Charters -- A Yoon Opportunity?

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17 Comments

• ff2005 said:

  I really have to applaud Yoon for having the foresight to see that charter schools are an important part of overall ed-reform in our public school system. He came out with the "smart caps" plan almost 2 months ago, I think, and now everyone else seems to be following suit. I hope that he has the chance to put his plan into action so we can start seeing some results for our kids!

  July 16, 2009 11:24 AM

• Boston Bertie said:

  This is a good and thoughtful model for improving education in the state - a forward thinking model. Just like Sam Yoon's recent proposal, the Governor seems to grasp that charter schools are part of the solution, not the whole picture. Let's wait for Flaherty to now jump on this and flip-flop, like he did on the school zone plan.

  July 16, 2009 11:26 AM

• Jessica Leonard said:

  Wow, Sam Yoon's ahead of the governor on this one.  Seems like Sam's ideas are really what the city- and apparently the STATE need!

  So, does this mean Patrick supports Sam, or does he just take good ideas? At least there's momentum behind Sam's idea- I know he wouldn't be able to get anything like this done with the useless City Council (who just blindly support Mumbles).

  Great work Sam Yoon, oh yeah and you too Mr. Governor.  

  July 16, 2009 11:29 AM

• bdillenbeck said:

  It wasn't commented on above but how many people know that Yoon spent several years as a public school teacher. He has been down in the trenches of our dysfunctional school system and understands the problems first hand. He knows that the only way to improve school performance is to remove some of the shackles within the public schools that have been hindering them from achieving greater success. Charter schools may not be a cure all to all the problems facing American education in the 21st century but they are a step in the right direction.

  July 16, 2009 11:52 AM

• Fred Thao said:

  I am really not surprised, although I am glad to be reassured that the Governor tackles issues as much critical thought as Sam Yoon.

  Yoon seems to look at things in place and think of efficiency. This is how leaders should work. This is how good leaders work.

  I wonder how many other ideas Yoon has can serve not only the city but the state so well.

  July 16, 2009 11:59 AM

• tumble4ya said:

  This is long overdue and kudos to both Gov. Patrick (and Councilor Yoon).  We really have to address the problem with failing schools.  I was anti-charter for a long time but if schools are failing then there's no reason to take them over.  I also like Yoon's approach of the "smart cap" where those charter schools are successful.

  So to me it's:

  Deval = help where schools are failing

  Yoon = allow more students in to the charter schools that are succeeding

  Seems like a perfect marriage of two ideas to me.

  July 16, 2009 12:02 PM

• Stevil said:

  "stubborn refusal to go along with the mayor's wage freeze proposal" - you mean his extortion?  The teachers have contracts - and violating those contracts should only be explored when there is no other option or you are simply deferring the pain.  The teacher's union knew that the mayor was asking everyone else to cut so that he could keep all the patronage jobs (anybody notice that despite a $68 million deficit forecast for 2010 way back in June of 2008 the mayor decided to hire 57 additional custodians for a shrinking school system? SEIU anyone?).  The mayor screwed up and didn't economize when he had the chance when times were flush by paying down our future pension/retirement benefit obligations- instead he went on a hiring binge and then he wanted the teachers, cops and others to pay the price so he could afford to keep all his hangers on.  The teachers called him on it and they were right - when all is said and done - despite a cut of almost $100 million from the state, the city is laying off no more than a few dozen teachers at most and many perhaps even all will probably be hired back in the fall due to attrition, disability, family leave etc.  I'm not a teacher and actually a rabid budget hawk. My concern is if you go after unions for cuts now they'll make you pay later.  Bite the bullet, fulfill the contract and hold the line when times get better and the contract comes up for renewal.  The teachers union is far from perfect - but the villain in this story was unquestionably the mayor  

  July 16, 2009 12:06 PM

• purplehusky64 said:

  Great minds think alike.

  Councillor Yoon (and hopefully Mayor Yoon) has ideas that Mumbles hasn't been able to bring to fruition. He has stagnated this city in a different era due to his ineffective self-serving leadership!

  He has had 16 years to do something major and great with our schools among other things and hasn't and he wants 4 more years (in his case till he dies) to give us nothing and no term limits to get rid of him?

  Governor Patrick and Mayor Yoon...sounds great to me.

  July 16, 2009 1:58 PM

• Check your facts said:

  I don't think SEIU represents the custodians in the schools my understanding is that they AFSCME

  July 16, 2009 2:14 PM

• Jonathan said:

  Looks like around 11:15am Yoon got his friends in San Francisco to post comments on this article.

  6 glowing posts in 30 minutes?  

  David, why don't you ask Yoon why he didn't propose charters in his 3 years as city councilor?  Everything this guy proposed was fluff.

  July 16, 2009 3:11 PM

• creativeme said:

  16 yrs. ago Tommy boy said, and I quote, "I will improve the BPS system, and if I don't I want you (the public) to hold me accoutable". Well, here we are, 16 yrs. later. I for one, am holding you accoutable Mr. Menino! I will not refer to you as Mayor because a Mayor is someone who takes pride in building their city UP, not in holding it DOWN! Mayor Yoon WILL be a man of his word, and our children will finally have a leader that cares enough to ensure their success.

  July 16, 2009 3:13 PM

• Stevil said:

  checkyourfacts - according to this site it looks like it's IUPAT (http://local1952.org/).  The acronym doesn't matter - the point is - why hire 57 new custodians when faced with a $68 million budget deficit (6 months before the financial crisis hit) and a long term gap in funding post-employment benefits that could literally bankrupt the city unless you owed somebody a favor?  Sadly, Yoon and Flaherty have been silent on this until now (Yoon votes against the budget every year - not because it's already too big - but because it doesn't fund some of his priorities.  Even though residential property taxes have doubled over the past 10 years, he wants even MORE taxes).  That's why I'm voting McCrea - he's the only candidate I've heard say we need to spend within our means.

  July 16, 2009 4:17 PM

• KG said:

  Globe also said today:

  leaders of many of the state’s leading education groups said the proposal would be economically devastating for school districts. Students who leave a public school district to attend a charter school take with them a slice of state aid, generally $9,000 to $15,000 per student.

  Thanks!  Along with the zoo and Boston Medical Center, seems like the hat trick from the state.

  July 16, 2009 7:28 PM

• Shirley Kressel said:

  I'm confused here.  Isn't Yoon supposed to be our great progressive banner-bearer?  Isn't Obama?  And Patrick?  What's going on, that privatization, union-busting and putting 90% of our kids into corporately run test-score factories has become acceptable to progressives?

  I recommend a book by Michael and Susan Klonsky, about how the "small schools" movement has been subverted by the neo-con "ownership society."  Also, please read my "City Streets" column in the South End News.  Charters are a mirage; we need to make a city-wide system of good neighborhood schools, and save all our kids.

  This is getting very frightening. Either these politicians don't know what they're doing -- or worse, they do.  Our children are their political footballs.  

  July 16, 2009 8:22 PM

• Tyler said:

  All candidates support charter schools.  Why can't Menino or Flaherty equally support Patrick's proposal?  

  Also, why does Yoon have a new campaign manager?  Was the last one fired?  Or did he quit out of despair?  Also, why is it advisable to jump on Deval's train?  His approval rating is in the 30s, possibly even in the 20s.

  July 16, 2009 10:30 PM

• Gwen said:

  I was a BPS student from K-12.  If it wasn't for charter and pilot schools most of my friends and I will not be able to graduate from high school. Majority of my friends who did stay in BPS, did not graduate.  End up having a family at an early age.  And now have lousy jobs.

  Boston public schools are a messed.  Finally someone like Sam Yoon see the vision to take this city into a better place.

  Please give Menino a retirement party.  He have done ENOUGH for this city.  We need to move on as a city and enter the modern age.

  July 17, 2009 8:06 AM

• Civics101 said:

  Wait a second, can someone tell me why Patrick and Yoon are getting credit for the recent wave behind Charter schools? If I recall legislators from South Boston and Charlestown like Congressman (previously State Senator) Stephen Lynch, State Senator Jack Hart and Rep. Eugene O'Flaherty have been leading the charge on expanding Charter schools for over a decade. Now Deval and Yoon finally realize its success and find the stones to oppose the BTU when its no longer politically taboo. And voters are supposed to view this as leadership and be inpressed? David, you got to be kidding, right? You don't think you're readers are that dumb, do you? Can you honestly say that Deval (albeit that you need the Governor to sign off on it) and Yoon have led on the Charter schools issue? And wasn't Flaherty was the first Mayoral candidate to come out and endorse Charter schools? Maybe I'm mistaken, so please help clear this up for me.

  July 18, 2009 12:18 PM

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