BOSTON — The Pioneer Institute is calling for state receivership of the Boston Public Schools, publishing a report Tuesday that said the state’s largest district lacks a clear, system-wide strategy for supporting low-performing schools.
The think tank’s report, by senior fellow Cara Stillings Candal, says Gov. Charlie Baker’s decision not to seek a third term and Boston’s election of a new mayor in Michelle Wu create “an opening for Mayor Wu to demonstrate that her administration will operate in the best interest of students and for the sitting Governor to spend his political capital before leaving office.”
It draws on a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education review of the Boston schools, which was published in March 2020 just before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the educational landscape.
“In the areas of leadership and governance, the biggest takeaway from the state’s report is that a lack of stability at the top levels of BPS leads to an incoherent, fractured strategy for supporting all schools and turning low-performing schools around,” Candal wrote. “Staff turnover throughout the organization, but especially at the highest levels, is a problem: in six years, BPS has been through four superintendents, two of whom were interim.”
Superintendent Brenda Cassellius plans to step down at the end of this school year, which will again bring new leadership to the district.
Acknowledging that such takeovers are often unpopular and that state lawmakers would likely object, Pioneer’s report concludes the state should initiate receivership because potential benefits would outweigh risks.
“Less aggressive options, like a turnaround district or zone, could uplift individual schools, but they would do nothing to address the systemic issues within the district that the state’s review describes in such detail,” Candal wrote.
Board of Elementary and Secondary Education member Matt Hills has previously floated the idea of receivership in Boston.
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