The Boston City Council’s division over Mayor Michelle Wu’s $4.9 billion budget proposal for next fiscal year was on full display at a chaotic meeting on Wednesday.
The City Council approved two supplemental budgets to plug a $70 million deficit for this fiscal year, and passed the public school and capital budgets for next fiscal year, but delayed a vote on the FY27 city budget….
Earlier on, there were some fireworks over the $1.7 billion budget for Boston Public Schools, which passed by an 8-5 vote after an hour of debate.
One councilor who voted in opposition, Julia Mejia, read a letter into the record that the Boston Teachers Union had sent city councilors Tuesday urging them to vote against the BPS budget.
“This request does not come lightly, but we cannot endorse a budget which will eliminate more than 400 student-facing positions from an already under-resourced school system,” the BTU letter states.
Mejia joined Councilors Miniard Culpepper, Ed Flynn, Murphy, and Brian Worrell in voting to reject the BPS budget. Councilors Breadon, Coletta Zapata, Durkan, FitzGerald, Louijeune, Pepén, Santana and Weber voted in favor.
The BPS budget is increasing by 2.7%, or $88 million.
“It’s a sad day,” Culpepper said. “If we’re progressive, then we should progress and send this budget back … Let’s not fire anybody today.”
Weber said the staffing cuts are driven by declining enrollment — which he said was due “in large part” to the federal government’s immigration crackdown — and the city’s school closure plan that’s being implemented.
“I do not want to see any teachers or paras lose their jobs,” Weber said. “We have heard that this is the result of the loss of 3,000 students in our system, and most of those positions being eliminated are due to the closure of schools. We are still heavily investing in our kids with $1.73 billion. I think it’s about $35,000 per student, among the highest in the state. But … we have to make tough choices.”