All students deserve access to best Boston has to offer
The announcements recently went out for next year’s invitees to the three Boston Exam Schools that were recently ranked the No. 1, No. 5 and No. 6 high schools in Massachusetts according to U.S. News and World Reports. Those schools are respectively: Boston Latin School, the John D. O’Bryant School of Math and Science, and Boston Latin Academy.
It’s an understatement to say that the admissions process for Boston’s Exam Schools is the third rail in local politics. For the record, I was a student at Boston Latin Academy in the ’80s, am a teacher there since the ’90s, and have two children there now. I deeply love BLA but I am not blind to the difficulties and disappointments of the current exam school process.
For some, the pre-pandemic model of admission to the elite Boston schools is preferred. An entrance exam coupled with recent grades ranked all students in order of preparedness. Admittance was strictly hierarchical. The work at the exam schools is rigorous and those who had spent years preparing for the work should be given admission over those who are less prepared.
For others, the new entrance system is preferred. The current system spreads out the acceptances to the exam schools throughout the city in the same percentages as the number of students in the various Boston postal zip codes. Under this method, portions of Dorchester get more seats than does Beacon Hill since the zip codes in Dorchester have a denser population of students than does Beacon Hill. Additionally the current system awards bonus points to some students who meet certain criteria, such as attending a high poverty school or living in DCF custody.
Both models have their advantages and disadvantages. Both models have veritable armies of parents and politicians advocating for one admittance practice over another. However, both ways for admitting students to the three exam schools operate from a deeply flawed premise: limiting the number of available seats.
What if there were not a finite number of seats for our advanced college preparatory high schools? What if we admitted all students who want an accelerated program into our exam schools?
Before anyone thinks that I am suggesting we do away with superb college and career preparations, let me assure you that I want more for our students than what the city is currently offering. I am suggesting a wide-ranging reform of our secondary school system so that we no longer endure a Hunger Games approach to education. Anyone who wants an “exam school” education shall have it. And, of course, Latin classes for everyone.
The Boys (1635) and Girls (1878) Latin Schools were the elite college preparatory schools at a time when few high school graduates attended college. Today we encourage and even expect all our students to go to college. Therefore there is little sense to limit enrollment to our three college preparatory high schools to only 25% of the students.
At the heart of the current controversy over our exam schools is the fear that students not admitted to an exam school will miss out on the opportunities offered to those select few: advanced courses, abundant extracurriculars, competitive sports, better college acceptances, et cetera. It’s no secret that many parents would rather pay for private schooling than send their children to non-exam schools. Some parents even move out to the suburbs, enduring higher property taxes, so as to eliminate the anxiety of wondering which high school their children shall attend.
Do the suburban schools separate their students into different schools based on an admissions test? Of course not. All the suburban schools offer all students the same quality schooling; so should Boston.
There is more to school than just books and curricula; there are also the buildings and grounds themselves. It’s no secret that Boston Public Schools are in poor condition. Decades of neglect and deferred maintenance have taken their toll. There’s plenty of blame to go around and finger pointing won’t help us. What will help us is about 10 brandnew, state of the art high schools peppered throughout our city.
All these new schools should have modern classrooms, ample space for the arts, fully functioning indoor and outdoor athletic facilities, HVAC systems with state of the art filtrations systems, and cafeterias serving homemade — not warmed over — meals. In other words, decent schools. Not only should all these schools have the same amenities, they should offer the same curricula. No longer should we pit students against one another for an education in the classics, AP classes, the arts or vocational technical training.
These new schools should be spread out across the city so as to minimize transportation costs. Since all schools would offer the same courses to all students, there would no longer be a need to send students all across the city for a quality education. Ideally the new schools would be located near train stations and/or on major bus routes. The city should exercise its right to eminent domain if necessary to ensure an equitable distribution of these new, modern schools.
Here’s the exciting part: We rename all BPS schools Boston Latin. Imagine the Boston Latin at Fields Corner or Charlestown Latin School. You get the idea. Why name them this way? Beyond the superficial notion that now all students “get in” to Boston Latin, by having all schools be a Boston Latin then the enormous Boston Latin School Association’s endowment can legally be shared among all students. BLSA’s most recent 1099 boasts over $65 million with an annual support to BLS of over $3.6 million.
I have never understood how one school was ever allowed to amass so much money. After all, it was the school district — not the individual school — that paid for the donors’ educations. Therefore the entire district ought to benefit from the donations. Moreover, it is both morally and ethically dubious to concentrate the “high achievers” into one school and then act astonished that other schools “underperform” and aren’t flush with lavish donations.
Let’s be honest, it’s all the extras that BLS gets from its endowment that drive the fight for admittance. With so many BPS schools languishing without those millions of extra BLS dollars, what parents wouldn’t fight tooth and nail for their children to have the most the city has to offer?
Thus the heart of this proposal is doing away with the absurd practice of putting 12-year-olds into separate tracts of education: exam school, traditional, arts or vo/tech. Why can’t the same student take AP Latin, learn ballet and apprentice to be an electrician? The way things are now, that student would have to attend three different schools.
Why limit a child’s potential? Why perpetuate a caste system of schooling? Let us give all students the same opportunity to explore all options, find the classes they love and prepare themselves for a full life and a happy career. Moreover, all parents would know that their children would get a suburban or private school quality education right here in the Boston Public Schools.
Michael J. Maguire is a Latin teacher at Boston Latin Academy, serves on the Executive Board of the Boston Teachers Union and is a candidate for BPS superintendent.