Sam Yoon's school-committee shimmy

Published Mar 15 2009, 02:59 PM by Adam Reilly

Today's Globe includes a letter to the editor from city councilor/mayoral hopeful Sam Yoon, who claims that a recent editorial misrepresented his position on returning to an elected Boston School Committe:

I want to correct the record from the Globe editorial about Boston's School Committee. I never said we should return to an elected committee, but that it ought to be part of the discussion....

I question whether an appointed school committee can always advocate for wholesale change. We need a school committee that will avoid abuses of the past while bringing accountability and differing viewpoints to our schools. This requires a top-to-bottom examination of the current system.
Until we are satisfied with our schools, we must continue the debate. [all emphasis added]

Now, for the record, here's how the Globe editorial in question characterized Yoon's position on the issue: "Yoon is trying to revive a body also better left to the dustbin of history: the elected School Committee."

And here, finally, is what Yoon himself said in his YouTube campaign announcement:

In order to become the Boston that we know we can be, we have to be willing to face our problems head on, and be willing to be bold, innovative, creative. And we need to talk. We need to talk about what it would mean to go back to an elected school committe [Yoon's emphasis]. At a time when our schools are facing the largest budget shortfall they've ever seen, we have to question whether an appointed school committee--appointed solely by the mayor--can truly be the educational advocates we need them to be.

So, did the original Globe editorial get it wrong? I don't think so. Yoon's announcement makes it sound like, in his estimation, returning to elected school committee would probably be a good move. Then, when the Globe took this possibility seriously, Yoon backed off, saying he only thinks that an elected school committee might be smart--and that discussing this possibility is the really important thing.

My guess is that Yoon thinks voters will see his Linda Richman approach as a refreshing alternative to Tom Menino's M.O. Of course, it's also a handy way to avoid taking actual stands ("I didn't say we should do X, just that we should talk about doing X").

Here's some free advice: Sam, figure out what kind of school committee you want, and then tell us. Unless you can describe your own positions clearly, you can't expect anyone else to.

Filed Under: Boston Globe, Boston politics, Sam Yoon, 09 mayor's race, boston school committee

Linking for the Globe so they don't have to

God bless the Track Gals...

6 Comments

Tony Schinella said:

Yeah, a typical pol thing to do - hide under the cover of "having a discussion" about an issue instead of just having some stones and taking a position.

March 16, 2009 8:27 AM
Nancy S said:

What is wrong with having a discussion? I think it's good to start with an open-ended question and solicit feedback from all quarters. Remember, Sam has two children in the Boston Schools, so this is not an academic question

March 16, 2009 7:24 PM
Adam said:

Nancy, I think it's a great discussion to have. What concerns me is that, as soon as he got some negative feedback, Yoon seemed to backpedal from almost endorsing the idea to just wanting to chat about it.

March 16, 2009 7:42 PM
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Sam Yoon's school-committee shimmy

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