Councilors clash over free museum pilot

Two upset not all students are eligible

Tensions rose at the Boston City Council’s meeting Wednesday, as two councilors expressed frustration that a hearing to explore expanding Mayor Michelle Wu’s free museum pilot program has not been immediately rescheduled.

Councilors Erin Murphy and Ed Flynn spoke before the body Wednesday to protest pushback against their efforts to make all Boston students, including those who are homeschooled or attend charter or parochial schools, eligible for the current program, rather than just Boston Public Schools students.

Mayor Michelle Wu and other councilors have previously said they need to analyze the data after the completion of the pilot before considering whether to expand it in the future, and if so, how.

“We wanted to make a point about expanding this to include the thousands of other children that do not attend BPS schools,” said Murphy to the council Wednesday.

“There wasn’t a hearing to speak on it, [I hope] that we do hold a hearing, and we don’t wait for the pilot program to end.”

Mayor Michelle Wu first announced the seven-month pilot, known as BPS Sundays, during her annual State of the City address in January.

Through the initiative, every BPS student, along with three family members, is eligible for free entry on the first two Sundays of the month to six cultural institutions – the Boston Children’s Museum, the Franklin Park Zoo, the Institute of Contemporary Art, the Museum of Fine Arts, the Museum of Science, and the New England Aquarium.

The pilot began in February and is slated to run through August.

Murphy and Flynn first filed a resolution in support of expanding the program to all Boston schoolchildren at the end of February.

Councilor Sharon Durkan, who previously worked for Wu and received her endorsement last year, objected to immediately passing the resolution, requesting a review of data and more information first.

It was sent to the council’s educa

tion committee.

“This program is in its infancy, and it was no easy task getting six nonprofits to open their doors for free,” Durkan said in an interview with the Globe last month.

Councilor Henry Santana, who chairs the education committee, initially scheduled a hearing to discuss the resolution for March 18, but later canceled it.

Santana, who is in his first term in office, also previously worked for Wu and received her endorsement.

Flynn and Murphy on Wednesday protested Santana’s decision to not hold the hearing until the completion of the pilot.

Though the program benefits the 45,000 students in BPS, it does not include 3,000 children in the Metco program, 7,000 who attend private or parochial schools, 13,000 students at charter schools, and 273 children who are homeschooled, according to the resolution.

“Let’s give all families across the city of Boston the opportunity to attend and be exposed to the wonderful museums we have in our city,” said Flynn Wednesday. “Give us an opportunity to talk about this issue. Listen to residents, let them weigh in.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, Santana disputed Flynn and

Murphy’s assertion that he “abruptly” canceled the hearing “with no conversation,” saying his office notified both councilors by email before issuing the public notice of the hearing’s cancellation.

“I want to be clear that I share your support for expanding the program beyond the version in the current pilot,” said Santana. “It’s my intention as Chair of the Education Committee that we set ourselves up for success in achieving the expansion beyond this pilot program that we’re all hoping for.”

He said he canceled the hearing after the mayor’s office responded to a request from Murphy and Flynn for initial data on the program, which shows that 4,208 BPS students participated in the program in February, and 6,471 in March.

He defended his decision to not reschedule the hearing until officials can review the data in its entirety after the pilot ends.

“To know how to expand this program in particular, we need to know how many students and families are visiting the participating institutions, and how funding is working for the pilot program,” said Santana.

“That’s what we’ll need to have an informed understanding of what it would take to expand the number of students and families who can participate.”

Wu has previously said the program will not expand during the pilot phase, and city officials and the participating institutions will evaluate the data and financial feasibility of continuing and expanding the program after the completion of the pilot.

“If it were up to me, museums and cultural institutions would be free for every single person, regardless of age, or student status, or anything like that,” Wu told the Globe last month.

The estimated $1 million cost of the pilot is funded by $300,000 of federal pandemic relief dollars contributed by the city, $300,000 in donations from Amazon and other for-profit businesses, and $650,000 from nonprofits.

‘Let’s give all families . . . the opportunity to attend and be exposed to the wonderful museums we have.’ ED FLYNN, city councilor