Rx for school change

There are few places on the face of the earth where failure has its own fan club. Sad to say when it comes to the Boston Public School system that is too often exactly the case.

Every time Mayor Marty Walsh suggests that maybe the system doesn’t need all of the aging buildings in which students now attend school, he gets pushback. Of course, it might help if the mayor didn’t continue to sit on that long-overdue report on school consolidation. (A word, by the way, Walsh is even reluctant to utter.)

Sometimes it’s just better to yank that bandage off. That’s pretty much what Superintendent Tommy Chang did late last week when he announced that the failing Excel High School in South Boston and Brighton High would face massive layoffs as the department attempts to get a handle on upgrading the educational product at both institutions.

Both schools were dubbed “underperforming” by the state this fall, therefore requiring turnaround plans. Not surprisingly those plans now include wholesale changes in staff and faculty. Some 110 teachers will be asked to reapply for their positions for the coming year.

“It is in our students’ best interest to have the most effective educators at these two schools,” Chang said in making the announcement.

Naturally Boston Teachers Union President Richard Stutman responded by calling the move “unnecessary,” adding that teachers felt “betrayed.”

Of course those who are being “betrayed” by failing schools are the students, who deserve far more than they are being offered.

The Local Stakeholders Group — made up of teachers, parents and community members — for Excel recommended partnerships with the Seaport district business community and with the University of Massachusetts/ Boston. Brighton’s group wants increased family engagement, more social workers and tougher course work. All terrific ideas.

But sometimes it just has to be back to basics too — in the classroom, with teachers who want to be there and know how to motivate the kids sitting in front of them.

Chang gets that — and that’s where he seems determined to start.