In Boston, voters can decide who is in charge of the nation’s nuclear arsenal, who the county’s chief prosecutor is, and who should be in charge of the state budget. What they can’t decide, however, is who sits on the seven-member committee that oversees the city’s massive public school system.
After Mayor Marty Walsh controversially put pressure on former Boston Public Schools Superintendent Tommy Chang to step down after three years, some are wondering if it’s time for the city to put the composition of the school committee back in the hands of voters.
“It is important for us as a city to have a conversation about whether an appointed school committee still makes sense,” Tanisha Sullivan, president of the Boston branch of the NAACP told The Boston Globe earlier this week. “Often people will say we need an appointed board to keep politics out of education. Anyone who thinks politics is out of education is out of touch. Having an appointed board is not going to change that. Further, I don’t think that is a reason for us to effectively strip residents and families of Boston of their right to determine who they want to represent them.”