money, so you don't have to beg for your school programs! Join me tomorrow at City Hall Plaza -- which Menino gave away to the BRA for free -- join me for a march on the Mayor!" He said nothing and disappeared, having shown that he cared enough to show up...
We citizens must force the politicians to disclose the giveaways of our public assets.
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